TC Electronic Zeus - Klon Style Pedal For £50 - Is It Any Good?

Super juicy blues tone. Really nice.

Did you just said 5k for klonn? For a bloddy pedal? Someone care to rephrase or justify that for me?

A bit too much reverb on the demo for me

Stinks.had it.get the warm audio centavo.or Rimrock mythical overdrive.but this pedal is a turd.

You're such a smooth great player you bring the tone out in anything you play. Im gonna order a Zeus since I've 4 kids to feed lol.

In my opinion, Ryra has fat heavy sound than Zeus. But no one say no to the price range.

Got the Zeus yesterday. I like it! I already have the MXR Sugar Drive, so it will be interesting to compare. I've been using the TC Magus Pro for my rat sound. I think this line of pedals are fantastic and worth the buy.

The new pedals of tc are a beheriger pedals into new chasis of steel! More cheap of tc electronic! But sounds very good! I have tc mojo overdrive, crossroad of klon centaur e tube scream!
Ah sorry for my English!

The Zeus was transparent in its drive tone. And it was nice. Did it sound like the other Klondike Clone there, well no not really.

Loved them both.

If the question were to be, would I have the Zeus on my pedal board, well yes. As it didn’t matter where you had the settings on it I was liking the results.

Could it have done with a bit more gain. Hmmm, maybe, but more than happy with what it did do.

Best were your comments. After playing a few notes in comparison, soon your comments like, the Ryra defintely had more clarity, or the Zeus sounds fantastic in higher gain. Absolutely nailed IT 😎.

Hey Paul, I’ve already ordered the Zeus
Based on your demo.
Was thinking about it, but the videos online weren’t satisfying enough!
Did You record some examples with a hum-bucker goldtop?
☺️

Zeus Drive arrived today. It's a Klon "whatever that means", for sure. It has that violin like attack and reaction. Sustain is endless on higher gain... I'm absolutely chuffed after this thing. Somewhere between a Rat and a low wattage amp cranked up. Very responsive to picking dynamics. A very "in the room" sound. After playing modelers for so long, these analog circuits always impress. Would recommend. Double plus good!

I've owned a Mythical, and still own the Tumnus deluxe. The tumnus is an awsome pedal but didn't have that thing the Mythical had. I got the Zeus with the magical parts, who knows they may all have them. To me the Zues does that thing with the feedback and everything that the Mythical did. Best $50 I ever spent.

EDIT: Great demo Paul, I'm interested by your tone in this vid, I recently sold my TC Zeus, it sounded good boosting a low drive tone, but clipped into fizz (it was from first batch, may have been glitchy). But yours sounds fantastic, so wonder how much of the tone is from your rig?................. So after watching this again, I bought another TC Zeus and this one I Love!.............. Cheers!

Paul, the RYRA just has that magical klon tone but the zeus for someone on a budget will be a good choice but I just picked up the RYRA and it is just crazy good and a keeper for sure, anyway great video as always!!!

Great pedal - I picked one up today after watching this video last night. What a bargain for how good it sounds

Main reason to be on this channel? The playing.

Hi Paul. Nice, but I love your clean sound... what amp do you use today?

Great review!
Bravo

I bought the tv electronic ebow and the guitar interface for iPhone/ iPad both very cheap but very poor products. But this pedal looks interesting, you allways do great reviews and have a lot more knowledge Than I on guitars recording ect so will check it out 👍

Great video Paul. I liked both pedals. Good to see the Silver Sky out!

Finger pedals.

I liked the video for the funny thumbnail. 🤣

Everything is great, buy I really don´t know many players that their clean tone platform is as dirt as you or J Ronquillo or Bret Pappa use in their videos. Almost all drive pedals sound fantastic over such a basis. Anyway, I suspect many people will value what they are hearing here. Congrats for your playing and sound. I like it. In my case not much to say about the pedal.

