Product: Vox Tone Bender Fuzz Pedal
Price Paid: US $200 used
Submitted
01/31/1996
at
10:34pm
by
Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
8
This things sounds totally GEAR!!!! Only 2 knobs, volume and attack. Attack is mostly a tone control. The tone is really trebley and harsh but gets smoother when you turn your tone control down. Gets classic sixties fuzz sounds, kinda near the Beatles "Revolution" "Let it Be" solo, "I,Me,Mine" sounds. Also a neat trick. If you unplug the cable from the input jack the thing turns into an oscillator thing, sorta pseudo theremin but you gotta touch it. Turn the attack knob to vary the pitch manually. Sonic Youth fans take note.
Sound Quality
:
7
Kinda noisy but it is old and it is FUZZ. A lot of you will probably not like it but fuzz fans will definately.
Reliability
:
6
Since it's old and uses germanium transistors that wear out I wouldn't depend on it totally. I'd get a reissue for a backup.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
There are loads of places that can repair old simple fuzzes like this so I'm not too worried.
Overall Rating
:
8
Fuzz freaks will dig it. A lot of high end,(call it the 1000Lb Bee). Not a lot of gain, about the same amount as a Fuzz Face. I hear people like Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton used these in the Yardbirds but I cant' reply since I'm not too familiar with the Yardbirds stuff. I was watching my copy of David Bowie's video "Ziggy Stardust the Motion Picture" and they shot Mick Ronson's foot on his wah wah and next to the wah was a Tone Bender. So imagine Mick Ronson's lead and feedback sound, he also used a Marshall and a Les Paul. I havn't played a reissue so I don't know if they sound the same or not.
