There’s purple smoke arising from Wylde Audio HQ. It’s official. Zakk Wylde’s signature guitar amp, the Berzerker, has arrived, and it sounds just as we expected – and yet is nothing like we imagined.
Yes, it’s a Zakk Wylde signature amp, which means you’ve got that gnarly juicy midrange, an abundant level of gain, the kind of tonal profile that’ll have the pinched harmonics squealing out of the speaker.
But no, it’s not a fully tube-driven amp; it is a hybrid, with single ECC83 tube in the preamp and – presumably, little specs are shared – a solid-state power section. Also, it is half the size of what we imagined this amp to be.
C'mon, this is Zakk Wylde, the long-serving six-string courtier to the Prince of Darkness. Surely it’d be a mammoth head, bend the knees and back straight when lifting it? Again, no. The Zakk Wylde Berzerker is a very compact amp, one which Wylde Audio says weighs in under the 5lb mark.
Co-designed with David Karon, aka the mastermind behind KHDK Electronics, and the result of more than two years of R&D and road-testing, the Zakk Wylde Berzerker head arrives in two finishes, standard Black, and a limited edition Zakk Sabbath Purple.
The latter is limited to 275 units worldwide, comes with a COA and is hand-signed by the man himself (and strong signature it is too, testament to Wylde’s brutally efficient right-hand technique).
It is an uncomplicated design. The front panel has almost everything you need to dial in your tone.
There are knobs for master volume, presence, treble, middle, bass and pre-amp gain, but around the back of the amp you will find the USP, the Wylde knob that “lets you dial in anything from raw and open to that thick, mid-heavy roar”.
This also has some hidden talents. There is a built-in cab sim, engineered to emulate Wylde’s preference for EV-loaded guitar speaker cabinets, and there is a serial effects loop for welcoming your pedalboard to the party. There are two speaker outputs. And that's that; you are off to the races.
Wylde says it’s everything you need to get his electric guitar tone.
“I’ve spent over three decades chasing my sound on stages all over the world, and this amp exists for one reason: to put my real tone in a box that makes sense today,” he says.
“No watered-down version, no extra junk. Just the same gain structure, feel, and low-mid punch I’ve always used, stripped to what actually matters. The Purple Edition is a limited run finished in Zakk Sabbath Purple as a nod to where it all started.”
The Zakk Wylde Berzerker is priced $629 and is available now. Find out more over at Wylde Audio.
