ZT Lunchbox Amplifier

[metalmariachi]

I woke up late this morning, stayed up way to long animes last night.

Part way through my first cup of coffee at 9:00, the door bell rang, it was way too early.

This is what I found.

[Roseweave]

Awesome! I love boxes like that.

[metalmariachi]

So with only thirty eleven things I should be doing, I just had to play.


Initial impressions.

The Lunchbox is pretty and very well made. The instructions are clear and concise, hey there are only 4 knobs how complicated could it be.

After reading the instructions (yes I actually read them first) I plugged it in.

With a guitar (P90s) It was surprisingly loud, bright and articulate, responded well to the tone control on the guitar, never getting muddy.
The overdrive/distortion is natural sounding, better than some high gain tube amps I've played with.

With bass, It's bright and honky, with a 6 inch speaker in a lunch box I had expected that, bass likes big.

Plugged into a 2x12 Aguilar cab (cross over off) and turned the internal speaker off.
this brought the low end back in. It sounded very good, punchy in a modern way.
I could roll both tone controls on my P ( 1 pickup 2 tones) all the way back with out being lost in mud.
I also plugged into an Alnico equipped 1x15 with really nice results. Warmer, rolling off a bit more top end, while still keeping clarity.

So far I like what I'm hearing.

A more detailed review will follow in a day or two.

MM

[Roseweave]

Can you take some clips of it? There aren't many clips of it in general. I want to hear how it takes a Soda Meiser or something like that.

[dorfmeister]

I ordered one last night.

[metalmariachi]

I think you'll be happy with it.
The more I play with it the more it grows on me.

I'll try and set up for recording tomorrow and get some sound clips made,
and formalize my review.

MM

[jrmy]

I'm really intrigued by this, and looking forward to the formal review with clips.

Did the ZT people say anything to you about a bass combo in the works? That would be (potentially) pretty awesome...

[metalmariachi]

The Lunchbox sound pretty good with bass.

Still I'd like to see a dedicated bass combo too.

MM

[Roseweave]

I suppose an 8" speaker would deliver satisfactory bass response. They'd have to think of a clever name though.

Does the Lunchbox take keyboards too?

[jrmy]

Yeah, I could always just plug it in to an external cab for bass, but I'd like something small & supremely portable.

Also, an XLR out would be nice since some of the clubs I've played at like a direct out... and that would spare me having to get a DI box...

[metalmariachi]

Some clips.

First clean

lunchboxclean.mp3

(1.47 MiB) Downloaded 236 times

With Dark Boost and Karaoke Party

lunchboxDB+KP.mp3

(1.16 MiB) Downloaded 161 times

With SM,TP,Aenima, Hype and Great Wall.

Lunchbox+fuzz.mp3

(3.08 MiB) Downloaded 171 times

And through external cabs.

An Ampeg B-15 with square mag CTS, an Aguilar 2x12 and a Univox 2x12 with a Celestion Sidewinder and an EV-M.

Lunchbox+cabs.mp3

(2.59 MiB) Downloaded 149 times

Oh for those who like this info..

Jazz bass with Nordstrand single coil pickups.

Close miked Sennheiser 902 Kick mic on axis, CAD tom mic off (tight on a 6” speaker)

with the cabs put a CAD kick on axis on the Lunch box, and on cabs, Sennheiser on axis CAD off axis.

MM

[Roseweave]

Can you take some clips of a guitar with it?

[Ghost Hip]

Can you take some clips of a guitar with it?

I should be able to have a video demo up by this coming week.

[metalmariachi]

PP your videos are the greatest.

I'd do a guitar clip but it would sound like a bass line on guitar with 2 chords thrown in.

When one of the guitar players I know comes over, I'll record them.

MM

[jrmy]

That is plain old surprising! Now I really want to try one of these little puppies out... if only someone in RI stocked them. I'll have to check the ZT site for a dealer list.

Innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnteresting...