Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Can all the vintage fuzz gurus tell me where to start to look for good affordable clones of all three of these models please.

Thanks to all

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

What are you calling affordable???

Truth is if you want quality pieces get ready to drop $250 or more on each one...

Also, why do you want all 3??

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

What are you calling affordable???

Truth is if you want quality pieces get ready to drop $250 or more on each one...

Also, why do you want all 3??

I do not want one of each, but i want to at least know who makes a good replica of each.

If i do not like the tonal character of the MKI, then i will try the MKII, and so on.
I am not over eager to pay more than $200.00 to be honest.

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

The BYOC MK II is pretty decent and it's priced pretty well...

BMF Effects has a smokin MK I for $200 but there are only 25 and last I heard he was down to 5...

MJM does a MK II but IMHO it's not very good...

Baja Tech does a MK 1.5 and a MK II both under $200 but neither are that great...

The Fulltone Soulbender is a semi MK III but they are hard to find, over $200 and again IMHO not very good...

The Prescription Electronics Yardbox is a MK II type with a tone control...like a cross between a II and a III they are pretty solid but not a dead on clone.

JMI makes all 3 but they are $350 or so a pop and very limited production...

D*A*M has done all 3 but the I's are VERY rare and will run you a grand...II's are $700 and III's are over $500

Skinpimp has done all 3 but those are $250 a pop on the low end...

Truth is for high quality dead on clones you have to get off the cash...

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

^ ^ ^ OUCH !!!

Thank you very much for the great info

Does ColorSound make anything decent ?

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

^ ^ ^ OUCH !!!
Thank you very much for the great info
Does ColorSound make anything decent ?

Colorsound makes (made?) a few cool things but only one real MK I, MK II, or MK III Tonebender and it's a MK II...they are actually built by Davin at D*A*M, are very limited production and are hard to get new and run about $600 give or take $100 used...

The facts are that Benders use 3 trannys, the trannys are hard to fine, hard to afford and have to be culled, tested and matched into trio's for proper useage.

On top of that Benders are still rather popular and ther eis a lot of hype around them.

Add to that that MK I's are VERY hard to build and bias.

It's a complex ordeal but it all leads up to cost...

There are a few other guys you might look into...

Lumpy's Tone Shop does some benders that run around $250-300 a pop I think...

Brad at Creepy Fingers does custom built to order fuzz boxes and Brad does do MK I, MK II, MK III even MK 1.5, MK IV, Supa, Maestro, etc but again they run around $300 a pop.

[Schappy]

Re: Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

they are so easy to build. You can get the schematic at fuzzcentral or general guitar gadgets.

You can get the transistors from smallbear.com.

I spent about 50 bucks to make mine.

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

Thanx for all the great info guys !


Keep em comming !

[some_dude]

Re: Tone Bender MK I, II, III clones.

I have a Fulltone Soulbender. From what I understand, like all Tonebenders they're pretty inconsistent from unit to unit. I don't know if mine is particularly good or particularly bad, but I do know that it works well for me.

To complicate things further, they're subject to capacitance bleeding both before and after the effect, so if you put a buffer before or after it it'll change the tone of the pedal.

Mine produces a bit of a boxy sound, like a Fuzz Face with way more mids. It doesn't clean up as well as a germanium Fuzz Face but it does clean up well and it can get more distorted than a Fuzz Face with a tighter response that allows for palm muting. I think it basically sits between a Fuzz Face and a Muff, only with way more midrange than either of those two pedals, which allows it to sit in a mix better. It more or less nails Page's Tonebender sound.

I'm not sure where they sit right now in terms of cost, but prior to the market cooling off I think I saw them going for around $250-280.