The Tone Quest Report
Review from The Tone Quest Report
All reviews posted with permission from Mountain View Publishing,call 877-MAX-TONE.
"The Maven Peal Zeeta Gold...
Way Better Than Vintage"
by David Wilson, November 2002, page 18
There is nothing more interesting or inspiring than listening to a custom amp builder talk about his work. All of these people are gifted with personality types that are clearly not predominate in the gene pool, and after over 50 years of feverish guitar amp manufacturing, it's a tough act indeed to come up with something unique that also sounds as good or better than the old stuff that first brought us to the dance.
When we first spoke with David Zimmerman about the Zeeta and his beloved Sag Circuit, we will admit to being a little conflicted, and here's why: When we think of Vermont down here in Atlanta, a couple of things come to mind, and none of them have anything to do with guitar amplifiers. We thinka maple syrup, Ben & Jerry's, skiing , and Land Rover drivin' Manhattanites stressin' out over either gittin' to Vermont on Thursday night, or gittin' out on Sunday before the Holland tunnel clogs up like a bathtub drain in a cheap motel. And, we thinka John Sprung at Parts is Parts and all of the stories he he can't tell about the dark underbelly of the vintage guitar world. That's a buttload of conflicted, no?
So, when we spoke with Dave, we had to first clear those images out of our mind, which we eventually did, 'cause Dave is a persuasive and interesting guy. Then there was the Sag Circuit... Now, by the questions we asked, you may think that we 'got it' right away, but truthfully, it wasn't until Dave gave us the British toilet analogy that we were able to really hunker down with the concept of squeezin' electrons through a pipe of infinite dimensions and have Warren Haynes come out the other end. But it did (Warren's tone, that is). And that's the deal with Maven Peal--the Sag Circuit works as advertised. With the Maven Peal Zeeta, you can indeed summon up all of the rich power tube distortion you want throughout the entire range of the amp's volume control, from .5W to 30W, and the sag is absolutely adjustable. Pretty amazing, and definitely unique among all of the amplifiers we've ever heard.
David Zimmerman is a freak for details, and the build quality of his amps is exceptional, right down to the Solen polypropylene cathode bypass capacitors, Hovland Musicap and Aeon coupling and tone control capacitors, Roedestein Resista low noise resistors, chassis-mounted ceramic tube sockets with gold plated connections, gold plated, isolated input and output jacks, and Teflon insulated, silver plated, multi-strand copper wire. Solid good looks and premium components aside, the Zeeta delivers a rich, ballsy tone that is neither too bright or thin, nor too dark or midrange heavy. The balance is perfect, and we especially liked what we heard with humbuckers, high output Tele bridge pickups, and P90's.
The Zeeta circuit is based on a narrow panel tweed Deluxe (Fender model 5E3) and a narrow panel tweed Pro (Fender model 5E5-A). You also need to know that the Zeeta is available with a dual power amp feature with high and low gain power amps for an even wider range of tones. The 15W model runs on a pair of EL84s, while the 30W and 50W models can be operated on damn near anything, including EL34's, 6L6's, 5881's, 7581's, KT77's, KT90's, and 6CA7's.
Speaker options include the Jensen C12N, Celestion G12H 70th Anniversary, Celestion Vintage 30, or Celestion Blue AlNiCo speakers (15 watt only), Jensen C15N, and Jensen P10R. Due to the deep bass this amp is capable of producing, the blue AlNiCo is not recommended for seven string guitars. For a full overview of the specs for the Zeeta 15W, 30W and 50W amps, visit the web site. They've omitted nothing.
You'll have to pay a little for the Zeeta's overbuilt mojo and 'non-linear' technology, but for those who can swing the deal, the Zeeta is one amazing amplifier. And that's no pipe dream.
Interview with David Zimmerman
by David Wilson, November 2002, page 15
TQR: Dave, how did you get started building amplifiers?
Neil Young is my all-time favorite musician, and he plays old narrow-panel tweed Deluxes that are modified for 6L6 output tubes rather than the original 6V6's. From what I've read, that's the only modification they've done. The transformers weren't changed or anything like that. At the time that I learned about his amps, I was in graduate school studying non-linear systems (or chaos theory), and I designed a chip that acts like the retina in your eye. I was working in analog, non-linear situations where you use the non-linear properties of transistors as opposed to pretending the non-linear aspects aren't there. You see, in engineering, you typically take whatever device you have - a tube or a transistor - and mathematically, you pretend that it's perfect, or linear. You completely ignore the non-linear aspects. But what's going on in a guitar amplifier, what we like to hear in an amp - things like feedback and harmonics - are non-linear. Some really weird math is used in non-linear equations, and I thought I would play with some amplifiers and really explore the characteristics in great amps that make them sound as if they are breathing and so alive-sounding. Listening again to Neil Young, I could hear his power supply practically collapsing, because it can't produce the power that the 6L6's want. The technical term for that collapse is power supply sag. I really like power amp distortion, rather than preamp distortion. Preamp distortion is easy to design, and it's fun to play on the surface. You plug into an amp that has five stages of gain and it's initially intoxicating, but it's not the real deal. Like with the AC30 Top Boost - Vox added the very first preamp gain to these amps and the extra gain gave this amp even more distortion, but the foundation was still coming from the Top Boost's saggy power amp. And then industry designers took the preamp gain concept ran with it eventually adding master volume, etc., but that's not really where the sound of an amp lives... Back to the power amp... I wanted to be able to control the power amp to make it sound the way I wanted, but not at ear-splitting levels. With traditional tube amps, you can't control the tone of the power amp, and you can't control the volume. The only way to make traditional amps sound good is to turn them all the way up, and to get a significantly different sound, you have to buy a different amplifier.
