"Swiss Army Knife of booster goodness. Simplicity, broad function, great tones. Win, win and win again." - Brett Kingman
Introducing the
ZenZero Electronics’ “One Knob Pony”, a MOSFET boost/additional pre-amp stage
handmade in Tokyo by an Italian guy. This first version of the pedal is built
around a PCB but with lots of hand-wiring and sweat put into it.
I use it with a tube
amp on the verge of breakup to push it anywhere I want, from a slight clean
boost to massive distortion. Despite having just one knob, you will find the
thing incredibly versatile. Check the YouTube video by Gearmanndude or the Soundcloud clip by Jake Cloudchair below for a quick sample of what this pedal can do.
The pedal has a
massive boost of over 32db. The cleanliness of the boost will depend greatly on
your guitar pickups output, your guitar volume control and on the way you play,
as the pedal tends to react similarly to a tube preamp– but with the grittiness
necessary to be placed in front of your real tube amp.
The big knob controls
volume and gain in the way you would expect a non-master volume amp to react.
It crackles a bit when turned, but as a wise man once told me, “crackle is
okay”. The “G” switch is the gain switch and it gives you three gain
structures, from clean to almost fuzzy, passing from a nice overdrive. The “LC”
and the “HC” switches control the low cut and hi cut filters: the boost is in
fact completely transparent if you want it to, but you can use these switches to
shape it to your liking, cutting out the flabby lows and taming the highs if
needed.
- UPDATED IN THIS NEW BUILD: True bypass by way of best quality 3PDT switch. Less "pop" when turning on. New PCB and more stable mounting. New box. Everything else, especially sound, is exactly the same.
- Handmade in “sunny” Tokyo - Japan, with
Italian sensitivity.
- Use only quality components with strict
tolerances. I source locally whenever possible (see the heavy duty foot
switch), but I’m happy to use proven international top of the line components
whenever needed (like Switchcraft jacks).
- Original MOSFET based design.
- Safe to use with feet! The big knob and the
three switches are easily activated with your feet. Awesome for those of us
with backaches from carrying that late ‘70s Les Paul Custom with love.
- Power: 9V standard negative center power supply
or 9V battery.
- Shipping to most of the world* through
Japanese EMS tracked service. Please
note: you will still have to pay custom/taxes depending on your country. *Most of the world means in countries included
in the First and Second Zone of EMS (most of North America, Central America,
Europe, Middle-East, Asia and Oceania) See this page for details
) If you live in South America or Africa or any other uncovered part of the
world, please contact us first for a quote.
About our company
(i.e. me)
ZenZero Electronics is
a brand new maker of guitar pedals and other electronics for guitar. Our name
has a double meaning – whether you read it in Japanese or Italian – summing up
the double nationality of our products, handmade in Tokyo by an Italian dude.
In Japanese the name is the combination of two kanji that also make up our
logo. They are the kanji for Zen (meaning “all”) and Zero, meaning… well, zero.
So it’s all and nothing, alpha and omega. Of course, you could just read the
pronunciation and think that I have “Zero Zen”, which would be true. In fact
I’m as far from a Zen master as you can get. But I digress. In Italian,
“zenzero” means “ginger”, a nice spice liked by many people. My wife loves it.
Me… I like ginger ale. Still I think it’s a cool name. Hope you like it too.
My main design
philosophies are three. One: easy to use. I don’t want to give players thousands
of options they will never use, but just the stuff that’s really needed. All
the sonic complicacies should be hidden under the hood. Two: balance between
design and function. I will never compromise functionality over design but I
still want the stuff I make to be pleasing to the eye. Three: no bullshit. We
have no fairy dust or magical diodes here at ZenZero. Still, if you find “MOJO”
in our products, please enjoy it. It’s all yours.