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Hi there, welcome to my blog - La Revolution Deux. It's an odd name - but I like it! Here you will find all the info on my various DIY Guitar effects builds, amplifiers and guitars. Everything from a humble Ibanez tubescreamer to the holiest KLON Overdrive.

You may also find a few effects builds that I am looking to move on - usually in exchange for other effects/gear/cash. You can always check my ebay account to see what I've got up for grabs.

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Feel free to get in contact with me about anything you see on this blog or with any general questions about guitars, amplifiers and effects, I'll be happy to answer! Just click the button above to email me directly or alternately my email address is fredbriggs2007 [at] googlemail [dot] com

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Wednesday 21 March 2012

Sola Sound - Tone Bender MK1.5

The Sola Sound Tone Bender MK1.5 was introduced in 1966 with a view to replace 1965's Tone Bender MKI. With a new sand cast enclosure and a two transistor circuit (which was much easier to build and bias!) it would seem Sola Sound were onto a winner and ended up with an effect which is still casting it's influence on guitar music today!

Here's a quick look at a gut shot from an original Tone Bender MK1.5:


You can see the two Mullard OC75 germanium transistors which are the heart of the circuit. Also note the vero board construction. The tone of this circuit is less saturated than the MKI Tone Bender and produces a tone much similar to the original Arbiter Fuzz Face, and here's why:


The schematic is identical in structure to the original Arbiter Fuzz Face which was released in late 1966 - it is rumoured that the Tone Bender MK1.5 circuit was essentially nicked by Arbiter after they borrowed a Tone Bender unit for inspection. Also of note is the fact that is was this circuit (with a few value tweaks) that Vox used in their Italian made Tone Bender design.

Here's a demo video of the Tone Bender MK1.5 circuit in action (Note - this a D*A*M rebuilt circuit):



Here's a great vero layout by Sinner of www.turretboard.org:


OK, so what transistor HFEs work? The standard Fuzz Face values of 80-90Hfe for Q1 and 110-130Hfe for Q2 are fine, but as usually feel free to tune to your own tastes!

8 comments:

  1. everyone has different Output caps, how can I find out what is the real original mk1.5?

    ReplyDelete
  2. everyone has different Output caps, how can I find out what is the real original mk1.5?

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you post an email address I'll send you a photo of the guts of mine, it's unchanged from the factory.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How amazing and wonderful post you have shared with us . A lot of thanks for this posting . Clipping Path | Image Masking Service | Image Cropping

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  5. The plugin of the equipment and description is very workable. thanks for the sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I get extreme gating from this layout. Can’t seem to bias the transistors correctly

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey, do you know the values for biasing q1 and q1?

    ReplyDelete

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