Wampler Pedals specializes in putting amp tones in a box. The company’s Amp in A Box series—which includes the Triple Wreck, SLOstorion, Plextortion, and Pinnacle pedals— does a valiant job of reproducing legendary high-gainamp sounds, while the Heritage series—the Plexi-Drive, Black ’65, and the new Tweed ’57— is all about the classics. While the Tweed ’57 moniker obviously pays tribute to pre-blackface Fender amps, it isn’t designed to replicate a particular model (for example the Champ, Bassman, Deluxe, or Twin). Rather, it replicates the shared dynamics of Fenders from that era and allows you to tailor your tweed sound via its thoughtfully conceived EQ range and a gain control—which tweed amps did not have.
Need for Tweed
The Tweed ’57’s design sprang,
in part, from a collaboration
between Brian Wampler and
the company’s Facebook fans,
who voiced a collective desire
for a box that could deliver the
magically squishy compression
and explosive dynamics of tweed
Fenders. The small enclosure is
tightly packed with controls to
get those tones dialed in: The
top row features bass, mid, and
treble knobs, while volume and
drive knobs, as well as a 3-way
amp-input-simulator toggle
reside just below that. The toggle
lets you choose between simulations
of normal, bright, or linked
inputs, with the latter being a
simulation of bridged normal
and bright inputs—a feature destined
to put a smile on the faces
of die-hard tweed fanatics.
Tweed Put to the Test
I tested the Tweed ’57 using
various humbucker- and singlecoil-
equipped guitars, which
I plugged into a silverface
Fender Princeton Reverb and
a solid-state ZT Amplifiers
Lunchbox. While some pedals
and amps work better with
certain pickup types, the Tweed
’57 seems equally at home no
matter what is thrown its way.
I started with the normal input
selected, gain all the way off,
and volume set for unity gain.
Even at these very moderate settings,
the ’57 added even more
life to the already-great-sounding
Princeton. Through the
Lunchbox, the Tweed ’57 introduced
a tube-like responsiveness
and thickness. I got a very
subtle grit that added authority
to single-note runs, and when
I played barre chords I got a
cool, gritty clean or a Tweedlike
bark, depending on how
hard I strummed. Moving the
input selector to bright opened
up the sound a bit—adding air
and a janglier top end. Set to
linked, the pedal was noticeably
louder—and quite brash.
Ratings
Pros:
Excellent tones, dynamics, and flexibility
across the whole gain spectrum.
Cons:
None.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build:
Value:
Street:
$199
Wampler Pedals
wamplerpedals.com
With the gain up high, you can tap into glorious, opensounding sustain reminiscent Larry Carlton’s legendarily smooth solo on Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne.” Even with the gain cranked, there’s a distinct clarity to the notes—and the pedal’s touch sensitivity is nothing short of remarkable. Pick with medium to heavy attack, and notes really sing. Pick lightly, and single notes and chords all sound significantly cleaner. Backing down on the pedal’s volume knob can also change the tonal character significantly. All of this adds up to a wide dynamic range that’s addicting in and of itself—even before you start tweaking and fine-tuning the tones. Not coincidentally, that’s one of the calling cards of a great amp, too.
The Verdict
The Tweed ’57 is a
phenomenal pedal
that sounds and feels more like
you’re playing a cranked amp
than a stompbox. To get even
a low-wattage tweed Champ
to sing, you’d realistically have
to crank it past most acceptable
bedroom volumes. But
the Tweed ’57 gets you there
at just about any volume you
need. But even if you’re not
seeking the raunchy sounds of
a tattered tweed, you can set
the gain low (or off ), and keep
the pedal on to warm up your
amp and give it a touch of that
tweed bite. This is the kind of
pedal that can save your hide
when you have to gig in rooms
of varying size, or when you’re
dealing with a questionable
backline. But no matter how
you use it, there’s no question
the Tweed ’57 is a champ.