I see (or hear) nothing wrong with the Zeus (the fat switch saved it.) I think it's a great buy. The Ryra (to me) still had more girth, was a bit more clear sounding and added some complexity in the notes. Either one would work fine for me.

First time seeing one of your segments.

You’re a really good player, with a great grasp on tone. I subscribed and look forward to seeing more.

I have a Way Huge Conspiracy Theory Klon-clone that I stack with a JHS/Boss Angry Driver. I’ve never been happier with my sound. It took a while to make a Klon believer out of me, but it really is an amazing signal for Fender guitars.

Enjoy your channel very much. Question: I've heard it said that if you start with the volume at unity (with when the pedal is off) and slowly increase the gain setting (from zero) all you do is increase the gain not the volume. In my experience if I start the volume at unity and increase the gain the pedal gets much louder. Likewise, if I start with the gain up and slowly increase the volume it gets much louder. And if I have both knobs at noon or better (which is what I see in most videos) it is tremendously louder than with the pedal off. Am I doing something wrong? How come in the videos the volume jump form no pedal to pedal on is not as pronounced?

Check out the Nux horseman. It has the gold and silver klons in one tiny pedal. And it’s awesome !! It’s a well kept secret

Looking for a Klon style pedal. That Ryra sounded really great. I already have so many overdrive pedals it's almost silly. Don't have Klon or Blues Breaker style though. Good video and great playing.

Ryra does have more "umph" behind it, a little more punch to the sound. But boosted mids punch can get a little muddy (especially with HB's), hence the Treble control. Probably depends on what kind of music you play as well.

Interesting. One of your next experiments should be to try to get that kind of tone out of the Katana?

Paul from the studio rats great demo! Let James Ivy know he’s got a payback coming!

Turd don't bother. Soo many better pedals out there.

Nice demo. Sounds great, has a good range of ways to use it.
I picked up a cheap 'Silver Horse' klon copy last year for around $28 US. Does it sound like an actual Klon? I wouldn't know lol. But it sounds absolutely great, and is very versatile. I find how I use it depends a lot on the guitar I am using it with. With my humbuckers, I find it works better more as a boost, with low drive and high volume. With my tele and p90 guitars, I like it with higher drive to get that warm saturated blues tone.
I position mine after my boost pedal (TC Electronics Spark, full size), before my other overdrive pedals, and I find this works out very well for getting a wide range of sounds.

Hi Paul, I've had various experiences with "transparent" OD's. I bought (and sold) a Wampler Tumnus that was VERY disappointing. I use the gain stage on my amp to push the breakup sound and I plug either the Boss OD-2 or the CmatMods Butah in front: both act as gain boosts and fatten the mids when dialing back the tone a bit. I can't even understand the ridiculous price the Klon has reached, but alright... hype has got no limits, has it ?
What are your thoughts on the PRS Silver Sky ? Nice guitar alright but enough to sell your FenderCS's ?... I'm a bit doubtful. Cheers Paul !

I just got the Zeus about 2 weeks ago hoping to use it on my board but the Wish Klon I have just does Klon tone better. I think the Zeus is a bit more aggressive and has way more gain and bite on tap. That's not a bad thing, it does sound great, it's just a different type of great. The one thing that I don't like is there is a "pop" when turning the Zeus off. I suppose when the band is rockin', you probably don't notice it but using it clean, it's annoying. Did you notice any of that with your Zeus? Maybe mine needs to be replaced. Great review!

Do Klon-style pedals sound best through an amp that is already set with a bit of grit? I have a Chellee Ponyboy that I don't really get on with. It has bass and treble control, as well as a vintage/modern switch so I don't know what I'm failing to do to get the kind of tone you demonstrate here. Perhaps it's because I have my amps set too clean. If you were to stack a Klon with a TS-style pedal, would you have it before or after the TS? I have my Klon-style pedal in front and usually end up cutting the gain so that it's effectively boosting the TS pedal, which is fine; but I still have the feeling that I'm missing out on something. Oh, guitar tone... 🙂