ZT Lunchbox review.

[metalmariachi]

I approached my test from a bass players point of view, and a bit of skepticism.
Having tried 100+ watt solid state amps that couldn't match the volume of a Deluxe reverb.
set clean, much less cranked. Not to mention those that don't sound as good as a cheap stomp box.

features:

this is a straight forward 4 knob control panel.

Reverb, which ZT states should have been called ambiance, tone, volume and gain.

the back panel has speaker out, headphone out with volume control, which also acts as a line out, internal speaker on/off switch and the power switch.

The reverb while very subtle, does add an audible enhancement to the overall sound.
It's hard to describe but I like what it does.
the tone control is basic, and has a nice usable range.

the volume acts as a master volume and in conjunction with the gain control produces every thing from a nice sparkling clean to a mild natural sounding distortion.

Others have described this amp as “surprisingly loud”, that is an understatement.

In a confined space like a small practice room it can become too loud very quickly.

The 6 1/2” speaker is a big surprise handling bass frequencies as well as the guitar range.

By it's self the amp may be a bit too bright from some bass players, but responds very well to EQ pedals and preamps. A Blue Tube set for unity really brought up the bass and warmed things up nicely. A Devi Ever Dark Boost really kicked up the bass with the notes still having clarity, even when dropping my E to D, and without the speaker farting out.

I tried it out with several different bass cabinets, both with the internal speaker on and off.
I set that up with a sound/tone I liked and then plugged the external cabinets in.
as expected there was a volume increase, corresponding to the efficiency of the speakers.
That is neodymium speakers being louder than older alnico or ceramic speakers.

Celestions showed their mid range honk, Older CTS produced a dark rock sound, an Eminence 150 watt alnico came through with a warm old school tone, it also sounded very nice through an Aguilar 2x12 producing a more modern rock sound. Yes there were also nice jazz and blues sounds in there too.

The manual states to use an 8 ohm or greater load, so I didn't try it through a couple of 4 ohm cabinets I have, and I'm just too lazy to open them up to rewire them for 16 ohms for a test.
The internal speaker added nicely to the mix.


I ran various fuzz, overdrive and distortions to get an idea of how it would react.
This amp likes stomp boxes, a couple actually sound better through the Lunchbox than through my B-15.
Through a cabinet with the internal speaker on, chorus has a very nice sound with that touch of sparkle on the top end.

Overall I like this amp a lot.

It weighs less than most of my basses and takes up no room.
It also costs less than some of my fuzz pedals.
It records very well, sounding much much bigger than it is.

You could gig with it depending on venue size, whether or not you use an external cabinet and the skill of the sound crew.

I think this would be a practical purchase for any one who has to move his or her gear via subways, metro systems, cabs or limited trunk space.

there are a few negatives.

there is not a lot of clean head room with bass, it is a guitar amp, and of course the hotter your pickups the less you have. The best clean settings I found using my P equipped with Duncan quarter pounders was volume at 1:00 o'clock and gain at 10:00 o'clock, or for a slight overdrive if pushed, volume at 10:00 o'clock and gain at 1:00 o'clock.

On a 6 ½ “ speaker running 2 mics is tight but can be done. My mic stands took up more room than the amp. It's easier with the amp up on a cabinet.

I would like to see ZT Amplifiers build a bass version voiced darker with a bit more head room, but that's how I think all amps should be any way.

MM

[jrmy]

Thanks for the thorough review, MM - that's definitely the kind of depth I was hoping for. This little thing has just made my gas list, though if they were to make a bass-voiced version with more headroom, that would jump to the TOP of my gas list.

Maybe I'd buy two - one of the guitar ones, and one of the bass ones, and use them simultaneously with a splitter for some really funny looks from soundguys...

[dorfmeister]

I should have mine tomorrow. Looking forward to playing through it.

[dorfmeister]

I had a chance to play my lunchbox today. I took it down to the local guitar store so that we could play it with several guitars, through a Mesa 4x12 cab and with keyboards.

I played through it at low volume with my strat. Pretty bright but that could be adjusted with the tone. I thought the cleans were pretty decent. Tried it with both my Dumbox and Coopersonic and with tweaking good sounds were found.

Played it at higher volume with a Gretsch and a PRS P-90 loaded guitar and then with the Mesa 4x12. All agreed that the best sound was loud through the 4x12, though all were impressed with it through its own speaker as well; it was remarked that it became harsher at high volume through the smaller speaker. It was felt that it wouldn't make a great replacement for a 50 watt tube head/cab for a gig through the 6.5" speaker but would definitely hold its own plugged into the 4x12.

The naturalness and tubeyness of the overdrive was remarked upon. I don't think anybody would have traded it for the Orange sitting next to it but all were very impressed with it for what it was and its cost.

Everyone agreed it made a fantastic keyboard amp, too.

I need to play around with it more but at this point I feel that this was a great purchase and that this amp will get much use. I bought it for a week long workshop I will be attending at the end of July and this will be perfect for that.