Tuesday, June 16, 2020

AMPLIFIER (pedal)- THERMION Zero ...is this the one?

THERMION ZERO AMPLIFIER
Another company has come up with a pedal board amp. Thermion have been making both pedals and small tube amps for a long time. Last things first. Most pedalboard amps are underpowered. They are all using Class D type power amps that sound ok. Measuring the wattage you can get high wattage results . BUT wattage and db are two different things. A 50 watt Marshall tube amp is as loud as a good Class D 150. watt. The Zero is a 40 watts into 8 ohms stereo amp. It should be about as loud as a 30 watt tube amp even with 80 watts total coming from the Thermium.  Considering Thermion's rep I expect it is fine for most things. Perhaps not a Metal band with a heavy drummer.


$675.00 USD

It is basically a single channel amp. Before you become dismayed it does not have a dirt channel think about it. Most dirt channels are less than thrilling. The designs are simply analog pedal designs. So instead of picking a great pedal for your dirt you get a crap channel that you paid for but is unusable.

Therimon wisely put the your money into a better clean channel than the competition. A lot better! They also put in a 'sag' circuit which when the harder you hit the strings the more saturation you get from the circuit. In other words the sound and more important the 'feel' is like a tube amp where the amps transformer does this effect naturally.





CONCLUSION
Thermion make great stuff. I have the Heartbreaker and 19 other OD and it ain't going anywhere.
I love that it only has a clean channel. I have not heard better in a solid state pedal amp.
I am just a bit concerned about the power. I would prefer about a 150 watts or more Class D. Keep in mind with an amp designed for Class D none of the sound is in the amp. All the sound is in the pre. In short when you turn down a class D the sound does not change. It is not a tube amp or a FET transistor amp...they both are part of the sound. Bottom line is a Class D with too much power does not cause a problem ...but any underpowered amp will.

Is it pricy? Yes and No. It is meant for pro applications. Trust me ...a low end Les Paul can be impressive thru a great amp. An original 59 Les Paul thru a poor amp can sound like total sh@t!!!

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