Mad Professor Big Tweedy Drive

The Mad Professor Big Tweedy Drive is a low-gain overdrive pedal that emulates the breakup of a vintage tweed amp. Announced in December 2016 and released in March 2017, it comes from Mad Professor, the Finnish effects maker whose range also includes the Little Tweedy Drive and the Sweet Honey Overdrive¹².

The pedal is built around the sound of the High Powered Twin, a high-watt amp known for producing sparkly cleans and clear low end even at high volume. Rather than simply distorting the signal, the Drive knob lets you dial in lower-watt breakup tones, as if the Twin had been fitted with a master volume knob³.

A tweed Twin in a pedal

Performer Mag's reviewer Chris Devine summed up the concept simply: "Mad Professor's Big Tweedy covers that big American tweed tone, without a lot of fuss"⁴. In his review he placed it as a low drive pedal, and found that with the drive maxed out "it seems to tap into that essence of a tweed amp's power amp section"⁴.

Pete Thorn, demoing the pedal on his YouTube channel in April 2017, described the character as "warm succulent awesome vintage Tweed tones that can be either slightly fuzzy or nice and smooth depending on where you" set the tone control⁵.

The Super Tweed mod

In May 2020, Mad Professor released a limited-edition version, the Big Tweedy Drive with Super Tweed mod, one of four modified pedals from the company's back catalog. Gearnews described it as "a tweaked circuit that gives you a tweed-style amp drive tone, with even more gain and more bass, without the tone getting too muddy or overwhelming"⁶.

The controls

The pedal keeps things to four knobs: Volume, Drive, Tone and Presence¹.

Devine noted that the Volume, Tone and Drive controls work in the usual fashion, while the Presence control "responds like the presence control on an amp, adding a bit more subtle top end that can add some needed sparkle"⁴.

How much gain, and how it works with a clean amp

Thorn characterized the pedal plainly: "it's a low gain Drive"⁵. That puts it in edge-of-breakup territory rather than distortion or fuzz. With an amp set essentially clean, Thorn showed that "you can get just a little hint of grind and a little bit more mid push and that kind of thing," while the sound stays basically clean in a band mix⁵.

For players comparing it against other Mad Professor drives, the company's range includes the Little Green Wonder Overdrive, the Simble Predriver and the Super Black Overdrive, alongside the smaller Little Tweedy Drive.

What reviewers said

Performer Mag's verdict listed "great tones, big sound" among the pedal's pros⁴. Pete Thorn, who knows the company well, called it "a terrific pedal from a maker of terrific pedals," saying of the Big Tweedy Drive: "they make terrific pedals this one's no exception"⁵.

Thorn's demo video walks through the pedal's range, from the hint-of-grind settings on a clean amp to the warm vintage tweed tones available with the drive up, and shows how the tone control shifts the character between slightly fuzzy and smooth⁵.

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