a Tonebender is a thing of beauty .....

[JLee]

I’ve never heard Page mention Mayer, except when referring to the fuzz box Mayer made him during his session days. Do you have definitive proof that Mayer modified Page’s wah and Tone Bender? Mayer made Page his fuzz in ‘64, possibly ‘65, when Page’s session work was at a peak.

What do you hear in Page’s Yardbirds and Zeppelin fuzz and wah tones that make you believe they were modified? There is photographic evidence of a gold “MKII” being used by Page with The Yardbirds. His Yardbirds era fuzz tone sounds like a MKI or even a MKI Supa Fuzz. Definitely not the same Tone Bender he used for Zep I.

Years ago a DAM Forum member purchased a gold Tone Bender that had a MKI circuit and ironically had the initials “JP” scratched onto the bottom plate.

Years ago, someone on the DAM forum wrote to Roger Mayer asking about the infamous Page mods. Mayer denied ever having worked on Page’s Tone Benders.

There is a 60s printed interview with Page, where he mentions the Tone Bender and provides info on how to purchase one from Gary Hurst. Can’t find it at the moment. Will keep looking.

Page never used Mayers Octavia. Here is a quote from Page-

In the Uncut interview, Page also reveals that he was less impressed by Mayer's "other box" a modulator. "It was difficult to control in the studio from the guitar, so I said it wasn’t for me," says Page. Mayer then took it to Jimi Hendrix in 1967 and it became the Octavia and was used on Purple Haze.

 

[JLee]

Still searching for that article…found references to it on the DAM Forum in the massive Page Fuzz thread.

Page states that a friend made him a custom fuzz. The article then provides Gary Hurst’s info for purchase.

There is also this interview where Page states that Gary Hurst modified his Tone Bender for more sustain. We know that the earlier “short board” MKIIs were built off existing MKI.5 circuit boards, so essentially modified MKI.5 Tone Benders.

There is also a bill of sale from Macari’s that shows 3 MKII Tone Benders sold. One, no charge for Jimmy Page. Entirely plausible that he had more than one. I’ve read that Page and Macaris had an arrangement for free, new fuzz box models in exchange for permission to use his name in adverts.

 

[Sol]

In the last paragraph (post before that above) you confirm Mayer and Pages relationship. He could not have achieved what he did without collaboration and feedback from guitarists, Page and Hendrix included. His skills were clearly in demand.

The Roger Mayer 'Page 1' pedal, may indicate a more recent collaboration.

Look, I could go on like this, but as Ive seen so many threads go down this unhappy path over the last 20 yrs here, and nothing good ever comes from it. Ever.. I realise Ive hacked you off a bit, but try and remember, this isnt the stuff of life and death, and a little perspective, goes a long way.

I'll leave the last word to you.

 

[nightraven]

The fuzzbox that Roger Mayer supplied Page with was pre-Hendrix and pre-Tone Bender. This article talks about it a little bit, and supposedly Jim McCarty is cited in 'Hot wired guitar' explaining how Beck devised the 'Heartful of soul' thing with a Mayer fuzzbox that he borrowed from Page, and then actually recorded it later with Tone Bender (which would have been a very early version of the 'MKI', considering the dates).
Over the years, Page seems to have interchanged between crediting Mayer and Hurst quite a bit, so it's pretty certain that he used early fuzzboxes by both dudes (as well as 'standard'-production models by Sola Sound, e.g. MKII's, Rotosounds).

 

[JLee]

In the last paragraph (post before that above) you confirm Mayer and Pages relationship. He could not have achieved what he did without collaboration and feedback from guitarists, Page and Hendrix included. His skills were clearly in demand.

The Roger Mayer 'Page 1' pedal, may indicate a more recent collaboration.

Look, I could go on like this, but as Ive seen so many threads go down this unhappy path over the last 20 yrs here, and nothing good ever comes from it. Ever.. I realise Ive hacked you off a bit, but try and remember, this isnt the stuff of life and death, and a little perspective, goes a long way.
Il leave the last word to you

In the last paragraph (post before that above) you confirm Mayer and Pages relationship. He could not have achieved what he did without collaboration and feedback from guitarists, Page and Hendrix included. His skills were clearly in demand.

The Roger Mayer 'Page 1' pedal, may indicate a more recent collaboration.

Look, I could go on like this, but as Ive seen so many threads go down this unhappy path over the last 20 yrs here, and nothing good ever comes from it. Ever.. I realise Ive hacked you off a bit, but try and remember, this isnt the stuff of life and death, and a little perspective, goes a long way.
Il leave the last word to you.

