Amptweaker Bass TightDrive Data Sheet

TM

good tone comes from tweaking ...

Thanks for purchasing your new Bass TightDrive™

Welcome! Thanks for purchasing your

pedal, another Amptweaker™

pedal, the first Amptweaker™ handmade product

designed with

designed with consumersʼ advice. Iʼve received many
product ideas and feature suggestions, and the result
is a specially tweaked overdrive that solves many of
the problems bassists with many production pedals. I
hope you enjoy jamming through it and finding
different ways it can help enhance your tone. Keep
those ideas coming!

James Brown,

Cool Ideas:

True Bypass switching–buffered when pedal is ON

•
Tight Attack control lets YOU dial in the chunk

•
Gain, Tone, Volume controls, OK–these arenʼt special

•
Pre/Post selectable Effects Loop-tracks Bypass Switch!

•
Battery On/Off switch with red ʻDonʼt Forgetʼ indicator

•
LED lit knobs when using a DC adapter

•
Magnetic sliding battery access–no tools required

•
14 Ga. steel chassis–––so you can stomp it

•

Amp Engineer

How does the work?

Vol ume–a Master

Volume, you set it
high for clean boost
or use to balance to
bypassed levels

Output Jack–
connect to the
next pedalʼs
input or to amp

True Bypass Switch–when
bypassed, the bass guitar
signal bypasses all circuitry.
When active, this circuit is
buffered, to avoid signal loss.

Ton e–high EQ, set low for
a smoother tone when
overdriving a tube

Gain–adjusts the pedalʼs
distortion. For a cleaner
boost turn this down and
the master up, or crank
for serious overdrive

In Jack–from the
bass or previous
effect. The battery
disconnects when
unplugged

Tight– set
higher for an
aggressive,
chunky attack­lower for thick,

fatter, nastier
distortion

DC Jack– use
a high quality
regulated
9VDC adapter
with center pin

grounded–will
work with 6V
(compressed)
to 18V(clean
and dynamic).
I like 9V best

sideways

EFX Loop Switch–selects Pre(before) or
Post(after) distortion position for the Loop.
Compressors sound best on Pre, while
Delays & Reverbs sound better on Post

LEDs–light up
the knobs if an
adapter is used

Battery Door–
The battery
door is held
closed by a
magnet, and

can be opened
just by pulling

Battery Switch–
This switch turns
off the battery
when not in use­not active when

using an adapter

Effects Send & Return– Itʼs
easy to create your own effects
chains using this series loop–
and the added effects track with
the TightDriveʼs On/Off Switch

Specs:

Input impedance: 250K Ohm (effect on)

•
Output Impedance: 1K Ohm (effect on)

•
Current: 11mA with 9V battery, 20mA with 9V adapter(adds knob LEDs)

•
Housing: 14 Gauge galvanized steel

•
Weight: 2 pounds

•
Dimensions: 3.75”W X 5”D X 2”H

•
Adapter: 9VDC adapter w/ 5.5mm X 2.1mm positive barrel center ground

•

Other Tips & Tricks:

Effects like compressors, synths, and octavers tend to work

•
best with the Effects Loop set to Pre.

Effects like delay, reverb, EQ, chorus, vibe/tremolo, and

•
most others tend to sound best with the Loop set to Post.

Try putting an EQ in the Pre/Loop, to experiment with

•
varying distortion feel, similar to the Tight controlʼs affect.

By using very low gain/volume settings, the Bass TightDrive

•
can prevent a small bass amp from having a floppy low end

when it starts to clip the power amp.

For a really dark, vintage bass tone, turn the Tone and Tight

•
fully down, Volume up and Gain about halfway.

Select Pre/Effects Send to use it as a switchable ʻcleanʼ

•
send to another effects chain, tuner input or amp.

Select Post/Effects Send to use it as an auxiliary send to

•
some other effects or amp AFTER the TightDrive distortion.

When using extremely high settings on the Tight control,

•
you might need to increase your ampʼs bass control.

To ad d so m e d r y f u l l r a n ge b as s , u s e a n au x i li a r y m i x er

•

with one input connected to the Send....which turns off with

the TightDriveʼs footswitch.

TM

good tone comes from tweaking . . .

Amptweaker, LLC, P.O. Box 387, Batavia, OH 45103

handmade in USA www.amptweaker.com

©2010 Amptweaker, LLC