G3 Vai Satriani Malmsteen

Eli Friedmann on Bobby Simcox
Saw Simcox videos. Simcox has quite the aggressive approach to the guitar. That 26" scale can really take his assault and still be sensitive enough to respond to all the tapping and piano type playing as well as the slap bass/Spanish stuff. It's awesome that players as totally different as Simcox and I BOTH can agree on what is the perfect guitar. So your whole point about custom guitars being totally useless is true. Just build what you find to be the best guitar and everyone will agree. You've done it. By the way what will he do with 6 Zachary guitars? I hardly have the chops for 2. Also the sleazy hotel room and lo-fi recording is perfect. Hilarious and oddly right. PRS does their marketing by putting their guitars in the hands of some non player in a 4 million dollar music video where he is just leaping around and posing and sort of pretending to play what you're hearing. Eli

RH Coyote

Coyote Traxx (professional guitarist, songwriter, recording artist, producer, engineer)
His initials are RH and he has been around playing guitar, performing and recording for many years. For one thing, he was there when Randy Rhodes ordered his custom guitars form Jackson, must have been 1980. He is also a professional recording engineer, producer and award winning songwriter with a busy schedule and close ties to the Nashville scene. He owns 3 Zachary instruments to date. Z3-T 261003, Z1-B4 101003, and the first F1 090105. I am very appreciative of the following recordings he put together for me in his studio, featuring only his Zachary guitars. Here you will be able to hear what the guitars can do and what they sound like. The only guitars on these tracks are the three instruments listed above - no other guitars.

Country Music Star

I've attached a song I co-wrote with Kris for you to hear--I'm playing the F1, a Taylor acoustic, and Zach bass (I also produced, engineered, and mixed).

One Exit Past Heaven

Charles Altura

250204 01 Kidz On Skateboards

Mark Miller - plays Roy B. 060806 and the Zachary Pedal

060806 Moonstrings

I hate it when this happens. It's getting late and I should go to bed so I can get up in the morning for work. But I can't resist picking up Roy B for a few minutes. Well, 10 minutes later I got this cool little concept down that I'm positive I'll forget tomorrow if I don't record it NOW. So, I get set up, record it, add some reverb and compression in Sonar and 30 minutes later I got this clip. Short but sweet. Middle position with the neck pup full humbucker. Clean channel of the Mesa Rocket. Gotta get to bed.

060806 Morning

This isn't a review of the guitar - I'll get to that later. I'm still putting it through the paces and getting familiar with it. One thing's for sure - I love it. I got the pedal plugged in tonight also and am very pleased with that too. I need more time with it but I do like the light acoustic-like sounds it gets. In fact, I hit one sound I really liked and quickly set up and re-recorded the rhythm track of this tune with the pedal. The tone control on the guitar is rolled off a bit and it makes a nice contrast to the lead track, which is pretty twangy. I like rolling off the tone on the Zach Attack (neck pickup) because the sound doesn't get hollowed out - still stays very musical and jazzy.

This is a 2 track tune - I think the lead track has the center setting with the Zach Attack (neck pickup humbucker) in single coil mode. The rhythm track uses the Zach Attack in single coil with the tone rolled off plus the Zach pedal. Both tracks are played through the Mesa Boogie Rocket 44 clean channel into my AEA R84 Ribbon Mic (recommended by Eli) and panned about 40% to the right and left to get some stereo separation. I added some light reverb in Sonar after it was recorded to give it some more space. No editing done - the mistakes are there but the recording also catches some nice spontaneous stuff at the same time. Enjoy.

060806 Roy B. Blues

Have a listen to this - it's a cool tune, a walking bass blues. I took your advice and tried adding some compression to the final mix. Let me know what you think.

060806 T Bird Blues

If this tone does not get your blood moving, you are fucking dead. Its time to throw away any Fender Telecaster. The Zachary F1 has arrived !!!

To hell with the New Age and Jazz stuff. I believe this is the clip you've been waiting for since the first time you even thought about building an F1. At least it's the clip I've been wanting to play since the first time I saw an F1. I was reading the biography "Roy Buchanan - American Axe" tonight and read that after messing around with some minor rock bands Roy met up with Dale Hawkins - the guy that did 'Susie Q'. Once I got that tune in my head it was time to put down the book and plug in the guitar..........

This tune was done exclusively on the bridge pickup - a super fine pickup. I can't stand most bridge pickups because they are too tinny and trebly. However, this one is very full bodied and musical. Depending on your touch you will get different sounds out of it from raunchy open string blues to singing, wailing highs and the pinch harmonics leap right out at you. It was done on the clean channel of my Mesa Boogie Rocket 44 with only the Zach Pedal with the drive just over half and no boost. I'm still not very familiar with the pedal - just dialed it in real quickly so I could get playing. That's it - a super clean drive sound that screams but doesn't hide much as far as the playing goes....... Added some very light reverb in Sonar and some slight compression on the mix - I'm no recording engineer by any means......... I had done the backing track a few years ago just to practice over and knew it would be perfect for this guitar. I hope there is plenty of Roy influence in the solo - I pretty much learned how to play guitar listening to his albums. Actually, I'd be hard pressed to play anything without any Roy influence. It was all improvised in a single take with no editing - very raw....... Awesome guitar........ ROY LIVES!!!!!

