Paul Cochrane's latest Zefram Pedal is a wonderful sounding full-range Harmonic Overdrive with a magic Mid-Frequency Control

The first new pedal from Paul Cochrane in 20 years is a big story, while this weirdly still seems to be somewhat of a sleeper pedal - despite several killer demos, and an endorsement from Josh Scott.

Intriguingly the name ’Zefram’ is a season 2 onwards Stark Trek character - which shares the same surname as Paul - really nicely done! And hence the inclusion of a Star Trek / Starfleet logo in my visual!

This pedal is quite a departure from the Timmy - and a far from transparent - in fact rather a mid to highh gain overdrive infused with gorgeous sustaining harmonics - and a definite zing! A smart Active Mids control is really the magic ingredient here. And you have the same sort of clipping control as on the Timmy - but arranged horizontally - delivering : most compression / least compression / more compression as before. A second 3-way toggle cuts Treble and Bass to the left : -3dB on 2.75kHz, and 120 Hz, in the middle it is Flat, and to the right you have just the Treble roll-off of the left option.

For my preferences - I like having both toggles in the middle, while when you apply more compression - the Hi & Low cut option really helps out too. For me my ultimate texture and tonality occur with Bass @ 11 o’c, Mid @ 3 o’c, Treble @ 2 o’c, Gain @ 12 o’c, and Volume @ 1:30 o’c. You get the most glorious harmonic texture with those settings.

You can easily dial in a sort of saturated AC30 / Brian May lead style tone - and there is a tonne of range for this pedal - all the way down to clean boost, and with the Mid and Gain volume controls set high - you get a very decent searing sustaining distortion.

"The MID control comes first in the design and is an active mid boost circuit. It acts like a flat buffer at ’0’ and increases the mid range as you turn it up.  It adds some clipping of its own around 2 o’clock and up to hit the main clipper hard."

"The BASS cut control is also an active circuit and comes after the MID control. At settings below 2 o’clock it reduces low end, and above 2 o’clock it offers a bass boost that’s about +6dB @ 280hz to thicken things up if needed."

Finally the Passive TREB control just helps you roll off some of the top end do further refinement - in conjunction with the 3-way Cut toggle-switch.

The 3 controls work wonderfully well together and deliver all manner of textures and tones throughout the range of those dials. If you want the pedal to sit on the cleaner more Timmy side of things - you just need to dial the Mid control all the way back - while this pedal is very much intended to be interestingly coloured and full flavour.

As I said at the top - this is quite a different pedal to the Timmy - and while I’ve always liked that pedal (also with the Clipping in the middle), the fuller flavoured Zefram is much more my kind of thing.

Controls - Clip : Most Compression / Least Compression / More Compression, Cut : High Cut & Low Cut : -3dB @ 2.75kHz & -3dB @ 120Hz / Flat / High Cut : -3dB @ 2.75kHz, Active Bass, Active Mid, Passive Treble, Gain, Volume.

I guess part of the reason for this pedal’s hitherto limited exposure is the fact that you can only get it from one place - Humbucker Music - where it retails for $179, and of course where I got mine from. It’s currently available at a discount - which somewhat makes up for the additional import charges that this pedal incurs for a UK residents like myself!

I really love this one - I’m a huge fan of harmonic overdrives - which I classify this one mostly as. That Mid control is pure magic - especially applied in the way I deploy it. This is a super versatile and beautifully calibrated extended range - Boost, Overdrive and Distortion gain allrounder.

I almost forgotot to mention that it cleans up pretty well too - so you can easily roll off all the gain with your guitar volume knob. Really a perfect overdrive pedal - with so much range!

The Zefram comes highly recommended!