Fulltone Soul-Bender

How hard can it get with 3 knobs?

I have spent thousands of dollars on guitars,amps and pedals. I have bought vintage Fender amps,every kind of guitar,and many pedals. This year I finally hit upon "MY SOUND"! A 80's natural finish Ibanez Blazer--$180.00 in a Nashville pawnshop---a Fender Deville-2x12(found a 1997 never played for $550.00 in Stone Mtn.Georgia pawnshop)and last but not least my #359 soulbender.

I scrapped out "ALL" my other distotion and effects pedals, except my DOD FX9 delay which is never turned off. The soulbender is a great,creamy,sweet,smoooooooth distortion pedal. Like others have said, you may as well turn the distortion up and leave it alone!

Super reliable since I bought it new several years ago.

He's a little different, but ain"t we all!
I couldn't find this pedal anywhere when it got rave reviews.
Ended up calling the builder. He told me where to get one on the West Coast(I live in Fl.)-but tried to talk me out of buying the soulbender for Blues.(I appreciate his honesty),however this is a great blues pedal. Never needed real support on the pedal itself.

I like blues!--This pedal is gooooood!----Buy one,KILL anybody that touches it!
I would give it a 10,but only when the Lord starts making them!

Pretty easy to use- 3 knobs control the volume, tone and dirt (fuzz). It comes with a manual which is somewhat helpful. Runs on a 9 volt battery or AC adapter. The 9 volt is clipped to the bottom plate of the pedal on the inside so take care when unscrewing the four bottom plate screws and opening it up to replace the battery- the contact wires are thick and long and give plenty of room for you to change batteries easily without ever damaging the insides. Its foolproof.

First off in defense of this pedal manufacturer- Mike Fuller, I will say that he answered my e-mail questions right away and if anyone has had problems contacting him in the past it was probably because he was overwhelmed with all of his different projects. Ive read some reviews posted here on several of his different pedal models that seemed a bit unfair and critical.
Now on to this pedal- its a sonic copy of the pedals used by guitar Gods like Page and Beck way back when. Its not noisy at all using my Gibson les Paul Standard and the new Marshall AVT 50 watt combo. The effect is powerful and actually sounds best with the fuzz on full maximum. For solo leads this pedal cannot be beat- it has a lot of smooth sweet sustain and a pronounced compressed midrange tone that has alot of bottom end when the tone knob is turned up. Certainly will provide a Beck/Page tone as well as some others, perhaps Clapton when he was with Cream. Theres an internal dial inside the pedal that you can easily use to tailor the intensity of the fuzz- its also foolproof and is a great option because you can match the sound of this pedal to any type of guitar that you use. This pedal sounds good on both of my amp's channels- the clean and the overdrive!

Thats where this pedal stands above the rest- its built like a tank- heavy duty parts, switches, wires, everything is top-notch. It weighs alot also- its very heavy- the moment you pick it up you will say "steel enclosure". Should last two lifetimes.

Just great- as I said I had no problem contacting Mr. Fuller but apparently there may be times when hes swamped with work and cant answer all the mail that he gets every day.

I like old school rock and this pedal is certainly all that and more. The Soul-Bender's tone control can vary the sound from bright to deep dark rich smooth and bassy, but when using humbucker pickups it seems to only sound best when the dirt (fuzz) is all the way up to maximum, which seems to be a popular setting anyway. With single-coil Fender type pickups this pedal is probably much more versatile- the humbuckers in my guitar just dont clean up that well when I lower the volume on the guitar, and I cant get a whole lot of dynamic range either. However with the appropriate pick-up combination this pedal sounds devasting.

It's pretty easy to dial in the sounds on this pedal and it will pay off if you take some time to mess around with the internal trimmer. It's a fuzz, so it's not too hard to use.

It depends on what you're going for. I've played a few original vox tonebanders and the soulbender kicks them all out. I like the box a lot and it's got a really nice 60's fuzz sound as well as an over the top rock sound (this pedal can conjure up some pretty wild heavy-metalish sounds if you want them). So why did I give the sound quality a 7? Man this pedal does not clean up very well. The dynamics on a good fuzz face can be amazing but this pedal does not do that. Instead, your signal is pretty musch going to sound the same no matter what your volume is set at. The wierd thing i've encountered is that there is a dramatic change in the sound as soon as you take you guitar volume down from full but after that not too much differece in sound. What this pedal does give you is rich, creamy fuzz.

I've never had a problem with this pedal. It is built incredibly well and ruggedly. It's construction is its strongest suit.

Never talked to them so I don't know

I give this pedal a 7 because it does sound really good (and it's made really well) for that classic rock fuzz tone but it really is not a dynamic pedal. If you're looking for a fuzz that cleans up well I would suggest some type of fuzz face clone.

You've gotta be kidding. If you cant manage to work this pedal, much less get a good tone, shoot yourself right now.

