Anybody Heard a ZT Lunchbox Amp?

[rahock]

My guitar player is a die hard ampoholic. Honestly, I don't have any idea how many he has
Last night he shows up to jam with a ZT Lunchbox amp. I laughed when I saw it. This thing is literally the size of a lunchbox, 7.3"x 9.8" x 4.4", with a 6.5" speaker in it. It looks kind of like one of those tiny little space heaters.
This thing is 200 watts peak power and 120 watts continuos music power. Never seen anything like it. Seen it , heard it, and still don't quite believe it .

He used it about half the night and then switched to his Fender M-80, which does sound better than the Lunchbox. Then again that Fender is a pretty sweet amp. You could actually gig with the Lunchbox though, they're freakin' amazing. Check them out at www.ztamplifiers.com  .
When he fired that thing up with his PR Smith we all just looked at one another with our chins hitting the floor in amazement

Rick

[nofi]

that's cute. is lunch included?

[rahock]

At around $270 you may have enough money left for lunch . Unlike that Carr Mercury amp he bought a short time ago for over $2000 .
The thing that amazed me most is its ability to move air with a 6.5" speaker. For kicks , I hooked it up to a 15" cab and it without a doubt filled the room better, but what comes out of that little 6.5" will blow your mind.
The weak point on the amp is the way the plastic grill mounts on with these little plastic pins. One of them already broke. Nothing some good velcro won't fix. The good news is, the amp is duct tape gray so any manly repairs will blend well .
Rick

[nofi]

hey rick , did you play your bass through the amp. the web site mentioned someone doing that.

[rahock]

No, didn't try a bass through it. I'm always a little shakey when it comes to running a bass throgh a guitar amp . That cost me a speaker instantly once, fortunately it was my amp. I sure didn't want to try it on someone elses two day old amp .
I'm really amazed at what kind of sounds are coming out of small packages lately. My little Roland Microcube at 5 watts delivers a great bottomy sound and it is a remarkable amount of juice for that little power. The Olympia sounds great through it, but it would only be good for the smallest of coffe house type rooms. The Lunchbox on the other hand, is absolutely giggable, and with an extension speaker it would fill anything but a large concert hall.
Guitar players have it a whole lot easier than bass players when it comes to little amps, but the Lunchbox can get amazing loud , stay clean and once again , move a whole lot of air to fill a good sized room with its little speaker. I've never seen anything like it. All you have to do is elevate it so the sound won't cut through your ankles and literally blow your socks off .

I'll have to go back to their site and look for that story. You got me curious now.
Rick

[nofi]

i thought the micro cube was a guitar amp. do they make a bass model? also, how do the labellas work with the small speaker. mine tends to fart them out. even on the hog 30 i put a 110 watt speaker in.

[rahock]

The Roland Mirocube Bass is what I've got with 4 , 4" speakers and 5  large watts . Mine is the no farting model . They make a few different guitar versions, some with a single speaker(forget what size), and some with 4 , 4" like mine.  I guess you can make any speaker fart if you wollup on the strings hard enough, but mine is realitively fart free and I have a pretty aggressive right hand. I keep my action a bit lower on my Olympia than I do my Earthwood, but I would also venture that almost no one keeps their action as high on anything as I do my Earthwood. Playing a lot of accoustic has gotten me in the habit of setting my action a bit on the high side on everything I play.
I love that little Roland . I admit it is useless as soon as a drummer sits down, but the tone it delivers with the Olympia/La'Bella tape  combo is great.
If you wind the volume way up it wants to feed back a little but it's controllable and nowhere near as feedback prone as with most amps. It gets a natural echo type sustain.
 A couple of weeks ago jamming with a couple accoustic players in a living room I played what was probably the best solo of my life, simply due to that natural sustain. Too bad I had an audience of about 10 freakin' people I thought I WAS somebody for a minute
Rick

[nofi]

yeah, i know the feeling. i thought i was almost someone for a second then my dog left. whattcha'
 gonna' do.

i think we should lobby for an unplugged forum. you know the response would be craptacular!

although, if someone had a gibson abg and played slade tunes through a hiwatt...

[rahock]

yeah, i know the feeling. i thought i was almost someone for a second then my dog left. whattcha'
 gonna' do.

At my old house , in the summer I used to sit outside in the evening at the picnic table and play my Earthwood and sing. Within minutes, I could count on two rabbits, up to half a dozen squirrels,one or two cardinals a bluejay and my cat. My wife used to laugh her ass off at my fan club. Ain't nothin' like the wilderness circuit and playing Woodchuckstock

Yeah, I kinda miss the old ABG talk. Lot of players just don't see much use for ABGs. Playing a heavy diet of ABG for a couple of years probably did more to improve my technique and teach me to select notes better than anything else I've ever done. Just ask the bunnies and the squirrels
Rick

[nofi]

i agree. i have
discovered more about my playing and learned more about playing 'bass' than i have in many years. so much so that my p bass has remained largely untouched for the past four years or so. i think i can barely make it out under all that dust.

i think another thing that helps your playing is that it an acoustic instrument is being played. no wall of sound to hide the clambake behind.

[rahock]

No wall of noise is what I was refering too when I mentioned improving your selection of notes. I found myself eliminating some of the crap and picking out the notes that fit best. In a lot of cases it made for a much more simplified bass line , but one that fit better. Kind of uprightish.

With my Earthwood in particular,  the 12th fret meets the body, so you don't see too much action in that neighborhood. It forced me  to use a lot more open string alternatives and in general , move less and say more. Then getting in to the Olympia or back to a P , where you have considerable room beyond the 12th fret, I gained a new apprecciation for that space on the neck and learned to use it more wisely.

I still play more of my P than anything, but if I could get a crew that was ready to do  an acoustic blues/jazz thing I'd be all freakin' over it

Rick

BTW: I kinda forgot what this thread was about, but it sure has been nice talking with ya about this stuff