Tag Archives: effects pedals

I’ve often wondered what goes into making an amp or FX pedal. To me it’s all just wires and knobs and it’s often easy to gloss over the science behind the sounds.

One man who has always been interested in the science is James brown – no not the smooth moving soul funk meister, but the Chief Engineer for Kustom Amps and the owner of Amptweaker – a personal company that allows Brown to pursue his passion for handmade pedals and custom amps.

Where his site differs from the usual offerings of Amp and FX pedal makers, is that he takes his inspiration from customers. Only once an idea gathers enough support does he begin making the unit.

He’s come up with a range of pedals so far and his latest offering, released during the Summer NAMM, is the TightRock which came as a response to customer requests for a pedal in between two of his previously released pedals the TightMetal and the TightDrive. It was met with a lot of positive feedback from Artists and users alike at the NAMM show and is sure to feature in many people’s pedal collections.
newsletter14 review tightrock AmpTweaker   TIGHTROCK

The unique routing options mean you can loop a separate FX unit into the TightRock which is on when you stomp on the TightRock and colours the TightRock’s distortion. Not only that but with the TightRock’s SideTrack function, you can send the guitar signal to another FX pedal which can color the amp’s clean channel, turning a single channel amp into a 3 channel amp. These are just some of the options available to the user.

Learn more about the pedal from Brown himself as he cranks out some sweet sounds and explains the possibilities that come with the TightRock.

ab4e2097d32a3cfb2d407817c82c42dd AmpTweaker   TIGHTROCK

Posted by Dan Orr

Kia Ora Jake here. I just wanted to write a quick post in response to a few questions about guitar effects pedals. A boutique guitar effects pedal is most usually a hand built or a limited edition pedal built by electronic enthusiasts, or a modded (modified) pedal. Many people mod their Boss units for example. There`s a whole new world of quantum manipulation opportunities out there once you start buying some of the crazy and often deranged units. Obviously there`s time and a place for everything but if you want to continue along the consciousness bending, sonic roads of Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Tom Morello, Jonny Greenwood, Robert Fripp, Alan Holdsworth, Steve Hillage, Reeves Gabrels here are a few links to help you get really weird….soak up some of these, wring yourself out, and drink!

ANALOGUE MAN
MJM GUITAR EFFECTS
TONE FACTOR
PEDAL GEEK

There were a few being built inside small transparent soap boxes a few years back…great if you need to wash all those fingerprints from across the surface of your brain! Tomorrow I`ll be having a brief look at the analogue versus digital argument, just so we all know exactly what we`ve been missing…