Earthquaker Devices Zoar Dynamic Audio Grinder

Behold the Zoar! The Zoar is Earthquaker's latest distortion creation designed to blend old-school grind with amp-like touch and powerful 3-band passive EQ. Through its expansive EQ section and Weight control, the Zoar can stretch from light grind to weighty heavy tones that are fuzz-like in character while always retaining note clarity and separation. In fact that's one of our favorite features about the Zoar; it's ability to retain note and chord definition even under heavy amounts of gain. The controls of Zoar are the keys to its highly functional tonal kingdom:

Weight - The Weight control shifts the voicing of the saturation by allowing the more of the low frequencies to pass through. In plain english this means the distortion tones can range from lean and lo-fi to a satisfying chug. The weight and gain controls are somewhat interactive and the affect of the weight control is relational to how much gain is being used. 

3 Band EQ - The EQ section of the Zoar is passive, much like a tube guitar amp. Turned up all the way they are essentially wide open, while if you turn them down all the way you get no sound at all. They also interact with each other, and where you set one control will have an affect on the other. While that sounds complicated, we easily adapted to how the controls played with each other, and we found it easy to create any thing from sizzling classic crunch to scooped metal-style chug. 

9-18V Operation - Running the Zoar at higher voltages increases the range of clean tones, provides tighter punchier bass and even better note articulation. Just the thing for detuned and baritone guitars that might overwhelm other distortion pedals

It's easier to say what the Zoar won't do rather than what it will do. It's not a tube screamer or and edge-of-breakup device. But is far more capable and musical than your average fuzz pedal. And it's ability to not overly compress or mush out on chords means that it will not get lost when the band gets going. One of our testers likened it to Console Distortion (aka going direct into a recording console as in the Beatles Revolution). Kudos to Wizards of Zoar for creating a flexible and musical audio grinder that reaches beyond the ordinary.

In the words of Earthquaker devices...

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 is a highly interactive medium-high gain discrete distortion (using only transistors; no opamps or diodes in here!) that has that highly sought after touch sensitive amp-like quality. 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.

From defined sparkle and tightness of an overdrive to low-medium gain fuzz that’s perfect for drop tuned guitars and basses, Zoar can do it all. Zoar lets you dial in and control every nuance of your tone from jangly on-the-verge of break up to blowing the walls out heavy saturation.

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 - yet surprisingly easy to instantly dial in dozens of mind blowing sounds.  

Tech specs and details:

• Extremely interactive medium-high gain discrete transistor-based distortion
• Passive 3-band EQ tuned for modern dirt tones 
• Customize your sound with the Level, Weight, Gain, Bass, Middle, and Treble controls
• The Weight control dictates the amount of low end that is passed into the circuit
• All-analog signal path
• True bypass
• Silent relay-based switching with Flexi-Switch® Technology
• Lifetime warranty
• Power Requirements: 9-18 volt DC
• Current Draw: 10 mA
• Input Impedance: 1 MΩ
• Output Impedance:
• Out of Box Dimensions: 5 x 2.5 x 2.25 inches (127 x 63.5 x 57.15 mm) with knobs
• Out of Box Weight: 10.08 oz (286g)