The Roger Mayer STONE FUZZ is is a modern evolution from the fuzz pedals I modified for Jimi. It is a very heavy sounding fuzz with roots that go back to the early fuzzes Jimi used but is not a clone of the old Fuzz Face. The STONE FUZZ maintains the guitars original tone characteristics with the open sound and sonic heritage that is the trademark of Jimi's recordings. I have added a few new features and advantages that will appeal to those players who strive for a modern sound with strong roots in the past. It has deliberately been designed with this is mind and is not a clone of an old design that duplicates the original faults and shortcomings. I have used the same basic transistor configuration but with several new innovations applied to the very basic circuit that was used then. The new Stone Fuzz is a very Low Noise high gain design, stable, free from radio and other electronic interference that cause so much trouble. It has a greatly increased output level that enables it to overdrive the front end of any amp as hard as you want with the Stone Fuzz set to produce virtually nil distortion in volume boosting mode. Turn up the Gain or Drive control and produce some of the deepest and tight low-end fuzz you have ever heard with the top end staying sweet encouraging soaring string bends and wild solos. The overall EQ has been carefully developed to produce a well-rounded fatness and musical tone, not the nasal or fizzy thin type of fuzz sound. The unit really comes into it's own during live performance situations as it cleans up superbly well using the guitar volume controland maintains the guitars original tone as the signal decays from wild distortion to original guitar tone. This unit can be effectively controlled from the guitar making life a great deal easier for the player who likes to change tone effortlessly. Because the circuit senses and uses electronic information directly from the guitars pickups to control it's own operational parameters it is recommended to use the Stone Fuzz 1st in the signal processing chain to take full advantage of this internal feedforward feature. It is this particular feature of the Stone Fuzz that helps to make it quite different from early fuzz pedals and makes the unit respond very well to each individual players touch, style and playing technique. Five minutes playing with the Stone Fuzz will convince anyone this is not just a re-hashed design but genuinely innovative with some new tone colours. The unit comes in the very rugged Rocket housing and features Hard Wire Bypass/True Bypass and an attractive and unusual Stone paint finish. It has two controls: Output Level, Drive or Gain and is powered by an internal 9 Volt battery with an operational life of over 150Hrs so changing a battery shouldn't be a problem.