Description

Z-TONE Buffer Boost

Preamp/DI Pedal With Advanced Guitar Tone Shaping

Guitar & bass pedalboards are all about exploring new tones & textures, creating a wide range of sound for your instrument. Z-TONE® Buffer Boost takes your live rig to a new level, letting you shape the sound of your instrument with the input circuits from our award-winning AXE I/O interface. Change the tone & feel of your guitar or bass, buffer your tone to survive even the biggest pedalboard, kick in the boost and supercharge all your existing gear with a powerful new front-end.

Key Features

Active/Passive pickup selector
PURE channel for transparent sound
JFET channel adds warmth & harmonics
Z-TONE variable impedance control creates a wide range of tones
Buffers signal for longer pedalboards & cable runs
Boost circuit adds volume & drive
Alternate outs for mixers & PAs
Ground lift switch eliminates buzz & hum
Designed and made in Italy

The ideal front-end

Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers a high-quality instrument preamp with exceptionally low noise and wide frequency response, and multiple circuit topologies to adapt to any type of guitar, pick-up and style.

Tone and feel like you’ve never heard

Guitar pickups can dramatically change their character depending on impedance - many amps offer a load of 1 MOhms, while pedals can run much lower. That’s why the tone and responsiveness of your guitar can change when plugging into different gear. Z-TONE Buffer Boost gives you the same variable impedance control as our groundbreaking AXE I/O audio interface, from 1 MOhm to 2.2 kOhms. At the maximum impedance, you’ll find your sound tighter, sharper and more precise. Increase the load and the sound becomes thicker and more bold.

You can use this control to coax a wider range of sounds from a single guitar, experiment with how the rest of your rig reacts to these changes, or dial in exactly the right vibe regardless of what comes next in your chain.

Specifications

Topology

Ultra low noise, high bandwidth and ultra low distortion preamp, buffer and direct box, with boost control and variable gain and input impedance. Transformer-based galvanically isolated balanced output and electronically buffered low impedance unbalanced output. PURE and JFET input stages for total transparency or added harmonics.

Audio specs

I/O Gain: Unitary, from 1/4” input JACK to both 1/4” and XLR outputs when GAIN is at 0dB and Z-TONE at the SHARP position.
Gain Range: From -8dB to +8dB
Boost range: From 0dB to +10dB
Input impedance - Z-TONE set on PASSIVE mode: Variable from 1MΩ down to 2.2kΩ
Input impedance - Z-TONE set on ACTIVE mode: Approx 20kΩ
Output impedance, unbalanced out: 56Ω
Output impedance, balanced out: 600Ω
Max input level before clipping: +13dBm when powered by 48V phantom,+9dBm when powered by 9V battery
Dynamic Range: better than 114dB(A) for both outputs, input gain at 0dB
Total Harmonic Distortion, balanced output, 1kHz, +4dBm input: 0.0033% (PURE), 0.2% (JFET)
Total Harmonic Distortion, unbalanced output, 1kHz, +4dBm input: 0.00055% (PURE), 0.2% (JFET)
Frequency response: from 5Hz to 30kHz -1dB
Phase deviation: 0° +/-10° from 20Hz to 20kHz