PRODUCT REVIEW
Arteffect Zenith
Overdrive Review
BY JAMES EGOLF
Haifa, Israel probably isn’t the first place
you think of as a hotbed of boutique pedal
production, but if Tom Kochawi and Dan Orr
– Arteffect’s founders – have anything to say
about it, you soon will. The Zenith is the third
release in Arteffect’s product line, which also
includes the Bonnie wah and the Orangen
germanium Tone Boost.
After playing around with the Zenith for just
a short while, one thing became apparent:
the pedal is incredibly flexible, delivering
everything from clean boost that leaves the
timbre of your guitar and amp alone to balls-out, tons-of-bottom ka-chunk and everything
in-between, all delivered with 18V operation
using a single 9V battery or standard A/C
adapter for convenience.
The additional headroom afforded by the
higher-voltage operation works incredibly well with the Zenith. Where some ODs
– particularly modded Tube Screamer and
TS-derived designs – tend to sound flat and
almost distant with higher-voltages, the
Zenith retains your rig’s character while adding versatility.
The unit’s tonal flexibility is due to an
extremely effective EQ section consisting of
simple Treble and Bass
knobs along the bottom row, as well as the
Voice control located
between the Drive
and Volume controls
along the top row.
The true depth of the
Voice control becomes
apparent when leaving the EQ flat and
scrolling through the
control’s continuously
variable ‘flat,’ ‘fat,’ and
‘focus’ settings. Flat is
just that, retaining your
guitar and amp’s clean
timbre, only adding
boost or dirt. Roll the
Voice control to 11 o’
clock and you start rolling in the ‘fat’ setting’s
tonality – delivering
a Marshall-flavored
low-mid texture with a
nice, airy 800 series-era
chunk with the Drive
control halfway up.
Rolling on past the ‘fat’ setting started adding in a more Screamer-ish mid-range honk,
perfect for cutting through a busy mix.
Continuing to keep the Voice control just shy
of the ‘fat’ setting and rolling the Drive up all
the way with a P- 90 armed axe gave up some
great, thick, Southern rock-flavored sounds,
and had me butchering “Whipping Post” in
no time. Rolling back the guitar’s tone knob
yielded a great woman tone as well. Again,
the additional headroom was really appreciated with these settings, letting right hand
attack dictate whether the tone was raw or
uptown, even with the goodly amount of dirt
piled on at this point.
Utilizing the “pull for punch” feature on
the Volume control yielded a nice touch
of sparkle. I couldn’t quite figure out if it
was a slight 3dB boost or more of a pull
for bright type of thing, but whatever it is,
it works. Just for grins, I checked out the
Drive control’s “pull for more” feature, with
the LED changing from blue to red in the
process. Busting out a few riffs offered up
more than a few unexpected surprises, with
the Zenith becoming an effective distortion
box. Cranking the Bass knob all the way
up took the Zenith into modern, high-gain
metal territory.
Going to the other end of the spectrum, I
switched to a Tele and rolled the Bass back
to noon, the Drive control to zero and the
Volume all the way up. With the Voice control
at ‘flat,’ the Zenith offered up a clean, transparent boost. Turning the Voice control back
up to 10: 30 gave up a nice, fat boost with
just a touch of compression – a nice complement to the amp’s subtle tube compression.
The Final Mojo
I have always liked guitars and effects that
deliver one or two killer tones more than
those offering twenty marginal sounds. In this
regard, the Zenith is an anomaly, offering an
incredibly broad range of tones with nearly
all of them kicking ass. It’s often tough to
find the right OD to sit “in” your tone rather
than on top of it, but the Zenith integrated
itself into my rig immediately. Add Haifa to
the list of boutique pedal centers.
Buy If...
you need flexible, great sounding
OD and don’t mind dialing it in
Skip If...
all you’re looking for is a TS clone
Rating... 4. 5
Arteffect
MSRP $225
art-tone.com
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