Zap Machine

BOOSTER

OVERDRIVE

The Zap Machine is back! We released the original Zap Machine as an exclusive limited run item for the now defunct Fat Tone Guitars in 2010, there were fewer than 25 made. It was always a favorite around the shop but it used a very specific, hard to find germanium transistor and various NOS parts that were integral to the sound. We recently found about 350 of these transistors and set to work updating the circuit for a larger limited release exclusively for Prymaxe! Each Zap Machine is dated and numbered and comes with a hand signed certificate of authenticity The Zap Machine V2 is a dual channel, silicon/germanium hybrid dirt device. It has an extremely wide and dynamic range from near clean boost with the gain at minimum on the low gain Green Channel through gigantic overloaded distortion tones with gain at maximum on the high gain Red Channel. The Bass control adjusts the low frequencies coming into the Zap Machine and the Treble control adjusts the high frequencies coming out. This unique tone arrangement allows for different flavors of boost, drive, distortion and fuzz that are not commonly heard from transistor based dirt devices. It is very “amp-like” in response to picking dynamics, saturation and clean up. With two foot switchable channels of dirt available, the Zap Machine can easily take over the duties of at least 2 or 3 pedals on your pedal board! Leave it on the green channel for your overdrive/boost needs and kick on the red channel for your distortion/fuzz tones. Just like the first version, the Zap Machine V2 features a more rugged, vintage amplifier inspired design with NOS carbon composition resistors and big high voltage caps along with a NOS low gain germanium transistor. We tried to build it with our standard parts but it just didn’t sound the same. The Zap Machine is true bypass, all discrete analog circuitry and handmade one and a time in wintery Akron, Ohio.