Fulltone Soul-Bender

If You Can't Get A F****** Awesome Sound Out Of This Pedal You Don't Know S*** About Guitar Sound, Or Your Not Using Your Volume Control!

Any Way You Set The Knobs On This Effect It Sounds Great!

Sweet! I Got Sounds I'd Been Wishing For Since I had Started Playing. Beautiful Lead Sounds! Creamy Smooth, Harmonic Sounds. When I First Got It, I couldn't Hardly Put My Axe Down! Back Off Your Guitar Volume and It Gets a Spectrum Of Other Sounds. It Cleans Up Nicely Too. It's Also Very Quiet.
The GERMANIUM TRANSISTORS Give This Jewel Its Sweet Tone. Tony Iommi, Richi Blackmore, David Gilmoore, and Brian May, all used veriations of Germanium Circutry To Get There Classic Sounds. The Cat Is Out Of The Bag and This Circut Is Back In The Spotlight!

Very Well Made! True Bypass, AC Adapter or Battery Opperated.

Don't Know

An Expensive Device At $160.00, But Well Worth The Money!
I've Been Playing Over 40 Years and I Am A Profesional, I Was On RoadrunneR Records. I Love Metal/Hard Rock & Hedrix, Stevie, Trower!

Deluxe Strat W/Rio Grand PU - Charvel W/EMG 81 Active PU - BC Rich Mockingbird W/Seymour Duncan Distortion & Screamin Demon
Marshall Amplification W/ Vintage 30Celestions Cab.
Worked Well With My Other Effects: Boss SD-1, Boss Metal Zone, EH Electric Mistress, DimeBag Cry Baby From Hell Wah

Easy as can be.....

This thing sounded alright, i guess....nowhere near as advertised....this "creamy" tone everyone speaks of was rather harsh and not very usable....it had one sound and one sound only ...very "tinny" sounding, i may have purchased a dud.....I know its a fuzz and its not supposed to be nice, but it lacked any "smooth" quality whatsoever...i found a soviet big muff to sound much more "wooly" fat and creamy than this...i play fender guitars (i used a tele and a strat to test it)through fender amps...maybe a marshall would do it more justice, i dont know...

I own like 5 or 6 Fulltone pedals and they have all been extremely reliable....

never had to deal with them....although when i returned it to the local guitar shop,where i have spent a few grand , i was met with some apprehension...i made the mistake of buying into the hype of most of the reviews hear and a few word-of-mouth reviews...and also of not trying it out in the store.....then again....it always sounds different playing with a band than it does at the store....so whatever....its always a trial and error scenario on the endless quest for tone..../

Of course bear in mind this is just my opinion....but from reading all these reviews you'd think this pedal would turn any shmoe into the next Jimi Hendrix , Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton....Ive been playing almost 25 years and have toured the U.S. playing professionally.....i play alot of styles and dig vintage tones...i have a plethora of boutique pedals, and actually found the Keeley Fuzz Head to be much more usable and versatile fuzz..( check out one of those as well as the Java Boost if you dig vintage tones)... , therefore blowing the Soulbender away....at least as far as my needs go....i wouldnt discourage anyone from trying one of these out...it may work with your current set up, hell it could be just the thing to jettison you into guitar God-dom....but to be brutally honest ,often times i find alot of these reviews to be more of a justification to gloat over blowing large sums of cash on overhyped products...

At first it seemed pretty easy to deal with, and then it just got easier as everything about this pedal is great, after listening a lot of possibilities I finally found my setting, and this was hard once all settings had an unique sound and added a special blend to my overall tone, very impressive! Manual very simple and helpfull to get started, but once you mess around with it for a minute or so you??ll pretty much have your answers. I give it an eight because of the trim pot inside the pedal, I know it??s a special feature and I??m very pleased with the results of it, but it??s a pain to remove the plate and leave all the parts hanging while you tweak it.

This is where it all comes down to, no matter how hard you try, there are just no possibilities of going wrong on this one. At first it seemed very brittle, not in the bad way, very frampton like, and hey it??s a fuzz, that??s what you??re supossed to hear from it, it has a very classical tone to it, brilliant! But the real magic is when you turn the guitar??s volume down, it cleans up very nicely and creams everything in your way, literally CREAM! I decided to leave the volume at 12 o??clock, tone at 1 o??clock and dirt at 1 as well, works great for me, once I wanted silky solos and I use it in front of a sparkle drive to give it even more body, what a set up. I??m using it with a lp std loaded with seth lovers, and didn??t tried it with my original V??846, but I??m sure it will do the job just right. What I really like about it is that despite all of its rage and power, it is very quiet and when it??s off it really is off. I definatelly found the right fuzz for me and recomend it to anyone trying to get the best out of your equipment, regarding vintage tones, and more than that when I tweak the tone knob all the way CCW it gives me a very modern sound, wich really shows its versatility.

