Best Sounding Tone Bender?

[Arn C.]

Hey All,
  Just wondering opinions on best sounding tone bender easiest build?

Also, best trannies and do they need to be certain HFE or matched?

Thanks a bunch!
Arn C.

[Bernardduur]

I completely ADORE my Tone Bender MKII Prof. clone I build. It is, in my ears, the best fuzz I've heard in a long time. The best part is the fact that it responds really good with the volume knob; at full settings only small changes are hearable between the different settings of the attack knob. When you turn down the volume knob the pedal begins to differ a lot and a wide tonal spectrum is usuable.

I build it with matched Ge transistors (I found them in an old radio; I've let the radio shack match them). I heard that for other tone bender clones the matching is of lesser importance but I don't know. Without matching my tonebender sounds like **** (I tried with the others). I also matched the voltage flow by trimpot (check the mindbender version on fuzzcentral):

http://fuzzcentral.tripod.com/benderII.html

Enjoy!

[MartyMart]

I agree, tonebender MKII pro with matched trannies = AWESOME !
It's my most used fuzz, I love it !
Q2/Q3 were a matched FF pair from steve
Q1 has hfe of 58 - works a treat.

Marty.

[jmusser]

I believe it's Fuzz central that has all the different Tone Bender sound samples with all the different transistor configurations. It seems like I've read on here that you really can't get the best out of germanium transistor builds, without playing through a tube amp. Is there some truth to that?

[petemoore]

The Tonebender stages 2 and 3 are a FF, so it's a FF with a 3rd transistor.
 Personal experiences influenced by preference for tube amps aside, the article at GEO on FF's and Rangemaster explain why I got less than desirable results using a Ge device on a SS amp that sounded superb into a tube amp.
 Beyond that I never messed with Ge's into SS amps. Some say they work great.
 I do use Ge Rm'sters  or FF's into say a non inverting or inverting circuit between the Ge's and the Tubes to a great satisfaction, I don't see why the FF tone [or parts of it with the usual 'enhancement' or 'undesirables' that go with..] running FF into booster or TS or ...then into a SS amp ?
 Whatever I have a FF circuit in the chain the tone/sound is always 'facey', especially during the attack portion, cleanup at guitar may be diminishes somewhat, but intense FF and TB type tones can be had with 'something else' between the FF and the amp, I see no reason why a circuit couldn't be chosen as a good interface between a FF and an SS amp.

[Steben]

I guess a good clean MOSFET boost set at low boost (= kind of a buffer) or some JFET Fetzer valve stuff can actually upgrade any SS amp.

[B Tremblay]

I believe it's Fuzz central that has all the different Tone Bender sound samples with all the different transistor configurations.

http://home-wrecker.com/tbmk2sounds.html

[jmusser]

Sorry about that. I had a 50/50 chance from memory, and I went with Fuzz Central since they do have several of the different Tone Bender Schematics. You guys did an awful lot of work with the different configurations, and the different sound samples for those configurations, and are to be commended! I'd be hard pressed to be any happier with a germanium version, then I am the Si version of the Tone Bender MKII, but I'll probabaly build one sometime, since that's supposed to be the one that all others are compared to.