This month’s mod Dan’s uses a 500k linear pot, a 1.5H inductor (L) with a 0.039 µF (39nF) cap (C), and a 220k resistor (R) in parallel.
Don’t let the name fool you, this is a purely passive device—nothing is going to be boosted. In general, you can’t increase anything with passive electronics that isn’t already there. Period. But you can reshape the tone by deemphasizing certain frequencies and making others more prominent (so … “boost” in guitar marketing language). Removing highs makes lows more apparent, and vice versa. In addition, the use of inductors (which create the magnetic field in a guitar circuit) and capacitors will create resonant peaks and valleys (bandpasses and notches), further coloring the overall tone. This type of bandpass filter only allows certain frequencies to pass through, while others are blocked, and it all works at unity gain.
“You can’t increase anything with passive electronics that isn’t already there … but you can reshape the tone by deemphasizing certain frequencies and making others more prominent.”
All the systems I mentioned above are doing more or less the same thing, using different approaches and slightly different component values. They are all meant to be updated tone controls. Our common tone circuit is usually a variable low-pass filter (aka treble-cut filter), which only allows the low frequencies to pass through, while the high frequencies get sent to ground via the tone cap. Most of these systems are LCR networks, which means that there is not only a capacitor (C), like on our standard tone controls, but also an inductor (L) and a resistor (R).
In general, all these systems are meant to control the midrange in order to scoop the mids, creating a mid-cut. This can be a cool sounding option, e.g. on a Strat for that mid-scooped neck and middle tone.
Dan Torres offered his “midrange kit” via an internet shop that is no longer online, same with his business website. The Torres design is a typical LCR network and looks like the illustration at the top of this column.
Dan’s design uses a 500k linear pot, a 1.5H inductor (L) with a 0.039 µF (39nF) cap (C), and a 220k resistor (R) in parallel. Let’s break down the parts piece by piece:
Any 500k linear pot will do the trick, in one of the rare scenarios where a linear pot works better in a passive guitar system than an audio pot.
(C) 0.039µF cap: This is kind of an odd value. Keeping production tolerances of up to 20 percent in mind, any value that is close will do, so you can use any small cap you want for this. I would prefer a small metallized film cap, and any voltage rating will do. If you want to stay as close as possible to the original design, use any 0.039 µF low-tolerance film cap.
(L) 1.5H inductor: The original design uses a Xicon 42TL021 inductor, which is easy to find and fairly priced. This one is also used in the Bill Lawrence Q-Filter design, the Gibson standard Varitone, and many other systems like this. It’s very small, so it will fit in virtually every electronic compartment of a guitar. It has a frequency range of 300 Hz up to 3.4 kHz, with a primary impedance of 4k ohms (that’s the one we want to use) and a secondary impedance of 600 ohms. Snip off the three secondary leads and the center tap of the primary side and use the two remaining outer primary leads; the primary side is marked with a “P.” On the pic, you can see the two leads you need marked in red, all other leads can be snipped off. You can connect the two remaining leads to the pot either way; it doesn’t matter which of them is going to ground when using it this way.
Drawing courtesy of singlecoil.com
(R) 220k: use a small axial metal film resistor (0.25 W), which is easy to find and is the quasi-standard.
Other designs use slightly different part values—the Bill Lawrence Q-filter has a 1.8H L, 0.02 µF C and 8k R, while the old RA Gresco Tone Qube from the ’80s has a 1.5H L, 0.0033 µF C, and a 180k R, so this is a wide field for experimentation to tweak it for your personal tone.
This mid-cut system can be put into any electric guitar not only as a master tone, but also together with a regular tone control or something like the Fender Greasebucket, or it can be assigned only to a certain pickup. It can be a great way to enhance your sonic palette, so give it a try.
That’s it! Next month, we’ll take a deeper look into how to fight feedback on a Telecaster. It’s a common issue, so stay tuned!
Until then ... keep on modding!