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I agree with improvements on reverb would be a good thing. But Polytone or Fender Twin are not exactly sounds I'm looking for.
Maybe I'm in minority, but I love the ZT Lunchbox tone the way it is. It has a nice mid punch to it, and I'm not exactly missing Fender's highs either. But most importantly, the amp Gain and Volume controls what makes it most usable for me. I can dial in the right amount of 'breakup' easily. There are plenty of 'hi-fi clean' SS amps for jazz out there, ZT is unique, and I hope stays that way.
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12-09-2016 02:36 PM
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Not to rain on the parade but if I am recalling correctly someone here posted photographs of the LunchBox's interior and it looked awful: huge globs of goo. It certainly didn't inspire confidence. Is my apprehension justified? have anyone opened up their ZTs? Was that an exception to the rule and is the Club the same story, too?
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Way back when we did the reviews, I'm pretty sure randy cracked open the lunchbox and the club. I don't remember him saying anything about messiness.
I do know I bought mine in the summer of '09, and it still works perfectly. And it's spent time in a high school, so it's seen some shit.
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Yeah, that amp was appealing to me, I just never got the chance to try one in person.
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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I still have my original Club from four or five years ago. I wrote to ZT with some feedback at the time. I found that the amp was much more useful for arch top tones with a boss EQ pedal plugged into the loop. I don't really care for the amp any other way for any style, but adding an EQ through the loop makes the original model a serious contender for a lightweight, good sounding jazz amp with much better headroom than a Cube, foe example, in a similar price range. They wrote back that they had voiced the original amp to suit other tastes and didn't expect to make any changes. Then it was discontinued, which seems surprising to me. Nice to hear that they are offering something different. Hopefully, it won't be mistaken for a space heater, the way my original Club is. :-)
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Boy, trying to design an amp to make jazzers happy. That's like herding cats! Good luck with that, Mike. All you have to do is make it sound like a Twin, a tweed Deluxe or a Polytone MB II with the twist of a knob or the flip of a switch. That'll cover 90% of us. ;-) Call it the ZT Polytwin Deluxe.
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I still have my ZT Club....which I love! I only use it with my archtop, not that great for Rock, but I knew this when I purchased it. I have a few other SS amps that I can throw a pedal in front of for Rock stuff. The ZT Club is the only amp I really plug into these days for jazz, the Fender RI '65 Twin Reverb, unfortunately, has become my Clubs' stand. The cleans on the ZT Club are unbeatable IMO, not really sure why they discontinued it in the first place. Not a great looker, but I don't care about how my amp looks, I got rid of my Roland Cube 60 years ago, because I don't like that boxy/muffled sound that I was getting even after hours of tweaking the controls on both the amp and guitar and was hesitant about the closed box of the Club, too. I'm a Fender guy and like that open-back combos but the ZT Club had that, for me. I've tried many amps to look for "the sound" I want (just amplified, clean, little mid, "scoop-like" tone, a la 60's jazz, little reverb) and the ZT Club does it for me...and it can get loud lol. The control knobs and "space-heater" look are not very flattering and I once considered having it tolexed in black...but that's kinda pricy around here. Anyway, what drew me initially to the amp were some Matt Otten vids and a couple of demos I heard/saw online and when I tried one out I was not disappointed. Everyone has a different sound or opinion of what jazz guitar should sound like, but the ZT Club is still MY favorite.
Last edited by wesmont17; 12-11-2016 at 02:17 PM.
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I have the original Lunchbox. I bought it on the strength of reviews and the fact that an excellent New York based jazz player gigged with it. And, apparently, he wasn't the only one. The Seasons Guitar quartet gigged with 4 of them. Each player had his own stompbox or other device in the chain. But, they all used the same model of LB.
I'd add that the amp seems to be built like a tank and has worked reliably.
That said, I couldn't get anything useful out of mine.