Built like a tank, very thick layer of paint, everything put very well together, like anything I??ve ever seen on a pedal. Would definatelly gig without a backup.

Never dealt with them and hope I??ll never have to.

I play a lot of stuff, funk, blues, classics. When used properly and well set goes with anything, wich is a great feature for a fuzz, the other ones I tested really didn??t fill this much gaps. Would definatelly buy another one if lost or stolen, it??s the best fuzz that ever came my way, all the qualities on its sound make it really a must have and I think I wouldn??t sound complete without it. Very inspirational and very enjoyable to play with, makes want me to get out of work just play with it.

It took me quite a while to figure out how I use this pedal best. I was looking for a special kind of artificial dirt that brings more life into my sound and a variation for the non-everyday tunes. I ended up turning the tone fully counter clock wise and putting dirt and level both at noon position.

The fact that it has inverse polarity for the power supply is annoying as my trex fuel tank doesn't support the two polarities.

Wow! Wow! Wow! As mentioned before it took me a while as i was mainly playing the pedal through the clean channel of my amp. However now I am running it Guitar=>SoulBender=>RMC3Wah=>BognerShiva.

It is awesome, especially with the Wah BEHIND the Fuzz, there are SO MANY awesome sounds available. I can easily do violin like fluid leads with endless sustain or mega dirt filter like sounds with chords that scream when I crank the Wah. As mentioned before I close the tone pot (which means full treble) and put the dirt and level at noon, into a pretty much overdriven amp.

This is absolutely addictive!!

Seems sturdy and built like a tank. I'll tell you more in 10 years.

I play rock of all sorts, from Dire Straits through to Metallica. Mainly I am in the Zep ballpark, or try to be :o) Played guitar sine 17 years with interruptions. I own many many pedals, guitars and amps. Currently I only do SoulBender, RMC3 Wah and an MIAudio CrunchBox as well as a bit of delay in the loops (Lexicon). I have found a very good setup that I don't intend to change. If this pedal was lost I'd get another one. In fact I might get another one anyway.

I wish it would have the same polarity as most other pedals. And I wish the case was smaller. Other than that, nothing else needed.

Three knobs: one for volume, one for tone, and one for fuzz. Came with a letter-size sheet of paper for "instructions". No manual needed. Very easy to dial in a great fuzz tone. But like all fuzzes, they reward extra time spent dialing in. As fuzzes go, it's very easy.

I usually use only Strats and Teles with fuzz, playing them through a Fender Blues Jr., Germino Custom 6, Germino Classic 45, Matchless Lightening, Marshall 18 watt, or Peavey Delta Blues.

I added this to my fuzz collection because I've been obsessed with fuzz lately. I had just picked up a D*A*M 1966 and wanted to see if this fuzz gave me a different but equally raspy type of 60's fuzz (thinking Clapton with Cream, early Beck and Page, etc.). I already have both the Fulltone 69 and 70 fuzz pedals.

The Soul Bender does a very wide range of fuzz tones and is very quiet, especially for a fuzz. With the tone knob fully counterclockwise, the Soul Bender gives up a raspy type fuzz. Just what I was looking for. Full clockwise, the tone is woofier and more full sounding. I like both tones really. I also like running this with the fuzz at minimum sometimes, as it gives up a grainy type of fuzz that is right for some situations. It doesn't clean up as well with the guitar's volume knob as the 69 does, but does a better job at this than the silicon 70 Pedal.

Overall, I'm surprised at how much I like this fuzz. It's way more versatile than I would've imagined. Compares very favorably to the D*A*M (which cost nearly twice as much) for raspy tones and does some nice Jimi flavors as well.

I would've given this a 10 except for it not cleaning up as well as I'd like.

I have numerous Fulltone pedals. I've only had problems with my Fat Boost not being able to take batteries (I think this was a manufacturing flaw). All my Fulltone's are solid; they feel like quality pieces of gear. The knobs on the Soul Bender are tough to turn, but in a good way. Footswitch is solid. Finish is excellent. I can depend on this pedal, as I can my other Fulltone pedals.

When my Fat Boost went out, I was issued a return authorization quickly by Fulltone. I shipped it back with a $10 check for return shipping. The pedal was back to me in about a week and their tech emailed me asking me to let him know when received. Very cool. I've had good and not-so-good experiences with Mike, but I'd say my experience getting the Fat Boost fixed brings the rating up a few notches.

I play classic rock from the 60's and 70's mostly, with lots of blues and Hendrix and Clapton. I've been playing for over 20 years and have gigged (but not this year). My equipment's already been listed. This pedal is perfect for this kind of music. Inspirational tone in my book. I'm very glad I picked this one up. It's a great addition to my fuzz collection. A little pricier than standard gear, but Fulltone gear is a cut above.