I'm not hacked off. I got the impression that you were more than a little perturbed.

Like many, I’ve chased Pages Yardbirds and early Zeppelin tones for years. I’ve dug and dug for years and spent time on forums debating and discussing Page’s gear.
I use the word “believe” because there is a lot of grey area when it comes to Page and his gear. He only recently revealed that he used a Flying V on “You Shook Me”.

 

[Dr. Green]

here is a video for you guys to put in your pipe and smoke

 

[ourmaninthenorth]

Thanks for that stumphead.

Here's another that I find really interesting, the old and the new side by side.

 

[corpse]

a bit mad

 

[ourmaninthenorth]

a bit mad

Guilty as charged.

 

[corpse]

Actually I was referring to the device and the assessment. When I think purely of fuzz tone (ala Strange Brew, Machine Gun. etc) I can't think of a single Page song that goes "that far" into the 'buzz' with the harmonic edge to it- maybe with the Yardbirds, but i am not as familiar with JP's guitar playing with them (Jeff Beck yes).
These are no doubt, great pedals; and i would like a germanium fuzz- but, like my wonderful Vent Leslie Sim, my band doesn't play any tunes that use them. I like the over the edge quality, but the application for that is very limited- and I have found something can get lost when you step a pedal back. POAA (Purely one assholes' assessment).

 

[ourmaninthenorth]

Actually I was referring to the device and the assessment.

I know.

It's the madness of the things that I've always loved.

Audrey's buying me one of the MK 1's for a significant upcoming milestone event in my life; it's on the builders order book as we speak, using one of the very earliest (that came in a wooden enclosure) surviving examples as it's benchmark.

It'll be treasured.

Roll on November!!!

 

[corpse]

Thinking it has to do with the number 25?

 

[ourmaninthenorth]

Thinking it has to do with the number 25?

It does Mate.

 

[fernieite]

It does Mate.

Congrats man! That's a milestone alright.

Me and the missus just celebrated our 31st last week. ( Got a Magical Mystery Box from Stu in the mail as we speak. )

 

[ourmaninthenorth]

Congrats man! That's a milestone alright.

Me and the missus just celebrated our 31st last week. ( Got a Magical Mystery Box from Stu in the mail as we speak. )

Congratulations on your 31st Anniversary, man that really is something to write home about. Love, Light and Peace to you both.

We're in our 27th year of that dodge...best days work the Wife's ever done. I shall e-mail her later to reminder her, again.

The 25 year thing is a whole different sketch, it's a sobriety thing, which I don't really talk about...much.

But 25 years... there were good odds flying about that I wouldn't make 25 hours, if I'd have had the dough, I'd have taken some of that action!!!

Wot larks.

 

[Dr. Green]

what a great thread

 

[ourmaninthenorth]

Another youtube thing that may be of interest. Ant Macari going through his collection of the various Mk's with the geezers from That Pedal Show, and Josh from JHS.

And further to Stumphead's post with the three original MK 1's, the same geezer does a couple of the Supa Fuzz, which to be honest have never registered on my radar - but after a long conversation this week with a UK guy that really has deep knowledge of this stuff, I'm being drawn down yet another bloody rabbit hole...I definitely need another milestone event in my life, I mean in like the next fortnight.....

 

[ourmaninthenorth]

And Supa Fuzz with a Les Paul.

And trying to avoid stepping over the spam line, posting this for pure interest and comparison reasons only, the version that has got me thinking not only twice, but three times.

 

[LeonC]

His tone isn't nearly as dirty in the studio recording. Having played through and owned some late 50s Coronados and other Supro/Valco models of the same basic design, I can attest that you don't need any pedals to get that type of sound. The Supro model 1690T Coronado that Page used in LZ 1 has a whole lot of whoopass on board! That isn't to say that I know precisely what gear / techniques were used on the studio recording...but you can hear for yourself that the sound in the studio version isn't nearly as fuzzy and that there are multiple guitar parts stacked up. I imagine that he made use of the pedal live to attempt to get a "bigger" sound w/o all of the overdubbing. He never used the Supro live (to my knowledge) and I don't know that he was able to get the same kind of overdrive from that WEM and other amps he used early on.

 

[ourmaninthenorth]

To compare Leon's studio clip and observations with the 69 live clip with the WEM's that stumphead started this thread with, with what looks like a Mk 2 ( or 1.5..who knows for sure? ) on the floor.