AionFx Blaze (Amptweaker TightDrive)

[Asdrael]

Long story short: it's my second build (the first one bing a AionFx Titan, so an OCD). I'm lining up 4 different overdrive types to learn to build, solder, learn which "building blocks" I like and understand it all to hopefully end up putting it all together in something that makes more sense to me. All are ordered from Musikding, enclosures are black powder coated with a CO2 laser engraving prepared with AI assisted graphics

Face:



Guts:



With the previous build:




The build itself was easy enough and uneventful. Worked on the first try too. No values changed from the initial BOM, and build without the optional components.

My use case is usually a slightly dirty boost into an overdrive amp and I dislike TS style big mid bumps.

The pedal definitely has something characteristic from the designer James Brown (no, not that one) that did the 5150. Some kind of abrasive almost fizzy top end that you can't really dial out.

The gain ranges from some dirt at 0 to definitely overdriven at 10. I think it's comparable to an OCD, maybe a bit more.

The volume goes from 0 to too freaking loud, unity is at like 1/3rd of the way I would say. There is however a use case for the entire range.

The tone control is supposed to be a high-pass / low-pass after the drive. As it is, I don't really see a use past noon as it gets really, really bright. It's not unusable at 0 and would mellow out a sound nicely. At 10, I guess I could use it to break glass.

The biggest draw for me was the Tight control which is supposed to be a pre-drive bass cut. It does what is advertised and more. I would say it cuts well into the low mids as well and passt 3 or 4, it thins out the sound too much even with a downtuned 7 string (and it's already a type C pot...).

All in all, a very interesting pedal. I would recommend it to someone looking into putting some aggression into an otherwise bassy, flubby amp. It might also be the type of pedal that requires to rethink your amp settings when you use it, but for this I haven't had enough time with it (not sure I want a pedal like that either but hoh well).

For anyone building it for a normal setup, I would say keep my comments in mind and maybe change some pot values:
- 5kA instead of 10kA Tone pot
- 25kC (or even 10kC) instead of 50kC Tight pot
- maybe look into lowering the drive when the pot is at 0. Or maybe it's a headroom issue, in that case 18V mod would be worth a try.

(First build report, hope I did it right ).

 

[Paradox916]

For first builds those look great, I built the Aion Ember (amptweaker tight rock/metal) and into an amp I really wasn’t impressed with up front or in the loop, I almost gave it away but decided last night to give it one more chance straight into the interfaceto try and learn a cover song. and I’ll be damned, with the right IR it does the 6505/5150 thing quite well. So maybe give that a try see how you feel about it then . Good job love the art work!

 

[Asdrael]

For first builds those look great, I built the Aion Ember (amptweaker tight rock/metal) and into an amp I really wasn’t impressed with up front or in the loop, I almost gave it away but decided last night to give it one more chance straight into the interfaceto try and learn a cover song. and I’ll be damned, with the right IR it does the 6505/5150 thing quite well. So maybe give that a try see how you feel about it then . Good job love the art work!

For what it's worth - played with it more tonight and found that it actually works really well in front of the amp as a dirty boost if you see it more as a "high bump" pedal (compared to a "mid bump" pedal like a TS).

I lowered the Treble on my amp by 2, increased the Presence by 1, and then the pedal magically found its use with Volume 11:00, Gain at 9:00, tone at 12:00 and Tight at 09:00. It puts back what the amp lost by lowering the treble but adds some grit, compression and some sparkle while tightening everything. I... kinda really like it now?