tonebender differences?

[caress]

can anyone describe the difference(s) between the various tonebender builds on the net?  i'm talking about the boutique bender, tonebender(s) on tonepad, ggg and fuzzcentral and the many mkI, mkII, professional, three-knob etc... available here.
i've built one (which i can't find the schem for now) which did NOT look like a boost into a fuzzface.  it was a three-knob, three-transistor dealie and sounded nice, but i'm just curious about the rest. 

[caress]

i guess i should specify some schematics here:

ggg si: http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/tonebender_m2p_sc_ns.gif
fuzzcentral -- vox ge: http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/vox.php
                    mkII ge: http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/mkII.php
                    3-knob ge: http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/mkII.php  (first schem is the one i built)
supa: http://eu11.stripper.jp/pulcino/blog/images/SupaTonebender.gif

there's probably a few more that i'm missing here...

[tcobretti]

I have built two Mk IIs, one Si and one Ge.  The Si was the one from GGG, and it was very nice but a little bit kazoo-like. The Ge is the Fuzzcentral Mindbender, and it is one of my absolute favorites.

I built a Mk I but never got it to work; I probly gave up too soon.  I haven't built a Mk III, but I suspect it will have much more gain/distortion than the Mk I or II. 

[petemoore]

  Basically a Fuzz Face shares circuit topology the two transistor Tonebenders let more feedback through the 47k [instead of 100k], smaller input and output caps on any amplifier stage [this is a two transistor feedback amp] of course cut more bass, value changes here and there alter the voicing.
  The 3 transistor tonebenders are higher gain, because there are two gain stages [an added booster in front], characterized by more intense, fuzzier tones, chewey-grindy chords, two knob tonebenders.
  The 3 knob tonebenders are a bit more of an overdrive distortion tone, very nice, more filtered/less intense than the MkII Professional Ge, My personal favorite which does the 'Good Times Bad Times' and 'You Shook Me' intros most convincingly, very fun and intense for playing leads with, the guitar volume cranked back a bit is where all the cool 'in-between' gain tones reside.
  The boutique Bender IIRC has input pre-gain knob [works like guitar volume, nice for pre-setting max input gain level].
  The Supa Tonebender is really about a BMP in disguise.
   Some mods for lowering the gain of the MkII Pro popped up here not long ago, IIRc it was lowering the feedback resistor and...slick mod with a pot I can't quite recall, dang memory...at any rate I use the knob and reduced gain switch settings..

[drewl]

After I found a few GE PNP's lying around I researched this very topic.
It seems the Tonebender MKII pro was the most sought after and elusive fuzz.
I bult one with a matched set of GE PNP's from small bear and (IMO) it is just an incredible sounding pedal.
Much more feel and depth and almost a 3D type sound than any other pedal I've built or played.

[Solidhex]

I've built the BYOC two knob bender (The SolaSound Tonebender MKII) and the GGG boutique bender. The BYOC one was ok (OC75's), had some of that Zeppelin tone I was looking for but overall lacked that sputtery texture I was looking for, same thing really with the Boutique bender (used 3 RcA and etco 2n404's). Sort of sounds like a run of the mill high gain fuzz/distortion with an exaggerated pick attack.
  I did some recording with a high end Tone Bender clone that I cannot remember the name of, one of those plain aluminum ones with the sort of brother p-touch stickers for labels, not the DAM one. That one had the tone I was looking for. Way fuzzy and sputtery. You can here it on the solo for "Crystal Ball" on this myspace page... www.myspace.com/braddavis . Of course I'd prefer to build one that has the tone I'm looking for. Anyone know what the most "sputtery" Tone bender is?

--Brad

[tcobretti]

One of the big brains around here, Frank Clark, recommended using a smaller feedback resistor in place of the 100k resistor between the base of Q2 and emitter of Q3. He recommended using a 10k to get a buzzier sound.  You could put a 100k pot in place of the resistor and see what difference it makes.

I haven't tried it yet.

[frankclarke]

. The tonebender MkI is sputtery, since it is based on the Maestro "bias it badly" principle. Pagey seemed to play fast to make up for the lack of sustain. Where the emitter goes to ground you can insert a 1k resistor to reduce gain and sustain, that is useful on the MKII (which is presumably designed to use up the low-gain trannies on the shelf).
This guy is spluttery: http://www.guitar-pedals-effects.com/Toneblender.html. So lo gain and bad biasing have their uses.
The 3-knob Ge is pretty versatile, the MKII is good for endless sustain. A Vox tonebender (Fuzz Face) with lo gain and bad biasing would be spluttery too.