Genzler 4 on the Floor

[DrThumpenstein]

Well look what @agedhorse and his buddies have been up to:


I’ve been looking for a versatile overdrive pedal and haven’t been happy with the couple of tried. This might be the one.

 

[mmbongo]

Genzler Overdrive Pedal.

 

[DrThumpenstein]

Genzler Overdrive Pedal.

Searched Genzler 4 on the Floor and came up with bubkes.

 

[GMC]

It sounds a lot like a Dam Ezekiel clone, although I do like the addition of the low pass filter The Dam Ezekiel has a HPF labelled as a tone control. It's a nice sounding circuit and probably one of the most versatile analogue dirt pedals ever built. I just wish some one would make one of these clones but with 4 memory slots to pre-set / rack up different sounds. Otherwise it's a slow dial in for each of the 4 grit settings.

 

[gt96g]

Very interesting. If it also had the genzler preamp built in it would be a no-brainer. Honestly, for my purposes, the filters are the most interesting features. I did see an article on this thay said Genzler is working on a line of pedals so who knows, maybe a preamp is on the way.

 

[Hallic]

Sound really good!
To my ears the overdriven channel and the clean channel blend really well to a wholesome tone. Some overdrives make it sound like there are 2 bass voices playing, this blends nicely. The 4 different drives-characters is a bonus as well. All tones i am hearing still have that "harmonic hair" that i find to be Genzler's signature timbre. Seems like a easy pedal to deal in what you want out of it

In terms of /thickness/creamyness, i think it sits nicely between the Darkglass Vintage and the Ashdown triple shot.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Looks interesting. Not sure I know remotely how it sounds as I really don't slap with overdrive. Seemed like an odd choice of styles, but I guess if I don't like it I should make my own video.

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

I like it!

 

[gmarcus]

Interesting. I wish that high pass went up to 600hz I always add some band passed tube distortion to my recorded bass in a rock setting. The sweet spot for the high pass is around 550 to 600 hz.

 

[odarellmc]

Paid, just waiting for release, I already have a soldidgoldfx beta, a MBD2, and a SA Aftershock..

 

[micguy]

If there's an overdrive sucker born every minute, it's probably me. I have a sound in my head that just wont let me be - have tried gobs of overdrives, most of which aren't even close to what I want. Some folks spend a lot of money on pedals, I spend a lot of money shipping pedals I don't like back to their makers. I like the flexibility of this thing - the filtering around the overdrive stage, so I just ordered one, hoping I can morph it into the sound in my head. If it works as well as I hope it does, then the fun begins about how to fit it on one of my boards.

 

[odarellmc]

If there's an overdrive sucker born every minute, it's probably me. I have a sound in my head that just wont let me be - have tried gobs of overdrives, most of which aren't even close to what I want. Some folks spend a lot of money on pedals, I spend a lot of money shipping pedals I don't like back to their makers. I like the flexibility of this thing - the filtering around the overdrive stage, so I just ordered one, hoping I can morph it into the sound in my head. If it works as well as I hope it does, then the fun begins about how to fit it on one of my boards.

Got mine today, played with it a bit stage one sounds fantastic! Nice thickness and slightly overdriven sound, I'll play with it more tomorrow...

 

[micguy]

Got mine today, played with it a bit stage one sounds fantastic! Nice thickness and slightly overdriven sound, I'll play with it more tomorrow...

Sounds great - I hope I have the same reaction.

 

[micguy]

OK, I got mine. Took about 6 days to get here from time of order - not too bad.

A couple of notes:

I just recently got a couple of boost pedals - Coppersound Gravity Bomb boosts, that have LED's that.. will give you a tan on stage. As the one I have on a board is next to a tuner, it's hard to see the tuner display with all the light from the boost's LED. Other than that, those are good boosts - nice and quiet.

Why do I bring this up? The led's on the Genzler are sensibly illuminated. They won't burn you eyes out. The "off" led is fine. The "on" LED is a bit dimmer than I'd like - it's fine on axis, but if you're not standing over your pedalboard, it's pretty dim off axis. The pedal can be subtle enough that a visual indication of on or off is a bit more critical than many pedals. Some room for improvement.

It raises the noise floor some (expected in a gain pedal), and the character of the added noise varies with the filter controls - again, that makes sense.

How does it sound? It's great at subtle drive sounds. This is the closest pedal yet to the sound in my head, which is the "straining but not clipping amp" kind of thing. Yes, it can do over the top, but with the drive sensitivity switch in "low" position, you can move knobs a great deal, and things will change some, but it sounds pretty good over a wide range of settings.

