Description
Meet the Z-TONE Buffer Boost
Z-TONE Buffer Boost takes your live rig to a new level, letting you shape the sound of your instrument with the input circuits from IK Multimedia’s award-winning AXE I/O interface. Change the tone & feel of your guitar or bass, buffer your tone to survive even the biggest pedalboard, kick in the boost and supercharge all your existing gear with a powerful new front-end.
Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers a high-quality instrument preamp with exceptional headroom and transient response. It gives you powerful tone-shaping options, a switchable boost for extra drive and volume, and even buffers your signal to ensure your tone doesn’t degrade over long cable runs or big pedalboards. It’s the ideal leadoff hitter for your live rig, bringing out the best in the rest of your pedals and offering a convenient mixer-out to blend direct and processed signals in unique new ways.
Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers 3 different circuit topologies – that means you have 3 different options to adapt to any type of guitar, pick-up, and style so you can always dial in the perfect tone.
PURE: a completely transparent and ultra-accurate instrument preamp that won’t color your sound in any way. JFET: a Class A JFET input buffer to add subtle harmonic enhancement. A slight midrange focus adds warmth, giving you more tonal options from the same instrument. ACTIVE: bypasses unnecessary gain stages when using active pick-ups, to keep your signal path as direct, transparent, and clean as possible.
Z-TONE Buffer Boost gives you the same variable impedance control as IK Multimedia’s groundbreaking AXE I/O audio interface, from 1 MOhm to 2.2 kOhms. At the maximum impedance, you’ll find your sound tighter, sharper, and more precise. Increase the load and the sound becomes thicker and more bold. You can use this control to coax a wider range of sounds from a single guitar, experiment with how the rest of your rig reacts to these changes, or dial in exactly the right vibe regardless of what comes next in your chain.
Use Z-TONE Buffer Boost to supercharge your sound. The included Boost circuit offers adjustable gain to increase volume & drive, hitting your amp or pedals harder.
Long cable runs, low-impedance stomps, and complex routing can degrade your guitar’s signal, causing a muffled, bassy or lifeless tone. To ensure your signal always stays crystal-clear, Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers a transparent output buffer so you always sound your best.
In addition to the “Link” amp & pedal output, Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers a balanced XLR output to connect to mixers & PAs. Skip the amp and perform direct, or mix clean and processed signals to create even more tonal options.
A switchable ground lift eliminates noise and hum caused by ground loops, and an unbalanced ¼” output offers additional flexibility. Now you’re ready to connect in any situation.
And Z-TONE Buffer Boost runs on a standard 9V battery or 9V pedal power supply, so it’s easy to drop onto your existing pedalboard.