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| Vox Tone Bender Mark III |
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| Sola Sound Tone Bender MKIII |
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| Colorsound Tone Bender MKIII |
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| Another Sola Sound unit |
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| Sola Sound Tone Bender MKIII Gutshot |
Now although the fuzz produced by the MKIII isn’t as agressive as previous Tone Benders it can still produce an unholy amount of Fuzz. Here’s a demo video of the MKIII Tone Bender circuit in action (Note – it’s a Pigdog MKIII):
Here’s the schematic for the most widely distributed version of the Sola Sound Tone Bender MKIII:
In the original the transistors were unmarked PNP Germanium and the diode was a 1N270. I’d recommend using a pair of lower gain (40-60 hfe) for Q1 and Q2 and a higher gain 90-120hfe for Q3. If you want to see the variations on the Tone Bender MKIII design then check out: http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/3knob.php, there are details on the Park Fuzz Sound and Prescription Electronics Yard Box there.
Here’s a vero layout created by Electric Warrior (Note – he used a 250K Volume pot):
And here’s some images of his completed build:
And here’s some info regarding the Fulltone Soul Bender:
And a description:
“Our Soul-Bender is based on the legendary Colorsound and Vox Series III ToneBenders made by Sola-Sound/England in the late ’60’s that was used by Beck and Page on much of their circa 1968-70 recordings.
Equipped with 3 gain-matched germanium transistor for a FAT, searing lead tone, I also made the Tone control response and range more usable and much less shrill sounding… Full clockwise is SMOOTH sounding.
The Soul-Bender cleans up when you back-off on the guitar’s volume control. This pedal has tons of tonal character and even harmonics and of course, true bypass w/ LED is included with every one.”
And a vero layout for the “Boutique Bender”:
For more info on the Sola Sound Tone Bender MKIII check out Effects Database here: http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/solasound/tonebender/mk3
And here’s the Freestompboxes.org forum topic: http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=7728