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Recommend me a Tone Bender fuzz
- Thread starter greatmutah
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greatmutah
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For a Modern Twist with all the Special Sauce I have to suggest the Basic Audio Scarab Deluxe.
I think it is one of the best Modern Fuzzes out there. No one makes anything like it. Dead silent.
Stone cold deafening. Fat. Thin. Brash. Infinite sustain. It's kind of bonkers what it can do.
Legendary in my book.
You almost never see any Used ones for sale, which is telling.
That thing looks sweet. I may have to partake.
It's not a Bender by any means but I've also been looking at OBNE's Alpha Haunt and that thing looks disgusting for what it can do as a fuzz.
Dave Lewis
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The shop has moved from London to Haywards Heath in Sussex.
A History lesson
A History lesson
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SillyOctpuss
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This bit is an absolute lie from Warm Audio. There are germanium transistors in there but they are generic unbranded Chinese units and not NOS OC75s. Mullard OC75s sell for about £25 each these days and finding enough of them in the right gains and leakage to make the numbers Warm Audio are making isn't possible.
Those are not Mullard OC75s.
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D
Deleted member 1726
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Warning: Long post, including some history on NOS Ge x-sister fuzzers...
When the Warm Bender Fuzz announced & I saw the build *ad*, I knew immediatly it was
B$, lies & hype...Then when the gut shot was uploaded to T.O.P. it was confirmed those "NOS OC75" x-sisters were
fake.Without a doubt those are purposely unbranded metal can TO1 transistors (wrong package for OC75) & since it's Warm Audio they're probably brand new "NOS" from Chy-nah (DSI Repros?)
Of course there's no shortage of gullible morons ready to *believe* a shysters that's widely known for ripping off packaging, trade marks/dress from other manufacturers
Anyone that's paid attention to the vintage fuzzer game over the last 25+ years, even a lil' bit, knows the story ~ Only the uninformed would believe a stash of OC75s *suddenly* appeared like *magic* somewhere, somehow, in some rando warehouse ~ Why of course those greedy hordes of dedicated/experienced/skilled vintage fuzz pedal masters missed it! (Castledine, D*A*M, Pigdog, Analog.man, Williams, Jimmy Behan et al.)
It must have been karma!
Reality is, that a production run like the Warm $hit Bender would require 10s of 1000s of "NOS" x-sisters located, sorted out & "NOS" x-sister stock became more-or-less *unobtanium* a decade+ ago, *plus* real vintage *NOS* germanium transistors are inconsistent, to say the least, especially *NOS* Mullard parts.
Note: The *master* builders have been stocking up/hoarding NOS OC75s since the 90s, dumping *FAIL* parts on eBay, here & there
Now you know where a *lot* of NOS x-sisters *suddenly* appeared from for those Build Your Own Clone et al. builds...
Even ol' Mike Fuller ran into the *unobtanium* wall when he geared up for the 69' fuzz, switching over to repro NKT275s for production...
It's also what killed the Lumpy's, after he got caught relabeling x-sisters for NOS cred, by one of the *masters* (there's other frauds out there, but I'm gonna stop there)...
When I saw the T.O.P. El Cheapo Brigade getting aroused among themselves, over the Warm $hit Bender, I sat back & let the circle jerk rip!
I stopped "contributing" on The Gear Page right after the COVID vax stupidity hit ~ Have to admit a bit of schadenfreude thinking about how one day all those new T.O.P. Reddit kiddies will figure-out (maybe) how they got snookered, some right after they actually plug into a *real* OC75 tone bender, built by One Of The Masters
Note: the OC76 x-sisters are probably real, as they aren't highly sought after & *very* different from OC75/OC81/NKT275 et al. ~ A "properly" built fuzzer can sound good-to-great with different x-sisters (a lot of factors involved), maybe even Tone Bender-ish, but they will *not* sound like properly sourced & sorted *real* NOS Mullards/New Market NKTs.
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dronerstone
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Tone Bender? This unit, of all things?
Sorry for asking, but are you sure you aren't talking about the OG Maestro FZ?
maguchi
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Not the OG Maestros, those are a little hard to come by these days. My dad had a original Maestro FZ what I tried when I was a kid. The current version of the FZ-M with the toggle switch in the classic mode sounds pretty close to what I recall the original Maestro Fuzz sounding like. They do have a modern mode too. I liked it so I bought a second one for a backup. Play one in a store, and check it out.
Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-M | Vintage Guitar® magazine
Can’t get no satisfaction from your fuzz pedal? Step back to the source, with Maestro’s new Fuzz-Tone. The FZ-M is modeled on the world’s first production fuzz pedal – the Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1, launched in 1962 and made justly famous by Keith Richards. Suddenly, fuzz became a must-have flavor...
www.vintageguitar.com
Like I said in my first post the Tonebender was designed to emulate the original Maestro FZ-1 so the lineage is there.
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dronerstone
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Btw, these might have been discontinued - at least they weren't going well, and somehow vanished from Thomann's stock, which is usually a sign, at least over here in EU. All they have left is the Titan Boost.Not the OG Maestros, those are a little hard to come by these days. My dad had a original Maestro FZ what I tried when I was a kid. The current version of the FZ-M with the toggle switch in the classic mode sounds pretty close to what I recall the original Maestro Fuzz sounding like. They do have a modern mode too. I liked it so I bought a second one for a backup. Play one in a store, and check it out.
View attachment 45115Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-M | Vintage Guitar® magazine
Can’t get no satisfaction from your fuzz pedal? Step back to the source, with Maestro’s new Fuzz-Tone. The FZ-M is modeled on the world’s first production fuzz pedal – the Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1, launched in 1962 and made justly famous by Keith Richards. Suddenly, fuzz became a must-have flavor...
Like I said in my first post the Tonebender was designed to emulate original Maestro FZ-1 so the lineage is there.
Dave Lewis
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If you just want a bit of Keith ?
The Electro Harmonix Satisfaction is still an excellent pedal that can be had new for less than £40 now days.
There is now a Mk2 version but I’ve not heard one yet.
The Electro Harmonix Satisfaction is still an excellent pedal that can be had new for less than £40 now days.
There is now a Mk2 version but I’ve not heard one yet.
dronerstone
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The "Plus" version is definitely the way to go. I had a JHS modded original, and liked it much better on bass guitar. I can only imagine it's barely usable without any mods. Very limited one-trick pony, imho.
There's way cooler stuff out there, believe me.
maguchi
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Sweetwater, Guitar Center, American Musical Supply, and Chicago Music Exchange still got them here in the US.
