Original '66 Professional MKII wOC81D's in a Supa Fuzz case!

Re: Gold Rotosound Fuzz Box - Tonebender Mk2

Sorry for so many pics but its such a nice and rare pedal!! G 8) There are no words!! :shock: 8) This surely is one of the coolest looking pedals ever. Graham you can never post too many pictures of this nature :D I do think this is a very cool design when you think on it. Its pretty clever how the section with the controls on are angled down so they are less likely to get knocked. I guess they went for the same approach/idea on the Supa but did it the other way around...

Looks like it has the obligatory cigarette burn next to the 'Sustain' knob...

Nice one!! I like the 'dust bunny' under the right circuit holder screw...been building since 1967. It does appear to be spot on the early SF circuit like Dave's old one. Would the original knobs be silver capped Marshall type? I think it looks good with chicken head knobs too, more MKI-ish... Need to find out where you get the PP4 batteries... I am waiting to find out about the knobs but would point out that the silver capped ribbed barrel knobs weren't Marshalls which used gold caps to match their amp cosmetics but from the Park range - where the then newly arrived american backers/investors had insisted on Jim differentiating the Park stuff from the normal Marshall style. Generally this meant using Silver rather than Gold detailing - Knobs / strap fixings / some lettering - as well as rejigging the front panels and placing the input sockets differently - on the Parks the first and second channels were seperated by the Ch 2 volume control rather than being in one block of 4 (or 8) input sockets.

I'd make a guess that the knobs would be like the silver Roto's and the Vox MKII's?!?! I just noticed the your Roto has a "sustain" knob over the "filter"...just thought I'd mention that :D

:arrow: You know - maybe we ought to have a dedicated section where we could confine our ebay tittle tattle rather than have it spread thinly all across the place.. If enough others felt the same then maybe we could see how Dave feels about it?? :idea: ....I could throw up a thread in the this and that or the for sale section and make it a sticky or as an announcement so its easily to find?!?!?! Any use?? I spoke to the Captain about whether or not their being Lithium might compromise / affect the performance of the pedals - he felt not.. It is nice to find a pedal which has the original battery clips still inside - generally its only Marshalls that I see with them still in - dont know why because most sixties pedals would have used them! Thumbs on the lithium PP4's!! I think they are really worth the money. They have a high voltage (say around 9.8V) which is similar to a Zinc Carbon/chloride type battery( my fav's) The extra output of the battery, I feel, is good for GE fuzz circuits. The gold paint appears to have been painted on top of the more usual silver stuff found on Rotosounds - you can see where the edges are chipped a bit - I thought at first that it might have been just a metallic undercoat but with a hand lense it does look like silver hammerite to me. Interesting!! In fact there are lots of things I find intriguing about this pedal - for instance what else went into this particular case?? Anyone know? - The knobs are not new but rather older MArshall "gold tops" which I think look neat against the gold paint but I have seen two other lots of pictures of this pedal showing both Vox type chicken heads (dark brown) and more damaged Marshall/Park types missing their metallic capping. I asked Carl what was on it when he got it but havent heard back yet. I would have thought that the chicken heads would be the originally fitted items. Yes very Interesting indeed about the silver hammerite hiding under the gold!! Dare I say this could be one of very few?!!?....I'm not going to say one off, though I am thinking that :D, but it is a little odd to over paint an already painted case. Maybe Rotosound requested a sample pedal in gold or maybe a batch of them!?!!? Only the Rotosound was made in this case. Just like only the Supa Fuzz was made in its said case. Even the VOX MKII case is a little different the Sola Sound one. There were no "off the shelf" enclosure back then so making the pedal unique to its brand is the best way of making it different to the others.....especially as they all have the same guts. I think the chickens look way cool on this pedal but the silver capped Marshall/Park style knobs would maybe make more sense?!!? It seemed that Sola Sound used those more often than not on the pedals they made for other folk. You don't see many Vox MKII's with chicken heads and you never see a Supa with em. I am not in any way technically minded but the circuitry does look all straight to me - I saw no signs of newer soldering or incorrect looking components. I did try hard but couldnt identify any date codes on the pots or capacitors although there are codes on the transistors but I never yet worked out how to decode them - perhaps somebody here could enlighten us of put up some links to any online reource that might help. I suppose the pedal would be from around 1968 though maybe a year earlier - anyone know more?? Not sure those codes myself. I asked Stu about it a while back but he wasn't too sure either. Info on Mullards is kinda thin on the ground. I check eBay now and again for Mullard ref books. I have a couple but still no info of those codes. Hard to say but I would say more like 66-67. I can imagine the pots will date as 66 also. Would you (any reader) think this is similar to the first model of Marshall Supa Fuzz (which I believe to be identical in most ways to the Vox Mk2 Professional same as PD's and the one that he captain had off Carl) or the earlier "prototype" Marshall version with the control knobs much closer together ? Yup, spot the difference :D Supa....