The ads made a point of the power rating of the amp, but, here's what I found. In order to have any bass response at all (and I generally roll off most of the bass when I play) the amp had to be on the floor. The coupling to the floor kept it from sounding screechy. But, in the situations I play in, putting it on the floor meant the speaker was pointing at people's legs, half the sound was hitting the carpet and so forth. Turning it up, to get a reasonable combo volume, caused the sound quality to deteriorate. I found, on balance, that my 12 watt Crate practice amp was capable of achieving a higher level of usable volume. I could put the Crate on a stand or shelf and still get a balanced tone.
I tried processing the tone with a Korg PX5D (like the NYC player did) and a Boss ME80 (my usual pedalboard) and I could not overcome the problem. The amp sits in a closet.
I'll never again believe anybody who tells me I'm going to get a sound I like out of a 6 inch speaker.
To be fair, apparently, better players than me found it useful. My recommendation is to get a return privilege and try it out in a playing situation.Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 12-11-2016 at 08:14 PM.
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yeah, a lot of NYC players use the Lunchbox... It's a 'go to' small jazz amp here, second only to AER maybe.
I dunno, I just don't find any problems with the tone. I personally LOVE that low midrange honk! But I'm aware, at least around these pages, I'm in that other 10% who are not looking for Polytone or Twin clones. But I figure you have your Henriksens and Mambos and whatnot anyway, why create another clone?
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I wanted to share my experience while acknowledging that others have had much better experiences.
And, if I had to carry my gear on the subway or up long flights of stairs, that LB would start sounding better <g>.
My rig for gigging has evolved to this:
I carry a lightweight guitar in a Mono gig bag with the backpack straps.
I usually use a Roland JC55. 26 pounds.
I have a soft sided briefcase (actually a bag for a laptop back when they were bigger) in which I carry my ME80 pedalboard, cables, strap and power supply. There are also a couple of battery operated stand lights in there.
And, now, here's the new secret. I bought a rolling, collapsible, plastic file box for about $18 at an office supply store. The amp fits in on its side. Only the very top of the amp (meaning, its side) sticks out of the box. It's completely secure.
There's enough room left for the briefcase and a music stand. I also have a white cloth in there. One trip for everything, both hands free to roll the box (which has a pull up handle like luggage).
At the gig I put all my extra gear -- jacket and so forth -- into the box. Then I cover the box (which is bright red) with the white cloth to make it look nice and use it as an amp stand.
One time, I had to bring a bunch of band books. They went inside the box and I put the amp on top of it. Not as secure as inside, but it felt stable. I put the briefcase on top of the amp and secured the whole thing with a bungee cord.
As I recall, it may not be possible to avoid stairs on the subway, or at least inconvenient, but this works great around here, even if I have to walk a couple of blocks.
An aside on the Crate amp. Mine developed an intermittent problem of crackling and cutting out. I recently saw a used one in a store (same model) and it had exactly the same problem.
I had found that wiggling the speaker wires sometimes caused the amp to resume working.
The wires enter the chassis through a hole in the sheet metal that has no strain relief.
I figured that there was a chance that the wire got pulled and stressed the solder connection on the board.
Pet peeve: anytime you have a component soldered into the board at one end and subject to mechanical forces at the other end, sooner or later, it's going to break. The only silver lining is that all you need to do to fix it is reheat the solder joints. This is low-skill soldering. You just need an iron of 30 watts or so with a pointy tip. And some extra really skinny solder.
The bigger challenge was exposing the bad solder joint. For the Crate it was four screws at the top of the amp (two through the handle), and pulling off some sticky connectors so that I could turn the board over and get access to the solder joint. Took a few minutes to figure it out, then zip zip with the soldering iron. And, I jury-rigged some strain relief by tying a bulky knot in the speaker wire and stuffing it in the hole. Now the pressure goes on the knot, not the board. Guys with actual skill would have installed a proper strain relief grommet or something. The amp has been working reliably ever since.
I learned this after my JC55 crapped out in a similar way. I never figured out which solder joint was bad, so I reheated the joints on all the pots and jacks -- all of which are soldered into the board.
BTW, if you read GP reviews, they don't always call attention to it, but they always seem to provide a picture where you can tell if the pots and jacks are chassis mounted and connect to the board with a wire instead of being soldered right in. The wire flexes so that the board doesn't have to. This is, to me, a feature of higher quality construction.
