[cale0906]

What are you thoughts on Dr.Z amps? In particular the Maz 18 Head, anybody play these amps?

J

 

[Vally]

I’m interested in hearing some feedback also

 

[Sneaky]

I have had my Maz Jr since 1999. A lot of other amps have come and gone since then. Just a great sounding amp.

 

[Tone Chaser]

These are my two Z’s. I would like a few more of the Dr’s amps.

The Monza is one of first made, and now that model is discontinued. At 20 Watts, it truly has the heart of a Marshall stack, and then some. It needs no pedals. The Maz 18R was built in 2012, and I bought it from my local L&M, very early 2014. I knew from the first jagged strum it had to go home with me. They are nothing alike. Both are impressive in their own ways. I would love to get the PPIMV mods done on both. Both can get very loud, and are very expressive. The Monza has a 10” Alnico Red Fang, the Maz has a Celestion G12H30. Both have Brake Lite units installed, and I often use both speakers, with either amp.

Lots of good amps out there to choose from. These two will be hard to part with.

The amp on top of the Monza, is my 1968 Fender Vibro Champ. So you can get an idea about the size of the amps. They are hefty, and well built.

 

[Vally]

Thanks for the write up. I’m keeping my eye out for a Maz 18 head.

 

[Dorian2]

Maybe post a WTB on the trade/sell section? If you haven't already that is.

 

[sulphur]

That was my first Z, great amp! Good pedal platform, plemty loud.

I setted on a Maz 8 for home use.

 

[zdogma]

I really liked the Maz 18, I had both a head and a combo (both non reverb versions) and I also had the big brother, the Maz 38.

I preferred the head with a 212 cab-great sound on its own, and a superb pedal platform. Great tone stack, try all the tone knobs maxed for more crunch and a gain boost.

 

[TimH]

Yeah I love Z's amps. Tough as nails and toneful. Interesting circuits too so never really a clone of anything but familiar if you're into vintage style amps.

That being said make sure you try before you buy. The Maz18 is a wonderful amp but maybe different than you'd expect. It's more stiff and round than a Vox for instance. It has some Fender blended in there is a unique way. It's louder than you think. So yeah, awesome but you should make sure you spend time with one to make sure it's made for you and you for it.

 

[guitarman2]

The Dr Z amps I've owned, Carmen Ghia head, Maz 38 head, Stangray head with 2X12 Dr Z open back loaded with celestion Blues, Maz 38 2X12 combo and Mazerati V2 2x12 combo. As well I owned a 2X12 Zbest theil ported cabinet.
I've also owned the Dr Z Zverb and a Z brake.
They were all fabulous amps and were my first journey in to boutique amps.
I have since sold them off. At the time I used them I was in very loud bands and these are all loud amps. I did try the Z brake to tame them but in my opinion the Z brake isn't a very good attenuator and affected to tone greatly. Its completely inferior to Tone Kings Iron Man.
My favorite Z amp was the Stangray with the 2X12 celestion blues. Fantastic big fat cleans, very voxy as a lot of the Z amps are (the ones I owned). If I were to own any of those amps now it would be the Carmen Ghia. Just a beautiful amp and very simple. For me I'd pair it with either a 1x12 or 2x12 cabinet loaded with celestion blues.
My least favorites are the Maz 18\38 amps. Trying to be versatile do the Fender\Vox\Marshall thing, in my opinion don't really do any of them well. Althought the Maz 18 is one of their most popular amps so this is strictly my opinion. I used these amps up till about 7 or 8 years ago. I used them during a period of heavy gigging probably for about 8-9 years. I never had any problems with them from a reliability standpoint.
For me my favorite speaker to use with the Dr Z amps was the celestion blue. Used it with the v2 Mazerati, Carmen Ghia and Stangray.

 

[guitarman2]

I really liked the Maz 18, I had both a head and a combo (both non reverb versions) and I also had the big brother, the Maz 38.

I preferred the head with a 212 cab-great sound on its own, and a superb pedal platform. Great tone stack, try all the tone knobs maxed for more crunch and a gain boost.

Not sure if you found this but with the Maz 38 reverb head that I owned, it was very noisy when the reverb was dialed up. The more you turned up the reverb the noisier it got. I was concerned something was wrong. When I talked to Mike Zaite about it he told me its just a side effect of having the reverb tank so close in tight with everything in a head. I took him at his word and lived with it for a bit before unloading it.
I've since owned a couple of heads with reverb, including an Allen Old Flame head with a 3 knob tube reverb. It wasn't noisy at all and the reverb was beautiful. I wonder if the current Maz amp heads are still noisy.

 

[zdogma]

Not sure if you found this but with the Maz 38 reverb head that I owned, it was very noisy when the reverb was dialed up. The more you turned up the reverb the noisier it got. I was concerned something was wrong. When I talked to Mike Zaite about it he told me its just a side effect of having the reverb tank so close in tight with everything in a head. I took him at his word and lived with it for a bit before unloading it.
I've since owned a couple of heads with reverb, including an Allen Old Flame head with a 3 knob tube reverb. It wasn't noisy at all and the reverb was beautiful. I wonder if the current Maz amp heads are still noisy.

I had the non reverb version, so I didn't have that issue, but I agree that should be something that can be engineered out. I have heard the same complaint from other builders, but it seems that some are better at fixing that issue than others. My Matchless head has reverb and it is quiet. I do get a little noise if the master is turned down and the gain is very high, but that's about it.

 

[Budda]

How did this thread get no replies for 13.5 years?

 

[zdogma]

Yeah I'm not sure how Vally found this one. I guess when it was originally posted people didn't have much experience with them, now that Long and Mac carries them they arent such a rarity.

 

[guitarman2]

Yeah I'm not sure how Vally found this one. I guess when it was originally posted people didn't have much experience with them, now that Long and Mac carries them they arent such a rarity.

When I first started buying Dr Z amps Long and Mcquade was just starting to carry them. A couple of the Z amps I purchased directly from Dr Z.

 

[markxander]

I've had the carmen ghia in my profile pic pretty much this entire 13.5 years and it's been the only amp I own for years at a time. I guess I've had a lot of opportunity to answer OP's question...

 

[Vally]

How did this thread get no replies for 13.5 years?

I did a search looking for opinions and sure enough I found something from 13 years ago, no one had responded at that time so I resurfaced it.

 

[Budda]

I did a search looking for opinions and sure enough I found something from 13 years ago, no one had responded at that time so I resurfaced it.

And that makes total sense.

The fact no one answered at time of creation does not haha.

 

[madhermit]

I went out on a limb and bought a Dr. Z EMS amp from @bluehugh2. It is a box packed with Essential Marshall Sounds. Build quality is stellar. Tone is awesome. Couldn’t be happier. I am a little confused as to why the amp isn‘t way more popular.

 

[sillyak]

I recently got a Carmen Ghia head. I've had the Z-Best for about a year. The Ghia is a great amp. Just simple, sit down and find a great tone in about 30 seconds and just play!