NHPD (New Hendrix Pedal Day): BBC tone nailed!

[garbeaj]

http://www.wah-wah.co.uk

[theactor19]

But wasn't it a custom build?

[garbeaj]

But wasn't it a custom build?

If you are talking about the circa 1966 Solasound Professional MKII Tonebender that Jimmy Page used with The Yardbirds and the first Led Zeppelin album, it was not a custom build. The fuzz pedal that Page often refers to as being built by Roger Mayer was probably only used on some of Page's early session work if at all, but whatever Mayer built for him had nothing to do with the famous Tonebender fuzz tones that Page is known for from The Yardbirds and the first Led Zeppelin album. I have done a lot of research on this fuzz over at least the last 20 years and I have corresponded with Mayer himself about the pedals he built for Page.

It is a stock pedal, but there was a lot of variance in the parts throughout the history of the Tonebender. The one that Page used was a particular type made in around 1966 that had a particular tone. The same type of 1966 Tonebender can be heard on Alan Parker's electric guitar overdubs and leads on Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" single. Like Page, Parker bought his Solasound Professional MKII Tonebender from Macari's in London sometime in 1966.

[shakti]

But wasn't it a custom build?

I think he's referring to the pedal in my Youtube clip. Just send Stu a mail, usually he's open to doing custom builds like this one. He was talking about doing a short run of them.

[daveweyer]

The Sola tone bender changed over time to a copy of the Arbiter negative feedback amp idea. The first versions were like the Gibson units, three transistors, the first one being an emitter follower (to isolate the guitar pickup from the bias current of the first AF amp, among other things) followed by two grounded emitter transistors cascaded for immense gain.
When Vox jumped in with their own copy of the Tone Bender they used the Arbiter idea except they used NPN transistors. The stock units showed up from Italy with OC 76 transistors, but Vox replaced them with SK 3004 transistors whenever they needed upgrades or repairs.
There was one Mayer upgrade that I saw at West Coast that used an input stage, but also used the negative feedback amp from the Arbiter.
If you're listening to a later Sola, you're back to the Fuzzface. Only the components made them sound any different. As Explorer and others have seen, those different transistors had quite a bit of effect on the tone and response.

I built a bunch of Tone Benders with silicon transistors, typically 2N3391-A.

[theactor19]

But wasn't it a custom build?

I think he's referring to the pedal in my Youtube clip. Just send Stu a mail, usually he's open to doing custom builds like this one. He was talking about doing a short run of them.

If he does a short run, I would definitely get one. What did you pay for yours btw?

[vintage_charlie]

Shakti, hi and sorry for such a late resurrection!

But i am curious about the Olympic fuzz. Your clip sounds fantastic, no matter if it is the "correct" unit or not. I got curious about the clean tones - when you roll back the guitar volume, i hear something vey familiar from the Axis album, which is what i have been trying to figure out for a long time - on the cleans (with the in-between strat positions - little wing, wait until tomorrow, castles made of sand, etc.), which MIGHT be a Sound City 100, as they are clean, big and full at the sime time, i hear something that i can't imagine coming from any amp alone. It is some sort of a "wet", chewy, but chimey and clear thing at the same time, but not as clear and "dry" as an amp by its own.
So i am wondering if this or a similar unit might have been always on for those tracks, especially Wait until Tomorrow.

The other question - how does the Olympic fuzz behave with a les paul?

[Xplorer]

For the cleans ... The presence control plays a big role in this little wing kind of saturation. My theory is that first the amp probably had 6ca7 in it, as a replacement for el34, which as Dave said are closer to 6550.

For axis bold as love, given the clips of Shakti, no much need to look further isn't it ?

[vintage_charlie]

Adrien, yes, there is this certain squishy, chewy wet kind of top end thing going on in the cleaned up parts, even though they were not the scope of the video. Would be interesting to hear this set up with the fuzz cleaned up and some Axis tunes. So in one form or another, looks like the olympic fuzz is something that i certainly would like to give a try at some point.

[shakti]

Hello vintage_charlie (Karlis? long time!).

To answer Your question; I doubt that it was the Olympic circuit for those clean sounds, but I could be wrong. To be honest, I am not totally sold on how this pedal cleans up, but it may be that I am just so used to that sparkly fuzzface clean-up. In some ways, it's more of a very very powerful boost with fuzzy overtones, more than a full-blown fuzz as such, and it's coloured heavily by which amp you're running it into. So I suppose it's possible to come up with some unique tones by running it a little cleaner and into a very clean amp, using it more as a console preamp (which, in essence, is what it is as far as I understand).

It works well with a Les Paul, but again sounding more like a very gnarly, fat boost/distortion with fuzzy overtones.

[yngwie308]

An original Marshall Supa Fuzz, I remember when these were behind the counter at Jim's Marshall shoppe!!

yngwie308

[Danhalen]

Managed to upload the video now:

I just stumbled onto this thread now. That sounds absolutely incredible! The guitar and amp sound great at the very beginning too. The character of the midrange is so nice. That must be a big part of this great sound. Stu has some incredible stuff on his site. His wahs and the Wizard pedal sound amazing too. But this is just amazing. I might see if Stu is still willing to build these.