TB 1 (tone bender Mk1 clone)

This is my hand-built recreation of the legendary Tone Bender MKI, the fuzz that shaped some of the rawest and most iconic guitar sounds of the 1960s. You can hear originals of this circuit on tracks like:
• The Yardbirds – “Heart Full of Soul” (Jeff Beck)
• The Beatles – “Think for Yourself” (Paul’s bass fuzz)
• David Bowie - “Moonage Daydream” (Mick Ronson)

If you’ve only heard hyped-up YouTube demos (likely of clones not the original) you might be surprised. The real MKI is not a wall-of-fuzz, high-gain monster. Originals were moderate gain, a little raw, and often slightly gated depending on your playing, guitar, and amp settings. That’s part of the magic.

This is a video with 3 original mk1 pedals. Mine resembles the first one he plays the most. Which is the first of the heavy bodied not wooden box.
https://youtu.be/YJFnV3Eqy_s?si=qGnR4YSWrx7_1w_W

Attack Control = Bias Control
There’s a sweet spot where the pedal opens up and sustains; too far either way and it’ll get sputtery or choke notes short. This is exactly how vintage MKIs behave, and finding that point is part of the fun.

Level Control = Volume
The Level knob needs to work hand-in-hand with your guitar and amp setup. It isn’t just a max it and forget it thing. You need to move it around depending on how loud your amp is, how hot your pick ups are etc in order to dial in the optimum sound. Adjust depending on:
• Amp type and headroom
• How loud the amp is set
• Single coils vs humbuckers
Dialing it in right lets the pedal breathe in your rig.

Build Details
• Transistors:
• Q1: OC75 – hFE 87 / leakage 190 µA
• Q2: OC42 – hFE 88 / leakage 77 µA
• Q3: 2N404 – hFE 173 / leakage 250 µA
• Candy gold powder-coated enclosure – shifts from orange-gold to yellow-gold depending on angle.
• Powered by standard 9 V center-negative supply.

This is not a “set all knobs to max and go” fuzz. It’s an instrument in itself: responsive, temperamental in the best way, and capable of a wide range of vintage-accurate fuzz textures when you take the time to work with it.

I will do my best to guarantee this pedal but just know it uses extremely hard to find nos germanium transistors and I might not be able to find any that have the right specs for this pedal.