We became acquainted with Ohio based manufacturer Amptweaker – run by ex Peavey amp engineer James Brown – at our Brooklyn Stompbox Exhibit last year, when we had the pleasure to display two of their pedals. Being mainly an amp designer, James makes stompboxes from a different vintage point than most manufacturers: specializing in distortions, Amptweaker’s stompboxes are created to fit the needs of different musicians, thanks to a constantly open communication between James and his clients – he is always interested in suggestions for future pedals, which anybody can submit here. Amptweaker also tends to add its own unique signature features to those ideas, therefore improving them in the versatility and range department.
The new FatRock – presented at Summer NAMM 2013 – is a vintage sounding fuzz box similar to one of the company’s flagship stompboxes, the red TightRock. It’s basically a variation on that pedal requested by users who were suggesting a warmer version that worked better on brighter guitars and amps. The pedal’s tone has been tweaked to extend the low range of the Tight and Tone controls, and a fixed Fat boost was added at the front end for a slightly less aggressive attack, knocking the edge down, and boosting the low end in the output EQ.
The pedal includes a Tight control, a mainstay of Amptweaker pedals, which varies the pick attack from smooth and thick to tight and aggressive so you get the attack that works with your guitar and picking style.
Waiting for a video of the FatRock, here’s one of its brighter brother: the TightRock .
