Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Some notes for later from a recent Vox Tone Bender build. Mainly wanted to jot down the placement of the pots and switch, as this layout is quite tight in a 1590BB – there’s no room for error. I probably should have made the layout a row or two shorter, but I just liked the … Read more
I purchased a Vox Escort amplifier a little while back, and it’s quite a cool little transistor amplifier. It’s a simple transistor amp from the early seventies with an IC-based amplifier. It screams when turned up. Here’s my original post with more information on the amplifier (including a schematic). Anyway, I thought I might try recreating one, albeit in a different … Read more
This has absolutely nothing in common with a regular MKIII Tone Bender – literally nothing – well, apart from the name and the enclosure used. The Vox Tone Bender MKIII with Treble ‘n’ Bass Boost is a tone control, followed by a Fuzz Face style fuzz, set to full fuzz. There’s only two knobs – … Read more
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 … Read more
This is the distortion section from a Vox Super Beatle V1141 amplifier, which happens to be almost identical to the Colorsound one knob fuzz. So much so that I used the layout and transistor selection from the D*A*M version. Interesting when you look at the schematic, as the distortion effect is first in the signal chain, ahead … Read more
A portion of this is based on the limiter circuit in some of the Thomas Organ Vox Beatle amps, which were solid-state amplifiers. This was meant to protect the power amplifier section from overloading – R.G. Keen has explained it way better than I could here on Premier Guitar. So far, I’ve only tested the … Read more
I quite like some of the guitar sounds from The Beatles Revolver album, and after looking at the Vox Supreme, I thought I might have a play with the UL series preamp. I’m also waiting for the build docs to come out for the Aclam Dr Robert on pedalpcb as a comparison. It’s also a … Read more
So not strictly Vox, but perhaps it’s the easiest way to label this one. It’s variation of the Jext Telez White Pedal done by Frank_NH on Freestompboxes, which is really the brilliant channel of a Vox Supreme. Frank made a few changes to keep the feel, while simplifying the design. running at 9v no wah … Read more
Yeah it’s another Tone Bender…. The Vox was one of the longest running in production, and it’s a variation of a Fuzz Face, or vice versa. VOX TONE BENDER – POINT TO POINT LAYOUT VOX TONE BENDER MODS Increase the size of the output capacitor. 4n7 is pretty small, considering a Fuzz Face … Read more
