Zenith Amplitude Controller

96
GUITARIST MAY 2021
IMAGES TO BE SHOT
H
amstead knows a thing or two
about creating tone and its new
pedal, the Zenith Amplitude
Controller, is all about getting the best tone
out of your own equipment by offering
EQ, boost and compression in one place.
The signal path is all analogue, but three
selectable routing options and some clever
digital switching technology give you
plenty of options for using the EQ and
compression separately or combined.
SOUNDS
The three EQ knobs each offer 15dB of cut
or boost with some selectable options on
how the Middle operates: you can have
centre frequencies of 500Hz, 800Hz or
1.2 kHz, and wide, medium and narrow Q
(bandwidth). This is quality musical tone-
tweaking, with the Bass knob rolling off
unwanted weight or adding girth without
sounding flabby, the Treble knob adjusting
the natural airy top-end, and the Middle
knob offering targeted tweaks such as a
Tube Screamer-ish mid hump or a Fender
black-panel-style mid scoop. The output
Level knob can add up to 20dB of boost to
solidly hit your amp’s front-end.
Compression is controlled by a single
knob and has a very fast attack and
medium/long release. The very natural,
smooth compression will even things out
and add sustain with a pleasing note bloom
at higher settings. While it can affect note
attack (although not the more extreme
envelope change at the start of a note like,
say, a Dynacomp), you can put some of
that back by rolling the Blend knob back
from 100 per cent wet and bringing in a
proportion of your dry sound.
You can choose to set the serial order
of EQ and compression or run them in
parallel. If your guitar hits the compressor
first it will react to the full frequency of
your playing dynamics, but putting the EQ
first lets the compressor react to the EQ’d
sound. This gives you the opportunity to
tailor its operation, so you can set it not
to overreact to low-end frequencies, for
example. In Parallel mode the signal is
split, so both get it equally, giving you the
chance to mix two different versions of
your original tone one compressed and
one with a different EQ profile layered
together to create a composite sound.
Hamstead has built what it calls ‘secret
switchinginto the pedal. As standard,
A classy tone-conditioning workhorse from the Brit boutique amp maker
Words  Trevor Curwen  Photography  Olly Curtis
PEDALBOARD
Zenith Amplitude Controller
CONTACT
HAMSTEAD SOUNDWORKS 01223 208809
WWW.HAMSTEADSOUNDWORKS.COM
MODEL
ZENITH AMPLITUDE CONTROLLER
PRICE
£279
MANUFACTURER
HAMSTEAD SOUNDWORKS
HAMSTEAD SOUNDWORKS
GIT471.peds_hamstead.indd 96 17/03/2021 12:16

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