I was pretty happy with the tone I got on the T-Bird Blues tune. It is indeed pretty Roy-ish but I think I can do even better than that. I did crank up the amp a bit on that one, which helped to drive the sound (and probably drive the neighbors crazy too). But the amp is way too loud to really crank. Fortunately, the pedal was more than making up for a lack of the amp overdriving. But I really want to try Roy B out on my Fender Pro Junior, which I haven't had a chance to do yet. I want to try and crank it both with and without the pedal and try to capture the tone. The pedal really helps to get a good, clean overdriven sound without having to max the amp. Anyway, the playing part of it came out pretty well too for the most part but I was too tense and there are plenty of mistakes in there. Happens every time I record - as you know! Anyway, I'll be looking for more ways to showcase Roy B. and the Zpedal. I'm going to be a bit busy for work the next couple of weeks so I don't know how much I can get done but there's no rush. Take care, I'll be in touch.

060806 Blooze Blooze

I love having some free time during the day when I can crank up the amp a bit. This is a solo over a blues backing track I had. I used the Pro Junior on this one and dialed in a quick sound with the Z Pedal (Tone - 75%, Level 25%, Drive 65%) and recorded it with my SM57 mic. It's actually a loud little amp so I only had the volume on 3 and used the pedal to get the overdrive. I did this in true Roy B style by playing a rambling solo with different pickup settings in different sections. I love it when you can hear that pop when Roy changes the pickup during a tune. The solo starts off with the Zach Attack (neck) in single coil. Halfway, at about 2:00 I change to the middle setting (both pickups), then I change to the bridge pickup. Near the end I change back to the Zach Attack in humbucker and slow things down slightly. Added some light reverb, EQ, and compression in Sonar. Roy B is a blues machine - sounds like a Tele but then again doesn't sound like a Tele. Perhaps a Tele on steroids is a good way to describe it. Enjoy.

Videos July, 2006

Sometime in July 2006, Mark visited me to pick up his F1 (Roy B). I asked him to play several gutiars and really liked what I heard. I set up the camera and these following video files are the result. You will agree that there are some very impressive tones here. You will hear the best Telecaster sounds you have only heard in your dreams before. Hearing these sounds brings me great satisfaction in the F1 achievement. I think I nailed it.
You will also see some impressive playing from Mark in demonstrating three of my guitars, one of which is his now. Mark certainly deserves the Zach.
Thanks again Mark.

All the videos below were done wth the Zachary Amp (Blue prototype) and the Zachary pedal.

Redneck 130106 - 01

0:00   neck humbucking, tone on full
0:44   neck humbucking, tone turned down
1:10   neck single coil only
2:09   neck humbucking + bridge
3:05   neck single coil + bridge
3:45   bridge only
4:30   Z pedal Drive turned up more, to max I belive, I don't remember about the Boost.
6:28   neck humbucking, Z pedal off

Redneck 130106 - 02 bridge pickup only, tone on full

Redneck 130106 - 03 bridge pickup only, tone on full

Roy B. 060806 - 01

Roy B. 060806 - 02

Roy B. 060806 - 03

180706

April 2007,
Here mark plays Roy B. through his tube amp. Its a high quality recording. If you are not a familiar with Roy Buchanon you will not realize how well Mark nailed the sound and some of Roy's playing techniques. If you are not a Tele fan than I feel sorry for you even more. Listen to the tone of the Zachary F1.

In Marks own words:
Add some tube gain and volume to the bridge pickup of Roy B. (060806) and I'm not sure how to describe the result...... Incendiary? Nuclear? Raunchy? Nasty? Growling? Roy-Like? Whatever...... I guess "Inspiring" is the best description. The tone definitely inspires certain playing and techniques - and that's the way it should be. Looking back at the vid I did on the Burgundy Z3T (180706), it's like a continuous feedback loop - the guitar feels a certain way so you play certain notes, and when you hear the resulting tone and music coming back at you, your playing reacts according to what you are hearing and adjusts, and it just keeps going - resulting in "Inspiration". This was recorded on my Mesa Boogie Rocket 44 on the high gain channel with both volume and gain fairly cranked with an SM57 mic. Check out how the tone varies according to the touch used. When the touch lightens up the notes get rounder and jazzier, when you hit it they are screaming and quacky. Wow......

