Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz Wah-Wah Mystery

[vanessa]

Really the only mods I've heard of is the pot changes and switching over to si from ge (sorry to say heavily earlier). My guess is the transistor changes were out of necessity than for tone.

[Paul Marossy]

My guess is the transistor changes were out of necessity than for tone.

I would think so.

[Voxin]

I'm selling all of my stompboxes and amps for a Line 6 POD!

[vanessa]

Oh my gosh! Is that one of Mike's pedals in that photo? Now I know what all the hype is about for those NKT-275's!

[Voxin]

HAHAHAHA, that's brilliant!

[brianwenz]

Hello Hello--
     Jeez......I go away for awhile and the old "Hendrix" thing pops up again!!!
Hendrix used the Axis circuit on Band of Gypsies and Isle of
Wight.  Anything with a humbucker [SG or Flying V] is also the Axis [Dick Cavett Show etc.....]
The Axis circuit was around in late '68 - '69  due to Hendrix  wanting to use humbucker Gibsons so sometimes he used it and sometimes not.  The last year-or so of his life he used it alot [sometimes along with a silicon Fuzz Face].   If you listen real close you can tell the difference in clarity and "presence"  in the sound of his Strat in live shows [like Wight and Gypsies...] that the Fuzz Face doesn't have.  Yeah, he had the Axis circuit installed in stock Fuzz Face shells before the "Rocketship" design came about.
Brian.

[Dai H.]

FWIW in the sept 85 guitar world there is a pic of hendrix live playing a RM rocket style FX. So there is evidence of other fx for live use besides the octavia.

I ask because to my knowledge those rocket style FX were not in production at the time. Does anyone know when Mayer went into production with these?

I faintly recall reading he came out with those after Jimi died since he wanted a unique casing. Re: the rocket casing in the pic, I don't really see it. Looks more like a Fuzz Face on the right and a wah he is stepping on with his left foot and something in front of it between his foot and the camera.

[vanessa]

I thought those Rocket pedals came out in the 80's? Is that true?

[tcobretti]

From RM's site -

"During this period I was still making mostly studio equipment with the occasional pedals for my friends and famous artists and it was not until the early 80's that the demand and pressure for others encouraged me to reissue the last version of the Octavia that Jimi used. This was the debut of the futuristic looking Rocket casting which did not exist before then."

[Doug_H]

I've read a lot of speculation about what Hendrix used, stuff like silicon fuzz face with supposedly actual transistor p/n's. I don't know where people get all their info- seems to me only RM would really know for sure. I read somewhere (RM interview?) that he slipped an axis circuit into a FF casing as well.

[tcobretti]

I've read a lot of speculation about what Hendrix used, stuff like silicon fuzz face with supposedly actual transistor p/n's. I don't know where people get all their info- seems to me only RM would really know for sure. I read somewhere (RM interview?) that he slipped an axis circuit into a FF casing as well.

There is so much conflicting info that I personally believe the "truth" will never actually be known.  It just occured to me -where do the commonly accepted Mayer FF mods come from?  Did someone actually reverse engineer a Mayer FF, or is it just based on his Rocket Classic Fuzz?

Also, it makes perfect sense to me that someone who wasn't mass producing pedals at the time would use an existing enclosure for his project.  This is occam's razor at work.

[Dai H.]

or is it just based on his Rocket Classic Fuzz?

it appeared that way to me if memory serves (specifically, the schematics you see describing these "Roger Mayer mods"). I have one of his RM Classic Fuzz units, and it's pretty much a FF with some alternate values and a variable resistor for the 33k. Seems the particular Ge transistors used are not very good (IMO).

[tcobretti]

I would love to demo some of his pedals, but I've never been to a music store that sells 'em!

[brianwenz]

Helo Hello--
  The old original "Mayer Mods"  were the ones Mayer did to Hendrix' silicon Fuzz Faces to get rid of some of the problems with the higher-gain transistors.
The Axis circuit was completely new [and better].
Brian.

[Dai H.]

Helo Hello--
  The old original "Mayer Mods"  were the ones Mayer did to Hendrix' silicon Fuzz Faces to get rid of some of the problems with the higher-gain transistors.
The Axis circuit was completely new [and better].
Brian.

hi Brian, can you provide a source for this info? And what sort of problems were they exactly? Wouldn't it makes more sense if the problems referred to were in regard to the Ge versions (since at least for me the Si seem much easier to get to work consistently)?

