Ease of Use: 8
In regards to the ease of use, this pedal is your basic two-channel overdrive with one exception. Each channel can be turned on and off separately and both can be on together. At first I thought this was going to be an issue footswitching wise, but nothing could be further from the truth. The footswitches are close enough to each other that even the narrowest of feet should have no trouble hitting both of them at once.

There are a few unique features of this pedal that affect it’s ease of use.

1) Each channel has it’s own removeable circuit board that allows you to swap out the cards for different circuits. This offers one the opportunity to “customize” the pedal to suit the user’s particular needs. While this is an extremely cool feature the one drawback is that the basic tone control (like the ones found on TS-9’s, Blues Drivers, and numerous other overdrives) is located on each of these boards. Most players usually set this tone control and forget it, but for those of you who tend to tweak this control a lot when using the pedal with different guitars and amps, it might be an issue.

2) Besides the standard type tone control on the circuit board, Channel B also features a very effective two-knob midrange control. The “voice” knob is an 8 position rotary switch that allows you select various mid frequency points and the “depth” knob allows you to cut or boost these frequencies. The detented middle position of the “depth” knob is the flat setting and no cut or boost is present. How this affects the ease of use of this pedal is that there are so many sonic options that one must spend some time with it to explore its vast sonic possibilities. Personally I believe this to be it’s greatest asset, however those who subscribe to the “less is more” way of thinking may become quickly overwhelmed. That being said, it is difficult to yank a bad sound out of this channel.

Overall this is a very easy to use pedal with a clean layout. With a clean boost or a Phase 90 being a 10 in this category the ZIM scores a solid 8. It could have easily scored a 9 in this category were it not for the internal tone controls, but as Dave pointed out, there simply isn’t much room internally for a surface mounted tone control. The trade off is you get more free pedalboard real estate which is also a good thing. It should be noted that the ZIM is the perfect size for a two channel overdrive.


Sound Quality: 10
I was able to audition this pedal with all the guitars, amps and pedals in my collection as well as a borrowed black face spec modded Deluxe Reverb and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2…this includes the following…

GUITARS
’87 American Standard Tele with Dimarzio Fast Track 2 in the bridge

’00 American Deluxe Fat Strat with Duncan JB in bridge with Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Solo pickups in the neck and middle positions

Various G&L ASAT Specials

AMPS
’73 Hiwatt DR-103 and 4x12 Fane Loaded Hiwatt cab

Hiwatt UK Studio/Stage 2x12 Fane Loaded combo (PTP wiring with 30 watt EL84 power section)

2 Emery Sound Custom 28’s with matching 2x12 cabs loaded with Webber alnico and Celestion Vintage 30 speakers

Emery Sound Modded Fender Blues Jr loaded with Celestion Greenback speaker

Emery Sound Modded Marshall TSL-602 2x12 combo (tube) and matching TSL series 2x12 cab.

Fender Super Reverb Reissue

I was also able to compare the ZIM to the following pedals…
Klon Centaur, Analog Man 808/Brown Sound Modded TS-9, Analog Man Silver Modded TS-9DX (Turbo), Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Keeley Fat Mod BD-2 and the Keeley Freak Fuzz Mod BD-2.

Both channels worked GREAT with all combinations of amps and guitars.

Now…on with the review…

While both channels have a fairly similar circuit design, there are some electronic and sonic differences between the two (besides the mid control on Channel B). To put it simply, they sound similar enough that when you switch channels it doesn’t sound so different that it sounds out of place, but they are different enough that they can serve very different functions (rhythm and lead for instance) without one simply being louder than the other.

CHANNEL A

Channel A is simply great. It is similarly voiced with the TS-9, but it is far from a clone or a mod. No joke…this it the most balanced TS-9 style overdrive available at any price. Dave has managed to achieve something no other TS-9 clone or mod has…the perfect balance between compression, transparency and bass and mid range response with plenty of headroom on tap. One really starts to appreciate how well balanced this pedal is when one runs through a series of chords, then arpeggios and finally leads. Gone is the humpy mid range, the overly squashed chords, and the murky sound. It’s almost like it’s a part of your amp. Truly inspiring. I use this channel when I want a nice drive without tearing off peoples heads…When a song calls for sonic decapitation, I simply switch to…

CHANNEL B

OK…this is where things really heat up. Do you need to turn your Fender into a Marshall? Do you need to turn your Marshall into a fire breathing beheamoth? This is that channel. Many pedals claim to be able to do just that…some succeed…this one succeeds in spades.

With the 8 position “voice” knob and “depth” knob there pretty much isn’t an overdrive or distortion sound you can’t get with this pedal (with the exception of a clean overdrive of course). You can go from Mic Ronson to Clapton to Kerry King with a few twists…Yes…it’s that versatile.

This channel is a lot brighter than Channel A…Think Blues Driver (but sweeter) as opposed to TS-9 and you start to get the picture.

For leads there is plenty of sustain on hand…I do a lot of textural work and I was able to nail the Frip and Eno “No Pussyfooting” tone with the aid of a nice delay. For rhythm work there is plenty of mids and highs so no need to worry about getting lost in the mix and enough ballsy low end to chunk most handily.

One could literally spend weeks exploring the subtleties of this channel.

And for you gain heads…should you find yourself in the unlikely position of not having enough gain in Channel B, simply engage Channel A along with it. Not only will you get endless sustain, the two channels work extremely well together.

My only real complaint is that the ZIM could be a bit less noisy. That’s not to say that it isn’t already quieter than most pedals available, I just feel that there could be some room for improvement in this area. However it’s not enough to keep me from scoring this pedal a 10 in this category…It just sounds too damn good.

Reliability: 10
I also have a Captain Coconut 2 and like the CC2, the ZIM is built like a tank with very clean soldering joints. There is no reason to suspect that this pedal won’t last several lifetimes.

Customer Support: 10
Dave is great about returning e-mails and answering questions. He also appreciates feedback about his work. There is no question in my mind that if anything ever happened to any of his pedals he would fix it quickly.

Overall Rating: 10
I liked the ZIM so much I had to have two of them…one for each pedalboard (I have a separate board for each band I am in). I use the ZIM with the following setups…

BOARD 1 (power trio G, B, D)

Teese RMC-3 => Analog Man Bi-Comp => FoxRox Captain Coconut 2 => Keeley Java Boost => Custom Built Clean Boost => FoxRox ZIM => Analog Man Clone Chorus => Dunlop High Gain Volume Pedal => Line 6 Mod Pro (rack) => Line 6 Echo Pro (rack) =>
LEFT AMP…Emery Sound modded Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 2x12 combo (60 watt)
RIGHT AMP…’82 Marshall JCM-800 2x12 combo (50 watt)

and...

BOARD 2 (quartet G, G, B, D)

Keeley Comp => FoxRox ZIM => Keeley Fuzz Head => Custom Built Clean Boost => Dunlop High Gain Volume Pedal => Analog Man Clone Chorus => Line 6 Modulation (pedal) => Line 6 Delay (pedal) => AMP…Fender Super Reverb Reissue (4x10, 45 watts).

This is the best two-channel overdrive being made at this time. Nothing that Fulltone, Barber, Banzi, etc. makes can hold a candle to the sound, performance, versatility and build quality of this pedal. Nothing.

While there are some great single channel overdrives out there (The Keeley Fat Mod BD-2 being my choice for tone and versatility) this is where to turn when you need a 2 channel solution for your setup. Try one for yourself and see.

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"We are the office block persecution affinity...God save little shops, china cups and virginity."

Sounds cool
dave makes great pedals and like you said they are built like a tank.

now you need a paradox!