I use a '75 Marshall 100watter with a '95 PRS Standard 24, a 'Custom' Strat, or a 'Custom' Epiphone Les Paul (custom denotes MAJOR hardware changes). Sounds great. Nice and thick fuzz. Cleans up well. I find it to sound better when its more 'Hendrixy' than the supposed tone for it, i.e. Page/Beck. Its a very versatile fuzz that really sounds good in any application and genre. Only thing that gets me ticked is the flabbiness when you use it with humbuckers. But its a fuzz, not a distortion. I could sound a lot like Robby Krieger in 'Love Me Two Times' when I use it with my PRS or Paul.

I dont know what the hell the problem is with these people and their switches. Its a simple solution. You dont jump on the goddamn switch, it wont fucking break. Its true. Try it sometime.

It sounds great. Dont jump on the switch, it wont break. A world of dumbasses surrounds me.

It's a fuzz box-only three knobs. I love the trim pot in the back just like my 69 pedal.

My pedal set-up is the following-Z vex tremolo probe-Fulltone Clyde wah-Fulltone Deja Vibe II-Diaz Texas Ranger-Fulltone 69-Fulltone Soulbender-SIB varidrive-Fulltone supa-trem-Maxon ad-80 (I just ordered an Analogman clone chorus that will replace my EBS unichorus). I have a THD univalve amp. I run the Diaz on all the time as either a bass or mid boost even when I use my fuzzes and varidrive. As everyone else has stated, this is the fuzz to get if you want Jeff Beck and Led Zep circa 1968. I love the sweet sustain on this sucker. I thought the pedal would have been a lot noisier being that it's a fuzz-but noise isn't a problem with this pedal. I prefer this kind of fuzz better than the 69 which has a lot less balls to it. Some people say the Soul-Bender doesn't clean up as well as the 69 but I think it cleans up extremely well.

I bought it used but in mint condition. I have a lot of Fulltones because I like their vibe but also they are made of solid steel encasings. When you open up the pedals, the wires are carefully sodered-very neat, excellent attention to detail. Fuller apparently puts in bad switches-I have yet to have a problem with his switches and I own a lot of his pedals (I have also previously owned the Ultimate Overdrive and I have a Fulldrive II that's not on my pedalboard), but I don't gig so perhaps that's the reason.

I've never dealt with Fuller. I e-mailed him once to praise him for his 69 pedal. He e-mailed back quickly. I think the only repairs I would need would be for his switches and if I need to replace that, I would just go to my dealer first-he's a super cool and honest guy and he would replace it for cheap.

I'd always been interested in this pedal but being a non fuzz kind of guy, the 69 pedal always suited my fuzz needs. When I saw this used but mint pedal at the guitar shop, I decided to buy it-I figured I could always sell it for about the same price anyway. But damn-this pedal is incredible. Nice sustain, great fuzz (not overly fuzzy which is good for me-I really hate the Big Muff sound), and cool vibes for that Beck's Bolero sound. I haven't tried a Yardbox so I can't compare the two pedals. I was somewhat interested in MJM's Brit-Bender but MJM has no dealer in the U.S. except for musictoyz and I refuse to buy anything from those guys (their customer service sucks). I don't care how great the Brit-Bender is anyway because I'm happy with my Soul-Bender. It's hard for me to see how a pedal could be better in terms of replicating the tonebender sound too.

3 knobs & footswitch.No internal trimpot,It's an older Soulbender (#274 9/97).

It's sounds great,I've played most of the 3 knob MK III SolaSound Tonebender clones and sounds better of the bunch.It has three germanium transistors('new' NTE 275)and Mike has the gain rate marked on them(69,74 &77).The Soulbender works great with my wah and my other effects.It cleans up real well with my guitar's vol knob.It sounds warm and little dark to me,which is great.

It's from 97' and still kicking butt ! I don't mind spending money on Fulltone pedals cause they are built like tanks !

Mike's a good guy but has his moods ! He's great about returning E-mails and giving out info. I might have him mod my FM Fulldrive ? I do respect the fact he takes great pride in his pedals & work.

Great pedal,I bought it for the the classic rock/blues gig and it does the job pretty great.It's built like a Sherman tank so I'll have this pedal in my board a long time.I've been through alot of fuzz pedals and I'm tired of looking,so I'm pretty happy with my choice.I do wish is was in a smaller casing (oh well!)and an internal gain trimmer(the new models do).But overall is a great SolaSound Tonebender clone.If lost 'yes' I would buy another Fulltone Soulbender.

very easy to get a good sound. i use m. fuller's suggested setting (the darkest and dirtiest) as a reference point and never mess with the tone control - the brighter settings don't work for me. i sometimes back down on the dirt. i have optionophobia, so this pedal suits me.

