Alex, The Z3-T arrived yesterday in perfect condition.
To call this a guitar would be doing it and you and injustice. It is more
precisely a work of art that also happens to function as a precision instrument.
The first thing I noticed when I strummed her is
her total organic feel-unlike any other guitar I've played. The resonance,
ergonomics, balance, and shape of the instrument all work synergistically
to create a pleasurable experience unattainable with a computer-designed,
assembly line guitar.
The quality of wood is outstanding, as is the figuring
and finish. Flawless. One could go over this work of art with a microscope
and not find a blemish, defect, or imperfection. The neck joint is obscenely
tight and faultless. The hardware is equally excellent. The frets are
beautifully dressed and seated, the tremolo is much more preferable to
a Floyd Rose in every way and the tuners are first rate. The real standouts
are the Zach Attack pickups; more about those in a moment. The entire
design concept of the Zachary guitar including its generous string spacing
is so perfect it's almost supernatural. Only an idiot savant or an incredibly
gifted luthier could have designed such a guitar. I'm guessing in this
case, it's the latter.
I auditioned the Z3-T with a Marshall Plexi and
mic'd the cabinet (2x12 greenbacks) with a Sure SM-7 > Neve 1073 > UREI
1176 LN blackface > an Apogee A/D > Pro Tools HD. As a former major label
recording artist/producer and now a producer/songwriter/session player,
I have owned many fine vintage and custom guitars, including those built
personally for me by Grover Jackson, Jol Danzig (Hamer), Paul Reed Smith,
Rand (only savvy collectors will know who this is), Ed Roman, and many
other luthiers. Nothing against their fine work, but no guitar I've owned
stands up to the Zachary Z3-T. The raw sound of this instrument captured
every nuance I've been searching for during my career. The body and neck
woods, fret board wood, tremolo, and pickups all conspire to create a
tone that literally makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I
could joke that the Z3-T has so much sustain that I could hit a chord,
go get a drink of water, and come back before it decayed, but it's basically
true.
The Zach Attack pickups are pure ear candy; they
have an especially pleasing upper-midrange bite and amazingly tight low
end that Seymour Duncan can only dream of. The tonal balance of the Zach
Attack pickups is as close to perfect as I've ever heard. I know you took
great pains to achieve this tone with your pickup manufacturer and I'm
happy to say that your efforts paid off handsomely. The versatility of
the pickup arrangement and coil splitting allows me to create various
desirable single coil and humbucking tones. Yet the Z3-T sounds nothing
like a Les Paul, Telecaster, Stratocaster, PRS, Jackson, or Hamer. With
all due respect to the venerated guitar manufacturers who build these
axes, the Z3-T sounds more musical. It also has, for lack of a better
term, more balls. I understand that this is a completely subjective evaluation,
but I believe that any accomplished player with educated ears would agree
with this assessment.
And that brings me to an important observation:
I don't think a player who lusts after mass-market guitar with less than
five-plus years of playing experience is going to appreciate the differences
between a Zachary guitar and the axe du jour. Quite simply, the more educated,
experienced, and talented a player is, the greater will be his/her appreciation
of the Zachary experience.
In sum, the Zachary Z3-T stands heads and shoulders
above any guitar I've played or recorded. Of course, each player brings
a unique tone to any guitar by virtue of his/her skill/technique/talent
level, but I believe a Zachary guitar can bring out the finest in any
competent player.
Bottom line: You'll just sound better playing a
Zachary guitar. And that's as good as it gets.
Coyote Traxx (professional guitarist,
recording artist, producer, engineer)
