Axis Fuzz build report

[Exactopposite]

Ok, first things first: What i'm talking about here is the Roger Mayer AXIS FUZZ and not the Axis face (I am interested in the axis face, but that's for another topic)

Months ago i got a beautifully finished drilled enclosure and a pcb from fellow forum member John Lyons to build an axis fuzz, but it kept getting put on the back burner at various stages of completion. Yesterday, however, I put the finishing touches on it and I am quite impressed with it. I built it strictly according to the schematic with no modifications and it fired right up ....... the second time i tried it. I had the wires on the output jack reversed the first time. The volume knob was working backwards at first, but that was easily fixed by swapping the wires connected to pins 1 and 3 of the volume pot.In my opinion it sounds absolutely FANTASTIC.


The only thing that threw a bit of a problem into the build is that there are 2 kind of odd ball resistor values. 680k and 820k. I have A LOT of resistors here but none at those values. Fortunately there is a place here in philly that sells NTE products, so I ran over there and got the resistors. I used your garden variety 5% tolerance carbon film resistors everywhere except these 2 resistors which are 2% tolerance metal films. For the smaller cap values I used either mylars (from the futurelec cap pack) or the low voltage panasonic poly films. the larger cap values are electrolytics of course.  That's kind of boring info, but i figured someone might be interested in knowing what I used in the build.

Keep in mind my experience with fuzz pedals is somewhat limited. for some perspective, these are the fuzzes I compared it to:

1. I have a basic fuzz face that i built from one of the kits at GGG with a 2n2369A in q1 and a 2n2222a in q2 (i tried a lot of combinations and i think this is the one i stuck with). I think it sounds pretty good. It cleans up really well with the volume control. It's great because u could just leave the fuzz on all the time and adjust the guitar volume to the point that it's less fuzzy or not fuzzy at all when u want clean(er) parts. It's a delicate balance finding the right setting on the guitar volume knob to make it sound just right. Too much and it gets too bassy/wooly sounding  and the notes lose all the treble bite. Too little and it's not ballsy enough. I've had it for about a year. It was the first one I built because i thought i should start with the basic fuzz face circuit before branching out.

2. I just got a mystery fuzz from someone in the for sale/trade section of this forum. I just got it a few days ago, so I haven't had time to analyze the circuit inside. It's similar to the fuzz face mentioned above, but it has a lot more gain. It's not so great at cleaning up when you roll the guitar volume down. It sounds  like it's tuned better than the fuzz face in that it's not as bassy but it's still pretty much unusable with the guitar volume all the way up. It also has a TON of hiss that the fuzz face and the axis don't have. It's a very ballsy and "in your face" fuzz great for solos (if you get the guitar volume just right) but not so hot for chords.

I also have a vintage big muff from the earlies 80's. It's the model with the tone bypass switch. It's a cool pedal but the bypass sounds horrible, so I don't use it much. It makes pretty much any guitar sound the same. It's a really cool sound, but volume/tone adjustments on the guitar don't change the sound all that much the way it does with a fuzzface. I actually forgot to throw this one in the mix when i was comparing the fuzzes.

The axis fuzz exhibits the good qualities of these pedals without the negatives. Even with the volume all the way up on the neck pickup the notes are still very defined. There is plenty of gain on tap, but it still cleans up very well (not as well as the fuzz face, but it has more gain than the FF).  It works well with a non buffered wah pedal if you turn the guitar volume back just a tad. With the guitar volume all the way up it doesn't wah so well. When you really dig in you  can hear a little of the note an octave higher with it also.  It seems like it would be the perfect thing for controlled feedback. It really is exactly what I imagined I wanted a fuzz to sound like. It lets the sound of the guitar come through, so a strat still has the strat character with the fuzz element added to it. It also much worked better with my gfs dream 90 (humbucker sized single coil) equipped PRS Santana SE mk1 than either of the other 2 fuzzes.

I honestly can't think of anything that I would want to change about it after using it for something like 4 hours yesterday. I strongly recommend this  for anyone interested in building a fuzz. It was a pretty simple build that went off without a hitch and the results are great in my book. Of course this is just one man's opinion.

[Gregory Kollins]

The only thing that threw a bit of a problem into the build is that there are 2 kind of odd ball resistor values. 680k and 820k. I have A LOT of resistors here but none at those values.

I just started building my own, ran into those, and had BOTH OF THEM on this board from a salvaged radio/lp/tapedeck thing. It's become my genie's lamp of resistors, or... something. It has all kind of random ridiculous values, plus a whole bunch of mylar caps.

Just thought I'd share.

[John Lyons]

Cool! Thanks for the review.
I've actually had one half built for months on my bench...
granted it under about a 30 difference projects and bits and pieces!

It's gotten some good reviews here.

John

[drewl]

Where in philly did you get the parts?
They have anything else good?
Thanks.

[Exactopposite]

Where in philly did you get the parts?
They have anything else good?
Thanks.

http://www.acradiosupply.com/

I actually found out about it in an old post here