Here’s a studio-grade clean boost/EQ/Compressor kind of swiss army knife pedal by Hamstead we missed at NAMM but found out about it through The Living Room Gear Demos: the Zenith.
Lots of tone sculpting options, including a very responsive VCA compressor, configurable routing from a switch in the back, blend knob for parallel compression, and extra tricks accessible through the footswitch.
Here are the videos of the Hamstead Zenith.
The Ultimate Tone Shaper
Tone is more than just guitars, amps and pedals; but the voice of the player. Once your core elements are brought together, you can refine your sound or even push it to a whole new level.
This is Zenith: a powerful EQ, Boost, and Compressor delivered in one compact and incredibly flexible package. From subtle tone shaping and compression that is felt and not heard, through to extreme sound sculpting and sustain beyond the natural realm, Zenith’s three circuits cover it all. Digitally controlled switching then allows the 100% analogue EQ and Compression circuits to be accessed independently, all via one OptoKick footswitch.Overview
Treble, Middle and Bass controls are nothing new to guitar effects, but with Zenith we have endeavoured to voice these parameters to not only sound but feel natural to use. Boosted high frequencies are present but not harsh; boosted lows remain tight while adding warmth, and the Middle control offers a huge amount of flexibility with its three-position ‘Q’ and Frequency switches.
Compression is an often misunderstood and potentially complex effect in guitar culture. We wanted to design a circuit that was simple to use but at the same time incredibly high quality and versatile. Our compression circuit has a very fast attack and medium/long release and is designed to work with any setup and remain very transparent. The feel of the compression can also be dialled in with the Blend control, allowing natural pick attack but also hugely increased sustain. Covering a wide range from subtle level balancing through to hard compression with very musical bloom, pro compression has never been easier to achieve.
- +20dB of completely clean and transparent gain
- Switchable mid frequency and Q for powerful tone shaping
- Blend control to dial in the feel of the compression
- Secret Switching to give full control over the EQ and Comp circuits independently
- Active 3 band EQ with an amp-like and natural feel
- Incredibly transparent compression circuit with a low noise floor
- Switchable order of the EQ and Comp circuits, with a Parallel mode
- Control input for switching via an external controller such as GigRig G2/3
