Axis face breadboard report: Wow!

[Herr Masel]

I felt this warranted it's own thread, now that it is working and all.  I put the axis face v.3 from fuzz central on the breadboard and tried it through my solid-state fender stage. Eh... But when I got it to sound good enough on that I turned on the tube amp, put the volume half-way up (and the volume pot on the fuzz way down) and I am blown away! I don't know if this is what a real fuzz face sounds like but frankly I don't care, this thing just sings and screams and cries. I find the most usable settings with the fuzz pot all the way up (otherwise it loses some of the 'meat') and the smooth pot all the way down (same reason), a little unflexible but not that much of a problem, I just use the guitar's controls. With the volume all the way up on the guitar it is trebley and nasty - kind of like what I'd expect from an "uglier" fuzz and not something that has a reputation for sounding nice and smooth, with the volume on 9 it smoothes out a tiny bit and sounds prettier. With the volume lower than that cranked amp sound shines through best, it cleans up really nice, has a singing quality like the piggybacked rangemaster I breadboarded a few weeks ago.

I really wanted to make a clip to share it with you but I don't have a good microphone or recording software, but someday in the near future I will do it through the four track and upload it.

The transistor's gains are 97 for Q1 and still switching between one with 220 and one with 140 for Q2, I might put a toggle switch to select, but the difference isn't that big. In general the higher gain sound fuller, but  I wanted to try less gain in the circuit itself so I piggibacked Q1 as is shown here http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jethro.dog/mainpic5.jpg  but I didn't notice any change, do I have to do the same for Q2 for it to have any affect? Also, when twisting some pots or turning the guitar's tone control totally off I get loud humming, but I suspect putting it in an enclosure would help. I tried changing tons of different values but when I didn't notice I always ended up with the ones suggested at fuzz-central. I will keep experimenting with the feedback resistor and input cap (also haven't tried 500k output pot) for slightly less gain and treble - anything else you recommend? -  but all in all this is a definite winner. Thanks for it Phillip.

[aron]

Tone is so subjective. It's amazing when a post like this comes along. It just goes to show that it depends on the equipment!

I built the Axis and hated it. I mean, I thought it was horrible.

Again, it depends on context. I'm glad it works great for you! 

[Herr Masel]

What I did notice as well is that I don't like it very much at all with the volume of the amp below 5, it made a huge difference. From rock'n'roll to bedroom practice amp in the twist of a knob. I guess it needs those tubes pushing the sound to come off right.