voodoo-axe

The Voodoo-Axe is our latest fuzz pedal and has many of the qualities the ‘Axis Fuzz’ which I designed for Jimi in 1968. Jimi used the original Axis on the landmark recording ‘Axis Bold as Love’ and the Voodoo-Axe is an evolution from my original design The original Axis Fuzz is still in production today but the Voodoo-Axe offers an alternative and exciting range of new modern tone colours for those who want to experience the same basic sound qualities of the original but extend and modify the tone to suit today’s music .

I have taken this great classic fuzz sound and added a very effective Fatness control which extends and tightens the low end response without becoming woolly and indistinct. The very tight and extended low end was expressly designed to compliment the use of dropped tunings and dynamically responds very well to this new range of modern sounds. The Voodoo-Axe reacts in a human way to the players touch as it uses a significant part of this information to continuously adjust it’s operating point. The quality of distortion produced is very musical to the ear and responds well to the use of chords. The Guitar volume control works in perfect harmony with the unit to control the amount of distortion. The background noise is very low and encourages the use of lots of sustain without hiss and the extremely large output swing will drive the front end of any amplifier to its limit. It has the highest output level of any of my distortion or fuzz units and you can use it very effectively as a power booster.

Electronically the Voodoo-Axe shares all the same basic Voodoo Series features with dual output buffering etc.

“The Voodoo-Axe is the Axis for the 90s, with bigger gain stage and enormous amount of output” “where it really differs from Roger Mayers excellent Voodoo-One , is it´s extended Low EQ control. Dial up the “fatness” to take your fuzz way down deep – even for tunings dropped as low as C#, making it perfect for Sepultura-style heavy bass riffing.” “Use your guitar volume control and the gain control to take you from Gilmour-esque rock through Stevie Ray blues and right into Sepultura scooped midgrunge.” “It´s perfect for hard rock and blues, and is blisfully free of the tinniness that you get from retro-style fuzz pedals.”

Total Guitar Oct/-96, issue 23 page 30.

“Definitely a fuzz box rather than a distortion pedal, the Voodoo-Axe gives a real buzz-saw edge to the sound, with a little compression ´duck´ at the start of a big chord. The tone knob is re-labelled Fatness and accordingly adds (or takes away) some low middle body, leaving the top end untouched: one frequent criticism of Sixties´fuzz pedals was their tendency to thin out the tone (who cared when you were such an exciting new sound), but the Voodoo-Axe gives you control over this without tampering unnecessarily with the real bottom end. Turn the gain up full and it´s an abrasive and totally thrilling distortion… Single, high notes tend to scream out, rather than sing out, while heavy, low E-string riffing makes the sound start to brake up in an exciting way.” ” As for the Voodoo-Axe… Well, just try it out and tell me it isn´t the most fun you´ve had with a guitar for ages.”

Making Music Dec / -96

” The Voodoo-Axe offers a more in-vogue fuzztone sound than the Voodoo-1´s thicker, more mainstream distortion. It gets fizzy and flappy on full gain, and when backed off will add sizzle and squash to an already crunchy tone. The fatness control does exactly what it says, adding breath to the distortion sound as you turn it clockwice; in fact it seems to get fatter the more gain you add. As ever with Mayer´s distortion boxes, the Voodoo-Axe is very reactive to volume and pickup changes. With a Strat sounds range from Texas-type sizzle to mushed-out Hendrix with plenty of suck and sonic corruption .”

The Guitar Magazine Oct /-96

“The Voodoo-Axe will provide an ideal way for de-tuners and seven stringers alike to get gutsy tones that don’t go all mushy at the bottom. Isn’t it about time you thought about getting some classic tones into your pedal chain? It may not turn you into the next Hendrix, but it’ll give your sound an original flavour that no budget multi-fx processor can get close to.”

Guitarist June 1998