Tone Bender is the name of several fuzzboxes. Macari's Ltd currently owns the Tone Bender trademark.[1] Korg used to own Tone Bender trademarks in the 1990s.[2][3]
Contents |
The first incarnation of the Tone Bender was a three transistor circuit based on the Gibson Maestro Fuzz-Tone. [4] Gary Hurst, a technician, began selling these in mid-1965. By September he was selling them through the Macari brothers' Musical Exchange shops.[5]
This version of the Tone Bender is a two transistor circuit, very similar to the better known Arbiter Fuzz Face.[4] It is essentially a negative feedback amplifier.
This successor of the original Tone Bender was available by February 1966. The electronics are contained in a sand-cast aluminum enclosure with sheet metal (steel) base plate. It was also simply called Tone Bender, but is now commonly referred to as the Tone Bender MKI.V
The MKII Tone Bender is a three transistor circuit,[4] based on the MKI.V version, but with an additional amplifier stage.
Sola Sound produced the circuit for Vox, Marshall and RotoSound as well. These units were named Vox Tone Bender Professional MKII, Marshall Supa Fuzz and RotoSound Fuzz Box.[6][7][8] In early 2010 another variant was discovered, called the Rangemaster Fuzzbug.[9]
The Sola Sound and Vox version used the same sturdy metal enclosure as the MKI.V version, but with different prints.
By November 1966 the pedal was being advertised in Beat Instrumental magazine.[10]
After being out of production for over 40 years, the Sola Sound Tone Bender Professional MKII is available again from Macari's since 2009.
This is was the first version of the Tone Bender to feature a tone control. It's a three transistor circuit that came in several different enclosures. It was available under a number of different names and brands, including Vox (Tone Bender MKIII), Carlsbro (Fuzz), Park (Fuzz Sound) and CSL (Super Fuzz).
The Supa Tone Bender is a four transistor circuit, based on the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff π.
The Jumbo Tone Bender is a three transistor circuit, based on the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff π. Sola Sound made this pedal under various names, in various enclosures and for various distributors. It can be found in a narrow Colorsound enclosure with the same graphics as the late germanium Tone Benders, a wide Colorsound enclosure with different Jumbo Tone Bender graphics, in some Vox MKIII Tone Benders, in a different thin enclosure rebranded as B&M (Champion) Fuzz, B&M Fuzz Unit, CMI Fuzz Unit, G.B. Fuzz, G.B. Fuzz Unit or Pro Traffic Fuzz Unit or in a smaller enclosure labeled as the Eurotec Black Box Fuzz Module. It was also part of the Colorsound Supa Wah-Fuzz-Swell.
The Vox Tone Bender is based on the same circuit topology as the MKI.V version. It was made for Vox by the Jen company in Italy.[4]
