Manlay Sound LTD Ronno Bender

The Ronno Bender is a fuzz pedal from Manlay Sound LTD, listed among the maker's pedals on its site¹. It is a replica of one of the earliest and most storied fuzz designs: Aclam Guitars describes it as "a very accurate replica of the legendary Sola Sound Tone Bender MKI from 1965"². Aclam also calls it "a really versatile fuzz" and says that if you want to nail the fuzz bass tone on the Beatles' "Think for Yourself," "the Ronno Bender really does the job"².

What it does

As a Tone Bender MKI replica, the Ronno Bender sits in the fuzz family, the earliest generation of transistor-based distortion pedals. The Tone Bender circuit was designed by electronics engineer Gary Stewart Hurst, according to British Pedal Company's history of the pedal⁴. Strymon's Sean Halley notes that fuzzes of this type "work great going straight into a clean amp (Big Muffs, Tone Benders, etc)," which is worth knowing if you are placing one on a board⁵.

Where it came from

The Tone Bender has a long list of documented players. Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio writes, "Some of rock's greatest names have used a Tone Bender, including Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Mick Ronson"⁶. The Ronno Bender's name points at one of them: Aclam Guitars notes "later Mick Ronson \"Ronno\", using it with the Rats and later on with David Bowie"².

The pedal itself is a limited build. According to Aclam Guitars, "Only 50 units of the first run were built, one of which ended up in Pete Townshend's hands"².

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load