BOSS TB-2w Tone Bender

The TB-2W is a limited-edition fuzz pedal, made by BOSS in collaboration with Sola Sound, the maker of the original Tone Bender. It’s a recreation of the Tone Bender MK II, the 1960s British germanium fuzz heard on countless classic tracks. BOSS and Sola Sound began discussing the project in 2017, and the pedal was announced in December 2020, with shipping in spring 2021. To get the sound right, Sola Sound lent BOSS its own Tone Bender MK II with serial number 500, which BOSS engineers used as the benchmark for the design. The pedal is hand-assembled by the Waza Craft team in Japan, with rare germanium transistors that BOSS sourced and tested for consistency. It’s a limited production run of about 3,000 units, because the supply of suitable germanium transistors was limited, and each pedal comes with a numbered limited edition card. That makes it a rarity in the BOSS lineup, where pedals are normally sold for years. Beyond the faithful circuit, it adds modern conveniences like selectable bypass modes and adjustable voltage. The result is a fuzz with the thick, woolly, sustaining character of the original and a very dynamic response to your playing and guitar volume. Please note: Due to the nature of this pedal, it is challenging to capture. I used a passive Jack Orman style pickup emulation circuit between the Lehle P-Split III and this pedal and I like how the captures turned out. **Controls** Attack (A): Sets the amount of fuzz, from a gritty overdrive up to a thick, saturated fuzz. Level (L): Sets the output volume. Kept constantly at 10 here. Voltage selector (3-way): Changes the supply voltage and the pedal’s response. Lower settings imitate the way a vintage fuzz reacts as a battery runs down, and the 12V setting offers more dynamic range than the original ever had. The selected voltage is written in the file names as the first parameter. I recommend watching BOSS' videos about the history of this and the original pedal, it is based on (see below).