Tone Benders

[chuckjaywalk]

So, the best fuzz I ever had for my weird low-output Strat was a Devi Ever Ruby. It is apparently a Tone Bender. There are lots of Tone Benders, though. What “real” Tone Bender is it most like? I really want to replace it.

[BetterOffShred]

The ruby is easily cloned. I have a layout and schematic on my desk right now.. I've never played a ruby, now you've got me interested. I'll have to build one today.. do you just want another ruby? Or do you really want a Tonebender?

[chuckjaywalk]

Honestly, just another Ruby. I am not a good solderer, though. It is just right for me, bright and sustaining with a little sizzle.

[BetterOffShred]

Well it could be arranged ...

[Pete]

I have a bunch of Devi Ever peds, and they all seem to gel real well with my playing style. I'd definitely like to try a Ruby.

As for other Tonebenders, I'd love to try the EQD Tone Reaper and Blackout Effectors Fuzz Bear/Fubar, as well.

[BetterOffShred]

According to the schematics for the Ruby, it's just 2 of the "05" boosts in series, the second bumped up to 100n caps, and then an intensity pot wired as a voltage divider between the two.. not bad for 2xMPSA18 and 2 B100k pots ..

[jrfox92]

What BOS said.
One could only really call it a Tonebender if they squinted while looking at it and rearranged the schematic a bit.

Regarding Tonebenders, the Dizzy Tone and Zonk Machine are the coolest ones I've seen.

[BetterOffShred]

What BOS said.
One could only really call it a Tonebender if they squinted while looking at it an rearranged the schematic a bit.

Regarding Tonebenders, the Dizzy Tone and Zonk Machine are the coolest ones I've seen.

I'll have one on the breadboard in like an hour. Have to go pay rent and then I'll build it haha.

I built a silicon MKIII... it's a pretty versatile Tonebender. Put the bias outboard as a pot and you can get really big sounds up to splat factory zipper shit.

[The Eristic]

There's an inexplicably overpriced Ruby on the GC used site. I'd wager it'll get a massive price drop sooner or later, though, if you wanna watch it.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Devi-E ... t-Pedal.gc

My favorite Tonebender so far is the Throbak Stone Bender. It does the traditional sounds really well and can go from almost like a crispy OD at lower settings to really nasty with the pre gain switch on and hot pickups. I would like to compare it to the FUBAR and the BA Scarab Deluxe, as the former seems like it can get more extreme and the latter because, uh, it looks really cool.

[BetterOffShred]

Well I built the ruby and it's noisy AF.. my MPSA18 are all over 1k gain, so I used a 600 gain BC550c in Q2 and that makes it so much better. Turn the intensity all the way up and it gets that nasty Devi clang sound .. but back it off and it has full fuzz down to fairly robust OD.. I built a little power filter for it, and that helps. It's pretty nice.

[chuckjaywalk]

Well I built the ruby and it's noisy AF.. my MPSA18 are all over 1k gain, so I used a 600 gain BC550c in Q2 and that makes it so much better. Turn the intensity all the way up and it gets that nasty Devi clang sound .. but back it off and it has full fuzz down to fairly robust OD.. I built a little power filter for it, and that helps. It's pretty nice.

Yeah, I went through about 25 Devi fuzzes and clones over the years and the Ruby was both the most tempermental and the best sounding with my rig. Just keep it first in the chain and it is amazing.

[frigid midget]

Don't know about the ruby, but as far as tonebenders go, I'd love to try a Basic Audio Scarab Deluxe. Might be too tame and vintage for me though, it's one of those pedal I can see myself getting bored with real fast no matter how good it really sounds.

I had a Blackout effectors Fuzzbear for a while, but that one was too far on the other side of the spectrum for me. It's as much of a tonebender as the fuzz factory is a fuzz face. There's a tiny range of useable old school useable tones that can be dialed in with some careful tweaking, but for the most part it squeels and bleeps and oscillates like a mother

Awesome pedal in its own right I guess, but when it comes to versatile hot rodded tone bender derivates that do both the tonebender thing, as well as weird/gated/velcro stuff:
Clusterfuzz. Probably still not authentic enough for the tonebender purists out there, but it's got the perfect 'classic : crazy' ratio for my needs.

[repoman]

The best Tone Bender I ever had was the Throbak Stone Bender. The MJM Brit Bender I had was really cool too.