Next, I plugged a soapbar-equipped Paul Reed
Smith Starla X into a PRS 30 amp and dialed
in a clean sound. By adjusting the TightDrive
to deliver medium-gain tones, I was able to
get a rich, classic-rock timbre that was just
barely breaking up. When I dialed in a basic
foundation of moderate distortion on the
amp, I stomped on the TightDrive to give my
power chords more definition. The PRS 30 has
a classic EL34 tube sound, and tonally it lies
more on the warm, dark side. With that amp, I
found that, in addition to increasing the gain,
the TightDrive again added brightness to my
sound. Switching to my Strat, I discovered the
pedal can easily raise the output of single-coils
to humbucker levels.
Moving over to my Marshall half stack, I
grabbed my Les Paul to test out the TightDrive
with a heavier rock tone. I was able to get
everything from grungy overdrive to aggressive,
high-gain metal tones. My Marshall amp sounds
pretty darn good on its own and I’m happy with
its overdrive sounds, so in this configuration, I
used the TightDrive more as a boost for playing
leads. For this application, I turned up the
pedal’s Volume knob instead of Gain.
As I explored different combinations of guitars
and amps, I found I needed to adjust the amp
settings, as well as the pedal’s parameters
to really dial in the tone to my liking. The
TightDrive is not a one-size-fits-all effect where
a single setting works with different amps.
Turning the Tight knob to its lowest setting
creates a thicker tone that, in some instances,
can get a little muddy. Cranking the Tight knob
all the way up delivers a sharper attack, but the
tone thins out too much for my taste. It’s just a
matter of finding that sweet spot somewhere
in between the two extremes. I rarely turned
the Tone knob past the halfway mark, because
the TightDrive adds quite a bit of brightness
and high-end boost. In fact, I often turned
Tone down all the way for a smoother sound.
The Final Mojo
You can get quite a variety of distortion sounds
with the Amptweaker TightDrive, whether
you use it for a slight boost or a heavier, more
aggressive distortion. It also has useful design
features that enhance your playing experience.
For example, if you’re adding the TightDrive’s
distortion on top of an amp’s overdrive, you can
take advantage of the pedal’s effects loop to
add a noise gate to your signal path and control
both pedals with the TightDrive’s footswitch.
Considering these unique, customer-requested
features and the TightDrive’s versatility, it’s definitely
a pedal worth checking out.
Buy if...
you dig the unique, playerfriendly
features and the ability
to tighten up your distortion’s
attack.
Skip if...
you prefer that your distortion has
warmer overtones
Rating...
