How close is the BYOC MK2 Fuzz to the original Tonebender?

[Burstbucker]

I'm thinking of getting a BYOC MK2 Fuzz kit which is a knock-off of the 2-knob Tonebender, they include three OC75 transistors instead of the super-rare OC81 transistors found in the original Tonebenders(not sure if it matters though). 

I was going to try to buy a commercial Tonebender-clone but maybe this BYOC would be just as good as a lot of the "boutique" pedals out there, would you agree?  How close is the BYOC going to be next to the original Tonebender pedal?

Here's a link:
http://www.buildyourownclone.com/bender.html

[dosmun]

I haven't personally tried that pedal but most of the BYOC is pretty nicely done and is probably as good or better than any straight up boutique clone.

[Burstbucker]

Thanks for your response!

I might also consider getting my boxes locally and get the rest of my materials from Small Bear, I noticed that he has a set of transistors for the 2-knob Tonebender MKII and another set for the 3-knob Tonebender.  Would these sets of transistors be as good as what's found in the BYOC kits?  I noticed that the BYOC kits actually have OC75 transistors but I think that Small Bear's are random transistors that are tested and matched, so that they'll work together(probably just as good as the OC75?).

Getting the BYOC kit would be more expensive but easier because they include the PCB but Small Bear would be cheaper but I'm not sure if there would be a difference in sound since he's providing a different type of transistor.  Maybe there'd be no noticeable difference between the two pedals in a blindfold test?

[petemoore]

  'one aught, three of the other'...it's all mostly in the Leakage and Hfe.
  See GEO for exp. of how to choose transistors for FF.
  I'd use sockets and trimpot Q2's collector of the FF [the FF in the TB MkII pro]...that'd be Q3 of the TBMkII..and mess with the TB's I/O cap values, maybe add an adjustable LP Filter, that's just me...
  ...'which 'original TB'?...mine or Jimmy's?...they all sound different, I read how the early 'famous' ones got tweeked in the Sola building by their owners.

[JHS]

Without tweaking the trannies and the circuit is just a fortune to get a good sounding unit. Hfe is not all, trannies of the same type and the same hfe vary a lot in terms of frequency response, that the problem.

I was able to compare about a dozend RM FF at a bigger shop, every sounded different, from crap to usable but none of them were outragous or could outclass my DYI-FF clone.

BTW: You get a VOX reissue TB-II for less money, I think it's better to buy one and then to tweak it a bit, but trannie switching is a hard job and takes a lot of time. Even twiddling w the 3 trannies will give way different response and sound.

JHS