AXE I/O ONE - Variable Impedance Control (Z-TONE)

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3.4 Variable impedance (Z-TONE™) control (only for Instrument Input)
All passive pickups (being them single coil, humbucker, split, etc..) have a certain sound character that is also
determined by the loading impedance. The Z-TONE™ control allows you to change the input impedance on the
instrument input therefore providing a very creative way of shaping the tone of your instruments.
The beauty of this system is that it allows you to discover tonal shades from your instruments that you have
never heard before, by shaping the tone right at the source, within the pickups, instead of what is normally done
by using post-processing tools of any kind.
Feel free to experiment without rules with this knob! You will find your tone becomes generally more thick and
bold by reducing the impedance (control is moved clockwise) and, on the other hand, more crisp and sharp
when rotated counter-clockwise.
For example if you find your high gain tones to be too harsh, try setting this control at mid position, and you’ll
experience what the Z-TONE™ can magically do.
If you’re recording a bass (with passive pickups) and find it sounds a bit thin, try the same. The sound will
immediately feel more bold, solid and bigger.
The key here is experimentation! Feel free to check it out on your instruments, on various configurations, the
possibilities are really endless.
Settingsstartfromthehighestimpedancevalue(named“Sharp”)tothelowestimpedancevalue(named“Bold”)
The Z-TONE™ circuit only works with passive pickups of any kind.
Using it on active pickups will not provide any significant useful change to the sonics of the instrument.
Note: AXE I/O ONE is very useful for feeding analogue stomp boxes from DAW tracks using the AMP output.
The best way to get the Stomp signal back into the DAW is by using the Instrument input. This way the
Z-TONE™ circuit will also be very useful because most vintage stomps can actually change the way they sound
depending on the load impedance, so experimentation in this usage is very welcome as well.