Foxrox Paradox True Zero Flanger

by 44ofjuly

Seen enough to eye you
But I've seen too much to try you
It's always weirdness while you
Dig your much too much to fry you
The weirdness flows between us
Anyone can tell to see us
Freakscene just can't believe us
Why can't it just be cool and leave us

- Dinosaur Jr., ‘Freakscene’

It was ‘93 and hearing the live version of ‘Freakscene’ for the first time certainly did have some effects on me in my preference for modulation pedals in the later part of my GASing for effect pedals. The jet plane swooshing sound about 35sec into the song just took my breath away as I remembered seeing it and hearing it from the video, “The Year Punk Broke”. There was a clip of Dinosaur Jr. playing the above-mentioned song in it. Before that, all I knew about effects was just distortion, distortion and more distortion. The flanger sound was one of the first modulation effects which I really liked.

Fast forward to 2004. During these years, I had gone through few flangers from the Boss BF-2 to TC electronic Stereo Chorus Flanger to Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress. I thought I might had ended the flanger search with the E-H Electric Mistress. But with the arrival of the Foxrox Paradox TZF, I realized that this pedal really lived up to the rave reviews…

First of, the Paradox TZF (True Zero Flanger) is one hell of a heavy pedal and the construction is top notch from the casing to the components, circuit, footswitch and the blue finishes on it. The PCB in it is really packed with stuff and it’s a beautiful sight.

Basically, the TZF is divided into 2 parts, the modulation control and the audio control.

No.1 Modulation control: Consist of the envelope, depth, manual and the speed knob. This part is mainly for the flanging control.

Envelope - This will determine the amount of flanging just by the playing dynamics of the guitarist. It’s quite a cool feature in my opinion.

Depth – This determines how wide and deep the flanging will sweep.

Manual - The “shaping” of the flanging is controlled by this parameter.

Speed – This knob changes the rate at which the flanging will sweep from one peak to the other.

No.2 Audio control: Consist of TZF, mix and regeneration knob

TZF – This is used for combining the modulated signal with the true zero flanging.

Mix – This knob is for the mixing of the guitar signal with the modulated signal.

Regeneration – Tweaking this, you can get different flavours of flanging, from hollowish to full body to metallic hollowish sounding flange.

There’s 2 footswitches on it and the left one is for switching from negative flanging to positive flanging and vice versa, the other is to switch the effect on/off.

The beauty of the TZF is when you put a distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedal before it, it will produce the best results. Without it, the flanging is actually quite mild but that doesn’t make it sound useless as it can actually be used as a chorus, univibe, analog vibrato, tremolo flange, phaser, Leslie effect and more. The TZF is not like other flangers.

Compared to other flangers, the TZF has greater depth than most. For the first hour when I played with it, I thought I had a faulty one; the flanging was really minimal and it was nothing of what I had heard of, from the clips on Foxrox’s site. And so I went through the manual and followed the main tip to have a distortion pedal before it. And there it was, the most beautiful, deepest, over-the-top flanging which sounds like you are in the middle of a tornado! Ok, maybe that’s a bit exaggerated but I must say that it’s really some serious flanging that I have never managed to get from the other flangers which I mentioned earlier.

For the main flanging, the TZF have 2 types, the positive and the negative flanging.

For positive flanging, the sound is like an aeroplane flying over your head. And before you know it, the plane makes a U turn and flies back over you. This means that when the flanging reaches the peak, it actually retains the full sound and sweeps back again. For some settings, the flanging can get really far and deep.

For the negative flanging, it’s like a plane flying over you with the echo dying to silence. Just when you thought it’s gone, the plane flies back over you.

You’d get 2 different types which sound differently with the adjustment of the various knobs on the pedal. Flanging sounds between the 2 settings can be achieved and the sound is really good. The speed knob has got a wide range, from really slow flanging which never seems to sweep over to the top and back to fast bubbling sounds.

The pedal is equipped with speed and manual input jacks where the usage of an expression pedal can be used to make some hand free adjustments to the flanging tone. That’s a nice feature.

Although some of the reviews mention that the TZF will work best in the effects loop, I find that it’s okay to run it straight into the amp. The most important thing is that the TZF will have to come after a distortion or drive pedal.

In conclusion, the Paradox TZF, in my opinion, is really one of the best and unique flangers in the market. For anyone who is really serious about flanging, this pedal is the one! I don’t think there will be many flangers which can rival it. Although the cost can be a turnoff, I am seriously in love with it. As for the downside of the pedal, well, it just make me wanna have it on every time I am playing. It’s addictive.