Saturday 29 September 2012

Vox Tone Bender

Found a couple of old ones that by the looks of them I did ages ago, but haven't posted yet.  May as well get them on here to keep everything together. :o)  I haven't mentioned which transistors but they're germanium so just use your favourites.

This video was apparently narrated by Stephen Hawking





PNP Version




NPN Version


Posted by at 23:34
Tags: , ,

32 comments:

  1. Anonymous29 September 2012 at 23:44

    This is what the DAM 66 is a clone of?

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    1. IvIark29 September 2012 at 23:49

      A few of the values are different and DAM added a few extra things like the switched output caps, BC caps and trimmer. Which probably means they're totally different :o) but this is what it was based on apparently.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous29 September 2012 at 23:57

      Sounds good but my luck with germaniums isn't good unfortunately ;o)

      Delete
    3. IvIark30 September 2012 at 04:13

      Don't be put off mate. You've got the transistors and you know their gain and leakage so just go for it. There's nothing about this that makes it any more awkward than a silicon effect.

      Delete
  2. mirosol30 September 2012 at 00:27

    I'm going to find time to nail this tomorrow...
    +m

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    Replies
    1. IvIark30 September 2012 at 00:35

      Could you get number 300!?! :o)))

      Delete
    2. mirosol30 September 2012 at 01:33

      Damn. You know i can't resist a challenge.... :(
      Still it has to wait 'till the morning, even though it hurts like hell to do so. I need to get up quite early to drive a few london ladies and one cool canadian dude to helsinki airport...
      --------
      F it.
      ---------
      Done. Thank you Mark! My world wouldn't be the same without you.

      Anyway. I used MP38As from my bags of 80-90 for Q1 and 90-100 for Q2. As it works perfectly with NPN germs, it must work perfectly with PNPs too. I also subbed the 15µ for 22µ as i didn't have any mojo 15µs..

      Sounds just amazing. Kicks the living daylights out of most other '60 fuzz circuits. I just love tonebenders. Circuit is very close to FF, but this makes FF sound like clinical plastic. This thing has balls.

      So that's 300. Only 200 more for big 500!

      Tomorrow is going to be hell, since it's already 3:30 in the morning here...
      +m

      Delete
    3. IvIark30 September 2012 at 01:46

      You awesome dude! D'ya know, I just KNEW you were going to be doing it tonight!

      Delete
    4. mirosol30 September 2012 at 01:49

      As usual, i just couldn't resist it :) Now i'm off to bed...
      +m

      Delete
    5. IvIark30 September 2012 at 01:58

      Night mate, top man!

      Delete
    6. mirosol30 September 2012 at 15:57

      I think 8K2 doesn't nail the bias 100% correct, but it sounds so beautifully, that i have no complaints. It's really close to the demo, so i just couldn't be happier.

      So if someone is building this and don't seem to get Q2 to bias correctly, that 8K2 may need some tweaking.
      +m

      Delete
    7. IvIark30 September 2012 at 16:17

      It may be worth adding a trimmer just to see if you could like it even more.

      Delete
    8. mirosol30 September 2012 at 17:42

      Nah.. No chance to fit it in there. If i was to tweak it, i would take wires to breadboard and find out the perfect value there with a trimmer.

      But.

      It has balls as is, so i don't necessarily want to tweak it. :)
      +m

      Delete
    9. Anonymous2 August 2015 at 01:53

      How would I go about adding the trimmer? I'd like to give that a try on my build. Thanks!

      Delete
  3. Unknown30 September 2012 at 01:59

    That video was simple awesome.. Can we get the narrator to do my eulogy?

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    1. IvIark30 September 2012 at 02:09

      Haha

      Delete
    2. mirosol30 September 2012 at 15:55

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECtalk

      There's even a cat for scaling.
      +m

      Delete
    3. Jimijam4 October 2012 at 06:14

      Just when I thought I was done making fuzz pedals you add this one!
      |v|ark, I used your fuzz face vero to make a tonebender MK1.5 that sounds fantastic and will give this one a go later and maybe socket caps to change some of the values to match a tonebender Mk1.5 for giggles. Steven Hawking demo is priceless and hopefully I can get this one going! I have a couple of 2n404a's laying around that are the correct values so wish me luck and will report back later!

      Thanks |v|ark

      Delete
  4. mirosol7 December 2012 at 22:13

    Just took this out of the bag. As i said earlier, i suspected that the bias might be slightly off. No it's not. It's just perfect.

