The Z-Wreck is a collaboration between Dr. Z, Ken Fischer (of Trainwreck Amps), and Brad Paisley. Together, they created the Z-Wreck in an effort to capture the tone of Brad Paisley’s vintage ’63 AC30.
The Z-Wreck is a single channel, 30-watt EL84 amplifier, and it excels at the vintage AC30 tone. It also has a ton of headroom and works amazingly well as a pedal platform amplifier.
Video Table of contents:
00:00 – Introduction
01:04 – Playing Sample 1 – Z Wreck with pedals
02:28 – About the Dr Z Z Wreck. What inspired it.
04:35 – More details about the amp – tubes, wattage, cabinet, channels, etc
07:01 – Playing Sample 2 – Z Wreck with pedals
08:06 – Turning the knobs while we play through the amp
09:01 – Adjusting the EQ controls
10:08 – Discussion of the tones available via the different EQ settings
11:08 – Turning up the volume (gain)
11:54 – Discussion of how it sounds when you gain it up
12:19 – General discussion of why this amp is legendary
14:42 – The Z-Wreck cab is a big part of the tone recipe
16:00 – Playing Sample 3 – Z Wreck with pedals
16:44 – Z-Wreck vs ’64 AC30 comparison setup
17:57 – Comparison clips start here
18:02 – Z-Wreck – guitar straight in
18:28 – ’64 AC30 – guitar straight in
19:00 – Playing Sample 4 – Z Wreck with pedals
20:02 – Outro
https://signaltheoryaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/maxresdefault.webp7201280Brian Wahlhttps://signaltheoryaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/signaltheory-logo.pngBrian Wahl2023-01-12 20:00:002023-01-12 20:00:00Dr. Z Z Wwreck // Is Brad Paisley’s Amp Any Good?
The Laurel Canyon is the first 6V6 amp from Matchless. While this might draw comparisons to a Fender Deluxe or Princeton, the Laurel Canyon is unique, and it sounds amazing. Learn more about the Laurel Canyon here.
In this video we compare the Quad Cortex and the Kemper Profiler to a tube amp (a Tyler HM30). We specifically wanted to hear how/if the three differed when we used a board with various effects into the front.
How we set up the experiment
We wanted to keep things as even as possible with this experiment, so this was our process:
We mic’d the amp with an Earthworks SR25 and Royer 121. Both mics ran into a stereo Neve 1073 DPX preamp, where we applied EQ to taste.
We then profiled and captured the amp without changing any settings. We refined the Kemper profile until it sounded as close to the amp as possible. At this point, the Kemper, Quad Cortex, and the amp were all at the same settings.
We ran our guitar through a board into an RJM Effects Gizmo switcher. This allowed us to sent the same guitar signal to all three devices (QC, Kemper, and the amp) at the same time. For the playing samples, we recorded all three at once.
What we heard
We noticed some trends as we dissected the audio from each source. Here are our findings…
At lower gain settings, all three sound very similar. Quad Cortex seems to have less gain than the amp or the Kemper profile
As gain is turned up, Kemper gets slightly warmer/darker than the amp, and the Quad Cortex gets slightly brighter than the amp. To us, the Quad Cortex is the most like the amp in how it reacts to gain pedals, except for fuzz, where we preferred Kemper to Quad Cortex.
With wet effects, we feel the Quad Cortex reacts more like the amp than Kemper.
A few final thoughts
In conclusion, we preferred the amp in every scenario. You may read in forums or see other people say that we’ve come to a point where you can’t hear the difference between a real amp and a Kemper profile or Quad Cortex capture (or an Axe-FX or a Helix), but in this example, we can. We prefer the amp, but…
The differences are VERY minimal. We feel it would be pretty difficult to tell a difference if you weren’t able to A/B/C them back to back to back. In a mix, we suspect it would also be nearly impossible to tell them apart.
We live in a golden age of gear. You can get great tone out of most anything these days, and the old adage is true: if it sounds good, it is good.
Let us know what you think!
https://signaltheoryaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/QC-vs-Kemper-vs-HM30-v3-scaled.png14402560Brian Wahlhttps://signaltheoryaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/signaltheory-logo.pngBrian Wahl2022-09-19 17:49:002025-07-22 05:50:22Quad Cortex vs Kemper vs Amp
The ’64 Princeton Reverb Re-Issue from Fender is probably the highest end current production Princeton you can get. It is a hand-wired re-creation of a ’64 Princeton Reverb. Stock these amps come with a Jenson P10R speaker. This is actually the speaker many people upgrade their Princeton’s with. But we wanted to see how it sounds with a Celestion Alnico Gold.
To our ears, the gold sounds a bit warmer and rounder, with a little more chime in the top end. The Jenson has a distinctly ‘Fender’ sound – bright and bold and a little scooped in the midrange.
With overdrive, you can really hear some differences in the speakers. The gold stays more smooth and refined, while the Jenson has some really nice hair on the top end.
Which one do you prefer!
https://signaltheoryaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/maxresdefault.jpg7201280Brian Wahlhttps://signaltheoryaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/signaltheory-logo.pngBrian Wahl2022-06-17 18:03:002025-07-21 17:37:19We Put An Alnico Gold Speaker In Our Princeton Reverb
