AMPTWEAKER
TIGHTMETAL
BY JORDAN WAGNER
There aren’t many individuals in the modern amplifier industry that have
carved out the kind of legacy that James
Brown has. No, we’re not talking about
the late, great, gyrating, velvet suit-wearing
soul legend—we’re talking about the famed
amp designer that brought us the Peavey
VTM, Classic Series, Triple XXX, JSX, and
of course, the 5150. Brown’s work has had a
significant impact on the face of contemporary rock. And his amp designs have been
instrumental in the evolution of the tones
of Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen.
Brown has since gone into business for
himself with the Amptweaker pedal line,
which has been a hit with the underground
rock and metal crowd, as well as a new
generation of blues and classic rock guitarists. His new pedal, dubbed the TightMetal,
tends toward the thrashier side of the sound
rainbow. But it’s a versatile tool too, with a
smorgasbord of vicious distortion options
and a smooth, natural-sounding noise gate
that expands its usefulness.
The devil in the details
The TightMetal addresses the concern that
most metal pedals only offer a caricature of
the tone of bigger, metal-oriented amps with-
out any of the feel and reactivity that makes
those amps a more direct connection
between players’ hands and the music.
LED
illuminated
knobs
Gate control
Mid control
the left. But move the slider to the right
or Thrash direction and the low end is
boosted while the mids are scooped. The
noise gate meanwhile, is activated when the
pedal’s Gate switch is moved to the right,
or Chomp setting. Combining the most
aggressive settings for each control delivers
nothing short of thrash heaven.
The TightMetal also features
Amptweaker’s standard series effects loop,
which can be set for either Pre or Post
to position the TightMetal in the effects
chain. Some really neat tones can be coaxed
out of the pedal using this feature. You
can place a compressor in the loop and set
the loop to Pre to smooth things out even
further. You can also use delays and reverbs
with the loop set to Post to craft huge,
spaced-out, post-rock soundscapes.
Tight
control
evil Tendencies
This is one fierce-sounding little box, with
more gain on tap than just about any pedal
I’ve encountered. Thankfully, it stays solid
and tight—as intended—when combined
with the right amplifier, and a sense for how
to mute and pick with focused precision.
Pedals with high-gain, thrashy-metal
tendencies tend to work best with big-sounding and bassier clean amps. So I
chose a 1976 Marshall Superbass head
coupled with an Emperor 4x12 with
Weber C1265 speakers for a 1978 Gibson
Les Paul Custom—which is just about a