    After playing for 20 seconds, i wondered why this sounds so nasal and thin. Right. There's a 4n7 at the output. All of the lows are trapped at Q2 collector. So i swapped it for 150n and perfect.
    +m

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  5. mirosol7 March 2013 at 20:22

    http://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/boxes/66Bender.jpg
    +m

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  6. Mladen25 June 2013 at 11:33

    Hello,

    First, thanks for great layouts.

    I tried to make this layout but it doesn't work, there is no any output signal. I checked everything several times and don't see any problem.

    I had two OC44 transistors and made PNP version, so I also made a voltage converter that works (checked with multimeter that shows -9V). I hope someone can help me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mirosol25 June 2013 at 11:48

      I've built couple of these and i know for sure that the layout works.

      Usual problems could be unwanted shorting solder bridge between some strips or possibly a pinout issue with transistors.

      You could use a probe to see where the signal dies and/or snap some photos of the bottom and top of the board and post them for us to see - if any of us might spot something wrong in there.

      On completely different side note: I'd strongly suggest upping the output cap (4n7) for something like 10n or 22n.
      +m

      Delete
    2. Mladen25 June 2013 at 12:47

      Thanks for answer mirosol.

      I read comments and I see it is verified, I wanted to check did I understand well about negative voltage and converter, and whether oc44 is appropriate transistor for this effect.

      I already checked short solder bridges and pinout, when I come home I will try to track signal and see where it breaks.

      Mladen

      Delete
  7. Mladen25 June 2013 at 18:36

    I tried to track signal, wire with one side to amp, with other side I was checking board.

    When I touch emiter on Q1 there is no tone, but I think that's ok because it goes to ground. When I touch Base on Q1 there is weak clean signal. On collector there is amplified clean sound.

    On emitter on Q2 I get amplified sound with some noise, on base on Q2 there is the same amplified sound without noise and on collector on Q2 is weak sound with noise. Q2 emitter is connected with 8.2k resistor and on the other side on resistor there is so weak sound hardly to hear it, and same trough the other components to level pot.

    Here are pictures:

    http://i39.tinypic.com/6fqu8k.jpg
    http://i40.tinypic.com/6quqg9.jpg
    http://i44.tinypic.com/why000.jpg

    I hope I explained well, sorry for bad english :-)

    Mladen

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    Replies
    1. mirosol25 June 2013 at 21:58

      On top of that 8K2 should be all out fuzz.

      My eyes are more than done for today.. Anyone else spot anything?
      +m

      Delete
    2. Mladen10 July 2013 at 07:44

      I made it again on solder-less Breadboard and it worked this time, but I didn't like sound that much, it seems it is not for me, so I won't bother about this any more.

      Thank you for your help.

      Delete
  8. Unknown18 July 2013 at 23:00

    Hi everyone.
    I'm new to this blog and i want to thank you for the great layouts.
    Can you please post the analogman sunbender layout or a MK1.5 with external bias control?
    Thanks in advance

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unknown18 July 2013 at 23:01

    Even the D.A.M tonebender MK1.5 version would be great.
    Thanks again

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gristlepig12 October 2013 at 20:56

    Just built this jammy last night. Balls indeed. Cleans up very nicely as well.
    Used an OC75 73hfe and an OC76 at 98hfe. Collector of Q2 biased up at 6.5v with no monkeying with resistors.
    Didn't had a 150nf for the input cap, but a 180nf NOS Sprague Orange Drop has substituted nicely.
    I may try and up the value of the output cap, as the tone is a little thin.

    All in all, a great sounding fuzz. She's a keeper.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Unknown24 December 2013 at 07:51

    Hi. I will be trying the npn version soon ( I hope) .. noob question ... on both layouts the image of the transistors is the same but the pinout lettering is inverted. From the layout itself I think the pinout is correct rather than the image (or maybe its because the transistors themselves are different rather than two of the same transistor but with different hfe).

    Extremly good job Mr. |V|ark with your layouts !
    Greetings from Mexico Señores.

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    1. Unknown24 December 2013 at 09:38

      Also, it would be very helpful if you could suggest npn germaniums for this project. Someone suggested nte103a in another forum, but don't know if this would be just 2 of them with different hfe or if a 103a + an other different transistor

      Delete
  12. Doron Barness19 November 2014 at 14:02

    Does anyone know how to implement the Deep Trip Kryptone Fuzz mods for this Vox TB?

    ReplyDelete

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