TESTED BY DAVE HUNTER

SPECIFICATIONS

CAZ-45

CONTACT drzamps.com

PRICE $2,499 street

CHANNELS 1

CONTROLS Sensitivity, gain, treble, mid, bass, aggression, presence, level

POWER 45 watts

TUBES Three 12AX7 and one 12DW7 preamp tubes, two 6L6STR output tubes

EXTRAS Tube-buffered FX loop with send and return, 4Ω, 8Ω and 16Ω speaker outs

WEIGHT 35 lbs

BUILT Assembled in USA

KUDOS Excellent build quality. Thick and articulate tones. Great playing dynamics

CONCERNS No foot-switchable rhythm and lead channels, but that’s not the intention here

Guitar Player Editors’ Pick

FOR ALL THE guitar amplifiers Mike Zaite has created during his more than three decades in the business, the Dr. Z Amplification founder has never delivered a full-on modern, high-gain amp. The CAZ-45 is here to change that. This 45-watt, all-tube monster is a collaboration between Zaite and Alan Phillips of Carol-Ann Amplifiers, who recently stepped away from the game to pursue a career in industrial automation. It’s an original, ground-up design from Phillips’ drawing board, with contributions from Z’s lab, manufactured in full-bore Dr. Z handwired style and primed to rock large. The CAZ-45 sits halfway between an old-school, single-channel lead amp that responds well to your guitar’s volume controls for clean to crunch to overdrive, and a modern-voiced, high-gain fury that slathers gain stage upon gain stage for unholy levels of sizzle and sustain. Phillips says the amp delivers unprecedented parallels of the former, however, and needs no channel switching as a result. The CAZ-45 has a single input and controls for sensitivity, gain, treble, mid, bass, aggression, presence and level.