Takes me around nearly 5 hours of playing to find the sound i was looking for. Need to tweak the internal trim to reduce the gain.
In a certain way it's a good point, it shows that this pedal is a true tone machine !

I bought this unit to catch a king of Led Zep sound, like in The Royall Albert Hall DVD.
After tweaking the internal trim, i finally get a good sound.
This thing takes really care of your guitar natural soud. Very sensitive to pickup change, and variations from tone knob.
Here's my setup: Fender tele / Gibson LP > SoulBender > Vox Wah > Marshall Bluesbreaker ri. Works well with all my gear.

But i just wished it could clean up more precisely when you roll of the volume knob. It also wish it hab more headroom, it lacks of bass (just a bit)

It's a Fulltone so ...

Ask em some questions, they replied very quickly.

Well well, it a really good fuzz pedal. Works well to play 60's rock n roll and alson a bit of stoner rock :)

This pedal sounds a lot better than the crapy SoulBender ri. I previously owned a Fuzz Face ri / RM Axis Fuzz / RM clasic fuzz / Solasound Tonebender ri / DOD classic fuzz / EH Big Muff ... and this pedal burry them all.

But i dont know if i will keep it for a long time, i think replacing by by a D*A*M MKII in a few months ..

pretty damn east

three knobs....

but finding a spot that suits u-- with the tone and fuzz...can be tricky...it seems to frequently change for me.

I've played an original vox tone bender-- it sounds awesome
the fulltone sounds awesome too...but not the same

I like it equally with single coils or humbuckers....sounds cool with my les paul-- thick an meaty....with my tele..it's a lil more searing..really cool too

they're verys similar...a lil different...but equally cool.

I'd rather play out with a fulltone-- more reliable (cause it's new)

I'd rather record with an original

fulltone..awesome

I play blues... a lil rock on ocassion...it's awesome
I like it...original has a lil more appeal...I played a BSM fuzz...it's a lil but..but it's 300 bucks...and when I say a lil better..I mean marginally

fulltone products are great though

I play a 62 AV Custom Tele, a Les Paul with seth lover pickups...a silverface deluxe reverb with an alnico blue speaker.

my pedal are three fulltones: tonebender...dejavibe 2 and clye wah

don't use them all them time..but those are the three pedals I own.

Tonebender is an integral part to my tone...love it.

This is one hell of a pedal. It should be, considering the price tag. But, for true-bypass with fulltone quality, you'll have to dig into your wallet. It's well worth it though. Anyway, this little baby has an internal pot switch that you can tweak with to determine the amount of gain or fuzz that you would like. That makes it exceedingly versatile. The "volume," "tone," and "dirt" controls are incredibly responsive. You'll have trouble getting a bad sound out of this pedal, no matter what setting it's on.

I am currently using this pedal with a fender hot rod deville 4x10, a fender american standard strat, a brian moore i1 electric guitar, and a 2002 electro harmonix memory man (missed the true bypass model by a couple of months). I always put this pedal first in my pedal chain because it is true bypass. I also leave the memory man on all the time to provide a minescule amount of echo a la eric johnson (this also serves to negate the lack of true bypass switching from the memory man). I always put the drive and tone contols to the max. By adjusting the internal trimmer, you can make this pedal sound like an all out fuzz pedal. However, I actually rolled the internal switch down slightly to get a thicker, cleaner tone, reminescent of Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin 1 and 2. Yeah, I know, you're thinking "how could this pedal sound like Jimmy's tricked out 150 watt marshall through a fender amp?" Well, trust me, the tone through humbuckers is killer. This thing provides thick, syrupy lows and mids. It has a real "woman tone" quality about it. I needed this pedal because I absolutely hate the stock distortion sound of the deville. The distortion channel sounds hollow, has very little sustain, and is voiced way too high on the trebles and mids. I bought the fender amp because I had a last second gig to play, and my main amp, a lemon of a tsl 122 that spent more time in the shop than it did on stage, fizzled out. And, to my ear, the deville offered better clean sounds than the marshall, with slightly better classic rock tone. Anyway, when I got into a band setting and cranked the amp, I was not completely satisfied with the tone. So, I checked out the fulltone ocd, and the soul bender. The soul bender has the thickest sound I have ever heard out of a pedal. I am absolutely in love with it. The next amp I buy will only have one channel, because I am going to use this pedal for my distortion sound. It is incredible. It makes single coils on a strat sound like a humbucker, and it makes hot humbuckers squeal. I love it. It's not for everyone, but if you want a sound similar to page on Led Zeppelin 1 and 2, or if you want to have tones like Hendrix on the BBC sessions, this pedal is for you. Oh, a word about noiseness. If you turn the internal trimmer to its highest setting, it will have lots of background noise. However, if you keep it on the stock settings, or even turn the trimmer down, you will find it to be virtually noiseless. Oh, and before you start cranking this pedal, make sure your amp can handle the low end. I cranked my 60 watt deville at a gig and I blew a fuse. It just couldn't handle the lower frequencies of this pedal.