TQR: How did this lead to you actually building amps?
I was able to patent the sag circuit in 18 months which is an unusually short period of time for a patent to issue. During my discussions with manufacturers and others in the industry, I received encouragement to build the amp myself, and build the best possible amp I could with no particular concern for cost to debut the new technology.
TQR: When were you able to build your first amp?
The first Zeeta was built in late 1999. The old shop we were in developed a problem with black mold , everyone got sick and eventually we had to relocate during the first part of 2001; our new location is great and we've been kicking out Zeetas one-by-one ever since.
TQR: In non-technical terms that we guitarists can digest, how does the Sag Circuit work?
Are you familiar with the 'water closet' toilets in England, where the tank that holds the water is mounted really high up on the wall? Now, when you open the spigot for the water to flow down, it's like hitting a power chord on the guitar. All of a sudden the amp wants power, and the power supply has to provide it. On old tube-rectified amps, the pipe that delivers the flow, or voltage, is skinny, and you can only get so much through it at one time. So the voltage or pressure at the end of the pipe is lower than it could be. With a silicon diode rectifier, more water can flow as the pipe is wider. The voltage coming out the end of the pipe is larger than with the tube rectifier... What the Sag Circuit does is essentially install an infinitely large pipe with a control on it. When you turn the sag all the way down, the pipe gets large, and there is absolutely zero voltage sag; turn it up and the pipe gets smaller. The Sag Circuit is effectively like having an infinite number of rectifiers from perfectly hard to way saggy, and you can dial in the response you want. Added side-benefits of this technology are that there is no power supply hum, and it doesn't matter what the actual wall voltage is. The amp always sees the same voltage and sounds the same despite any variations in the standard U.S. or International supply.
TQR: And how does the Wattage control interface with this? Most people are familiar with a pentode/triode switch, a 'half-power' switch, or an attenuator that shunts power.
The Sag Circuit's Wattage control is none of these things. Players and designers have tried all kinds of tricks to try to tame the power amp, like attenuators, etc. and none of that stuff really works, because mathematically, it can't... The differences between a really old Bassman at maybe 28W, and a new, more modern dual 6L6 Fender amp that produces 60W, are not because of attenuators, etc. but because of how the two power supplies work. With the old Bassman, the tubes are basically being choked by the power supply. Back to the 'water closet' analogy, the Wattage control allows you to adjust the maximum size of the pipe. The Sag control lets you adjust how big or small the pipe becomes depending on how hard or soft you play each note.
TQR: So the Sag control provides more dynamic control of the feel and attack characteristics of the amp, going beyond the capabilities and limitations of both a tube rectifier and a silicon diode.
Yes.
TQR: And the Wattage control enables you to lower the volume of the amp without losing any true power amp distortion?
Correct, down to 1/2 watt, with no hum, and the amp is immune to variations in wall voltages, which vary a lot from location to location. The Wattage control lets you control the volume, and the Sag control allows you to shape the dynamics, or touch sensitivity.
TQR: Let's talk about the construction of the amp. It appears to be impeccably built with point-to-point construction, and we couldn't help but notice those big Solen capacitors. We've seen them before, and they produce a big, round sound with lots of 'bloom.'
Our amps are built with a military-style approach to the turret board circuit similar to the old Hiwatts, and the amps have a ground plane underneath the turret board, which makes everything quieter.
TQR: And you're using a printed circuit board for the power supply and Sag Circuit.
Yes, the printed circuit board is there only to manage the power. The audio signal isn't routed through the printed circuit board; the audio signal is restricted to the point-to-point, turret board circuit.
TQR: Where do you get your transformers?
Maven Peal uses only Mercury Magnetics output transformers. I have a little different take on the way I handle output transformers, which are so important to the tone of an amp. When you go to design a transformer, they'll ask you, "How much coloration do you want the transformer to give?" Some people think that's just wicked cool when the transformer is purposefully saturating, but I don't like it. I want the transformer to behave like it was from a stereo. Let the tubes do the saturating. Other people would disagree with me, but if you purposefully muddy the transformer, you can't back it off and clean it up. You're stuck. As for the power transformer; we use a custom potted toroid for decreased hum.
TQR: We noticed a big difference when the output transformer on our old Pro Reverb died. We had always thought that this amp, in particular, sounded exceptionally good until we replaced the OT with a Mercury Magnetics Tone Clone. We were astounded by the improvement in the detail and string definition of the amp. It was amazing, and it made us wonder how many players with great old amps might be limping along, sonically speaking, when they could sound so much better with a lively OT that isn't suffering from the effects of age.
