IK Multimedia Z-TONE Buffer Boost Preamp/DI

Guitar & bass pedalboards are all about exploring new tones & textures, creating a wide range of sound for your instrument. The IK Multimedia Z-TONE Buffer Boost Preamp/DI takes your live rig to a new level, letting you shape the sound of your instrument with the input circuits from the award-winning AXE I/O interface.

Change the tone & feel of your guitar or bass, buffer your tone to survive even the biggest pedalboard, kick in the boost and supercharge all your existing gear with a powerful new front-end.

The ideal front-end

Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers a high-quality instrument preamp with exceptionally low noise and wide frequency response, and multiple circuit topologies to adapt to any type of guitar, pick-up and style.

Choose your pickup:

• PASSIVE: designed to accommodate everything from low-output vintage pickups to hotter modern humbuckers with ultra-low noise and extended frequency response
• ACTIVE: bypasses unnecessary gain stages when using active pick-ups, to keep your signal path as direct, transparent and clean as possible

Choose your channel:

• PURE: a completely transparent and ultra-accurate preamp circuit that won’t color your sound in any way
• JFET: a Class A JFET input buffer for subtle harmonic
• enhancement, midrange focus and warmth

Tone and feel like you’ve never heard

Guitar pickups can dramatically change their character depending on impedance - many amps offer a load of 1 MOhms, while pedals can run much lower. That’s why the tone and responsiveness of your guitar can change when plugging into different gear.

Z-TONE Buffer Boost gives you the same variable impedance control as the groundbreaking AXE I/O audio interface, from 1 MOhm to 2.2 kOhms. At the maximum impedance, you’ll find your sound tighter, sharper and more precise. Increase the load and the sound becomes thicker and more bold.

You can use this control to coax a wider range of sounds from a single guitar, experiment with how the rest of your rig reacts to these changes, or dial in exactly the right vibe regardless of what comes next in your chain.

Kick it up a notch

Use Z-TONE Buffer Boost to supercharge your sound. The included Boost circuit offers adjustable gain to increase volume & drive, hitting your amp or pedals harder.

Always sound your best

Long cable runs, low-impedance stomps and complex routing can degrade your guitar’s signal, causing muffled, bassy or lifeless tone. To ensure your signal always stays crystal-clear, Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers a transparent output buffer so you always sound your best.

And Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers a true bypass circuit, so it’s completely transparent when not in use.

More ways to connect

In addition to the “Link” amp & pedal output, Z-TONE Buffer Boost offers a balanced XLR output to connect to mixers & PAs. Skip the amp and perform direct, or mix clean and processed signals to create even more tonal options.

A switchable ground lift eliminates noise and hum caused by ground loops, and an unbalanced ¼” output offers additional flexibility. Now you’re ready to connect in any situation.

And Z-TONE Buffer Boost runs on a standard 9V battery, +48V phantom power from your mixer or 9V pedal power supply, so it’s easy to drop onto your existing pedalboard.