Hey guys,

I need a Vox Tone Bender in a bad way. These are the sublimely cheesy fuzz boxes that Vox made in the 60's. Vox reissued them in the mid 90's but have apparently stopped making them again.

Anyone know where I might score one of these, or better yet, have one yourself you wanna sell? A reissue is fine, I don't have to have the original vintage one. I just need one!

Email me at lflier@mindspring.com if you got the goods, or the scoop on where I can find the goods.

--Lee

This message has been edited by Lee Flier on 05-31-2001 at 10:39 PM

No luck so far, but I did find you a backup axe...

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1433980267



This message has been edited by KHAN on 05-31-2001 at 11:44 PM

Holy trapezoids, Batman! That is one badass guitar! I can't believe it's got the original receipt from 1953 - $256!! Waaahhhh.... what I wouldn't give for a time machine! Wouldn't it be great to go back in time and buy all the "vintage" guitars you wanted, new, for $200? Damn.

Wish I had the money to snag it... but I've already got one, guess I shouldn't be greedy, eh?

And yeah I've been searching eBay for a Tone Bender.... no luck so far.

Thanks for sharing!

--Lee

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lee,
i can't remember who makes it, but there's a boutique clone of one out there....

-d. gauss

You might want to try searching the ads in Vintage Guitar or checking out the message boards on their website - http://www.vguitar.com - and maybe posting an ad there. There are so many dealers specializing in pedals, I don't think you'll have too hard of a time finding one.

here's one for ya http://www.williesguitars.com/Pages/usede.html
Apparently a company named Fulltone makes what they claim to be "an exact copy of the circuit". They also say that certain versions of the original had a "shrill" tone. Only the three knob version as used by Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and others had a "full" tone. Their version is called "Soul Bender". have fun!
here's another http://www.toneheaven.ndirect.co.uk/vintage%20effects.htm

This message has been edited by gtrmac@hotmail.com on 06-01-2001 at 03:22 AM

This message has been edited by gtrmac@hotmail.com on 06-01-2001 at 03:31 AM

lee,if you dont mind-what do you have in mind for this pedal that any/something else would/nt do? i've owned an original and a reissue and they are both gone now for whatever reason but having been thru original big muffs-~arbiter~(not dallas-arbiter!)fuzzfaces,original rats,maestrosand myriad 'fuzzoramas' i'm sure somethin close is 'out there'.btw the best i ever heard a vox was those real early jeffbeck albums w/rod the mod.
rotsaruck : )

Just out of curiousity, what's made you want one of those?

Fun pedal, really crazy and spitty...

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New and Improved Music Soon: http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

Well... the search for the perfect fuzz box has been ongoing for a while now. Y'all know how I love the mid 60's Brit Invasion stuff. I owned a Big Muff at one point and it was badass for what it was, but it doesn't sound like a Tone Bender. I now own a Fuzz Face reissue and again, it's cool for what it is, but it doesn't sound like a Tone Bender. I've tried RATT's, Danelectros, hell I can't even remember what all else. But ya know - I want that sound like on "Satisfaction" or on the Yardbirds "Over Under Sideways Down", "Heart Full of Soul", etc. None of the other boxes out there have that super-trebly bite, they all "smooth" the sound over too much, especially with the P90's on my Les Paul. It's better now that I have the Tele, but still not perfect.

The closest I've come is an old MXR Distortion+ which I've had for years. I used it on 60's covers to good effect. However, maybe I'm just being Eric Johnson here but it still has never QUITE done it for me. And now I'm recording this song which just HAS to have that sound, nothing else will do, so I've decided to solve this nagging problem once and for all and just get the real thing dammit! [and yes I have played them and they DEFINITELY do what I want!]

AND... the good news is, someone from this forum has emailed me that he has one he's willing to sell me! Yippeeee!!!

This board is the greatest!

--Lee

i've heard tell that~satisfaction~ was a 'maestro',no?

Stanner, that's the popular theory and it's possible (they do sound pretty similar, and both have germanium transistors), but I coulda sworn I read an interview with Keith a long time ago where he said it was the Vox, and that he'd just gotten one from Vox to try out. Apparently he was visualizing the riff being done with horns (the way Otis Redding later did it) and thought he would use the fuzz to approximate a sax sound. Kinda funny, he just intended it to be a demo and didn't think it was good enough for release, cuz that was never the way he heard it in his head. LOL...

Oh well, I will try and dig up that interview and see if I remember correctly or if I'm crazy... or both....