Roy B. 060806 - 04

I played a gig at a place about a month ago and the house amp was a Fender De-Ville. Since I knew the amp was there beforehand I decided to play the gig on Roy B (060806). I got there early to set up and had just plugged in the guitar and started playing for a sound check when the bass player walked in. As soon as he heard the guitar he came hurrying over with his eyes bugging out and jaw dropping.. He said, "Holy shit!! I LOVE that tone!! Let's just play blues all night!!! (it's an Afro Caribbean band). Mark Miller

Roy B. Country Blues played with 060806, a tube amp and no effects

The Z2 goes acoustic... without even trying. Z2-T 300607 300607_Z2_Midnight Man Z2-T recorded unplugged for the rhythm tracks

I'm not an Eagle's fan, but I love Joe Walsh. I've always wanted to do something with his song Midnight Man (and many others...) and I finally did - at least the tune as I remember it, I never sat down to actually figure it out. This is pure Z2. And pure Fender amp. And pure ribbon mics....... Something about Fender amps brings out the best in Alex's guitars. Of course, Zach amps do the same - if you can get one........

This was recorded on the clean channel with the volume at an ear-splitting 1.5!!!!! I took a page from the Eli school of recording technique and recorded the rhythm track with 2 mics. Both are ribbon mics - an expensive AEA R84 (about $900), and a cheaper CAD Trion 7000 (less than $200....). Both ran through my AEA ribbon mic preamp. Ribbon mics get some remarkable depth and clarity...

The R84 was used to mic the raw acoustic sound just a few inches from the strings of the Z2 (300607). The CAD Trion was up against the face of the amp. Tell me the opening measures don't sound like they are played on an acoustic guitar - ala Take It Easy by the Eagles perhaps...?? The guitar was in single coil in the center position. For the lead track I played through the Z pedal on the bridge humbucker. The Trion was still against the face of the amp but I put the AEA R84 about 2 feet away from the amp to get some depth.

Sounds complicated but I had the whole thing recorded in less than 45 minutes (of course the editing and mixing on Sonar was another story.....). There are no effects whatsoever other than a little reverb and compression in Sonar. For the rhythm track I split the 2 mic tracks 65% right and left. For the lead track the 2 mics are split 100% right and left. That's about it... I do love Joe Walsh..... Mark Miller

Same tune as above but the lead done with ROY B. 060806 060806_F1_Midnight Man Z2-T recorded unplugged for the rhythm tracks

Roy B didn't want to be left out of this one. Lead track was played on Roy B through the Z pedal. Center position, full humbucker. As Alex said, "if you don't like the sound of a Tele I do feel sorry for you"................ Mark Miller

In July 2007 Mark Miller stopped by to pick up his second Zachary guitar. This was his first time touching and playing his new Z2-T 300607.
These are also the first recordings of the Zachary Hussy amplifier. He played through the blue one 010807. Please note there was no distortion pedal used for any of these recordings. The only pedal used was an analog delay pedal and a Reverb pedal (since the Hussy does not have built-in Reverb). These were even turned of in some parts of the recordings. Whatever tone and overdrive you hear is strictly from the Hussy Amp. Mark only played through channel 2, which is the bass-boosted channel. I was turning the Channel 2 volume knob up and down to show what tone the amp does at various volumes (gain levels). All Tone knobs as well as the Presence knob were in the middle. Only the volume was moved and shows the range of overdrive the amp is capable of. Its also a very touch sensitive amp, as you can see and hear..

300607_Z2_MMiller_01

* more Mark Miller vids coming soon

JD www.thejdproject.com

Here is an outstanding local player. JD has been a professional player for many years, having played with many different musicians in many different settings and toured with various bands. As a result you can see he is accomplished in many different styles. JD has several solo CDs that he plays contemporary jazz on with other top notch musicians.

I only met JD a few weeks prior to these videos. I asked him to come by the shop and allow me to make a few vids of him playing various Zachary guitars I had on hand. He had never played or touched a Zachary guitar prior to this video session. You can see he got used to the guitars rather quickly.

All these recordings were made exclusively with the Zachary pedal, the Zachary (Blue) amp and Zachary "ZOG" strings.

He was particularly impressed with the F1 and how in his words its like" three guitars in one". I agree and so does Mark Miller I think.

JD is not a Zachary guitar owner yet but I will be happy to build him any number any time he wants. I think he qualifies for them. He asked me about the Hollowbody. I told him they are coming up in the future.

Note that on most of these recordings, due to his playing style, JD turned down the volume and tone knobs. Rarely are they on full. Due to this attenuation of volume and tone you are not always hearing the pure, full-on sound of the particular pickup settings, since even turning down the volume a bit will effect the tone by cutting the highs and also decreasing the gain at the same time. Zach owners know all about this I hope. You are however hearing a whole new set of tones that the guitars can produce with the manipulation of the volume and tone knobs. So give that a try as well but just remember that with the volume and tone knobs on full the guitar will sound considerably different.

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