WHEN DR. Z FOUNDER and chief designer Mike Zaite tells you, “I think this is the best amp I’ve ever built,” it’s worth paying attention. The maker has been a perennial name at the top of the boutique amp charts since he introduced his first Carmen Ghia to the market 36 years ago, and the intervening years have brought us tone monsters such the MAZ 38, Route 66, Stang Ray, Z Wreck and others, so “best amp” comes in the wake of a lot of competition.
While Dr. Z has a strong reputation for originality, the new Z-80 has its roots in Brad Paisley’s own beloved and ultra-rare Vox AC80. Designed by Dick Denney in 1963, thenear-impossible task, although they sounded fantastic in the process (or at least later evidence indicates they would have, had anyone actually heard them at the time). Fewer than 300 units of this mammoth 80-watt masterpiece of cathode-biased sonic splendor were built before the more familiar fixed-bias, 100-watt AC100 was introduced around mid 1965.