--Lee

if you haven't looked into the zvex fuzzfactory i would recomend that you do....crazy fuzz tones....infact you can get so many different sounds it's to bad it doesn't have user presets =)
imho it is the shit!!!!
a bit pricey but fun as all hell...i love mine!

check it.............> http://www.zvex.com

This message has been edited by spacebass on 06-02-2001 at 12:49 AM

Make a circuit out of two mis-matched diodes wired in reverse with your signal, maybe in front of something like an MXR Microamp. It will sound broke, NOT smooth at all. If I remember correctly that's just about all a Distortion+ is, except with matched diodes (I'm sure Craig can elaborate..)


Hmm..

HMMMM...

Actually, I think I just realized it was a Craig Anderton article that made me try that in the first place when I was about 17, and then lead to disassembling all of my pedals and following the circuit traces until I figured out - in a rough professionally-heathen way - how they worked.


While I'm at it, Craig, if you're seeing this - is the led found on the inside of a Rockman part of the distortion circuit?

... and I've asked this question everywhere without and answer:

Why/how was the blue plastic trim pot on the back of the Rockman apparently conductive? I know there's such thing as conductive plastics, but..."?"

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New and Improved Music Soon: http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

The Satisfaction pedal was a Maestro. I can remember when the song came out it was the only fuzz tone available. I could be wrong about this because I was in New York and can not be certain that there was not some other pedal available in London. I just remember when the song came out we had to get a Maestro to play it. There was no other choice. I was in a band that only did Rolling Stones covers at the time. I was 14 then, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean playing only Stones songs. Playing Satisfaction is still a good idea.

You might want to check out the Line6 DM4 stomp box. They have models of the Maestro, the Vox Tone Bender, Fuzz face and others. They don't have the MXR Distortion+ which is too bad. I've used one for years.
Buddy

Wow. I don't know Lee all that well, but I do know that you just suggested that she use a DSP modeling tool to get a classic analog guitar effect.

You should probably apologize right now.

lee,

gonna be hard to get that satisfaction/yardbirds sound with a les paul! even with p-90's. break out the tele (preferably paisley)... or better yet one of those crappy 60's teisco japan jobs with 40 switches on it.... also try the marshall battery powered mini-amp (25 bucks)...

cheers,

-d. gauss

AHEM... I'm glad you said it first...

--Lee



This message has been edited by Lee Flier on 06-02-2001 at 11:58 AM

LOL... well I HAVE managed to get that sound with the Les Paul before... in fact I should try to find this crappy boom box recording of me at a band rehearsal in the 80's doing "Over Under Sideways Down", and put it on an MP3, y'all would get a kick out of that! I didn't have the Tele then, but yes, the Tele works great too!



LOL... a friend of mine just smashed one of those at a Who tribute show he did a couple of weeks ago.

--Lee

LOL! a friend with taste then Lee

Simon

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...remember there is absolutely no point in talking about someone behind their back unless they get to hear about it...

This thread sent me scurrying to find my old Vox Tone Bender (yup, I have one of the original ones with the cast aluminum case).

Whether or not it was the one that was used for Satisfaction, it certainly sounds like it would do the trick. I would imagine that most of the fuzz boxes of that vintage were similar - there’s not much more in there than the 2 transistors and a few supporting components.

It’s real fuzzy.

I particularly like the way that it sounds on a bridge Les Paul pickup - I believe that the term “milkshake tone” would apply here. Got me all inspired.

I also came across an old Univox Super Fuzz that I have on semi-permanent loan. Now, that’s a train wreck in a box...

Anyways Lee, it’s worth seeking out. Sorry to tempt you so, but one of the things about becoming kind of vintage myself is that I finally learned that some things are worth hanging on to. A friend of mine traded in his pedal board about 8 years ago for some new fangled digital gear. The board had original MXR Phase 90 and Limiter, Roland CE2, and Vox Wah....

Hey Lee, if the tone bender thing doesn't do the trick you might wanna check out the DOD OD 250. With the gain cranked up all the way it's really cutting and biting. I have a couple of the tone benders and the DOD and I'd say the DOD might actually be better for a Satisfaction kinda riff.

Keith Richards played an Epiphone Casino during the "Satisfaction" period. This was back in the days when even Rock Stars usually played the same guitar all the time. The Epiphone Casino has P-90's by the way.

Well I worked it out with said kind forum member and a Tone Bender is on its way to me! Yippee! Traingod, thanks for the review, now you give me something to look forward to!

I'll let y'all know how it works out!

Simon: yes, my Teisco-smashing friend has excellent taste. Plays nothing but Rickenbackers thru Voxes.

gtrmac: Yeah I remember Keith playing that Casino. Also have some video footage of him playing Satisfaction on Ed Sullivan with a Les Paul. Can't clearly see the fuzz pedal though!