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Cool!
I have a lunchbox and a lunchbox Jr. Great amps.
In my opinion a jazz amp should have lots of clean headroom and a Baxandall or maybe tweed style tone stack. No fender mid scoop please. I'd like to see the ability to add some "hair" or dirt to the tone. And I would very happily trade features and gimmicks for reliability.
Looking forward to what ZT comes up with
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Hi Mike,
I have been thinking about a battery powered amp and have considered the Roland Cube Street and Pignose Hog 20.
It is my understanding that your lunchbox Jr. will run on batteries. Is this capability included with the amp or would I need to purchase "accessories" to enablethe amp to run on batteries?
Thanks.
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Lunchbox owner for 3 years. Great clean palette of sound to add pedals to or to use for a pure clean sound. Congratulations on designing and building an excellent product. I love the small form factor and ability to drive larger cabs. The ability to run a 4 ohm driver would be helpful. Higher power rating would also be helpful because I use it for a rock (with distortion pedal) and jazz amp (with reverb pedal).
On board reverb would be excellent to have (plate emulating preferably). I wouldn't mind having 2 channels if possible because I wouldn't need to use any distortion or reverb pedals. Jazz encompasses electric fusion so I don't think it's too far out of line to put a mosfet distortion circuit in place.
I do like the Tone knob simplicity on the lunchbox but a Baxandall tone stack would be very useful.
I understand your thinking as to the metallic finishes but I would certainly pay a few hundred dollars more for a wood cabinet with a with a nice rattan cane grill cloth. I think having a wood cab would give your amps a look that can surpass the looks of the other tolex "jazz" amps.
Wood can or not, I'll still be interested in any zt offering because I'm a true believer in the product. Good luck and I look forward to your future ideas.
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PLEASE add reverb! Having a super portable, gig-volume amp is exactly what I want but it doesn't help if I also need to drag a reverb pedal, power supply, and extra cable with me. Ultimately the reason I got rid of my lunchbox in favor of a Quilter Micropro 8. If the new jazz models have a reverb then I would definitely consider switching back
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Now might be a good time to (re)read Randy's review of the Club: ZT Amplifiers "Club" - Comprehensive Evaluation
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That's a thorough review. I don't have time to read all of it. Unfortunately they no longer make that amp.
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Since ZT amps are a sealed design, we have to be careful to reduce as much as possible any air escaping from any spot there exists that possibility (panels, inputs/outputs, etc.) which can result in a vibration or rattling noise. Hence, the glue. At times our factory has gotten a bit glue happy. They're not easy amps to work on, but the lack of pretty on the interior doesn't compromise the sound or build quality. Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
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The battery pack for the Junior is sold separately (just like the 9V pedal cable kit). It's an external pack that plugs into the back of the amp. Takes 8xAA batteries. Here's a link: Accessories - ZT Amplifiers Originally Posted by jazz.fred
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Noted ; ) Originally Posted by drbhrb
The new Jazz Club will certainly have a reverb, and a very nice one. Much improved over the reverb of the old Club amp.
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It would be nice to have a built in tilt device on the bottom of the amp, so it could be directed at the player's ear.
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I second the tilt back idea.
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Price between 1.5k and 2k - twice an Henriksen, 5x times an old Polytone (or more, even), even more than an Evans or AI... and sounds really meh on this demo, although I guess the player didn't help. Should sell a lot...
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Sounds ok, I guess.
Way too expensive for a jazz player who''s actually taking the subway to ever consider. That pretty blue finish will take a beating too.
I'll stick with my original lunchbox, still a bad as little amp.
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Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
Huh? Jazz players aren't cork sniffers, we play for cork sniffers (if we can get a gig).
Will there be a non-Custom Shop version? Kinda odd from a company that was a pioneer in reasonably priced light & loud amps.
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Agreed!
Even Evans and AI don't reach those prices, and they appeal to a much larger crowd (lap steel players and anyone who needs a PA).
Didn't they studied their market?
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