The Amptweaker TightDrive Pro Has 3 Effects Loops, yet It Somehow Makes Sense

James Brown is one of the most important names in metal. You heard me. What do you mean James Brown isn’t…. oh. Okay, I see the problem here. If that name conjured up visions of old motown and Apollo Creed’s last prize fight then you’re picturing the wrong man. I suppose that happens to him a lot. It’s a wrong man’s world, after all. But for the purposes of instruments and the metal community, this is James Brown:

That amp in the background is James Brown’s essential contribution to modern metal. I don’t think it could even be up for debate that for two decades the Peavey 5150/6505 has been the sound of current high-gain distortion. It likely won’t be associated as such in the next decade, but the amp has certainly left its mark. And James Brown designed it. It’s a pretty crucial bullet point on his resume: to have built an amplifier that’s the figurehead of a genre’s tone. The last guy who did such a thing had Marshall for a last name. The 5150 may not be your favorite distortion generator, but it’s certainly gotten around.

What does this have to do with Amptweaker pedals? Well, James Brown is no longer at Peavey, and one of his gigs is creating this hyper-powered tone boxes, like the new TightDrive Pro. Have you ever seen a distortion pedal with 3 effects loops? Fucking three of them? Holy hell, that’s a lot of loops. And one of those loops is genius. The first is a standard universal loop, which I’ve never felt is the most useful on a pedal, but since there’s a built-in noise gate (great feature, by the way), it makes sense. Another is a loop just for the boost channel, which is also a great idea.

The third loop though? It’s a clean loop. It’s only active when the pedal is off. I have never seen this before, and I think it’s brilliant. Do you want a compressor or phaser in your chain, but only when you’re not distorting your tone? Put them in the clean loop and they’ll be bypassed when the TightDrive is bypassed. Or do you wish to implement a lower-gain pedal, but never at the same time as the TightDrive? Again, put it in the clean loop and you essentially have an A/B box without the extra pedal.

There’s a hojillion other great features in this little green box (like multi-voltage operation). To learn more head over to AmpTweaker’s website.

Source: Premier Guitar