Vox Tone Bender Fuzz Pedal

easy
i will work for your sound straight away or it wont.

With a good valve amp -AWESOME!
I've been hunting down an early two knob70's model(has tone bender in 70's typeface)for ages.I have owned a late 60's jen tone bender-but this one just creams it.
This must be the model Mick Ronson used because it has mick's wonderful raspy quality to it.When i kick this thing in ,it pushes my whole sound into sonic mayhem.Unlike the other reviews i dont find that it slices your head off.
Combine this pedal witha good wah and your in ziggy stardust heaven.UNREAL!

i hope i can depend on it

Before you try or buy-ask yourself what do i want this for?
I like this fuzz because its sound is somewhere on the brink of mayhem-BRING IT ON.
I play space rock-so for me-
The 70's vox tonebender is a classic.

easy, attack on 10 level to taste

was a 1, now a 10. i bought the reissue used, it stunk. i had a matched pair of germanium transistors from small bear elctronics and snt the pedal and germs. to alfonso hermida, ahermida@erols.com. he put them in the pedal and it is now my favorite fuzz pedal(although) i am waiting for his fuzz wah with his hybrid germqnium/silicon fuzz). this tonebender sounds so cool and aggressive like doyle bramhall II and charlie sexton on the arc angel cd, which has the coolest fuzz tone sounds. the fuzz is fat but with a edge, but not too ice picky, perfect!!

yes.

don't know about vox, but alfonso hermida is the best ahermida@erols.com

i wish i could find another to have alfonso mod as well, this fuzz sounds like my fulltone soulbender but is nastier!!!

Two easy knobs... level and attack turn untill it's ok, shoudln't take long really... it's a fuzz afterall!

Using it with a tele thinline and also a H-S-H Ibanez configuration. It's a bit noisy but all fuzz are in their on right. To me this fuzz is quite usable... and musical if you like fuzz and find one of these cheap get it. It's great on slightly overdriven sound adds something nothing else provides. On its own don't expect it to be an heavy metal toy... this is a re-issue of a 60-70's fuzz so expect just that type of sound.

As far as backup is concern I don't buy 2 of each thing I have I'd rather have diversity.... I looked inside the box and the switch is probably the first thing that's gonna go bad, but that's easy to replace and the same goes for any of the parts inside... fuzz are relatively simple circuit the only thing voodoo about them is teh transistor pair... in this case germaniums.

Never dealt with them but they care about their history and are proud of their gear so I'd hope they care as much for their customer if ever in need for help.

i play mostly rock and blues, but I also play anything I fancy, I don't limit myself to anything particuliarly. Been playing for 10+yr, gear I own is online at http://www.angelfire.com/pq/glorbz/BunkerStudio.html If stolen or lost would look for it, since I don't use this all the time I wouldn't be in an hury to find one... but since lots of people hate those I might not have to look for a long time! I love the way it reacts to dynamic playing, and it behaves well on slight overdriven sound, also gives you more highs if you need/want some it's neat... What I hate and find stoopid is that it's not true bypass but has the dpdt switch to be so... no big deal I'll mod it to be! Some people would like this unit to have a led, but hey it's a fuzz if you don't know it's on you need a new set of ears! It's a nice thing to have around to add a diferent flavor, I find this one to be better than what I expected from reading the posts here... wich is a thing to remember always trust your ears and don't overlook any pedal because someone didn't like it... be your own judge.

In theory, its very simple, two knobs: Volume and Attack. Getting it gel well with your gear is another story. I am giving it a five becuase, it is easy to get a good sound out of it, it does take a lot of tweaking to get it to sound great..

It is a very picky fuzz thats for sure.. Definatly made for single coil pick ups, ass the output from my Les Paul Special with P-90's has the tendany to goose the imput. Placement in my set up is important too, it sounds fine when put after my TS-9, but if its put before it, its output drops, which i'm still trying to figure out. Also It took me a good week of eq twiddling to get a good tone out of it, and still have good clean sound, as this box piles on the treble, so clean it made my tone rather muddy. After the fact it sounds fine in my rig.

i cant see it breaking, as there is not much in there to break, I have used it with out back up and will continue to do so.

no clue.

Very much a 60's sounding fuzz, noisy, buzzy, and enough treble to send ice picks through your ears, just what you need from a fuzz box. For the price i got it for I am more than happy with it, you have to love discontinued models.

This is the original fuzz box I bought in 1966 for $35 Canadian.

In '66 I used a Tele. Got the great Satisfaction and Psychotic Reaction sounds. Back off the volume it became a great treble booster.

