Guitar
I've been really busy playing a string of steady solo shows over the last couple of years, often in dining lounges - the kind of gigs that require you to be low profile, not take up to much precious floor space and play at a conversation-friendly volume. Naturally, these gigs impose a different set of demands on your gear than a club or festival gig would; you generally don't need a whole lot of volume or projection in most of those rooms, the exception being for special events which require a bit of oomph to get over the noise of a gang of wine-swilling schmoozers - something that comes up unexpectedly, sometimes.
An added requirement for myself is the ability to load all the gear I need on my person and ride public transit to work. I wrote about my most recent mobile rig here. It's been pretty cool, but it has some problems: one of the speakers buzzes from a couple of holes punched by the deconstructing rattan grill covers, the cabinet's pretty heavy, I dig the micro-amp but I don't trust it's builder, and patching it all together requires lots of extra cables (and a laptop power supply) all of which add to the weight. With this in mind, I've been looking for a more portable, powerful and reliable rig for such engagements.
I've been aware of ZT Amplifiers for a year or two now and have been pretty fascinated: The ZT Lunchbox amp is roughly 7.5x10 inches around, weighs just under 10 pounds and puts out 200 watts (continuous peak power, about 130 watts RMS) through a single 6.5 inch speaker. Just what the doctor ordered - if it doesn't suck...
And it doesn't. It doesn't totally rule, either, but it does deliver solid, full tones at eminently useable volumes in a tiny package - indeed, it generates a surprising amount of bass response through it's wee driver. This is a result of a specially designed speaker with much greater-than-average travel in the cone, a tuned closed-back enclosure and some clever circuit design.
The Lunchbox comes in a MDF box covered in sparkly silver vinyl with matching steel mesh protecting the speaker. It actually resembles a handsome little space heater - it's a pretty groovy piece of industrial design.
The top mounted control panel is protected by a sturdy-looking plastic handle (it shows no give whatsoever under the weight of the amp), but I still find the knobs stick out from the chassis a little too much to be fully confidence inspiring. From left to right we encounter a red LED pilot light, an ambiance knob, a tone knob, volume, gain and the input jack.
The brushed aluminum rear panel is surprisingly full-featured for an amp at this price point: there's a 1/4 inch speaker out jack (minimum 8 ohms), a 1/4 inch headphone/line out jack with a dedicated volume knob (defended by an aluminum bar), a speaker defeat switch, an 1/8 inch auxiliary input, an on/off rocker switch, a voltage selector (115 or 230 volts) and an AC jack which cleverly combines a standard detachable AC cable jack with the fuse holder. I like!
These features give the user some pretty cool options - you can use an external cabinet with or without the built-in speaker. You can send a line-out to a mixing board for direct recording or sound reinforcement purposes. You can play your iPod between sets with no hassle. You could play along to prerecorded backing tracks. You can use it as a headphone amp, and play along to songs from your digital music player. And, unlike many smaller amps, you can take this on the plane with you to Europe (or North America, if you're coming the other way) and all you'll need is a domestic power cord and a flip of the voltage switch to have your amp ready to go.
Of course, all the features and power in the world are going to be pretty useless if you don't like the sound of it. So here it is...the Lunchbox sounds very much like the solid state amp that it is. It has none of the natural compression of a tube amp and isn't going to make you sell yours any day soon. What I find with amps of this nature, is that one has to learn how to finesse them, because they do not hide any of your faults. Indeed, the immediacy of such an efficient 6.5 inch speaker can take some getting used to as well, clearly translating every nuance as it happens. That said, I enjoy plugging straight into this amp; it takes me a few minutes to reach a comfort zone, but soon I've adjusted my technique, using the extra headroom afforded by this amp and paying extra attention to lightening up my right-hand technique.
The controls are simple to grok: tone, volume and gain are all pretty self-explanatory. The ambiance knob is slightly more mysterious. Originally intended to be a reverb circuit, the ZT people committed to a DSP chip that proved to be ill-suited to the job. To make lemonade out of these lemons, they managed to use the chips to create this ambience effect, which they suggest gives the amp some open-back cabinet 'spread'. Well, the ambience control does effectively 'widen' out the sound of the amp, but at settings over noon I find the effect queasily unsettling and 'smeary'. I suggest setting it about ten o' clock and forgetting about it.
