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Blaze Dynamic Overdrive

Based On
Amptweaker Tight Drive
Effect Type
Overdrive
Build Difficulty
Intermediate
Project Summary
An original drive pedal design from amp guru James Brown, the designer of the Peavey 5150 and JSX amplifiers.
Blaze Dynamic Overdrive printed circuit board

Printed Circuit Board

What's included?
PCB only. Build instructions and parts list can be viewed or downloaded from this page.

$12.50

In stock

Complete Kit

Not yet available.
Kits are developed based on interest, so if you’d like to see one for this project, let us know.
Request Kit
5 people are interested.

Project overview

The Blaze Dynamic Overdrive is based on the Amptweaker Tight Drive, the very first pedal from amp guru James Brown, who designed the Peavey 5150 amplifier. It was first released in 2010 and traced by Aion FX in 2023.

The Tight Drive predated the Tight Metal and Tight Rock by a year. The topology is overall very similar to these two later pedals, but simplified a bit. (The Tight Metal and Tight Rock circuits are available as a hybrid project called the Ember Metal Distortion.)

In particular, it omits one clipping stage, the noise gate, some midrange shaping after the tone stack, and a hi-cut at the output. The overall concept is similar, though: pre-drive bass cut, high-threshold zener clipping, and a Big Muff-style tone stack.

The Blaze is a close adaptation of the Tight Drive based on our trace, only omitting the SideTrak effects loop that is engaged when the pedal is activated.