Missoula, MT, United States
About this listing
Bought this on a whim to feed my "GAS" addiction. Great sounding amp but its just going to sit and needs to be with someone who will gig with it. Really nice chime for an EL34 amp and from clean to crunch really sounds great....but then again it is a DR Z!! Like new condition with tags and comes with the original Z box for shipping which will be free in the lower 48. Website info below....Having much success developing half-power versions of his popular amps, the MAZ 18 and the Z Wreck Jr. being exemplary best-sellers, the impetus to distill the brilliant British character of the Z-80 down to a manageable 40 watts of dual EL-34 power was strong. And let’s face it, not every rockstar needs the full 80-watt potential of the Z-80, so the Z-40 seemed an obvious addition to the line. Yet the path it led Z down was winding, as trying to wrangle the Z-80’s behemoth tone by simply marrying it’s preamp to a twin tube power section wasn’t as easy as simply dreaming up the idea.Finding the same robust, chiming clarity of the bigger amp challenged Dr. Z to rethink the technical design while retaining the essential features every player appreciated about the Z-80. Still present in the Z-40 is the smooth, fader-like post-phase inverter master volume to manage the overall output, the unique, individually cathode-biased EL-34 power tubes which gave the original design it’s harmonically rich character, and the versatility of buffered FX loop for the modern player’s pedalboard.Re-designed was a proprietary output transformer from Heyboer, not a copy of any previous amp, vintage or otherwise. The gain-staging of the preamp was considered to maintain superb clarity and headroom, with chiming British cleans that bloom into defined, grinding saturation. This amp includes a first in Z’s design history: the use of TAD Hi-Grade 12AY7 preamp tubes in the first two positions which provide a punchy, well-balanced response across every note of the fretboard. Adding the novel “bootstrap” tone stack driver circuit from the previous amp to the Z-40 increased bandwidth and gain which was essential to its sonic signature. Finally, another tweak rarely employed by Dr. Z: a subtle, fine-tuning of negative feedback in the output section corrects any mushy artifacts and produces an accurate, extremely low noise amplification of the guitar’s signal.But Dr. Z wasn’t satisfied with the Z-40 being the kid brother of the Z-80; the amp had to stand on its own with its own exclusive features. A new switchable rectifier mode allows the player to alter the headroom and response. Solid-state diode rectification, as in the original amp, produces pure, lucid cleans, with a snappy response. Switching in the 5U4 tube rectifier creates compression, a smoother play feel, and a bit more grit to the overdrive as the power section pulses to the player’s touch. The “cut” control, famous in many British-style amps, reappears in the Z-40 to fine-tune the all-important high mid chime to the player’s guitar and pickups.
Price$1,900
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from Missoula, MT
