Warm Audio remakes the 1998 MoogerFooger MF-102 as the RingerBringer, and massively springboards off the 1966 Vox Tone Bender for a really unique 3-in-1 Warm Bender Multi-Bender
CAVEAT EMPTOR! : Someone just did a breakdown of the Warm Bender - and alas - those are not NOS transistors - not even in the slightest - in fact rather more ordinary grey market knock-offs - not one of the Germanium Transistors has any sort of pedigree or provenance - which very much explains how Warm Audio could sell this at such a low price, For me this should be filed under ’False Advertising’. Weirdly I still have a vague desire to own this pedal - but it’s not nearly as strong as it used to be - this is now down as a very unlikely acquisition!
Readers will know that I have mixed feelings towards Warm Audio - I much admired their earliest pedal takes on the Roland Jet Phaser, Foxx Tone Machine, and Klon Centaur. I felt each of those was sufficiently different and distinct that they did not infringe or take away from the copyrights / trademarks or trade dress of those original inspirations.
However for their takes on the Mu-Tron Phasor II, Fulltone OCD and Hermida / Love Pedal Zendrive - I felt they sailed way to close into all-out plagiarism territory - and unnecessarily so really.
So I’m really happy to see that they’ve turned it around once more - with two pretty classy recreations - where each is sufficiently differentiated from the original, and where the Warm Bender is to be lauded every which way as a really smart Multi-Bender.
Warm Audio have managed to shrink down the format of their new pedals significantly versus the originals - getting rid of a lot of dead space. And where the RingerBringer is a more straightforward part-4-part lift - while the Warm Bender is a massive extrapolation and innovation.
The Moog MoogerFooger MF-102 original dates back to 1998 - and the RingerBringer is a very exacting replica - where the Warm Audio Designers have though managed to take a lot of the extra length out of it - but the controls and the ports on the rear look mostly the same - a smart recreating - but still relatively vanilla I guess.
The source design for the Warm Bender looks to be a 1966 Made in Italy Vox Bender - while that is just one of 3 flavours that are onboard this also shrink down device. We essentially have both Vox Tone Bender and MKII Tone Bender circuits here with individual and appropriate NOS Germanium Transistors - OC76 + SFT337 for the Vox Tone Bender, and a very classic 3 x OC75 for a MKII Tone Bender take. We then have a really cool ’Silicon’ Transistor Tone Bender voicing (Transistors not specified) - which is supposedly somewhere around a MKIV Tone Bender. You have an additional Sag / Dying Battery switch to get some further interesting sticky tones from - I have to say I’m very impressed with the attention that’s going into the Warm Bender - and it’s the first of these to go on the wishlist.
The RingerBringer is cool to for sure - and delivers some interesting tones - but for me it’s quite a bit behind the Dr Scientist Phreak and Red Panda Radius for me - and I’ve still not made my mind up fully if I want to take another excursions over to the Ring Mod side of things - we shall see.
Overall though - really impressed actually - and the Warm Bender is a particularly fine innovation - almost enough to forgive Warm Auto for its former transgressions!
Warm Audio RingerBringer Ring Modulator (based on Moog MoogerFooger MF-102 Ring Modulator) - $219
Controls - LFO } Amount, Waveform rocker switch : Square / Sine, Rate, MODULATOR } Mix, LO/HI rocker switch, Frequency, DRIVE, LEDs } Level, LFO, Bypass.
Rear Ports - Audio In / Audio Out, Rate (LFO), Amount (LFO), Mix (), Freq (), LFO Out, Carrier In / Carrier Out, 9V DC [-] 100mA.
As I said - there is much to like about the RingerBringer - those vintage MoogerFoogers always had very distinct and special tones in them - and if you like those flavours - then this is a fantastic buy - since the second-hand MF-102\s currently doing the rounds are around $1,000.
Even though it's been shrunk down fairly considerably - it's still too large a device for me - and while they won't have that vintage MoogerFooger flavour - I feel that the Dr Scientist Phreak and Red Panda Lab Radius are more to my liking - even though not riding particularly high up on the wishlist. I can definitely see the merit in this RingerBringer - while I think I would be very unlikely to ever own one.
Read up more about the RingerBringer on the Warm Audio Website.
Warm Audio Warm Bender Fuzz (Extrapolated and evolved from Vox Tone Bender) - $199
Controls - Attack, Level, Version : NOS 76 (Vox Tone Bender) / NOS 75 (Tone Bender MK) / Silicon (MKIV / Unique).
Rear Ports + Control - 9V DC [-] 6mA, Input, Sag : 9V / 6V, Output, Also takes 9V Battery.
Again Warm Audio manage to shrink down the format considerably - and then go on to kitchen-sink their design and turn it into something far grander than the original Vox Tone Bender source inspiration.
I really like this - and I will very probably go for one of these in the near future. I have a few reservations - in that I normally don't touch Germanium Fuzz pedals which don't have external Bias controls - and the design is still a little oversize and clunk for my taste - particularly compared to something like say Thorpy's Boneyard. But there really is lots to be admired here.
The only big mystery really is why they won't mention the Silicon Transistors used for that 3rd voicing! I can only assume that it's using SMT parts with odd part numbers that won't mean anything to most - while I of course would like to know - that voicing sounds particularly spectacular.
I also thought about the binary nature of the Sag control versus say a mini knob - but I think it works fine as is - a lot of the pedals that have variable voltage go as low as 6 and as high as 12. Boss put in a 3-way switch on its MKII variant - while I think 9V / 6V is probably fine too.
Read up more about the Warm Bender Fuzz on the Warm Audio Website
Warn Bender Teardown
12 Degrees of Saturation 2023 Compact Edition
