Tonebender Professional MKii

[pryde]

Here is my TB MKii. Built with PNP OC75's (matched from SB) and a board from guitarpcb. I breadboarded and tried variations of the circuit (i.e. marshall superfuzz, vox, specs) and came back to the Solasound specs. The pcb offers a trimpot for Q3c and I have it biased at 5.7v and its sounds just awesome. I used mainly CC resistors, and axial caps for some mojo-ish vibe. Also, tucked under is a Road rage to convert the voltage.

Big props to Haberdasher for making me a stellar face plate  The enclosure is PPP silvervein. Extremely stoked with how this one turned out. Never got on well with my 3-knob soulbender but this thing just crushes.



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[jalmonsalmon]

Very nice!
Those are imo one of the best fuzz pedals.
I made one on vero board using sb oc75s with the mojo parts and just love it. I also settled on the professional Mk II version and am satisfied with sb transistors!


cheers!

[JakeFuzz]

Definitely one of my favorites as well. Great looking build! This thing gets the gnarliest sounds, have you testing rolling the guitars volume knob back? That is my favorite thing about the MKII, great overdrive tone at low volume setting.

[jubal81]

Man, that is solid. Looks just like a Tonebender should. Nice one!

[jalmonsalmon]

Yeah definitely need to roll back the guitar vol and test her out if you have not already!
I get a nice clean overdriven tone from mine with a Stratocaster that would put a smile on Jimi's face
hehee!

[midwayfair]

I love the copper on silver look and the metallic knobs. Extra classy looking.

Overall reminds me of Basic Audio.

[pryde]

Thanks for the comments. For sure the sweet range of this circuit is between 25-75% of the guitar vol. I primarily finger-pick which can get a bit to round and muddy at full-tilt so I am always on the volume knob.

I just love having this in addition to my germanium FF. Massive amounts of tonal spectrum covered with these two classics. 

[lincolnic]

I'm with Jon, that's a super classy build.

[Scruffie]

Lovely build, wish some of mine came out that nice once in a while.

Big fan of the TBMKII as well, quite a low collector voltage from the norm but if you're diggin' it!

[jtn191]

sweet build! I was just messing around with mine today...
First time I played around with biasing, it changed the "raspiness" of the fuzz but then the 2nd time, it mostly changed the volume/clipping threshold.

How does yours react?

[Scruffie]

sweet build! I was just messing around with mine today...
First time I played around with biasing, it changed the "raspiness" of the fuzz but then the 2nd time, it mostly changed the volume/clipping threshold.

How does yours react?

I'm a big advocate of having a Q2 collector trim to set the 'main' bias and using a Q3 one to smooth things out, it seems to like it better that way.

Sure your volume knob wasn't set differently or something? Or the trannies were still warm/got colder later?
Lower down and higher up V settings can have that effect as you misbias it but it shouldn't happen throughout the range.

[jtn191]

cool I'll try that.
pretty sure that's how it was. t'was strange...maybe the second time the trimpot was only 10k

[raulduke]

That is a fine build sir!

Good work!

A TBMk2 was one of the first pedals I built (BYOC) kit, and it slays. Its such an aggressive, 'raspy' fuzz; a nice contrast to Fuzz Faces etc.

[Bret608]

I agree with Jon that this has a great Basic Audio, John Lyons kind of look. I can see why you're happy with this one!

[pryde]

I wasn't familiar with Basic Audio but it does look sorta like some of his builds after checking them out.

Many sources recommended a Q3c voltage of ~4.5 although I read the originals where higher. I started at 4.5 and went up from there and started finding it sounding good at about 5.7v. I will still continue to bias it at louder volumes so we will see where I end up. What Q3c bias was the originals at?

Basically mine gets more raw, raspy and more gated as the Q3c voltage is increased

Also, I may at some point play with Q2 bias but for now it is really sweet.