[Fret Wire]

I have one of his RM Classic Fuzz units, and it's pretty much a FF with some alternate values and a variable resistor for the 33k. Seems the particular Ge transistors used are not very good (IMO).

I have one of his early Classic Fuzz when he was personally hand making them in NYC, and Guitar Galaxy was the distributor. The early ones had no trim pot. It's a standard Dallas ckt with a 1k instead of 470r, a 2k fuzz pot, and biased with 27k (Q1) and 18k (Q2). The Ge's are BEL AC 128's and sound great. 20 plus years later, it still sounds pretty good, even though Q2's collector is down to 3.75v. That tells me that the 128's in mine were a very stable, low leakage pair to have held up this long.  I should re-bias it, but I leave it alone because it's an early one.

It does nail the "Are You Experienced" era tone easily.

Brian Wenz: how are ya? Good to see you back! Check the Albert Lee post in the lounge...fill in some details.

[brianwenz]

Hello Hello--
        The silicon FF had  [sometimes still does....] oscillation problems due to the higher gain of the trannys and so the units were a little unstable.   I don't have a list of the exact mods in front of me but I seem to remember that a 2K  fuzz pot and different biasing for Q2 were used.
The GE FF just had the usual temperature stability issue and could sound great one day and like crap the next .  This is one reason they went over to the silicon trannys.   I don't remember any mods being done to the germanium fuzzes but maybe Mayer did some bias adjustments.  Hendriz tried out MANY  FF's  and only bought the "good" sounding ones. Hendrix actually used the "defects"  of the FF to create last-minute sound effects on stage.  What shows up on the internet many years later as "Mayer Mods" may have, in fact, happened WAY after Mayer's involvement with Hendrix......can't really be sure.
Roger Mayer was modding stuff  off-and-on for Hendrix so any work he did could be referred to as "Mayer Mods"   This info is from people [other musicians, roadies, studio engineers, etc.] that saw it happen.  I was around playing in bands at the time so all this stuff comes  first or second-hand.  Since the idea was to get the FF up-and-running for a session or a live gig, Mayer could have done any number of last minute tweaks [and NOT ducumented them].
  Hello Fret Wire!! --  Yeah, I've been pretty busy doing some music for a movie and fixing guitars.  How's things by you??

Brian.

[Mark Hammer]

The key ingredient was Made-in-Seattle Hendrix brand fingers.

My wife got me a DVD of Hendrix appearing on the Dick Cavett showearlier in the year and a month or so after Woodstock.  One of the musical numbers has him playing a Flying V and using an Ampeg bass amp (B-15 portaflex) that he likely borrowed from one of the house band members.  Sounds JUST like the Jimi we all know and love playing a Strat through as Marshall.

I tell you, but for the wah-wah, there was a whole helluva lot more in the fingers than many realize.

[Dai H.]

Hello Hello--
        The silicon FF had  [sometimes still does....] oscillation problems due to the higher gain of the trannys and so the units were a little unstable.

feel free to correct if I'm mistaken in my assumption, but I thought most people just turned down the Fuzz control (a little bit) on their Si FFaces to deal with that particular problem, so would there have really been a need for circuit mods to deal with that?

 

I don't have a list of the exact mods in front of me but I seem to remember that a 2K  fuzz pot and different biasing for Q2 were used.

a 2k Fuzz pot kinda sounds like the Classic Fuzz specs mentioned above for the Ge version, so possibly some confusion(?). It seems there are lots of bits and pieces about Hendrix's equipment and things do spring up from time to time such as the Dickinson amp, or some dude on alt.gtr.efx recently who claimed to own some of Jimi's efx., as well as claiming the octavio was 18V operated and such, but not very much that is definite since it makes for a pretty interesting subject.

[brianwenz]

Hello Hello--
            Dai H--   Sure, you can turn down the fuzz control but it also means less FUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....!
  The idea was to get the thing to perform on stage and in the studio  without the worry of  any settings creating a problem.
Did Mayer use any of those mods on the germ FF??   Maybe he did.  He was working on the Axis circuit during the recording of the first album so anything could have made its way into a germ pedal.   Hendrix was basically the "point man" for some of these effects and alot of the bugs were worked out because of him.
Brian.