Fulltone Soulbender

Soul-Bender

In the early 1970’s, Sola-Sound England produced a very fat, warm, and juicy sounding Distortion/Fuzz called the Tone-Bender MkIII. These were also sold under the Colorsound, and Park brand names with slight variations in circuit and sound....my favorite being the Sola-Sound.

“3 knob Tone-Benders,” as they became to be known, were very different from the more popular Fuzzface pedals in that they had more sustain and a lot of sweet midrange on-tap, which could give a thin Tele or Strat a very sax-like solo tone, especially with the “Tone” control turned full clockwise.

The ‘Bender tone control cuts treble and increases Bass & Mids as you turn it clockwise, panning between a large and small capacitor, which is the way different from most other pedal’s Tone controls which simply cut treble at the knob is turned counter-clockwise.

The magic of these “3 knobbers” is that they contain 3 germanium transistors...all of differing gains, and the secret is you have to know the proper gain each transistor needs to be in order to produce the best sound.

I know, not because of some schematic on the web (all wrong BTW) or “build your own” kit, but because I have owned and repaired 40 or more original “3 knobbers,” and have almost 20 years experience with this circuit, knowing what makes them sound great and sustain long.

The original Fulltone Soul-Bender® came out in 1995, it was inspired by this classic 3-knob design, and was produced up until around 2006 when Fulltone could no longer parse suitable transistors. Recently Fulltone re-established a relationship with one of the last remaining germanium transistor making companies, which has allowed them to re-issue this fuzz-classic as the Soul-Bender® SB-2.

The SB-2 is in some ways better than the old Soul-Bender® in that I am now having the transistors made-to-order just how I want them, and these wonderful skinny-tall TO-1 Germanium transistor (with a top hat brim) that have just the right characteristics, including the requisite low gain and low noise just like the vintage Sola-Sound pedals had.

The Soul-Bender® improves on the original 60's design by offering more available volume, a more usable Tone control range, True-Bypass switching with my proprietary "silent switching circuit,” better power supply filtering for less noise, and polarity protection to keep the sensitive Germanium transistors from damage....you cannot fry this pedal if you accidentally use the wrong power supply!

Your SB-2 is roughly half the size of the original Soul-Bender® (or Sola-Sound) and I left the IN & OUT jacks on the rear of the pedal like the original Soul-Bender® so it will fit on even the most cramped pedalboard.

• Germanium Fuzz pedal
• Replica of the 3-knob Sola-Sound Tone Bender
• Vintage specs and vintage sound
• 100% hand-built in the USA
• Powered by 9 V DC PSU
(centre +, 2.1 mm)