The ZT Loudbox Club Model

[Go Navy]

Currently, I believe the Club model ZT is their largest amp, featuring a 12 inch speaker.  The link below is the most comprehensive review (dating from May 2010 so fairly current) I've ever seen of any amp (hopefully the moderators will allow this link). This review is from a jazz-oriented bunch, but keep in mind they're almost as demanding and picky (if not equally so) as acoustic players.  It includes a section by an engineer who did extensive bench testing on it, so those of you with an engineering background or work experience in sound systems, etc. will dig it.  This is one impressive amp and now I will have to go play it to see what it sounds like to me. 

So here we have what appears to be a great amp, plenty of headroom, good price, and very portable. NOTE: one post asserts that ZT tweaked the amp's sound beginning somewhere in the 1600 serial number range.

http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guitar-amps-gizmos/9558-zt-amplifiers-club-comprehensive-evaluation.html

[randyc]

It's actually "Lunchbox" not "Loudbox" and the "Club" is a different model, LOL.

But thanks for the compliment (I organized, managed and edited the review).  Ken Kantor, founder of ZT, sent me several different amplifier models to evaluate with no restrictions other than my agreement not to divulge proprietary information.  I was able to disassemble the units (I did), make electrical and thermal measurements (I did) and provide engineering recommendations to the factory (I did).  It's been a couple of years and I'm not sure if I explained my reasoning in the jazz forum link so here goes ...

I selected guitarists from different parts of the country, who played different styles of music, to review this amplifier.  I paid for all expenses (mostly transportation costs) and made some modifications in my machine shop, to demonstrate a product improvement.  A number of various engineering analyses were provided to ZT and this type of exercise was repeated several times (two different ZT amplifiers and a Carvin guitar).

I was/am retired and did this for the benefit of the guitar-playing community as well as for my own interest/pleasure.  I have a capable electronics lab and a machine shop that require a certain amount of justification to my wife, ha-ha.  However, there didn't seem to be sufficient benefit in terms of reader appreciation to rationalize my personal expenses (> $1,000 at this point) so I terminated the practice.  I thought that the combination of various personalities, different styles of music plus some technical critique would be of great interest but that didn't seem to be the case.

Almost all of the individual reviewers have remained in personal contact with me - great guys.  I also enjoyed many detailed engineering (and market) related conversations with the ZT founder and chief designer, Ken Kantor, a classic entrepeneur.  FWIW, this all came about during a casual interchange in an internet forum during which Ken and I offerred differing opinions.  This stimulated a private conversation resulting in the evaluations.  No quid-pro-quo existed or exists - this was an unpaid exercise on my part, in fact it represented a financial loss, as noted above.

Cheers,
randyc

author, Designing Vacuum Tube Amplifiers and Related Topics

https://acrobat.com/app.html#d=4V0KMuxAaMet6mwFQOfhiA