--Lee



This message has been edited by Lee Flier on 06-02-2001 at 11:43 PM

I tried an Ibanez FZ-7 Fuzz pedal today on a whim...

Has a switch marked "100%" - with this switched in it produces the most horrid asymetric distortion I've heard. Play seconds through it just gives up and makes a spitting ray gun sound. Fourths sound like pulse wave synthesizer sounds.

With the gain turned all the way down it's pretty gnarled sounding.... it was so funny to play through I didn't think about trying "Satisfaction" or some such.

Hooked a DOD bass synthesizer pedal in front of it, tweezed it for a bit and it turned into a crazy self-oscillating morass of Trent Reznor sounding "broken gear" sounds. Really sick sounds, but a lot of fun.... play a chord and it sounds like a Star Wars cannon morphing into an Atari video game noise into vowel-sounding vomiting effect.

I don't have $40 to spend on this pedal for kicks, but maybe if someone is into "sick sounds" they need to check this pedal out...



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New and Improved Music Soon: http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

I was trying to remember what guitars Richards and Jones played on those Ed Sullivan appearances. Yeah, I'm old enough to have seen it live. I wish I could get my hands on a video of that! I do remember that when Gibson reissued the Les Paul Goldtop (68?) Keith and Brian both had them. The guitarist in my band at the time sold his Casino and bought one. We were heavy Stones fans you see. Ah memories!
Check this out
http://users.skynet.be/stones/pics/37f.jpg

This message has been edited by gtrmac@hotmail.com on 06-04-2001 at 01:03 AM

well i saw the sullivan show at the time and have seen it since...
however, this is all recall: keith was playin a 'les paul' w/ a bigby!! and durin 'satisfaction' he hits that*maestro* and it dont go!!! so he hits it again and it engages for this horrific,sick fuzz thang that is at once glorious and disturbin...i could be wrong and i'll eat a bug but thats my story and i'm stickin to it...

<< The Satisfaction pedal was a Maestro. I can remember when the song came
out it was the only fuzz tone available. >>

I don't think that the Vox Tone Bender came out until a year later. You can always go to a music store and try out a Line6 pedal and see if the Maestro model or the Vox model sounds like the pedal on Satisfaction and buy either the real Vox or Maestro pedal.
Buddy

The Tone Bender was definitely around in '65, which is when Satisfaction came out.

I'll go have another look at my Stones Ed Sullivan videos and see if I can see the pedal more clearly, not to mention if I can verify Stanner's story.

I don't really trust Line 6's stuff to give me a clear picture of either model. My Les Paul hates anything digital anyway. I can't even use a digital delay pedal with it, it loses all its tone. Only delay I can use is an Echoplex. I use very few effects because my motto is, if my Les Paul likes it, it stays, if it doesn't, it goes. So far it only likes the Echoplex, the Big Muff, the Distortion +, and the reverb and tremolo in my Fender amp. Oh, and it likes most wah-wah's OK, but I don't use those very often. Only other pedal I have is a Danelectro compressor which is only for my Rick 12-string, which likes it very much, and an Ernie Ball volume/pan pedal which doesn't give me any trouble at all.

With most other effects I have tried, the tone on my Les Paul gets killed even when the effect is turned off. I prefer to just go straight into the amp, or through nothing but the volume pedal.

--Lee

god, i heart you lee,-"guitar straight into amp"-a more beautiful sound will *never* be heard.

I definitely prefer a guitar straight through an amp. Tone benders didn't come out til '66 or '67. Page when he was doing sessions was using Maestro in '65 because they were the only fuzz pedals out.
Buddy

Where do you get videos of the Stones on Ed Sullivan? I sure would like to see that stuff again.

WOOHOO!!!

Well, the UPS man just brought my Tone Bender a few minutes ago (thanks again to this great forum and the cool guy I bought it from! )! Of course I took it right down to the studio and cranked it up thru the Fender Pro with the Les Paul. All I can say is, this thing SMOKES!! It's just what I wanted. Boy is it nasty! All the high end you could want. I am a happy camper!

Gtrmac, I have some of the Ed Sullivan stuff that I got from a private collector a looong time ago. However, quite a bit of Stones footage from Ed Sullivan is available on the Stones documentary home video "25x5". And it's a lot better quality than the other videos I have. Check it out if you get a chance!

You gotta love the Internet. I seek out an obscure piece of gear and not only find it, and it kicks ass, but I get to have a great discussion with y'all too!

--Lee