Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz Wah-Wah Mystery

[vanessa]

I was listening to Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsys today and a question came to mind that I wanted to ask those who have built this pedal.

When you put a wah-wah in front of the Axis Fuzz do you loose the wah like you do with a conventional Fuzz Face?

[tcobretti]

Yeah, it's a pretty similar situation.  If you haven't built an Axis, you should.  It is a great pedal.

[vanessa]

So he must have used the Octavio after the wah and then before the Axis Fuzz? I've found the Octavia to be very wah friendly (impedance).

[tcobretti]

I would guess that you are correct.  This pics seems to back up your theory.  It a fuzz face, but the signal chain seems right.

[vanessa]

From what I've read the Fuzz Face you see has been heavily modified by Roger Mayer. It is said the Mayer replaced the transistors in Jimi's Fuzz Faces with silicon very early on if not right out of the gate and that the succession of these mods eventually became the circuit that Mayer calls the Axis Fuzz.

[vortex]

From what I've read the Fuzz Face you see has been heavily modified by Roger Mayer. It is said the Mayer replaced the transistors in Jimi's Fuzz Faces with silicon very early on if not right out of the gate and that the succession of these mods eventually became the circuit that Mayer calls the Axis Fuzz.

That's interesting, where did you hear about that?

[vanessa]

What part?

[RedHouse]

From what I've read the Fuzz Face you see has been heavily modified by Roger Mayer. It is said the Mayer replaced the transistors in Jimi's Fuzz Faces with silicon very early on if not right out of the gate and that the succession of these mods eventually became the circuit that Mayer calls the Axis Fuzz.

That's interesting, where did you hear about that?

The book about Jimi co-authoed by Eddie Kramer (I have downstairs but can't find 'cause I'm doing a remodel right now) said his RM modified stuff wasn't used that often, and he (Kramer) said in the studio Jimi actually used a blonde Fender Twin (not a twin reverb, or Marshall) to record most of his stuff. Internet and folklore (and definately RM) may have blown this mod'd thing a bit out of proportion.

[jonathan perez]

Internet and folklore (and definately RM) may have blown this mod'd thing a bit out of proportion.

they have. its said also that jimi hendrix used a dunlop crybaby...find me a picture of hendrix ever using a crybaby. 

its also said that his wahs were all modified heavily, and that each one sounded soo much different from the next...bologna. (balony). RM is big on hype. HUGE on hype. have you seen the prices of his stuff? do you know why? MOJO.

why is it that we can build a univibe clone for under $60, by hand, but mayer insists on charging 300? is his any better? its a matter of perspective, no doubt. but...give me a break. 

a friend of mine will crank his SLP100's, with everything full up, use a stock VOX Clyde Picture wah, stock Fuzz from around 68, modern univibe, and a modern strat and NAIL hendrix's tone. LIVE tone, that is. which is NOT a bad tone by any means.

maybe in the studio he used different amps, a leslie, and a few different odd effects, but none of the equipment he used were modded to the point of being an entirely different pedal.

[Roland]

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.

Given the technical ability at Jimi's disposal I woud assume every thing electrical would of been heavily modded for honeing in on specific tones.

But yeh you can't go wrong with a vintage plexi , fuzz face , picture wah and strat.

There are plenty of contradictory statements as well when it comes to jimi's effects. For fuzz some say silicone replacements..some say germanium replacements.. For the wah some say buffer before..some say buffer after. Just replaceing parts in these effects with tighter tolerance components changes the tone, hence modded - much less adding or subtracting parts.

That would apply to vintage amps as well as FX.  When it comes to amps things can get real hairy with guitarists preferring yellow caps to orange caps....carbon resistors to metal film....or visa versa.

Even Jimi's amps were modded for more low and high frequency range. From what Ive seen also modded for more distortion characteristics, which were stock at the time.

[vanessa]

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.

Roland, could you please scan and post this photo?

Thank you!

[Roland]

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.

Roland, could you please scan and post this photo?

Thank you!

First pic is Mr Wah wah

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=3726368


Second pic : Hendrix stepping on one of those boxs.

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=3726369

Pretty hard to see ...but watch just like ufo's they'll start appearing in other pics now that you know how they look. Talk about low profile.

oh yeh I guess at that time RM called all his effects octavia...and people would steal them off the stage. Tone bandits..even back then.

[petemoore]

  Ii read where Roger supposedly said
  We had a bunch of empty FF enclosures laying around, we'd put whatever circuits we we're trying at the time in them...or something to that effect.
  true or not, that's what many people like me still do...[minus the FF boxes] tweek a rig from stem to stern.

[captntasty]

I don't have any evidence but my gut tells me that Jimi may have started with one collection of effects and over time, as each pedal was modified (and re-modified) for a particular tone or characteristic, the setup evolved gradually - picture the timeline of ape to human standing more erect (heh, he said erect!) in stages.  So at one point he may have used Ge then graduated to Si - from one Octavia to another with mods in between, etc...  so he probably employed numerous configurations over his career.  If he was a tone-seeker like most of us his setup wasn't static, it was constantly evolving.  Note that at the end of his career he was using a Gibson Flying V, not a strat - now that's a drastic abrupt change!

Long Live Jimi

[Voxin]

I remember reading somewhere that he did use the octavia after the wah then fuzz.  I find what really helps accentuate the wah is to throw a boost in front of it and then fuzz after the wah.  I find that gives me more oumph when it comes to using a fuzz after a wah.  Hope that helps.

[Paul Marossy]

its said also that jimi hendrix used a dunlop crybaby...find me a picture of hendrix ever using a crybaby.

I thought it was a Teese wah pedal - hey, why not spread some more bad information around?! 

[Voxin]

Yeah, I heard that Hendrix never used Fenders in the studio, he was into Daisy Rock guitars!  HAHAHA

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, I heard that Hendrix never used Fenders in the studio, he was into Daisy Rock guitars! 

Wow! I didn't know that! 

[jonathan perez]

YOURE BOTH WRONG, AND CHILDISH...









anyways, he used Line 6 for all his modulation and distortion needs.

go pro, go Line 6.

[vanessa]

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?