Wanted to return it because it wore out the battery too soon. The man at the store was only gonna give me $25 so I kept it. Never any problems even after 34 years. Now use a wall wart to power it.

Never knew it was there!

Hey, it's a fuzz box! Recent prices for the original Tonebender are over $200 - it's not for sale.

really easy to use, but you must be subtle with it. two knobs just start from 0 and tweak away

I use this with an old fifties tweed Fender champ, and sometimes a fender vibrolux reverb, with an old fifties jazzmaster. It is noisy, but you have to adjust the fequency.It has the sixties sound but what I do is is turn the gain and volume up to ten, then I back off my volume just a touch. This helps tremendously in controlling the fuzz! I like to let it warm up with a battery before I play. It could be a little less noisy, but hey it a FUZZ BOX!!

This is a reissue, and it has never given me a problem.

I have not had to call vox

This is a good fuzz that has been around forever. The original tonebenders are pretty pricey and pretty heavy. It does cut out alot of the low tones of your playing, but as a specific "sound", I think it is pretty accurate to those early guitar sounds of Hendrix, Clapton and Page.

I bought this thing before I knew much about fuzz pedals and soon realized how bad it sounded compared to a good fuzz. The fuzz seemed to roll off in buzzy glops with absolutely no musical tone. Fortunately, I found out that the many versions of the tone bender are identical or very similar to the original Fuzz Face. I had some Germanium 2N527 transistors that I had used in a home made Fuzz Face. After I took out the stock transistors and replaced them with the new ones, this piece of garbage became the best pedal I have. Now it sounds just like a good fuzz face with the screechy harmonic sustain and the subtle picking sound you hear when you hit the strings.

No problems, but the metal case is flimsy

I got ripped off when I bought this thing, I wouldn't pay more than $80 or $90 dollars for one now. You can get the transistors at www.eden.com/~keen for $5/pair. I would not order anything this guy has on back order, the retards he has handling his distribution are sure to loose your order. Also, beware that unlike silicon components, you have to be carefull when soldering germanium components. If you apply too much heat, they can be ruined. You should clamp the lead with needle nose pliers when soldering to dissipate the heat. Just heat the solder, stick the lead through the hole and let the joint cool; it's not difficult.

Two knobs, attack and level, attack is the amount of distortion, level is the output level. It's easy.

Tried it with a Fender Bassman and a PRS but it sounded awful. The guy in the shop went straight to the shelf for another one. It sounded awful too. We though it just didn't match the amp so we tried it with a Marshall JCM600 combo and it still sounded awful. Okay, so maybe it's me and I just didn't have the settings right but I tried all the pickups on the guitar, volume, treble, the settings on the pedal and the amp and nothing made it sound nice. Other people in the shop were even looking at us with horrified expressions - okay that could have been my playing. The only thing that I can think of is that the particular shipment of pedals had been sitting around with their batteries in for a while and weren't getting enough power. I will try this pedal again and ab it with something else but at the moment it gets a real thumbs down. I'll give it a 4/10 just for sounding like distressed machinery.

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Pretty Damn Simple. IF YOU DON'T GET IT, YOU ARE RETARDED!!!!

Cheesy, trebly disrortion on a clean channel. Makes your clean channel sound like a crappy $20 amp. Ok with distortion, as it adds a bit of raunchiness to the sound. Not very Fuzzy. More like buzzy or fizzy. Mine is actually a friends, but he hasn't paid me the money I lent to him for it yet, so I have it. Since its a used reissue (I'm assuming its a reissue), it may be that just mine is screwed up. My friend says he loves it, but I don't care for it. Ratings: 5 on clean channel, 7 on distortion channel.

Seems pretty sturdy.

Never dealt with 'em. Since it's used, I have no idea how to contact Vox. Doesn't seem like you'd need it anyway

An okay pedal, but it depends on your other equipment and your own personal tastes. Like I said, I bought it used, so mine might be screwed up. Trust your own ears and go try it out if you're interesed in it.

Hmm..... volume and attack. you figure it out.

Oh boy. When you have the attack all the way up, and your using it with a tube amp with the preamp cranked to the max, it has some of the greatest distortion you've ever heard. Not the greatest as the only source of distortion but exellent with overdrive behind it.

oh yeah. I think the germanium transistors increase the life of the battery, there is no ac adapter plug, but you really dont need it.

This box is absolutely fantastic. If you have a tube amp, buy it. If you dont, get a zoom driver, or a sovtek mig 100 tube head. I would definately buy it again, I just wish I had an older one.