Yeah, a lot of people liked Dumble amps so much, and others thought they were really difficult to play. I think a lot of it had to do with the really high-quality output transformers he used. They are not going to cover your mistakes - they aren't mushy - but if you can play, it's a great thing. My whole thing with the Zeeta is that I wanted to use absolutely top of the line parts throughout, for the tone to be exceptionally clean, and then completely mess it up with the Sag Circuit. I wanted the tubes to create coloration - not crappy transformers, cheesy caps, or bad wiring. You can't clean it up if it's dirty to begin with.
TQR: We always say the same things about pickups.
Yeah, you want the dirt to come from the tubes, and nowhere else.
TQR: How did you select the tubes you ship in your amps?
If you design an amp around a NOS tube and your customers later have to switch to current production, they can be really disappointed. I don't want to do that to people. I've played NOS tubes in our amps and they seem to roll over into distortion a little earlier, but you can compensate for that with the Sag control. It was fairly easy with the .5/15W because there are not a lot of EL84's out there but we found the JJ/Tesla EL84's to be outstanding. And after testing all the new EL34s, we are using the JJ/Teslas because they are also superior. So for a British sound with the .5/30W and .5/50W we recommend using JJ/Tesla EL34s; for an American sound, we include Svetlana 6L6s because they sound the most like NOS 6L6s. For the preamp tubes, we tried the EI's and when they're good, they're great, but half of them are unacceptably microphonic - hopefully they'll get better. So we are currently using Sovtek 12AX7LP's and I like them a lot. But these are just the tubes we recommend for use with the Zeeta, because it's self-biasing, you can use whatever tubes you'd like.
TQR: What are the choices for speakers?
With the .5/15W, the Celestion Blue is the one, in my opinion. In the .5/30W, we offer the G12H, or the Celestion Vintage 30 for the a heavy metal tone. We also tried the Tone Tubby and I like it a lot, but it's darker than the Celestions, and we need to voice the amp for that speaker. The .5/50W comes with a Jensen C12N.
TQR: It was good to see that you angled the control panel on the front of the Zeeta. There are a lot of 'boutique' amps with flat, front mounted controls that you can't read without bending over and mooning your audience. Have you ever noticed that?Yes, I have, and it is a big deal for us to get that angled panel right. It isn't all that easy, which is why a lot of people don't do it. Sometimes I wonder if anybody notices these things, because it does take more time and it costs more to do them, but it's worth it to me.
TQR: It's not an issue with a head, but on a combo where the controls are at knee level, it makes a difference.
We also go way out of our way to overbuild our cabinets because the cabinet also contributes to the sound. We use finger-jointed solid pine and all the hardware is stainless steel, the chassis are 12 gauge steel. We also use Teflon silver-plated wire.
TQR: So you're using better wire than what they bundle in a Boeing 777?
The best there is. One of the capacitors in our amp costs more than all of the components put together in some other boutique amps.
TQR: The big Solen--What's the advantage of using that cap, and why should a guitar player care?
It won't kill the bass, and it opens up the top end. The different materials used in capacitors definitely make a difference. There are also lot of things we do to get rid of noise. The heater voltage being regulated DC helps with changes in the power supply at different venues. In fact, all of the voltages in the amp will be the same regardless of external variances from the standard 110V. Even the pilot light, which is a 14V unit, is running at 12.6V to extend the life of the bulb by 5 times, and I'm using a bulb that lasts 10,000 hours, anyway. There are just a lot of little details that most people wouldn't know about, but I like to do things right.
TQR: What are your amps selling for now?
The Zeeta Silver series starts at $2,450 and the Gold series starts at $3,250 The Silver series evolved from overwhelming requests that we build a more cost effective Zeeta that isn't quite as overbuilt as the Gold series. The differences include the cabinet, apple-ply with the Silver as opposed to the Gold's solid pine, finger-joined cab; as well as the electronic parts, such as Nichicon electrolytics, Orange Drop coupling caps, and low noise metal film resistors with the Silver as opposed to the Gold's Solen capacitors, teflon insulated silver-plated wire, Rel-cap coupling capacitors, etc. The sonic differences between the two series are similar to the differences between a new tube and an NOS tube, but they both do a fine job of showcasing the Sag Circuit.
TQR: What's ahead for Maven Peal?
Well, I recently met Warren Haynes and learned that he used a Zeeta .5/15 Gold this summer to record the new Allman Brothers CD that is scheduled to be released in February 2003. He didn't receive the Zeeta until half way through, but found the Zeeta to be such a great recording amp that he used it on the remaining half of the CD. We also just signed on Alex Borisov as our new Global Accounts Manager. Alex is helping to free my time up so I can devote myself to designing our next amp, a plexi-based head with more new goodies on it, and I'm going to have to get around to that external reverb unit everyone is bugging me to design. I've got a list of amp types that people want the Sag Circuit on, so I've got my hands full; these days I'm feeling a lot like a kid in a candy store... I can't wait to do it all.
