The Amptweaker™ name points toward the design goal of making products that allow the user to tweak their own amp tone.
The TightDrive™ overdrive
pedal is the first Amptweaker product, a gain pedal that features the
TIGHT control. This tweaks the amp's attack, and when combined with the
Gain, Tone, and Volume controls, a lot of different distortion sounds
are possible. It has the ability to dial in varying amounts of crunch,
from barely clean singing blues tones, to crunchy rhythm sounds, all the
way up to seriously overdriving your tube amp for tight chunky lead
solos. Whether you're using it with a clean amp or to beat up your heavy
amp, this pedal has the range to handle the job....it can even reduce
the gain and tighten the attack to easily convert your heavy lead tone
to a chunky rhythm sound.
The
biggest number of Product Idea submissions received were from people
looking for overdrive and/or boost pedals that could provide tight low
end. This led to the Tight Control, which allows you to adjust the amp's
attack, varying it from smooth and singing to chunky and aggressive
attack. The Tone, Gain and Volume controls work pretty much like most
other overdrive pedals.
Another
repeating theme heard over and over was multiple pedals....so this led
to the idea of adding an effects loop to the back so you can add
whatever you want to this pedal. And there's a Pre/Post button
underneath the pedal so you can move that outboard effect to in front of
or behind the TightDrive. When you bypass the TightDrive pedal, the
other effect or effects will be bypassed as well. This feature is great
if you want to further tweak the distortion tone with an EQ in front of
or behind it, or to add compression, or a delay.