Dinosaural/Lovetone Tube Bender  [traced]

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nightraven
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Post by nightraven »

ended my hunt for this pedal today

Image

here's my semi-review i posted on another forum:

very cool pedal! they call it an overdrive pedal but it gets very fuzzy at the top of the drive knob, very tonebendery. what i also noticed was that the tone knob doesn't get shrill at the top, instead it sounds very GLASSY, even on my strat bridge pup. the guitar volume knob clean up isn't as great as they advertised, it does get clean at the '6' mark but it also gets very muddy. it doesn't do fuzz face kind of clean up.
on the side of the pedal there's a "tone shift" switch which is pretty neat, it switches between a thinner, brighter fuzz tone and a fat warm overdrive sound (with a volume boost).


and for the real treat:

Image

it's listed as a copy of the MKIII tonebender on effectsdatabase.com but there are way more transistors in here - what is it?!
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lolbou
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Post by lolbou »

nightraven wrote: there are way more transistors in here - what is it?!
Buffers?
- Are you a mod or a rocker?
- Uh, no, I'm a mocker.

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Steven_M
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Post by Steven_M »

It looks like one of those pedals that were sold as a kit from that British guitar magazine. The markings on the pedal are pretty much identical. The tube bender was one of the kits they offered. My Tube bender is a four transistor model though.

I have a schem and a magazine article about it somewhere. Let me see if I can dig it up.

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Steven_M
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Post by Steven_M »

Here is a pic of my build. Eerily similar layout. Grey and pink one:
Image

Also, Here is a .pdf of the schematic. I guess they are not that similar after all, but the PCB markings, font, instructions, etc are identical. Perhaps they had the same designer.
tubebender.pdf
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Post by RnFR »

nightraven wrote:

it's listed as a copy of the MKIII tonebender on effectsdatabase.com but there are way more transistors in here - what is it?!
if some trace trace side pics of the board were available, I'm sure someone would be able to figure it out. :wink:
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Güero 2.0
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Post by Güero 2.0 »

Güero 2.0 wrote:Here's my layout for Tube Bender and some info:

http://www.dinosaural.com/products_tube ... review.asp
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/di ... tubebender

Layout:
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Tube_Bender_Güero.pdf
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Post by Liquitone »

In "Guitar effects pedals, the practical handbook" by Dave hunter it is mentioned;
Dan Coggins was the chief designer and co-founder of britain's Lovetone pedals [...]but he has recently branched out by himself, gradually introducing his own pedals under the name Dinosaural.
The first of these is the Dinosaural Tube Bender overdrive, co-designed by David Petersen. [...]
'The design first saw the light of day as a DIY kit offered to readers of The Guitar Magazine(UK),
and is a take on a 'best of world's blend of Tube Screamer-esque overdrive leaning towards Tone Bender fuzz/distortion.

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Post by jrod »

Steven_M wrote:Here is a pic of my build. Eerily similar layout. Grey and pink one:
Image

Also, Here is a .pdf of the schematic. I guess they are not that similar after all, but the PCB markings, font, instructions, etc are identical. Perhaps they had the same designer.
tubebender.pdf
Thanks for the pdf of the magazine article! :thumbsup

When was this published?

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Post by Steven_M »

jrod wrote:
Steven_M wrote:Here is a pic of my build. Eerily similar layout. Grey and pink one:
Image

Also, Here is a .pdf of the schematic. I guess they are not that similar after all, but the PCB markings, font, instructions, etc are identical. Perhaps they had the same designer.
tubebender.pdf
Thanks for the pdf of the magazine article! :thumbsup

When was this published?
I have the magazine at home somewhere, so I'll have to look. The treble booster kit came out in the summer between my 2nd and 3rd year at uni so that would put it around 2001. The tube bender came out second so an estimate would be somewhere between 2001/2002/2003. Somewhere on that time line. I'll check though.

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Steven_M
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Post by Steven_M »

Whoops! How wrong was I! According to this article it came out in 2004.

http://www.guitarmagazine.co.uk/tuition ... -own-pedal

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Post by batteryacidtea »

Thanks for the nice layout, Güero (AKA the frogman)

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Post by jrod »

Steven_M wrote:Whoops! How wrong was I! According to this article it came out in 2004.

http://www.guitarmagazine.co.uk/tuition ... -own-pedal
Oh, ok! Thanks for checking!

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Post by Güero 2.0 »

batteryacidtea wrote:Thanks for the nice layout, Güero (AKA the frogman)
Rá, I know you from another part of the planet :hmmm:
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Steven_M
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Post by Steven_M »

biffa wrote:The schematic is V1 from the mags kit
The made up one dan coggins sells,has a tone shift switch,and i think a smooth-grit switch
The pedal has no diodes or opamp,but gradually clips the signal thru each of the 4 trannys
The bumf says u can even simulate other amps with it(sort of)
Yeah, I put a copy of the bumf up in my post above.

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Post by SPeter »

Thanks to all contributors and specially to Güero 2.0 for the layout!
:applause:
:thumbsup :thumbsup
:D

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Post by gigelmargel »

Thanks to to Güero 2.0 for the layout!
:applause:
:thumbsup :thumbsup

Any soundclips?

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Steven_M
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Post by Steven_M »

biffa wrote:I meant the bumf from the edition of the mag showing u how to build it
They show pictures of different waveforms,with different settings on the pedal,so u can simulate a vox driven and clean,a vibrolux,and a jcm800
Among other stuff
Yes, the circuit analysis and scope shots are on page two of my PDf, but I did not include the other stuff regarding construction as that's really preaching to the choir around here.

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Post by RnFR »

what's the advantage of grounding the gain pot to Vr?
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Steven_M
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Post by Steven_M »

biffa wrote: Sorry,but u r not the only member here
I'm not? Well fuck this site then. I only want meaningful conversations with myself.

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Post by Steven_M »

biffa wrote:It seems so
Stop jumping to conclusions! All I said was that I didn't include the construction information. My reasoning being that the schematic and circuit analysis would be all 95% of the people that post here would need to see!

Most people here know how to mount through hole components and drill an enclosure. But I'm glad the other 5% are coming to you to ask about that. I'm sure they will get a nice, straight answer.

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