The 4 modes (gears) do change the sound, but not over a huge range - a lot of things about this pedal, including this, seem like they're designed for me - there's enough range, but it seems to explore the range of sounds I want, and not a whole lot more - it does "usable" very well, and avoids the "wacky" area. I expected to like one, maybe two of the "gears", and...I think I could find regular use for 3 of them, and occasional use for the 4th.

So, my summation is - this is a great pedal for those of us who want an "amp-like" overdrive that can be dialed down to a subtle effect, and that has some variety of usable sounds on tap.. If you're looking for a Muff/broken sound, this ain't it.

Now for the biggest issue. My Pork and Pickle fits on my main board without any space squeezing. Getting this one on there in its place is gonna take some finessing of things.

 

[Lowendtech]

Showed up today. Pretty happy with it so far. Sounds really good and at first blush, seems to be a very useful pedal. Tons of tweakability to it. It’s as clean or as dirty as you want it to be. Sounds like this will be an always on tone shaper for me. It can be very transparent.

 

[chuck3]

Looks great and I am a long time Genz/Genzler fan. I don't use overdrive much if at all, but this looks like it could be an always-on pedal in the low gears.

 

[odarellmc]

OK, I got mine. Took about 6 days to get here from time of order - not too bad.

A couple of notes:

I just recently got a couple of boost pedals - Coppersound Gravity Bomb boosts, that have LED's that.. will give you a tan on stage. As the one I have on a board is next to a tuner, it's hard to see the tuner display with all the light from the boost's LED. Other than that, those are good boosts - nice and quiet.

Why do I bring this up? The led's on the Genzler are sensibly illuminated. They won't burn you eyes out. The "off" led is fine. The "on" LED is a bit dimmer than I'd like - it's fine on axis, but if you're not standing over your pedalboard, it's pretty dim off axis. The pedal can be subtle enough that a visual indication of on or off is a bit more critical than many pedals. Some room for improvement.

It raises the noise floor some (expected in a gain pedal), and the character of the added noise varies with the filter controls - again, that makes sense.

How does it sound? It's great at subtle drive sounds. This is the closest pedal yet to the sound in my head, which is the "straining but not clipping amp" kind of thing. Yes, it can do over the top, but with the drive sensitivity switch in "low" position, you can move knobs a great deal, and things will change some, but it sounds pretty good over a wide range of settings.

The 4 modes (gears) do change the sound, but not over a huge range - a lot of things about this pedal, including this, seem like they're designed for me - there's enough range, but it seems to explore the range of sounds I want, and not a whole lot more - it does "usable" very well, and avoids the "wacky" area. I expected to like one, maybe two of the "gears", and...I think I could find regular use for 3 of them, and occasional use for the 4th.

So, my summation is - this is a great pedal for those of us who want an "amp-like" overdrive that can be dialed down to a subtle effect, and that has some variety of usable sounds on tap.. If you're looking for a Muff/broken sound, this ain't it.

Now for the biggest issue. My Pork and Pickle fits on my main board without any space squeezing. Getting this one on there in its place is gonna take some finessing of things.

I agree, many pedals have ranges where you would never go, not this pedal everything seems to be usable..just a great pedal all around .

 

[micguy]

Looks great and I am a long time Genz/Genzler fan. I don't use overdrive much if at all, but this looks like it could be an always-on pedal in the low gears.

This is (my opinion) a great overdrive pedal for "those who don't use overdrive much if at all" - I'm a card carrying member of that club, but this thing fits my definition of what an overdrive should do - give you a second, more "pushed amp" sound that doesn't sound "distorted", or "fizzy", or "a box of bees". What it does is (when dialed in) relatively subtle, but it gives you a different vibe than completely clean.

I won't be using it this weekend (the set doesn't call for anything but straight up clean), but next weekend maybe. The weekend after that...definitely.

 

[Pilgrim]

Dang. I'm tempted. If Genzler and Andy have a hand in designing something, my default assumption is that it's superior.

I have a Scott Humphrey modified Digitech Bad Monkey that really works well, but the Genzler pedal calls to me. I'm not playing much right now, so I'll follow the reports and see what comes of it.

 

[Ben Janusch]

Just got one and the only thing I'm mad about is that my main fear was confirmed. There are 2-3 very distinct and usable sounds in this for me and I'm mad it doesn't have presets. Easily replaces my B3K and gives much more natural pushed amp sounds in 1st and 2nd gear. Feeds my Low Blow nicely for when I want full distortion. Definitely a keeper, but would have loved a preset or 3.