The tone knob is voiced to add lows and cut highs as it's turned counterclockwise, and to cut lows and boost highs as it's turned clockwise with a flat response at 12 o'clock. I have not yet had a chance to defeat the internal speaker and try the amp with one of my other cabs so I can't say how the tone knob reacts under those circumstances, but my impression is that the tone is flat closer to nine o'clock, and gets pretty shredding bright from there on in. With the exception of my darkest-sounding guitar (my '62 Kay Speed Demon), I found most of my guitars sounded best with the tone set at about 8 o'clock (or at one, if you prefer to think in those terms) with added tone attenuation at the guitar end. Like many solid state designs, this guy gets a little crispy in the top end if you're not careful.
The gain knob acts as an input gain and offers some diode clipping at it's higher settings. ZT recommends that you set the gain at least at noon to avoid excess noise, but I recommend setting it a tad higher, up around two or three, to soften up the crisp response of the buff solid state power section and tiny speaker. Higher settings start to overdrive in the 'not-so-thrilling-Boss-Super-Overdrive-like-sloppy- mids-and-bottom' sense. I recommend you don't turn it much past three o'clock.
The volume knob is, well, the volume knob. It goes incredibly loud for an amp this tiny - ZT claims 120db at one meter's distance. That's loud.
So, it's not end-all-and-be-all perfect, but it's unbelievably useable. And here's some more good news: it absolutely adores pedals, so just about any of it's shortcomings are easily smoothed out with external tone shaping. I find that placing my Fulltone Plimsoul in front of it cured any sensation of stiffness, and gave me another place in the chain to fine tune the high-end response. It dug my Fuzz Factory and kicked out some seriously convincing scuzz.
So far I've used the Lunchbox at a radio in-studio performance, a guitar/harmonica/drums blues trio gig at a club, a loud guitar/drums party gig and two quieter solo lounge gigs. In every scenario the Lunchbox at least met my expectations, if not outright exceeded them. It simply boggles the mind that an amp this tiny can do what the Lunchbox can do - keep up with a drummer? No problem. Fill a dining lounge with full, clean sound? No problem. Handle a baritone guitar's low notes? No problem. Throw a gig-ready combo amp over your shoulder? No problem. That it packs a feature set that affords incredible versatility for the gigging and rehearsing musician, and does so for about three hundred bones is astounding. It's not going to replace anyone's treasured vintage amps any day soon, and cork sniffers will no doubt poo-pooh it's solid-stateness, but it has a different sort of utility. The Lunchbox is kind of like a Swiss Army knife: the iconic pocket knife does a great job of providing you with an ultra-portable set of handy tools and can handle all sorts of jobs, but you wouldn't want to have to carve your Thanksgiving turkey with it - that's a job you reserve for the finely honed carving knife that stays in a fancy box for most of the year. I'm not going to give up my gigging amps for the group shows, but for solo performances, rehearsals, party gigs and emergencies I will be using little else. It's already helped me trim nearly ten pounds out of my mobile rig. Priceless.
With any piece of gear, it comes down to how you're going to use it, and no piece of gear is going to excel at every application. If you never leave your basement and you're totally tone obsessed, go get yourself one of the many low-wattage tube heads on the market today and pair it with a nice cabinet with a good quality speaker. If you are a working player, a music teacher or student, or if you rehearse a lot with multiple acts the Lunchbox's light weight, useable power and flexibility could be a real asset to you, and I recommend you check it out. And at the price, there's a good argument for keeping one of these around just as a backup to your regular amp.
No regrets on this purchase. I expect the ZT Lunchbox will be a constant travelling companion for years to come.
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- My Mobile Solo-gig Rig.
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I bought a new amp yesterday. I've been using an early Fender Pro Junior for several years, lately with a Hughes and Kettner Red Box between the speaker and the amp so that I can run a signal out to a small powered PA speaker for more headroom on...
Guitar
Portable Powerhouse - the ZT Lunchbox amp
 |
| The ZT Lunchbox amp - crazy power-to-weight ratio and unbelievable utility. |
I've been really busy playing a string of steady solo shows over the last couple of years, often in dining lounges - the kind of gigs that require you to be low profile, not take up to much precious floor space and play at a conversation-friendly volume. Naturally, these gigs impose a different set of demands on your gear than a club or festival gig would; you generally don't need a whole lot of volume or projection in most of those rooms, the exception being for special events which require a bit of oomph to get over the noise of a gang of wine-swilling schmoozers - something that comes up unexpectedly, sometimes.
