Tone Bender MK1 Build Progression (Finally Finished and Happy with Tone)

[Merman]

Cool! Sound matches the look now

Yeah, the sizzle shouldn't be problematic at all with those specs. And the warm type transistor in q3. I'd guess you can pretty well dial it out on the attack knob if you want. To me, sizzle/crackle is a really cool part of the sound. I love the weird in this fuzz. Unless it's so much that it's just a distraction. There's weird and then there's gimmicky or annoying or just problematic noise. Removing it completely is like a major surgical operation though it seems, lol.

One set of mine I really like has (rounded hfe and leakage values) 65 and 250ua at q1, 115 and 190ua at q2, 90 and 115ua at q3. So, pretty similar to yours! My guitar isn't very tolerant of the squishy sound, so I gotta stay over 200ua at q1. The squish seems to work fine with your setup though. The smallbear q1 sounded pretty choppy.

It can definitely take a lot of time to really measure/sort transistors to a fine enough grading, especially with leakage, even when being pretty realistic about the accuracy of the measurements. it's a fun sort of borderline sane detective work though. Someday in the distant future, an advanced civilization of intelligent cats will discover one of our mki benders, bat it around a bit, determine it was used to test efficiency of heating systems, and then take a nap. (while the intern cats type the paper by walking across a keyboard.)

[fuzzymuff]

pigeon fx had a run of these boxes made to his specs. I know he sells reproduction PCB's but I have no idea if he resells the boxes. I guess it all depends on exactly how close it has to be. Im fine with frys price even @ $12. have you seen the prices on pedalenclosures.com? they want $29 a box!

Outrages isn't it for those enclosures..  I bet once the word as let out about Fry's enclosure, those may go up as well.    Yes, I'm fine with the Fry's enclosure as well, I picked up a couple over the weekend and some smaller versions to make a tone bender MK1 mini  Stay tune....

Oh here is my latest demo...I think I like how it sounds better on this one.

[Devius]

Dude, epic f*cking pedal! I love how it sounds!

[fuzzymuff]

Cool! Sound matches the look now

Yeah, the sizzle shouldn't be problematic at all with those specs. And the warm type transistor in q3. I'd guess you can pretty well dial it out on the attack knob if you want. To me, sizzle/crackle is a really cool part of the sound. I love the weird in this fuzz. Unless it's so much that it's just a distraction. There's weird and then there's gimmicky or annoying or just problematic noise. Removing it completely is like a major surgical operation though it seems, lol.

One set of mine I really like has (rounded hfe and leakage values) 65 and 250ua at q1, 115 and 190ua at q2, 90 and 115ua at q3. So, pretty similar to yours! My guitar isn't very tolerant of the squishy sound, so I gotta stay over 200ua at q1. The squish seems to work fine with your setup though. The smallbear q1 sounded pretty choppy.

It can definitely take a lot of time to really measure/sort transistors to a fine enough grading, especially with leakage, even when being pretty realistic about the accuracy of the measurements. it's a fun sort of borderline sane detective work though. Someday in the distant future, an advanced civilization of intelligent cats will discover one of our mki benders, bat it around a bit, determine it was used to test efficiency of heating systems, and then take a nap. (while the intern cats type the paper by walking across a keyboard.)

I hear you.  The guitar I used on the videos for the most part is a 2010 Gibson Les Paul Junior with P90 pickup.  I think it goes well with the mid/high tone of the TB MK1, both are mean sounding.  I will be making a few more of these great fuzz pedals, waiting on two orders of AC125 from eBay, a bag of 150 each.  They weren't kidding on much tweaking and time you have to put in building this fuzz pedal indeed.

[fuzzymuff]

Dude, epic f*cking pedal! I love how it sounds!

Thanks!!!

[Merman]

Those ac125s will keep you busy for sure! I was kinda hoping you'd get those. It's too late to get out now, you're in too deep! haha. Did you get them from the orpheus guy? I got the V and the VI at different times, took about 2 weeks each time for delivery. Mainly depends on customs I think.

