Thursday, April 28, 2022

VOX: Tone Bender, 0.15" Vero Layout

After realising I had the "right" transistors for this, I thought I should have a crack at a Vox Tone Bender.  

I've done a generic vero layout with room for mods, with some common values listed - I guess the most obvious is the external bias pot, which could be replaced with a standard 8k2 resistor.

The D*A*M 1966 Italian Tone Bender has a Super Bee vs '66 mod, which is just a switch with a 47k resistor to ground from volume 3 (using a 470k pot) - reducing bass.  It's an easy way to capture the sound of some of the common variants out there.    


VOX TONE BENDER - 0.15" VERO LAYOUT

VOX TONE BENDER - 0.15" VERO LAYOUT FUZZ


VOX TONE BENDER CIRCUIT PHOTO


VOX TONE BENDER VS FUZZ FACE VS TONE BENDER MK1.5

And if you're thinking, what's the point, it's just a Fuzz Face - well, that's true to some extent, but sonically there are some differences, as you can see from the plots below.  

This of course, doesn't consider the differences in character provided by different transistor combinations - LTspice doesn't have a huge range of vintage transistors to choose from, and unlike real germanium transistors, everyone has identical hfe and leakage.


VOX TONE BENDER VS FUZZ FACE VS TONE BENDER MK1.5



VOX TONE BENDER VS FUZZ FACE VS TONE BENDER MK1.5


Some Vox Tone Benders have a 47k resistor across the 500k volume pot, which reduces the volume pot to 43K.  I used 50k, as that’s what some versions of the Vox Tone Bender use (there are a few circuit variations)

Vox Tone Bender vs fuzz face



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