1968 SolaSound Tonebender Professional MKII clone -- guitar effect Demo -- I built it

This is a demo of my build of the 1968 SolaSound Tonebender Professional MKII fuzz box sold by Colorsound in the late 1960's-70's. I built this for my friend. This is a real custom made "beyond boutique" fuzz box that uses the rare, discontinued Philips OC75 germanium transistor (3 of them in fact). These transistors are 50 years old. They are scarce as hen's teeth. I managed to locate 10 of them from Germany. If you buy a Sola today it is not built with the original components because they are unobtainable. However, mine is built with the actual 1960's OC75 germanium transistors. If you wanted the authentic 1968 sound well without the authentic OC75 transistors you are pretty much SOL.

I think there ought to be a law against companies "reissuing" one of their classic effects pedals under the same name but inside it is a total redesign and sounds completely different. What if Ferrari said they were reissuing the 1968 365GTB/4 Daytona and you bought one and found out it was a fiberglass body stuck on a 2008 Mazda? See what I mean?

This is a fantastic sounding fuzz box with tons of wooly fuzz, octave effects, but the pick attack is still there. I am playing the same licks with many different settings of the box in the 2 speakers. If you like to hear melody and harmony I suggest listening to some of my many music videos -- however this here is a guitar effects demo.

To listen in -- S T E R E O -- type this at the end of the URL:
&fmt=18

or just click on this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNFDneLXkUk&fmt=18

Played on the 1975 Electra Super Rock 2245 guitar recorded directly into the Yamaha AW1600 Professional Audio Workstation.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• SolaSound
• Tonebender
• Professional
• MKII
• OC75
• germanium
• fuzz
• box
• guitar
• effect
• demo
• FX
• effects
• DIY
• BYOC
• 1975
• Electra
• Super
• Rock
• 2245
• AW1600
• Norcott
• wnorcott

[Icequeenxxx]

Isn't this a BYOC ESV 2-knob Bender?

[wnorcott]

@Icequeenxxx I bought the bare BYOC circuit board and used all my own parts

[eggman6]

Sounds a bit shitty, and theres nothing special about the oc75, you could easily substitute any other germanium transistor and get an equally good, or maybe even better sound, since tolerances varied alot.

If your clip demonstrated what was so special about these transistors, we're not missing out, it really sounds awful.

Although i suspect the awfulness is probably down to something else, since silicone transistors dont sound bad at all in the right circuit.

[wnorcott]

Thank you Simon Colwell. LOL. Well, there is no accounting for taste.

[SP221177]

Hi!

Can you show me a demo with the fuzz level/attak at "zero"?

Thanks...

[wnorcott]

Hi,

thanks for listening.

I am sorry but I built this for my friend who lives in Taiwan. I no longer have the pedal.

Bill

[Al112987]

This sounds like a can of bees, not the smooth sustain I'd expect from a Tonebender, the high notes are especially fizzy, how did you record this?

[searchin4music]

Pure Vintage Heaven! Awww Yeah Baby!

[RastafariPoet]

ZEPPELINNNNN

[MrBingo9er]

@Juckey2008 if you listen to proguitarshops review of the big muff pi ri it sounds about identical to his early tone ...i think Iommi used a rangemaster treble booster on the first album ,didnt he ?, i know he used one but im not sure when he started

[ureadmymind]

Hi,could someone answer this question who knows the answer.I bought a new Sola Sound Pro MK II Tone Bender from Colorsound that was made by them with D*A*M*.It's a exact replica/reissue,the original casing,everything.There is a clone of the same model that is made just by D*A*M* & it doesn't have the original casing.It's also used & it's selling for $800 on ebay.Is my pedal worth this much or more?I bought it for much less than $800.

[JaxMusicSupply]

I like it. Sounds like there are some octave harmonics coming in. Pretty cool.

[eggman6]

Ah, you're recording direct, thats never really going to work out amazingly good. I noticed you're using a BYOC kit, looks like they omit the 10nf capacitor to ground at the input which would help bleed off some of that treble.