Members clund Posted September 2, 2010 Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 So... I have interest in building my own amp some day, but decided to start by building my own pedal. Ordered a Tone Bender Clone from "Build Your Own Clone" website and just finished it last night... Started out with Paint and Ink Jet water sticker paper: Built the PCB: Mounted the PCB in the painted case: Wired it and added the battery: And here is the finished product: Plugged it in to my crappy practice amp last night and man - this thing is DIRTY!!! If you want an Idea of what it sounds like - listen to Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown or Queens of the Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry. FILTHY FUZZ! Can't wait to try it out on my H&K Trilogy - but that amp is at my drummers house. What do you think? Comments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members itkindaworks Posted September 2, 2010 Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 Good looking build man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The_Tourist Posted September 2, 2010 Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 is this your first build ever? looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Prehistoricpain Posted September 2, 2010 Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 This build is super clean, you're pretty good with a soldering iron! Only thing I would change is the knobs, but thats personal preference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members clund Posted September 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 I plan on ordering some better knobs... the ones that came with the kit are pretty lame. And yes, this is my first build - and thanks for the props on my solder skills. Only soldering I have done before is Guitar Pickup swaps and re-wires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CapnMarvel Posted September 2, 2010 Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 Quality work! The 'Bender is one of the toughest fuzzes to get right, IMHO (I've owned a bunch of clones and they all vary in sound WIDELY from each other). To do as good of a job as you did on a first pedal and to (it sounds like anyway) like the sound is commendable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members clund Posted September 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 Thanks Capn! I will see if I can get some clips up here by the end of the weekend... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzzio Posted September 2, 2010 Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 i did one too and it sounds excellentset the as high as possible without getting to nasal octaveydid the mods they recommended fyi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members clund Posted September 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 i did one too and it sounds excellentset the as high as possible without getting to nasal octaveydid the mods they recommended fyi Fuzzio -- Did you mean set the BIAS as high as possible? And I have looked at their site, and don't see any Recommended Mods - You have a link? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members renula Posted September 2, 2010 Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 Hey clund, nice build! Did you apply a coat of clear after the decals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Webinfront_ Posted September 2, 2010 Members Share Posted September 2, 2010 Love the way Bender is on there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Johansolo Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Great job on hte first buildthe BYOC stuff are great to get sucked into the world of DIY pedal building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members joncyberboy Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 That looks great. I'm highly tempted to try myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members english_bob Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 I made one of those a while back. I wired the bias adjuster to a pot- very useful for getting a range of sounds from the pedal. The older version of the kit had an extra solder pad for bypassing the first transistor and getting a Fuzzface type sound from it, so I hooked that up too. Sounds pretty bad. Could never work out whether I'd done something wrong, but I liked the Tonebender side well enough not to worry too much about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members clund Posted September 3, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Hey clund, nice build!Did you apply a coat of clear after the decals? Yes... I put on about 3 coats of clear after the decals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thezeng Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Looks clean and crisp. Great soldering. I need to work up the courage to get a BYOC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dap99 Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Great job w/ the build. Let us see pics when you get the new knobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IRG Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Looks great, congrats! I've been thinking about trying a BYOC kit lately myself. One of these days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members placebo62 Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Looks great. How long did it take you? And have you done much soldering before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members clund Posted September 3, 2010 Author Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Looks great. How long did it take you? And have you done much soldering before? First time doing REAL soldering - I have modded a few guitars, swapped pickups and stuff, but that is about my total soldering history. It took about 8 hours in total work time, over about 2 weeks. The sanding, painting, decals and clear coat was probably the hardest part. The instructions are VERY easy to follow and the PCB layout is awesome. I looked at other pedal kits and the BYOC kits are probably the best laid out plans out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GuitarSlim101 Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Looks nice! My first pedal build was a BYOC Tonebender, too, but mine is from the early point-to-point days. They certainly have come a long way. I ended up adding an external bias pot to mine, and I think I switched out the output resistor to get a bit more volume...which certainly wasn't necessary, but I couldn't stop myself. They are dirty mother {censored}ers, though. It's my favorite fuzz. Sounds massive through the 15 inch speaker in my Univox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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