Roto....

The Vox don't have the limiting resistor....apart from that bang the same. Though not all of the early Supa's had em either. Regarding that "mystical dust bunny" I had thought of putting it onto ebay - didnt I see a picture of Jimi playing through one of these?? maybe there is some special DNA inside it - in fact being slightly more tongue-in-cheek it might be as close as any of us ever get to "finding" Gary Hurst :lol: I'll buy it from you and then I can rub every MKII I make with the magic Gary dust :lol:

The Roto and Supa look identical, even have the same code on the OC75s! These must have been made in the same batch...(?) So, Would these be wired by Gary Hurst, himself? Maybe, Probably? Where does one get the 'Zinc Carbon/chloride' 9 volts?. Is it just a non-alkaline 9 volt? Another ?- What if any difference does the limiting resistor do? Differences between Dave's Vox MKII and the Roto or Supa? If you can extract some DNA from the 'dust bunny', maybe we can clone Gary Hurst!! ;-)

This last page or two is so cool - it's exactly the sort of thing Ilike the most! Thanks a lot Dave, John and others for chipping in. You know just a bit more work and we could be well on the way to getting a thorough working of the whole TB history - if only Gary Hurst could chip in - that would make my decade!! - in the mean time I think that maybe as we bring under proper scrutiny one or two more interesting early pedals - maybe we could get a good look at one of those really early Marshalls (the "prototype" model with the close together knobs) we might be able to take another step or two towards a coherent understanding of it all :D G 8)

Where does one get the 'Zinc Carbon/chloride' 9 volts?. Is it just a non-alkaline 9 volt? Another ?- What if any difference does the limiting resistor do? Differences between Dave's Vox MKII and the Roto or Supa? Zinc Carbon batteries are sometimes labeled "heavy duty" and are often found at dollar stores if you're in the U.S. Eveready Heavy Duty, Walgreens Heavy Duty... They do vary in power depending on the maker though, but generally provide more juice than an alkaline battery. They fade in power with age, unlike alkaline batteries which just die sudden deaths. Duane Allman reportedly was a huge fan of dying carbon batteries for his Fuzz Face. The differences are subtle between a carbon zinc and an alkaline, but they are apparent. Just ask Eric Johnson. :D The limiting resistor limits the amount of fuzz/distortion available at full tilt in comparison to a circuit without the limiting resitor. Kind of like a governor on a car engine.

wow. I am in absolute jaw-dropping awe! Being a new disciple of fuzzdom, this thread (among many others I've been looking at) is a newbie's treasure trove of info and pix! It also gives me a good frame of reference for what my DAM MKII is modeled after. Man, til a couple hours ago I actually thought I had a clue. I feel like a little kid hanging around a university!! Thanks you guys, for an invaluable lesson about one of my favorite kind of fuzzes!! MG

So, is this the same resistor in the MarkIII, IV & V 3-knob TB that is at the top of the circuit, in between the 'Volume' and 'Treble-Bass' pots? What if Graham bridges his in the RS? Would it be the same as bridging it in a 3 knob TB? Would it add dbs or to the richness? Dave, did you ever try it in your SF?? If you bridge it, would it be more 'true' MKII tone? Just interesting that they did it...would/could it have 'dulled' or 'dampered' the fuzz tone, 'taming' it a bit? Making it not sound exactly like a MKII? Maybe someone should start an MKIII et al thread...(?where?)

So, is this the same resistor in the MarkIII, IV & V 3-knob TB that is at the top of the circuit, in between the 'Volume' and 'Treble-Bass' pots? What if Graham bridges his in the RS? Would it be the same as bridging it in a 3 knob TB? Would it add dbs or to the richness? Dave, did you ever try it in your SF?? If you bridge it, would it be more 'true' MKII tone? Just interesting that they did it...would/could it have 'dulled' or 'dampered' the fuzz tone, 'taming' it a bit? Making it not sound exactly like a MKII? Maybe someone should start an MKIII et al thread...(?where?) Not sure on all the various TB circuits but generally the mod for a big output boost is to remove that top left to right resistor between the two top pots (generally just snipping one end and leaving it in place attached b one end (makes it easier to return to stock if ever selling) and soldering a short jumper in place - there are plenty of Hot-Rodders here (I'm not one of them!!) who might jump in....

So, is that 11 original MKIIs represented here?? I can think of 7 other ones I have heard of, seen... So, actually about 1- 2 dozen, maybe, out there... another 2 dozen (or more??) floating out there??

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