Taming a 3 Knob Tonebender

[TEPR]

Hi guys-
Just created this account, so this is my first post.

I am back to fiddling with circuits a little bit after 15+ years hiatus from all things guitar-related. I'm a total novice, but 16-18 years ago I built a 3 knob Tonebender with 3 x NTE158 germaniums. I forget whose schematic I used, but it does have the diode in there. Geo? AmZ? These sites vaguely ring old bells in my mind.

The perf board and wiring work looks like total garbage (bet I didn't even measure or bias the transistors), but the pedal sounds amazing. In fact, a player, songwriter, producer friend of mine used it on a recent record.

However, since part of this thing's magic is its warmth and musicality, I am wondering what I can do to reduce the gain.
I feel like it could also be pleasant at lower fuzz settings (a la Colorsound Overdriver's range), but as it stands now, the Fuzz knob goes from Very Fuzzy to Extremely F'ing Fuzzy.

I have done some searching on various forums, but have come up empty.

I want to mod it so it can go lighter on the fuzz, but have the highest fuzz/gain settings be about where they are now. Not looking to swap out transistors really, or otherwise mess with the tone, since everything is so right about it as-is.  I'm hoping it could be something simple like a larger value pot and a few resistor tweaks.

Any tips, links, previous threads appreciated!

Thanks
-T

[robthequiet]

If the pedal has mojo, the gain is part of it's personality, so I would approach with caution.

You could start with putting a graphic equalizer in front of it and use its output level to control the TB input signal, and be able to tailor the tone with the graphic to back off the fuzzier frequencies but still dial in some oomph, so you still use the guitar at full output without invoking too much chaos.

Maybe after such a long time the pedal-making force has awoken? You might consider building another pedal for a backed-off sound, and use this one on the straightaways...

[ghostsauce]

If turning down the guitar volume sounds nice, you could install a pot before the circuit in that lets you reduce the signal going in. And you could slap a treble bleed cap on there if you find you want some more highs as you roll it off. Then you could still dime that knob and get all the tone it currently gives.

[Kipper4]

post deleted
Posted in the wrong thread ooops

[TEPR]

Thanks for the ideas so far!

[lars-musik]

About a year ago, I bAbiut a year ago, I built a three knob Tonebender (together with a Rangemaster and a Big Muff in one enclosure) and this one even has a "Tame"  switch.

I made the Q1 bias resistor (usually 10K) switchable (had to deduce it from a photo I took back then because a hard drive crash last November took my built notes with it). First, I hooked up a pot to determine a pleasant value and then I used a SPDT to switch between the new value and the stock 10K. It makes a very nice overdrive in the "tame" setting and a real fuzz in the stock setting.  Maybe you could try it.
Here's the beast (again):