Tonebender?

[shawnee]

Hello guys, I am trying to get that 1973 live Jimmy page tone (biting crushing distortion). I have the Les paul, a good Marshall 100W clone, and a killer 4x12 but what about the fuzz?
1. Is a tonebender what I need?
2. If so, which version?
3. What kind of Tranny gains am I looking for?
4. Could I build an NPN version and use something like CV7112's?

[snz728]

Hey Shawnee I too have been chasing this tone since Bonzo died.
What do you think about this:

It has a silicon IC chip.  He makes things sound good in the video but I wonder about real life.
If I get a round to buying a CA3086 I might build one.

[shawnee]

Man that sounds pretty dang good Steve. I had never heard of this pedal so thank you for that. It isn't quite as crushing as Page's tone on "the ocean" live in 1973 but it's a pretty legit Page tone for sure. I may have to build this one too.

[timbo_93631]

There was a whole lotta trouble with that FX company over at FSB.  I personally wouln't buy one because of LK's attitude towards DIY builders/the whole FSB fiasco.  A Tonebender is what you are looking for, BYOC ESV 2 knob Bender was one of my first builds and it does that sort of tone very well.

[JakeFuzz]

Haha, yeah good ol' Lancey pants had to try and ruin it for everyone. I would stay away from retro channel's gear. You could build a "The Fuzz" yourself 

[shawnee]

Thanks for the warning guys. I found a nice schematic for an NPN 2 knob tonebender that I may build. I am exploring good tranny options at smallbear right now.

[snz728]

Is the Pastyface the same think as the MKII Page used (with a tone knob) or is it a different animal?
If so, how do people like the Pastyface? 
I'm debating about building that next or a Cosmopolitan.

[jkokura]

The Pastyface is essentially the Fulltone Soul Bender, which is essentially a Tonebender Mk3.

Worth building. It's my favourite Tonebender I've built. Though I'm about to get to try a buzz around (bumblebee).

Jacob

[timbo_93631]

Haha, yeah good ol' Lancey pants had to try and ruin it for everyone. I would stay away from retro channel's gear. You could build a "The Fuzz" yourself 

Ha! Lancey-pants...  I love it!

[shawnee]

Well I just traded a Dan Zink Bit-O-Honey(and $25) to Nick Sterling for his Retro Channel "The Fuzz". I am not having a lot of luck with my fuzz building for some reason (except for the Cosmopolitan which is AMAZING). Nick is really nice guy.

[juansolo]

Ah the Tonbender... A pedal of much contention. DAM are seen as turning out the best 'real' tonebender clones. It was all about the OC81D aparenetly, until he ran out of usable ones of those, I think now he's using the OC84... Filled with mojo goodness on vero.

The thing is, he certainly makes them well, and I've just knocked an OC84 one together using his layout and mojo components and it's shockingly good... Which irritates me. Much better than the BYOC one I made back in the past. I suspect a lot of it comes down to snagging good trannies in a good range with little leakage. These seems to be a good rule of thumb anyhow:

Q1 - 70-85hfe
Q2 - 70-85hfe
Q3 - 110-140hfe
Leakage below 200uA

If you want to make a silicon tonbender, the Doug Hammond's Hot Silicon is the way forward. Brilliant fuzz. Responds well to different transistors also. Barry does a board for it or you can make it on vero. Works nice with a SHO following it also which thickens it up nicely. As a bonus, it doesn't need temperature protection...

[cjkbug]

There was a whole lotta trouble with that FX company over at FSB.  I personally wouln't buy one because of LK's attitude towards DIY builders/the whole FSB fiasco.  A Tonebender is what you are looking for, BYOC ESV 2 knob Bender was one of my first builds and it does that sort of tone very well.

the esv bender was the 1st pedal I ever built. and it is a fantastic sounding project. tons of output, and has a edgier dirtier grind to it, compared to a mkIII variant.

[snz728]

Did some fuzz building last week: another run at the neutrino which always gives me trouble, a retrobush fuzz and mictesters silicon fuzz but won't test them for a while because I'm short some pots, one resistor, and most importantly time.

Shawnee how do you like the retro channel fuzz?

[shawnee]

I don't have it yet.  He is shipping tomorrow so it will probably be towards the end of the week when  I get t. I will report back when I get it.

[Bret608]

A lot of the online buzz suggests Page wasn't using a Tonebender at all by '73, particularly live. People who spend lots of time discussing such matters (think TGP!) say he had mods done to his Marshalls to incorporate some kind of top end boost such as he had gotten from the preamp on the Echoplex. See the Lumpy's Tone Shop '73 Boost for more info.

But a Tonebender is a hell of a lot more fun, isn't it?    For me, I'd prefer start with a good fuzz since I'll never have access to Page's modded amps anyway. I got a Ghost Effects Buzzaround over the summer and actually found I could get great tones for "Communication Breakdown"--granted, it's in that Tonebender family, but you get the idea. If the particular piece of gear gets you "there" and you're having fun no matter whether a particular player used it, you're on the right track!

Wow, I had too much coffee this morning or something! Sorry for the punditry. Good luck on your build--I'd love to try out one of the Small Bear tranny sets at some point as well...