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Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 11:45 pm
by hamoftruth
...ghost town 'round these parts in the Sola Sound subforum
Here I am trying to slow down and downsize, and Macari's drops a surprise MKII...of course
- Screenshot_20220518-121330_DuckDuckGo(1).jpg (275.14 KiB) Viewed 1782 times
- Screenshot_20220518-121323_DuckDuckGo(1).jpg (85.48 KiB) Viewed 1782 times
There was one made with OC82Ds, so an undercover Green Bastard...Gold Bastard??
The other four were OC83, fat and choppy according to Ant. Stars aligned and I managed to snag one. They're not getting any cheaper, but the latest direct drop was 999gbp sooo.
I'm sure the reference to Led Zeppelin is no coincidence, if you subscribe to the belief that Jimmy Page's gold box Tone Bender was a MKII then one would assume this is going for that vibe.
I'm a blessed man, fortunate to have a OC84 Pro MKII and a Blue Meanie, so I will report back with how this compares.
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 11:47 pm
by 1bottlerocket
Congrats on the score!
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 12:56 am
by Nick
It would be extremely unlikely for Page's gold Tone Bender to have had a MKII circuit inside, because the original gold-painted pedals that are known to survive both have guts that predate the MKII period by a fair margin. The gold cases were apparently among the earliest that Sola Sound used after they moved away from the steel-bodied MKI's.
For a gold Tone Bender to have a MKII circuit, it would have to have been a 'souped up' MK1.5 (AKA "short board" MKII), and the vast majority of those upgraded MK1.5's that have resurfaced are unsurprisingly built from relatively late-production MK1.5 bases (in grey enclosures, with various other late-ish features). I do have a (broken, lol) "short board" (AKA MK1.5-conversion) MKII that has been built off a rather early MK1.5 foundation, closer to the 'gold' period, so it is theoretically possible that some gold converted MK1.5's/"short board" MKII's exist. But yeah, given how scarce the gold sandcast enclosures are, it's pretty unlikely. That being said, there could just as well be some sort of crazy anomaly-bender MKII that hasn't yet been discovered, seeing as Sola Sound were still using gold paint for their Rotosound MKII's after the MK1.5 was discontinued.
I also quite like to think that Page's gold bender had MKI guts
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 2:01 am
by hamoftruth
Nick wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 12:56 am
It would be extremely unlikely for Page's gold Tone Bender to have had a MKII circuit inside, because the original gold-painted pedals that are known to survive both have guts that predate the MKII period by a fair margin. The gold cases were apparently among the earliest that Sola Sound used after they moved away from the steel-bodied MKI's.
For a gold Tone Bender to have a MKII circuit, it would have to have been a 'souped up' MK1.5 (AKA "short board" MKII), and the vast majority of those upgraded MK1.5's that have resurfaced are unsurprisingly built from relatively late-production MK1.5 bases (in grey enclosures, with various other late-ish features). I do have a (broken, lol) "short board" (AKA MK1.5-conversion) MKII that has been built off a rather early MK1.5 foundation, closer to the 'gold' period, so it is theoretically possible that some gold converted MK1.5's/"short board" MKII's exist. But yeah, given how scarce the gold sandcast enclosures are, it's pretty unlikely. That being said, there could just as well be some sort of crazy anomaly-bender MKII that hasn't yet been discovered, seeing as Sola Sound were still using gold paint for their Rotosound MKII's after the MK1.5 was discontinued.
I also quite like to think that Page's gold bender had MKI guts
Yeah I usually don't like to open that can of worms because so many people are dead set that the MK2 is "the" Jimmy Page fuzz and will fight you if you say otherwise, and personally I don't really think it is. I hear more MK1 and MK1.5 in his time in Yardbirds and LZ1, but I guess so much of it is rig dependent that it's hard to tell. Plus I'm sure he had units sent to him as new circuits were being developed and revised so he probably has several old Tone Bender fuzzes. The fuzz solo on "Walking Into Clarksdale" sounds almost undisputedly MK1 to me, though.
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 8:12 am
by Dullboy
Wow I saw the Macaris' post yesterday...is there a link to look, although they are sold out I can imagine?
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 9:46 am
by 1bottlerocket
They sold out rather quickly and the page disappeared.
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 12:17 pm
by hamoftruth
Yeah I take screenshots when I can because the pages go down not long after they sell out. Instagram posts stay up, but there wasn't much detail in the post itself for this'n, just hammerite pr0n.
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 11:36 am
by windjamma
Congratulations that's a beautiful looking and sounding pedal i bet. Never even got wind of these.
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Sun May 29, 2022 5:54 pm
by hamoftruth
First impressions - it's a MK2 with some saggy MK1.5 flavor. It's not as composed and focused as my OC84 Pro MK2, and not as wild and loose as my Goldie MK1.5, somewhere in between.
The Blue Meanie by comparison is the brightest and clearest, while still being more aggressive and choppy than the OC84.
It's not a drastic difference, but it's what I imagined a Dave Main OC75 Pro MK2 would sound like, though to be clear this one has OC83/OC81Z. Ant was right in describing it as "fat, choppy, and musical." It's not like a "Fat Copper" or "The Judge" by any means, in that it doesn't have any added low end compared to a traditional Tone Bender voicing.
I like it! It's a toss up between the Blue Meanie and Trojan Horse for my favorite MK2s I've played, most likely. I personally don't think I'd enjoy a Green Bastard, beautiful as they are, since the OC84 is already bordering on "too polite" for my tastes. My personal tastes align the absolute most with the Goldie MK1.5 though, I love how loose and flabby its character is while still retaining the traditional Tone Bender leanness in the lows.
Re: Trojan Horse MKII Goldie
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:48 pm
by ombudsman
hamoftruth wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 5:54 pm I personally don't think I'd enjoy a Green Bastard, beautiful as they are, since the OC84 is already bordering on "too polite" for my tastes. My personal tastes align the absolute most with the Goldie MK1.5 though, I love how loose and flabby its character is while still retaining the traditional Tone Bender leanness in the lows.
Would that be a Goldie with OC84s ?