How does one begin to review a legend? In part because of the difficulty of getting one, in a larger part due to its unique sound, a legend has certainly grown around the Hermida Audio Zendrive. I’ve just taken delivery of my second one, and can testify that it’s status is well deserved.
First, the tone. No overdrive pedal I have owned or played through (and that’s a long list) does quite what a Zendrive does: a smooth, hairless overdrive that gives the sense of immense power without actually “breaking up.” It’s been said before, but if you’re a fan of the sweet, liquid tone made famous by blues/jazzers Larry Carlton and Robben Ford, this pedal was made for you. It’s often called the “Dumble tone,” and while I’ve never played through a Dumble amp I have some recent experience with how they sound, standing at the edge of the stage directly in front of Robben Ford’s Dumble at an outdoor concert in fall of 2014. The amp was alive, and brought the best of each guitar’s character to the front (he played his Tele, SG and the iconic Epiphone that evening). The Zendrive gets you very, very close to that sound: I know that Robben himself uses one when he can’t travel with his amps, and Robert Feister, a well-respected D.C-area player takes a Zendrive and an EP Boost with him when backline is provided and he can’t bring his Fuchs ODS. All that should give you a solid idea of the sound of the pedal.
Second, touch sensitivity. The Zendrive responds more like a red-hot amp than anything I’ve played. You can clean up just by changing how you pick, or dig in and hear the sound “bloom.” Your guitar’s volume control is barely needed.
Third, versatility. With a pedal like the Zendrive, versatility becomes less a matter of “how many different sounds can I make,” and more a matter of “how well can I tune the pedal to this guitar and amp.” It does one thing, but it does that one thing better than anything you can buy, and it will do it with virtually any guitar or amplifier. There are volume and gain controls, which work just like the same controls on an amp, a tone control that ranges from “presence” on the high end to “resonance” on the low end, and a “voice” knob that serves a wide range of function in one. The Voice control tunes the pedal to your amp and guitar, limits or increases the amount of total gain available from the Gain knob, and increases low end as you turn it down.
And the really good news is that creator Alfonzo Hermida has folded his company into Lovepedal, which is now manufacturing the Zendrive (giving Alfonzo the time to design new circuits). So one of the legend-building myths surrounding it is history: the waiting list is gone. This is bad news for all the eBay sellers who charge more than list, but good news for guitar players. It now comes with a 2-year warranty. My only teensiest gripe is that I miss the deep blue LED: the new one from Lovepedal has a very bright LED that you might call pale blue, but is mostly white.
I’m down to two overdrives in my studio: a Crowther Hotcake for crunch, and a Zendrive for the sweetest, smoothest, singin’est overdrive anywhere. If you, like me, have still not heard an OD you can really bond with, this is what you’re looking for.
Users: Robben Ford, Robert Feister
Submitted by James B, Website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
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