Build - Pedal Project: Dinosaural Tubebender

The Dinosaural Tube Bender was released by Dan Coggins of Lovetone in 2003. It was intended to be a tonal hybrid of a Tonebender and a Tube Screamer. Around 150 units were made. It is a pretty unique drive circuit that uses transistors for gain, making it a great option for a larger turret board build. All four transistors were silicon in the original, but Q2 was a PNP transistor, while the other three were NPN transistors. The Tube Bender leans more towards drive than fuzz. Dinosaural described it is a "useful accessory that creates valve-like (tube) distortion without a valve amp, or pushes a "real" valve amp just that bit harder, to enhance what it already does to some degree.”

Figure 1: Turret board layout of the Dinosaural Tubebender.

Figure 1: Turret board layout of the Dinosaural Tubebender.

See Figure 2 in our Guitar Pedal Footswitch and Jack Wiring article for the recommended footswitch and I/O wiring.

Figure 2: Dinosaural Tubebender Schematic

Figure 2: Dinosaural Tubebender Schematic

Parts List

ValueQtySKUType
Capacitors
100 µF1C-ET100-100-MODElectrolytic
10 nF3C-MKT-D01-400Film cap
33 nF1C-MKT-D033-400Film cap
3.3 nF1C-MD0033-630Film cap
47 nF2C-MKT-D047-400Film cap
47 µF1C-BC-47-100Electrolytic
Potentiometers
100k Audio1R-VAM100KA-SSDrive Control
100k Linear1R-VAM100KL-SSTone Control
100k Linear1R-VAM100KL-SSLevel Control
Resistors
10 kΩ3R-I10KCarbon Comp Resistor
120 kΩ1R-I120KCarbon Comp Resistor
150 kΩ1R-I150KCarbon Comp Resistor
1.2 kΩ3R-I1D2KCarbon Comp Resistor
1.5 kΩ1R-I1D5KCarbon Comp Resistor
1 MΩ1R-J1MCarbon Comp Resistor
1.2 MΩ1R-J1D2MCarbon Comp Resistor
22 kΩ3R-I22KCarbon Comp Resistor
2.2 kΩ1R-I2D2KCarbon Comp Resistor
Semiconductors
2N2907 (PNP)1P-Q2N2907Silicon transistor
BC109C (NPN)3P-QBC109CSilicon transistor
Other Items
2x121P-HTBU-2X12-DBoard
Black 1590BB1P-H1590BBBKEnclosure
Black 3PDT1P-H501-L-BLKFootswitch
Black/red LED1P-LPW-FLATBK-RPrewired LED
Carling mini toggle SPDT1P-H540Tone switch
Lumberg switched DC jack1P-JBLB-IN-SDC jack
Mono jack1W-SC-111XOutput jack
Rogan knobs3P-K155-1Knob
Stereo jack1W-SC-112BXInput jack
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