Brantone Electronics Tonemaster Mk1.5 Germanium Fuzz

The Brantone Electronics Tonemaster Mk1.5 Germanium Fuzz is a germanium fuzz pedal from the UK company Brantone Electronics, built as a high end take on the Tonebender type circuit¹. Its heart is a pair of NOS 1960s Mullard Black Glass OC75 germanium transistors, matched and tested before they go into the pedal¹. Those are the same transistors at the heart of the original Sola Sound Tone Bender Mk1.5, the mid-1960s two-transistor fuzz box the pedal takes its name and circuit from¹².

The circuit and where it comes from

The Tone Bender began with Sola Sound in the mid-1960s. The Mk1.5 was a transitional model between the early and later designs, and it features two germanium transistors instead of the usual three³². Fuzzboxes.org calls the Tone Bender MK1.5 "an influential two-transistor fuzz box" that came in a cast aluminum enclosure, as opposed to the folded steel boxes of the earlier pedals, and notes it typically ran on two Mullard OC75 germanium transistors². British Pedal Company's history adds that with the Mk1.5, the folded metal casing was gone and "a new space-age aluminium cast casing came to the forefront as the new housing"⁴.

The design spread widely. Coda Effects' history of fuzz types notes the Tonebender "has been also been copied by many brands: Marshall Supafuzz, Vox Tonebender are examples of fuzz 'heavily inspired'" by it⁵. MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley describes the Tone Bender as "a fuzz '60s classic that typically deployed a pair of germanium transistors in its circuit"⁶. The Mk1.5 specifically left its own mark: Red Witch Pedals, whose own fuzz page discusses the circuit, writes that the Mk1.5 "wears the auspicious crown of 'Father of the Fuzz Face'", because the Mk1.5 circuit inspired the Fuzz Face, which used different germanium transistors and had, in their words, a much less tight bottom end⁷.

Brantone's version follows that lineage with period-correct parts: the NOS Mullard OC75s¹, Allen Bradley carbon composite resistors¹, and tag-board circuit construction rather than a printed circuit board¹.

Build and hardware

The pedal is built to a substantial spec, as Delicious Audio's product page by Paolo De Gregorio describes it¹:

• Hammond 1590BB enclosure, a size larger than a standard compact pedal box
• Stainless steel control panel
• Durable 'Bullion' gold powder coated finish
• Heavy duty Carling footswitch
• Tag-board circuit construction

Some of the earliest original MK1.5 Tone Benders were themselves housed in gold-painted enclosures, as Fuzzboxes.org notes, so the gold finish nods to the pedal's ancestry².

What players said

The pedal drew a strong endorsement from the player in Delicious Audio's demo video. Just Nick is a huge fan of the pedal, and in the video he names it as his favorite version of the Tonebender fuzz for its expressiveness and versatility¹.