One Knob Pony by ZenZero Electronics

"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.