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Official Zon Club Part 5

#265
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Just received my Sonus Custom 6 with Pope preamp, loving the versatility of this thing.


Steve
 
#272
Mulebagger said:
My absolute favorite preamp for any Zon I've had is the John East. It's a beast and the frequencies open up nicely wo all the compression.
Click to expand...

I've always been curious about the East Pre's, and how they sound with the Zons, Ive got the Pope in mine and I'm happy, but I do like the sweepable mids in the East vs. the upper/lower mids in the Pope. I wish Joe would come out with something similar to the East, or Pope, and its not that players don't like the Polyfusion or the Bart pre's, but I think it just gives players a little more range and versatility-- I think a lot of players would like it and would be very successful!
 
#273
I can't comment on the pope, but I have the east sp2 with the mid stack from the retro and it's incredibly powerful as a tone shaping tool. I really like the way the preamp sounds and is very customizable
 
#274
I've talked a lot of people into the East. :D

ppal said:
I've always been curious about the East Pre's, and how they sound with the Zons, Ive got the Pope in mine and I'm happy, but I do like the sweepable mids in the East vs. the upper/lower mids in the Pope. I wish Joe would come out with something similar to the East, or Pope, and its not that players don't like the Polyfusion or the Bart pre's, but I think it just gives players a little more range and versatility-- I think a lot of players would like it and would be very successful!
Click to expand...

I'm not terribly far away and have the East in my Zon.

Honestly the Pope and Polyfusion do not sound terribly different to me, even if the Pope is much more modern and carefully crafted design. I don't know if the average buyer would really gain as much from creating a new preamp as the investment would require.

Just looking at the board design, setting the Poly up for selectable/sweepable mids is certainly possible, but it isn't a feature that most players really take advantage of.
 
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#275
ppal said:
I've always been curious about the East Pre's, and how they sound with the Zons, Ive got the Pope in mine and I'm happy, but I do like the sweepable mids in the East vs. the upper/lower mids in the Pope. I wish Joe would come out with something similar to the East, or Pope, and its not that players don't like the Polyfusion or the Bart pre's, but I think it just gives players a little more range and versatility-- I think a lot of players would like it and would be very successful!
Click to expand...

I love the "deluxe" East pre in my Skjolds. In truth, I could probably do without the pull-bright option, but I often use the sweepable mids for room correction. Very fast and easy to use. Plus, it excels from a tonal perspective, as well.
 
#276
Angus said:
I've talked a lot of people into the East. :D



I'm not terribly far away and have the East in my Zon.

Honestly the Pope and Polyfusion do not sound terribly different to me, even if the Pope is much more modern and carefully crafted design. I don't know if the average buyer would really gain as much from creating a new preamp as the investment would require.

Just looking at the board design, setting the Poly up for selectable/sweepable mids is certainly possible, but it isn't a feature that most players really take advantage of.
Click to expand...

The Pope and Polyfusion can sound similar until you try a Pope 4 band with low mids and high mids--this is the key, the tone really opens up with the multiple mid controls--I believe just having the selectable/sweepable mids on the Polyfusion would be an improvement.
 
#277
ppal said:
The Pope and Polyfusion can sound similar until you try a Pope 4 band with low mids and high mids--this is the key, the tone really opens up with the multiple mid controls--I believe just having the selectable/sweepable mids on the Polyfusion would be an improvement.
Click to expand...
I would even go so far as to say even in the single-mid config, the Pope sounds cleaner and more open to me. The PF preamps sound good, but at least in the Sonus Customs I've played with them in there, they are a little too crispy on the high end, and kinda' noisy/hissy too. I don't get that from the Pope, at least IME.

BUT, I would say the East stuff is really great... I've also had both a "Deluxe" preamp in previous instruments, which is based on the J-Retro, as well as currently an SPM, and I really like them. I have also used the original J-Retros and liked them a lot.

FWIW.
 
#278
Vic said:
I would even go so far as to say even in the single-mid config, the Pope sounds cleaner and more open to me. The PF preamps sound good, but at least in the Sonus Customs I've played with them in there, they are a little too crispy on the high end, and kinda' noisy/hissy too. I don't get that from the Pope, at least IME.

BUT, I would say the East stuff is really great... I've also had both a "Deluxe" preamp in previous instruments, which is based on the J-Retro, as well as currently an SPM, and I really like them. I have also used the original J-Retros and liked them a lot.

FWIW.
Click to expand...

Its all starting to come back to me now in regards to the PF, both Pope and PF have that clear transparent voicing that I like, but I do remember the PF being 'crispy and kind' noisy/hissy' up top as well, never really liked the glassy tone in that range, and I agree you don't get that with the Pope everything is very musical and usable.
 
#279
Angus convinced me into East preamps.
I bought one for my Sonus Custom and it added a lot to the sound of the instrument.
I tried it recently on my Legacy Elite and it was unbearable.
Too much low end added, I had to heavily tweak the EQ cutting all lows to have a bearable sound.
I switched back to the polyfusion and looked no further.
I'll try two other options as soon as I'll receive them :
Aguilar and EMG (yes, Bart pickups and EMG preamp-almost like crossing the streams :) ) and let you know what happened :)
 
#280
Just to clarify, the east circuits AFAIK are boost only when it comes to the low/bass band of the eq. The other bands are boost/cut. Kind of confusing since they have a center decent but I'm pretty sure that's the deal unless others can correct me.
 

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