This thing is built like a tank. Heavy metal casing. Quality. I have been using this pedal about 3 or 4 hours a day for two months and the stock 9 volt battery is STILL WORKING!!! It's a super reliable pedal. No problems whatsoever. However, I never ever do a gig without a backup.

Haven't dealt with the company, but fulltone is known for its excellent customer relations.

I play rock. I have been playing for about 7 years, and I would definitely buy another soul bender if this one were stolen. I love this pedal. My favorite feature is the internal trimmer, because with it, you can use this as a fuzz or a distortion pedal. Compared with the fulltone OCD, this has a much fatter low end, and it's more syrupy, meaning that it's not as bright, but it's not muddy either. This is a great pedal. Everyone should check it out.

Pedal is very easy to use. Volume, tone, and "dirt" I wish there was a way of changing the internal trim pot from the outside. But once you find your sound you should be all set. It took me a second to realize that the tone works oppposite most other devices I've used with the bassier sound being clockwise.

My setup is nothing fancy. American Strat with Gold Lace Hot Gold PU's into a wah and then the sould bender coming out of a Fender Special Edition Hot Rod Deluxe. I love the sound the soulbender gives me. I'll use it as a straight fuzz/distortion on the clean channel and sometimes in conjunction with the amps overdrive for an over the top overdrive. The sounds I get from the pedal are great. My whole band has commented on it. We play mostly straight rock and blues. You get totally different sounds as you back of the volume know as well giving you a lot of control over the sound. So if you're experienced and know how hard to hit the strings to get certain sounds, the pedal adds to your tonal possibilities. I usually leave the tone full right and the dirt almost full right. This is the best distortion/fuzz I've owned and I've hada few over the years. Some others might be better if you're a metal player, though. But I think most rock and blues players will be able to find a sound they love with this pedal.

Pedal is very sturdy. I have stomped on it quite hard at times as well and it has held up. I would use it at a gig without a backup, but I'd miss it.

My experience with the commpany has been 100% satisfaction. I broke off a soldering joint from the volume pot and emailed them. I recieved an email the next day and they fixed the pedal for $25 , inspected it, added some ties to the wires so they wouldn't be loose, and kept me updated, and shipped it back to me from California, to Massachusetts within 10 days. The repair would have been free, but I bought the pedal used. Very very happy with customer support.

The pedal is a great match for me since I love rock/blues and this is kind of a Jimmy Pageish sounding pedal...sort of...who knows what that drunk bastard was really doing. I would definitely buy a new one if lost. I compared with the Fuzz Pi, Mxr distortion, and Ibanez TS 808 (which is great but not fuzzy enough for me personally). Actually a friend offered me a hundred dollars for it. I did get it for a steal at $65. I do wish the internal pot could be tweaked externally because it took me a while to sit there with the cover off trying all the different sounds I could get. I guess fulltone has an internal trimmer on many of their pedals, maybe they'll make it easier to use someday. Or maybe I'm just lazy. Overall, it's a great, rich sounding pedal and it also adds sustain and some harmonics to the sound.

Three knobs for Volume, Tone, and "Dirt". Very easy to use, but also has an internal trim pot for more advanced tweaking. The pedal comes with a one page instruction sheet, with an understandably brief description of the controls and some sample settings.

The sound of this pedal is simply brilliant. It has a distinctively 60's British tone to it, reminiscent of the first few Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Sabbath albums, and perhaps heavier Jethro Tull ("Benefit"). You can also get a more poppy fuzztone, found on some Kinks or Beatles songs. Add some reverb or delay and you can even get a Dave Gilmourish sound. The tone works best when playing power chords or lead parts, as full chords and arpeggios tend to muddle together. It is definately a lead guitar pedal, and the sound it delivers is seriously searing.

The pedal has a tough steel case, and looks like its built to last. It was about five years old when I bought it second-hand off of eBay, and its worked fine since. The internal work seems to be clean and well-done, although I dont know very much about electrical wiring and soldering. I would definately gig without a backup.

No experience with customer support as been necessary so far, which i guess is a testement to the quality of the product.

My style is mostly blues-based psyche, and this pedal nails the sound I have been looking for. I started out with a overdrive pedal, moved onto a more mianstream fuzz, and finally decided I needed something more serious. I've doubled my pratice time since I bought this pedal, just because its so damn fun to play with. In todays world of 300-effect digital processors, some might think that shelling out over a hundred bucks for a pedal that only does ONE THING is silly. That one thing it does do, however, it does exceptionally well. I normally play with only this fuzzbox, but occasionally add a wah or delay pedal to the chain. The soul-bender really is the foundation to my overall tone and playing style