Boss, Sola Sound Join Forces to Reinvent the Tone Bender

December 2, 2020 · 7 sources

Boss announced the Waza Craft TB-2W Tone Bender, a new fuzz pedal developed in collaboration with Sola Sound, the British firm behind the original Tone Bender¹. The pedal is described by Boss as an "authentic sonic recreation" of the Tone Bender MK II, and it references a "masterpiece" MK II unit held in Sola Sound's archives². It joins Boss's premium, Japanese-made Waza Craft series as a limited edition model³.

The TB-2W carries a compact Boss chassis finished in a silver textured coating, with chicken-head knobs and the same script lettering as the original pedal². Boss says the engineers "went straight to the source, collaborating with Sola Sound to reimagine the Tone Bender MkII"⁴.

The announced feature set included:

• Hand-selected, rare germanium transistors, "carefully tested for optimum tone"²
• Level and attack controls, plus a three-way voltage selector for overall tone shaping²⁵
• Selectable true or buffered bypass operation²
• A limited production run⁵⁶

At the time of the announcement, the recommended retail price had not been set⁶. Boss said the pedal would become available in Q2 of 2021². Preorders later opened on February 4, 2021, at a pre-order price of $349⁷.

The Tone Bender MK II that the TB-2W recreates is a late-'60s germanium fuzz, and the announcement marked the first time Boss had done a vintage recreation of another brand's pedal in its Compact Pedal enclosure². The pedal was made in Japan as part of the Waza Craft line³.