Fingolfen
Well-known member
- Build Rating
I'd heard a lot of good things about the Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz, so I decided it was high time to see if it lived up to the hype (spoiler alert, the answer is YES!).
I'm once again starting with a South Obolon board - this time the "Kick-Axe Fuzz" (I don't have a Steggo version... yet). The layout is clean and neat, and the component count is low. For this particular build I'm going ahead and using all modern components rather than trying to invoke the mojo of vintage bits. The resistors are all 1/4 Watt metal film 1% tolerance from Yageo or KOA Speer. The film capacitors, there's only three of them, are all Kemet. The electrolytic capacitors are all Nichicon. The two transistors are both modern production - one is a 2N3904 and the other is a 2N3906.
As there was only one extra ground pad on the board, I decided to go with a star ground to the input. All of the jack connections are insulated with heat shrink tubing. I also used a new 3PDT switch daughter board. Drunk Beaver Pedals was kind enough to post the Gerbers files for a stomp switch daughter board that included not only two locations for the LED, but the option of including a dimmer switch on the indicator LED itself. He was also kind enough to let me make a couple of modifications to the original file to personalize it with the Steggo Logo while still giving him credit for the original layout.
The main PCB already included an LED current limiting resistor, so I jumpered the CLR and trimmer on the board for this build, but I do plan on using them on some future builds! Even with the extra unused parts, I find it easier to solder the LED directly to a board as opposed to hand wiring it, and the positioning of the LEDs on this board lined up with where I already wanted to place the LED in the enclosure.
Speaking of the enclosure, this one has another fun dinosaur - the Alxasaurus - once again done by Ukrainian artist @estelkatrin (on Instagram). The font is similar to the one used on the original Hendrix Axis: Bold as Love album cover which also features a sunburst on the cover art.
Despite only having a volume and fuzz control, I really found this to be a great fuzz pedal. It certainly gives you a variety of classic fuzz tones, especially with single coil guitars, and may end up replacing the Tone Bender Mk III clone on my pedal board as my primary fuzz going forward. I'll see if I can get some tone demos going soon!
Tiny bit more at the blog (mostly dino info and some more background on the original pedal): https://steggostudios.blogspot.com/2023/02/off-axis-fuzz-cloning-one-of-originals.html
I'm once again starting with a South Obolon board - this time the "Kick-Axe Fuzz" (I don't have a Steggo version... yet). The layout is clean and neat, and the component count is low. For this particular build I'm going ahead and using all modern components rather than trying to invoke the mojo of vintage bits. The resistors are all 1/4 Watt metal film 1% tolerance from Yageo or KOA Speer. The film capacitors, there's only three of them, are all Kemet. The electrolytic capacitors are all Nichicon. The two transistors are both modern production - one is a 2N3904 and the other is a 2N3906.
As there was only one extra ground pad on the board, I decided to go with a star ground to the input. All of the jack connections are insulated with heat shrink tubing. I also used a new 3PDT switch daughter board. Drunk Beaver Pedals was kind enough to post the Gerbers files for a stomp switch daughter board that included not only two locations for the LED, but the option of including a dimmer switch on the indicator LED itself. He was also kind enough to let me make a couple of modifications to the original file to personalize it with the Steggo Logo while still giving him credit for the original layout.
The main PCB already included an LED current limiting resistor, so I jumpered the CLR and trimmer on the board for this build, but I do plan on using them on some future builds! Even with the extra unused parts, I find it easier to solder the LED directly to a board as opposed to hand wiring it, and the positioning of the LEDs on this board lined up with where I already wanted to place the LED in the enclosure.
Speaking of the enclosure, this one has another fun dinosaur - the Alxasaurus - once again done by Ukrainian artist @estelkatrin (on Instagram). The font is similar to the one used on the original Hendrix Axis: Bold as Love album cover which also features a sunburst on the cover art.
Despite only having a volume and fuzz control, I really found this to be a great fuzz pedal. It certainly gives you a variety of classic fuzz tones, especially with single coil guitars, and may end up replacing the Tone Bender Mk III clone on my pedal board as my primary fuzz going forward. I'll see if I can get some tone demos going soon!
Tiny bit more at the blog (mostly dino info and some more background on the original pedal): https://steggostudios.blogspot.com/2023/02/off-axis-fuzz-cloning-one-of-originals.html