I got one of the bigger Plano compartment boxes to sort by gain groups, and then I'll dig up the ones I want at the time to mark the hfe/leakage and put in a little bag (with whatever seems equivalent at the time). So basically... organization is still an issue for me, lol. But this way I can see the #s on the bag and hear the sound, etc.

[fuzzymuff]

Those ac125s will keep you busy for sure! I was kinda hoping you'd get those. It's too late to get out now, you're in too deep! haha. Did you get them from the orpheus guy? I got the V and the VI at different times, took about 2 weeks each time for delivery. Mainly depends on customs I think.

I got one of the bigger Plano compartment boxes to sort by gain groups, and then I'll dig up the ones I want at the time to mark the hfe/leakage and put in a little bag (with whatever seems equivalent at the time). So basically... organization is still an issue for me, lol. But this way I can see the #s on the bag and hear the sound, etc.

Yea, I got two orders from orpheus.  One bag with hfe from 50 to 100 and the other bag with hfe from 75 to 150.  I figure those will cover the tone bender hfe buckets for sure.  What are the difference between V and VI?  So two weeks for delivery to the States?  Hey, not a bad idea on using the Plano boxes.

[Merman]

The V is 50-100 gains and the VI is 75-125. Yeah, the higher gain bag won't have that much to offer for q1. So it's nice to have both. The V should give plenty for q1 (they turn up unlabeled on my work table sometimes. like pocket lint) and some good lower gain options for q3. The range for mine was more like 40-85 than 50-100. Still have some of those left to measure though. The higher gain bag I got was pretty much 75-125 (a few higher or lower). Leakage can vary a bit, although under 100ua is pretty much nonexistent so far in mine. I have a few misc type transistors that leak under 100ua in the q2/3 ranges, might try to get some more. Kinda curious to see the bottom for this circuit, if nothing else. You should find trios like the one you're using now without much trouble. And some variations that will sound different but just as cool.

It will definitely be nice to have a common reference point for discussing this stuff. I'm looking forward to it. I've only got my limited amount of gear and my limited amount of ears.

I'm definitely interested in trying one of those wedge enclosures like you've got. Right now I've got two Hammond 1590J boxes and two g10/gpo3 PTP boards drilled to put in them.

This one is a bit more than drilled:


Little further along than that now but too lazy to grab another pic, lol. I've got a plan for the sequence of steps to put it together. As always: "this plan is brought to you by Eventual Swearing. Eventual Swearing - because complications don't plan to avoid you."

[fuzzymuff]

Merman,

That's some impressive work there!!  Wow!!  What is that pcboard made of?  I can tell you are no newcomer to boutique pedal making, not with that kind of work in a long shot.  Would you have some demos of your work?  NICE!!! 

[Merman]

Hey thanks!

That board is gpo3, or the red swirl board from turretboards.com. I'd MUCH rather use something like paper phenolic or paxolin as in the originals, just to avoid any more glass dust. So I'm gonna look into something like that, maybe even pre cut.

This is my first attempt at PTP, but I had stared at enough pics/layouts to where it started to make sense. The really hard part (I'm guessing) is coming up soon, but to get to that point in the pic wasn't so bad. That Panavise thing is nice for stuff like that, too

Hopefully I can get this done in reasonable time (not always the case with me, lol) so I can have tips & such ready for anyone else who wants to do one up this way. It's pretty fun, even the glass dust didn't change that too much haha

[fuzzymuff]

Update:

Jeeze...I just got multiple offers on this particular build....  I guess I got lucky on the transistors I used on this build.  I used the smallbear generic tb mk1 transistor set, but ended up using two of the three.  A couple of people at my local guitar shop loved it and offered to buy it, but I turned all of them down.  Loving this tone bender, and I got lucky I guess.