An added requirement for myself is the ability to load all the gear I need on my person and ride public transit to work. I wrote about my most recent mobile rig here. It's been pretty cool, but it has some problems: one of the speakers buzzes from a couple of holes punched by the deconstructing rattan grill covers, the cabinet's pretty heavy, I dig the micro-amp but I don't trust it's builder, and patching it all together requires lots of extra cables (and a laptop power supply) all of which add to the weight. With this in mind, I've been looking for a more portable, powerful and reliable rig for such engagements.
I've been aware of ZT Amplifiers for a year or two now and have been pretty fascinated: The ZT Lunchbox amp is roughly 7.5x10 inches around, weighs just under 10 pounds and puts out 200 watts (continuous peak power, about 130 watts RMS) through a single 6.5 inch speaker. Just what the doctor ordered - if it doesn't suck...
And it doesn't. It doesn't totally rule, either, but it does deliver solid, full tones at eminently useable volumes in a tiny package - indeed, it generates a surprising amount of bass response through it's wee driver. This is a result of a specially designed speaker with much greater-than-average travel in the cone, a tuned closed-back enclosure and some clever circuit design.
The Lunchbox comes in a MDF box covered in sparkly silver vinyl with matching steel mesh protecting the speaker. It actually resembles a handsome little space heater - it's a pretty groovy piece of industrial design.
 |
| ZT Lunchbox control panel - unfortunately the plastic handle doesn't completely protect the knobs... |
The top mounted control panel is protected by a sturdy-looking plastic handle (it shows no give whatsoever under the weight of the amp), but I still find the knobs stick out from the chassis a little too much to be fully confidence inspiring. From left to right we encounter a red LED pilot light, an ambiance knob, a tone knob, volume, gain and the input jack.
 |
| The ZT Lunchbox's full featured rear panel. Mucho flexibility for rock-bottom dollar. |
The brushed aluminum rear panel is surprisingly full-featured for an amp at this price point: there's a 1/4 inch speaker out jack (minimum 8 ohms), a 1/4 inch headphone/line out jack with a dedicated volume knob (defended by an aluminum bar), a speaker defeat switch, an 1/8 inch auxiliary input, an on/off rocker switch, a voltage selector (115 or 230 volts) and an AC jack which cleverly combines a standard detachable AC cable jack with the fuse holder. I like!
These features give the user some pretty cool options - you can use an external cabinet with or without the built-in speaker. You can send a line-out to a mixing board for direct recording or sound reinforcement purposes. You can play your iPod between sets with no hassle. You could play along to prerecorded backing tracks. You can use it as a headphone amp, and play along to songs from your digital music player. And, unlike many smaller amps, you can take this on the plane with you to Europe (or North America, if you're coming the other way) and all you'll need is a domestic power cord and a flip of the voltage switch to have your amp ready to go.
Of course, all the features and power in the world are going to be pretty useless if you don't like the sound of it. So here it is...the Lunchbox sounds very much like the solid state amp that it is. It has none of the natural compression of a tube amp and isn't going to make you sell yours any day soon. What I find with amps of this nature, is that one has to learn how to finesse them, because they do not hide any of your faults. Indeed, the immediacy of such an efficient 6.5 inch speaker can take some getting used to as well, clearly translating every nuance as it happens. That said, I enjoy plugging straight into this amp; it takes me a few minutes to reach a comfort zone, but soon I've adjusted my technique, using the extra headroom afforded by this amp and paying extra attention to lightening up my right-hand technique.
 |
| The ZT's 6.5" speaker throws an incredible amount of low end, but can be a bit jarringly immediate with it's snappy response. Holds up to baritone frequencies beautifully! |
The controls are simple to grok: tone, volume and gain are all pretty self-explanatory. The ambiance knob is slightly more mysterious. Originally intended to be a reverb circuit, the ZT people committed to a DSP chip that proved to be ill-suited to the job. To make lemonade out of these lemons, they managed to use the chips to create this ambience effect, which they suggest gives the amp some open-back cabinet 'spread'. Well, the ambience control does effectively 'widen' out the sound of the amp, but at settings over noon I find the effect queasily unsettling and 'smeary'. I suggest setting it about ten o' clock and forgetting about it.
The tone knob is voiced to add lows and cut highs as it's turned counterclockwise, and to cut lows and boost highs as it's turned clockwise with a flat response at 12 o'clock. I have not yet had a chance to defeat the internal speaker and try the amp with one of my other cabs so I can't say how the tone knob reacts under those circumstances, but my impression is that the tone is flat closer to nine o'clock, and gets pretty shredding bright from there on in. With the exception of my darkest-sounding guitar (my '62 Kay Speed Demon), I found most of my guitars sounded best with the tone set at about 8 o'clock (or at one, if you prefer to think in those terms) with added tone attenuation at the guitar end. Like many solid state designs, this guy gets a little crispy in the top end if you're not careful.
