The EarthQuaker Devices Zoar is the Ohio company’s take on the modern-sounding, transistor-based medium-high gain distortion.
Moderately tweakeable thanks to the (passive) 3-way EQ section, which operates on the frequencies between 0 and 800Hz for Bass, 500Hz and 3kHz for Middle and 1kHz and 10kHz for Treble, the pedal also sports a Weigth knob, another filter that affects the clean input signal, changing the quality of the distortion at the root. Turning it clockwise it will let more low frequencies come through the gain stage, generating more gain and harmonics, shifting the tone from tight to looser, potentially even crossing into fuzz territory.
That knob confers a lot of flexibility to this pedal, allowing it to sound dynamic and touch-sensitive at low Weigth setting, and beastly and gnarly when turned up.
The Zoar can be run at 18v, which delivers more defined dynamics and widens the range of clean tones you can get out of it.