i like vintagey stuff, and am mainly using a reissue strat into a mesa blue angel with a 2x12 cab loaded with celestions. as someone else mentioned, this pedal seems to sound best when used with as few other effects as possible. i have found that other effects - including those placed after it! - can really affect the sound adversely. i run a relatively simple setup - a small stone - tube driver - soulbender - analog delay - amp. it wasn't until i pulled the small stone (phaser) out of the chain that i realized how good this thing sounds (i'm having true bypass installed in the phaser and hope this'll take care of it). i'm new to the transistor distortion thing, having relied on the tube driver for years, and was initially underwhelmed by the soulbender, and figured i would only use it for more over-the-top sounds. pulling the phaser, however, allowed the soulbender to really sing. i'm not a fuzz afficianado, and can't comment on how this compares to others. i wouldn't really call it a fuzz - listen to the sample on the fulltone site. it can make even the lead pickup on a strat sound fat and full and natural at the same time. it may be that with the adjustable pot inside you can get more of a square wave sound, but i'm digging the stock setting. oddly, for some reason my tube driver's sounding ugly now (gotta experiment - maybe it doesn't like the souldbender), and at the last few practices i've been relying on the souldbender for all my distortion needs. i know it's a cliche, but it really does clean up nice when you turn the guitar down. i've dissed transistor-based distortion in other posts (tubescreamers make my teeth hurt, but that's another story), but this thing can make glorious sounds, and i'm finding it's more versatile than i'd hoped for. it is not, however, extreme sounding, and those looking for super fuzzed-out sounds would probably be better off trying something else.

seems solid enough, and it looks cool. always good to keep a backup in your bag of tricks, though.

i haven't dealt with mr. fuller (gee, maybe after he reads this he'll e-mail me!).

i tend to gravitate towards 60's guitar sounds, and count among my influences jimi, eric, jerry, peter and david (that's green and gilmour, but we're on a first name basis here). i'm kinda new to effects mania (it is addictive, isn't it?), but after spending some money and messing around with a few other pedals, i had to remind myself to stick with the basics to insure that my tone didn't go down the crapper. this pedal gives me the lead sound i've been looking for - fat and wailing with an edge to it. and because it's true bypass, it doesn't mess with your sound when it's off (though i've been leaving it on more and more). so it's become a staple of my sound, and was therefore well worth the $ i paid for it. as i mentioned, it's a bit finnicky when it comes to working with other effects (a germaniium thing?), and this may be a consideration if you have a long signal chain.

In addition to my previous post (the post preceding the one before this one), I noticed that there is a slight (very very very...) overtone, like almost an octave up overtone when I engage the wah. I dont know if its the setup i have, or whatever, but its sorta cool

It was very easy to use, only 3 knobs.

I use mini-humbuckers or P-90 with a newer Vox AC-30. Sounded good - nice feedback too. As far as "tonebender clones" go, I prefer the Roadrunner Supersonic fuzz for NUMEROUS different reasons.

This is where it goes in the toilet. I own over 50 guitar effect pedals, and the soulbender line has continued to let me down. I bought an earlier one originally and the footswitch broke IMMEDIATELY. I contacted Mike Fuller, and told him about the problem. He told me he had been having problems with the switches, so he replaced the faulty switch with a new one and assured me it would not break again. It did break again. And again. Even the "beefier" new "fulltone" true bypass switch broke. Mr. Fuller became progressively more annoyed in his one-sentence emails to me. I became progressively more annoyed with the fact that the pedal kept breaking. I explained to him I had been a happy customer up to this point, I even owned 2 of his other pedals. I had spent over $500 on his pedals, and this guy had the BALLS to ask me to pay for the shipping and the cost of the new switches. I refused of course, and he eventually agreed every time to fix it for free. The last time the switch broke, I emailed him and he didn't reply, he just sent me a new switch in a bag. I assume he expected me to fix it myself. I had the new switch put in and sold it the next day. It ruined MANY a gig. I've since switched to the Roadrunner Supersonic Fuzz and love it. I played over 300 shows with it and NEVER a problem - with better tone and cooler looks to boot!

see above rant

I loved the way the footswitch broke everytime i stepped on it. I also loved how Mike Fuller was super cool, and by super cool I mean super gay.

Pretty easy to use. Mine came with an internal trimmer pot which increases the gain from subtle to square wave, meaning if your gain is dimed and you're unsatisfied with the amount, take a peep inside, turn this puppy and check. If still unsatisfied, stop listening to metal, this is merely for blues/rock music. My only gripe in this category is that the trim pot is inside the pedal, thus forcing you to unscrew the bottom to reach it.

Super smooth distortion. If you sustain the note a second or so and shake the neck/string a little, you get some harmonic feedback, even at low volumes, which is a cool effect. You can almost nail Eric Johnson's lead tone, late 60's fuzz, and the tone, man the TONE!!! It inspires your lead work amazingly, I can hardly put the guitar down. Even your transistor amp could sound great (i dont recommend this though, you need a tube amp to make this sound immaculate) all in all, a 9.8 if it werent for the transistor amps.

This thing is Dunlop type made. Heavy as a tank, but not that much is inside. Just a small chip inside, the battery clip, the three potentiometers, the leds, and the switch. The only thing im worrying about is liquids and stuff leaking into the casing. Nevertheless, its fuckin heavy and it seems reliable enough (for now).

Havent dealt w/Mike Fuller yet, but the other reviews lead me to assume that he's a good guy.

I love this thing. It gives me the tone I've been wanting, not too heavy, not too thin. You can nail just about any style of music (believe me, try one). Forget about all the other fuzztones (even most of the Roger Mayer fuzzes - only for Hendrix wannabes), and buy this, its the last one you'll buy.