The gain knob acts as an input gain and offers some diode clipping at it's higher settings. ZT recommends that you set the gain at least at noon to avoid excess noise, but I recommend setting it a tad higher, up around two or three, to soften up the crisp response of the buff solid state power section and tiny speaker. Higher settings start to overdrive in the 'not-so-thrilling-Boss-Super-Overdrive-like-sloppy- mids-and-bottom' sense. I recommend you don't turn it much past three o'clock.
The volume knob is, well, the volume knob. It goes incredibly loud for an amp this tiny - ZT claims 120db at one meter's distance. That's loud.
So, it's not end-all-and-be-all perfect, but it's unbelievably useable. And here's some more good news: it absolutely adores pedals, so just about any of it's shortcomings are easily smoothed out with external tone shaping. I find that placing my Fulltone Plimsoul in front of it cured any sensation of stiffness, and gave me another place in the chain to fine tune the high-end response. It dug my Fuzz Factory and kicked out some seriously convincing scuzz.
 |
| It just looks so cool... |
So far I've used the Lunchbox at a radio in-studio performance, a guitar/harmonica/drums blues trio gig at a club, a loud guitar/drums party gig and two quieter solo lounge gigs. In every scenario the Lunchbox at least met my expectations, if not outright exceeded them. It simply boggles the mind that an amp this tiny can do what the Lunchbox can do - keep up with a drummer? No problem. Fill a dining lounge with full, clean sound? No problem. Handle a baritone guitar's low notes? No problem. Throw a gig-ready combo amp over your shoulder? No problem. That it packs a feature set that affords incredible versatility for the gigging and rehearsing musician, and does so for about three hundred bones is astounding. It's not going to replace anyone's treasured vintage amps any day soon, and cork sniffers will no doubt poo-pooh it's solid-stateness, but it has a different sort of utility. The Lunchbox is kind of like a Swiss Army knife: the iconic pocket knife does a great job of providing you with an ultra-portable set of handy tools and can handle all sorts of jobs, but you wouldn't want to have to carve your Thanksgiving turkey with it - that's a job you reserve for the finely honed carving knife that stays in a fancy box for most of the year. I'm not going to give up my gigging amps for the group shows, but for solo performances, rehearsals, party gigs and emergencies I will be using little else. It's already helped me trim nearly ten pounds out of my mobile rig. Priceless.
With any piece of gear, it comes down to how you're going to use it, and no piece of gear is going to excel at every application. If you never leave your basement and you're totally tone obsessed, go get yourself one of the many low-wattage tube heads on the market today and pair it with a nice cabinet with a good quality speaker. If you are a working player, a music teacher or student, or if you rehearse a lot with multiple acts the Lunchbox's light weight, useable power and flexibility could be a real asset to you, and I recommend you check it out. And at the price, there's a good argument for keeping one of these around just as a backup to your regular amp.
No regrets on this purchase. I expect the ZT Lunchbox will be a constant travelling companion for years to come.
 |
| The new face of portable. Hallelujah! |
- Audio Guild Vintage Tube Amp In Oklahoma City For $325 - Magnatone Type Amp!
This seller probably provides more useful information about these Audio Guild amps in this one listing than I have seen all over the internet in the last five years. He seems to really understand the circuit. His asking price is very reasonable...
- Univox 1970's Ulm-6 Tube Amp In Tulsa For $200
I currently have one of these amps and all I can say is DO NOT HESITATE TO BUY IT - they are great!! They originally came with horrible stock speakers which was their biggest problem - I put a Jensen 10" Mod in mine - and it looks like this...
- Crate Vintage Club 20 Tube Combo Amp In Princeton Nj For $150
Very good price for this nice little 18 watt combo with three 12AX7 preamp tubes. Similar in scope to a Fender Pro Jr or Vox AC15. You'll fid the tone improves quite a bit on these if you replace the preamp tube in V1 with a...
- My Mobile Solo-gig Rig.
The bus-friendly full solo rig, complete with mic stand and guitar stand. I've been gigging a lot lately. I mean a lot. About forty shows over July and August, with multiple artists and quite a few solo shows. I've had...
- Marshall Class 5: My New Amp.
I bought a new amp yesterday. I've been using an early Fender Pro Junior for several years, lately with a Hughes and Kettner Red Box between the speaker and the amp so that I can run a signal out to a small powered PA speaker for more headroom on...