Zoar
Dynamic Audio Grinder
Hello fellow dirt dissenters, thank you for giving in to your tonal temptations and following the spirits of the path less traveled to the dynamic audio grinder known as Zoar™.
Zoar™ reaches back the past and keeps its eyes on the future. A classic fuzz living communally with a time tested three band passive EQ section; informed by modern precision and a little bit of midwestern witchcraft. A tool designed to delight the seekers and the purists alike. One foot in the gutter, one fist in the gold if you will…
Zoar™ is a medium-high gain discrete distortion (using only transistors; no opamps or diodes in here!) that has that touch sensitive amp-like quality to it that everyone craves. It has been finely tuned to create a highly tweakable hi-fi and modern sounding distortion, but with the ghosts of old school circuitry to deliver a grind that is both instantly familiar and delightfully unique. Want that defined sparkle and tightness of an overdrive? This has it. Want that low-medium gain fuzz that’s perfect for drop tuned guitars and basses? This has it. Want to be able to dial in and control every nuance of your tone from jangly on-the-verge of break up to blowing the walls out heavy saturation? Then this is the pedal for you.
This meticulously crafted box has six knobs that allow you to truly customize your sound with the Level, Weight, Gain, Bass, Middle, and Treble controls. The red LED light indicates when the distortion is activated by the Flexi-Switch® enabled footswitch.
The Gain control on Zoar™ goes from the edge of break up all the way over the cliff into the crunchy, grinding abyss. The character of the distortion is heavily dependent on the setting of the Weight control as well as your guitar’s pickup type, and it is further fine-tuned by the EQ section.
While having its roots in a very familiar past, the passive 3-band EQ has been finely tuned for modern tones. While this style of tone shaping seems simple on the surface, it is deceptively complex and highly interactive. Here are a few pointers for dialing in Zoar™ and learning all it has to teach.
- If Bass, Middle and Treble all are zeroed out, no sound shall pass. This is the nature of a passive EQ.
- Turning up one of the three bands will affect the other two.
- Setting all three bands in unison at noon will give you a completely different response than setting them all in unison at 9 o’clock, or, say 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock… you get the idea.
See, highly interactive. A good starting point is setting all three bands at noon and experimenting with each one individually.
The 3-Band EQ and Gain controls give you nearly unlimited options with great focus and sensitive precision, but the real powerhouse of Zoar™ is the Weight control. This control dictates the amount of low end that is passed into the circuit, thus controlling the entire character of the pedal. Simply dial in the 3-Band EQ to 12 o’clock and adjust the Weight to see how drastically it dictates your sound. From a mere clean boost to a high gain distortion to overdrive to the crispy Hi-Fi fuzz territory, this function gives you everything.
The Level control hits unity gain around noon, but this is dependent on where the other controls are set. In addition to controlling the output volume, it also plays a small part in the controlling the voice of Zoar™. By adjusting the Level control with any combination of EQ (boosting the frequency bands and cutting the output volume), you can achieve drastically different curves that have the feel of the more traditional low pass filter type tone control.
Want to elevate your sonic spirit to a higher level? Try running Zoar™ at higher voltage! Zoar™ can handle power up to 18v DC. Higher voltages will yield a different frequency response with more defined dynamics and a faster response. When powered at 18v, the range of clean tones are widened, dirty tones become punchier with better note articulation, low frequencies are tightened, the Treble control will cover a broader spectrum without becoming harsh and the output volume nearly doubles! The experience is not unlike plugging into a wall of high wattage tube amplifiers!
Each Zoar™ Dynamic Audio Grinder is crafted just north of Zoar mountain in the EarthQuaker Devices colony by many delightful humans and one loving robot under the guiding spirit of the Zoarites.
Controls
Level: Adjusts the output volume.
Weight: This is an input frequency control that changes the voice and saturation of the distortion. Turning Weight clockwise allows more low frequencies to pass through. This increases the gain, allows lower frequencies to clip faster and can shift the tone of the pedal from tight distortion to a loose fuzz.
Gain: Turn clockwise to increase distortion. This adjusts the transistor bias. A little static sound when turning is completely normal.
Bass: Passive bass control, adjusts the low frequency content between 0 and 800Hz +/- 15dB.
Middle: Passive middle control, adjusts the midrange frequency content between 500Hz and 3kHz +/- 10dB.
Treble: Passive treble control, adjusts the high frequency content between 1kHz and 10kHz +/-15dB.
Pro Tip: Start with Bass, Middle and Treble set at Noon and adjust from there. These controls are highly interactive and tunable. A little movement goes a long way.
Flexi-Switch® Technology
This device features Flexi-Switch® Technology! This relay-based, true bypass switching style allows you to simultaneously use momentary and latching-style switching.
- For standard latching operation: Tap the footswitch once to activate the effect and then tap again to bypass.
- For momentary operation: With the effect off, hold the footswitch down for as long as you’d like to use the effect. Once you release the switch, the effect will be bypassed.
Since the switching is relay-based, it requires power to pass signal.
Power Requirements
- Current Draw: 10mA
- This device takes a 9-18 volt DC power supply with a standard 2.1mm negative center barrel plug. We recommend using a pedal-specific, transformer-isolated, wall-wart power supply or a power supply with multiple isolated-outputs. Pedals will make extra noise if there is ripple or unclean power. Switching-type power supplies, daisy chains and non-pedal specific power supplies do not always filter dirty power and may result in unwanted noise.
DO NOT POWER THE ZOAR HIGHER THAN 18V.
Tech Specs
Input Impedance: 1MΩ
Output Impedance: < 10KΩ
Current Draw: 10mA
Art by Dave Neeson