Hi, guys. I wears thinking about these transistors I have that are unusable in fuzz circuits and I was wondering if it would be possible to make a small practice amplifier with them. Has it ever been done before? Thanks.

I finally ordered a matched set of transistors for this pedal. Can't wait to see how they sound in it.

Oh, man. I am really sorry to hear about Roly. Best wishes to his family. I don't really know what else to say. He will be missed.

The problem here not that it's distorting too much. It's actually not distorting enough. It's still a bit too smooth. If it's supposed to sound nastier through a solid state amp, which is what I want, I'm not hearing it. I think it's simply a problem with these transistors. Either not enough gain, not enough leakage, or both. As soon as I can, I will be ordering a matched set of transistors for it. Thanks.

I was able to improve the clean up just a bit by placing a 100k resistor in parallel with the 47k resistor on the collector of Q2. I think this will be good enough for now. At least until I can order a matched transistor set. I was able to get close to the "In My Time Of Dying" tone using my Zippo lighter for a slide (I think it sounds better than conventional slides, but it can be awkward) . Thanks.

I tried it with this other circuit I built that's called the Astrotone. It didn't really sound much different. I think there's still some work to be done on this tone bender because it's giving a weird upper octave effect on the lower notes when I use the neck pickup with the tone control on zero. I don't think it's supposed to do that.

Sorry. I re-read your post. You're actually suggesting ways to get the best out of the Tone Bender. I misread the first time. My apologies. I will try an overdrive after the Tone Bender and see how it sounds. Thanks.

I get what you're saying. An OD would be more practical if I was, in fact going for a smooth distortion. This is not the case. I became quite bored with smooth distortion. I want nasty, sputtery,  amp-fixin'-to-blow chaos. It's just more fun for me. Besides, I'm more into the 60s psychedelic rock and it seems that a nasty sounding fuzz is almost a requirement for this type of music. I have some smooth sounding distortions, but I don't use them much. Thanks.

I think I have it sounding about like it should, finally. I ended up switching back to a 180k resistor on the base of Q2. It increased the amount of fuzz and made the attack control more useful. I am quite pleased with the sound it produces now. Especially when captured on tape.

I figured out that this pedal is very sensitive to amp settings. There's not many knobs on this Kasino amp I use. Just volume, reverb, treble and bass for each of the four channels. I had not considered different tone settings on it for fear of midrange loss, despite the fact that my dry signal sounded like pure garbage. Anyway, finally adjusting the treble and bass controls much higher helped not only my clean tone, but also has brought out a more sitar-like buzz from my Tone Bender Mk. I clone, as well as my other fuzz pedals. Oh, and I should mention that I had been using those same settings on the amp since I've owned it. Thanks.

Okay, I think I have it straightened out now. It turns out the problem was the cable I had been using. It was going bad. I made a new cable and now it's giving a nice Maestro FZ-1 style tone with plenty more headroom. I couldn't resist playing some Doors tunes with it. Sounded awesome ! Thanks.

That particular battery never worked right in any of my fuzz pedals. I did finally put that power supply cap in there earlier and hopefully, it'll solve any future low battery issues. This is a bit different than I expected it to be. It can get pretty crazy sounding, which I don't really mind. With so much sustain, there's not much need to crank the attack control like one has to do on a Mk. 1.5 or fuzz face. And it's a lot brighter than my Mk. 1 tone bender, as well. I knew it was worth the trouble. It doesn't really clean up too much with the guitar volume, either. It does get a different sound by backing the guitar volume down a bit, though. Thanks.

I figured it out. There was something wrong with the battery I had been using. It read okay on my multi meter, though. Changing the battery solved the problem. It has plenty of sustain and doesn't get too clean when the guitar volume is rolled back, but does get a bit more articulate. It's also very bright sounding.  More bright than my Mk. I clone.

I think I was wrong about this pedal. I just compared my clone to "Moonage Daydream", by David Bowie and I couldn't tell much difference between my clone and Mick Ronson's fuzz sound. Mine seems to have a grittier sound, though. I guess I was expecting to get a Tone similar to a Maestro FZ-1 from this circuit. It seems like that's not what these really sound like.

Hi, everyone. I'm working on a clone of the Tone Bender Mk.II professional and I can't get it to sound right. I'm using AC128 transistors with the in the 60s up to the mid 70s. Leakage is in the 200-300 uA range. The circuit has output and way too much gain. It produces a very long sustain that fades into pure oscillation and glitchy noises. I built it from the fuzzcentral schematic and used a 47k resistor on Q2 collector and a 10k resistor on the base of Q1. Also, turning the guitar volume down doesn't clean up the distortion as it should. It just causes it to become very gated. Any suggestions on what may cause this problem? I should also mention that I left out the power filter cap. Thanks.