MusicRadar Verdict
It buffers, it boosts, it overdrives and it's tiny.
Pros
- +
Great placed first in the signal chain. Natural, valve-like overdrive. Compact.
Cons
- -
May be too tiny for some.
MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.
The Channel 2 is part of Z.Vex's California Mini series of compact pedalboard effects. This one takes its name and concept from the second channel of Z.Vex's Super Duper.
"Advancing the gain knob brings in a very natural overdrive like a driven valve amp"
It's a simple boost pedal with controls for master volume and gain. With volume up full and a small amount of gain, you'll get a useful clean boost similar to the Super Hard-On, but advancing the gain knob brings in a very natural overdrive like a driven valve amp.
Both knobs full on gives you a huge volume jump and great overdrive, but there are loads of variations available by juxtaposing the two knobs.
The pedal also has an input impedance of five million ohms, which means it won't load your pickups and is great as the first in a signal chain, with a sparkle and no loss of brightness when using a long cable.
A practical addition for any pedalboard. Stick one after your guitar to retain your tone and kick things up a notch whenever it's needed.
“It’s kind of scary to go through these…like, ‘Oh I’m going to take that back!’”: Albert Hammond Jr of the Strokes is (reluctantly) selling a heap of his stage-played gear on Reverb, including a Guild acoustic from the Yours To Keep tour
“There’s three of us playing guitar in Foo Fighters… A lot of tone details can get lost, which is what drew me to the Cleaver – that P-90 cut”: Chris Shiflett on how he found his weapon of choice with his Fender Cleaver Telecaster Deluxe
“People have used it as their wedding song. I often think, ‘Hey, did you listen to the lyrics?’”: The classic number one hit with a sting in its tail
