I’ve spent way too much money on fuzz pedals over the years trying to chase the Jimi Hendrix tone. What exactly was he using when he played Monterey? Woodstock? Was he playing a Fuzz Face? Or was it a fuzz from Roger Mayer? Well I finally found the answer in this interview from 1978 with Roger Mayer, “on stage quite a lot we used to use either one of mine or a fuzz face.” So boom! There you have it. The answer is Hendrix used both Fuzz Faces & Roger Mayer built fuzzes while on tour.

Here’s the full interview if you’d like to listen to the whole thing (the quote referenced above is at 15 minutes into the interview): Roger Mayer on Making Pedals For Hendrix, Beck & Page

UPDATE (June 27th 2026): Wanted to add a little update to this. There’s another more recent 4 part 4+ hour interview series with Roger Mayer I wanted to dig through looking for answers. The only problem is it’s 4 hours long! Well today I finally found the most important question and answer, it’s hidden all the way back in the 4th interview. Obviously, I started with the first interview, and I suppose I just never had the endurance to make it all the way through to the 4th interview. Today I tried combing through the interviews using YouTube’s transcript search feature and found (part) of the answer we’re all looking for…

Question: Do you know what Fuzz Face Jimi used at Woodstock, the red one with white knobs, and has it ever been remade?

Roger Mayer: Will never go (there) [or We’ll never know]

This question is at the 13:30 mark of the 4th interview with Roger on Guitar Village’s YouTube channel.

But to add even more mystery, it’s hard to tell if he says “will never go (there)” or “we’ll never know.” Maybe that’s actually fitting for this mystery. However, he does go on to say, “at the time I would think the actual fuzz boxes that Jimi had remaining that were working were the ones that were around and survived.”

But if you circle back to Roger’s marketing copy for his fuzz pedals on his website he says about the Axis Fuzz, “This guitar effect is named after it’s most famous use on the title track of the album ‘Axis Bold as Love’. It can also be heard extensively on the ‘Band of Gypsies’ and various other post 1968 recordings by Jimi.”

On a long 2 hour car ride today I listened to Band of Gypsys twice, and one thing I noticed was that I believe I could hear an Octavia, something he previously did not tend to use live, and I also could hear some delay, likely an Echoplex, something he also wasn’t known to use live. So maybe towards the very end of Jimi’s career he started using some of his more expensive, rare, hard to replace, equipment.

So where I stand on the mystery of Jimi Hendrix’s fuzzes and the Woodstock Fuzz in particular:

1. We know the Fuzz Face was Jimi Hendrix’s primary weapon of choice, especially back in 1966/1967
2. When we move on to 1968, 1969, 1970 he may at times have used Roger Mayer built fuzzes, and according to Roger Mayer’s marketing copy he used them extensively in the Band of Gypsys era (post Experience, but maybe not including Woodstock)
3. Roger Mayer seems to be quite reluctant to take credit for the mythical red Fuzz Face with white knobs at Woodstock. Maybe because he doesn’t know? Or maybe because he does know, it wasn’t his, and it would hurt his sales and mystique?

As a guitar player interested in getting as close as possible to using historically accurate Hendrix equipment, I believe the evidence is undeniable that he used Arbiter/Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Faces, so that’s always going to be an excellent option to go with on your board. Then as far as Roger Mayer goes, he probably used those as well except they’ve all disappeared, Roger’s record keeping was pretty poor, and his memory of the details of these pedals, their designs, and when they were used is quite poor. So if you want to get as absolutely close as possible as you can get on your board I would say have a Fuzz Face AND a Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz. However, after purchasing a Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz I can tell you this… it sounds the same as a Fuzz Face and I honestly couldn’t pick it out of a blind sound test from a Fuzz Face. The biggest difference I can tell honestly is that it’s much noisier than the Fuzz Face minis that I own, but it sounds nearly identical to my big red germanium fuzz face that’s equally noisy.

I’m hopefully going to try and make a YouTube video on my findings from these fuzz rabbit holes I’ve been going down lately and the 9,000,000 fuzz pedals I’ve bought chasing Hendrix tone (The real number is 2 silicon fuzz face minis, 1 big red germanium fuzz face, 1 band of gypsys fuzz face mini, 1 MXR hendrix band of gypsys fuzz face, and 1 super sick rocketship Axis Fuzz from Roger Mayer.) And while the Roger Mayer pedal is cool as hell, the pedals all sound about the same after adjusting them to have the same volume. The fuzz face mini’s are the quietest and have the least noise (which I like even if it isn’t historically accurate). The large Fuzz Face and the large rocketship Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz are the noisiest. And the Dunlop Band of Gypsy Fuzz Faces have the most boost/volume. I was kind of hoping to find that the Band of Gypsys Fuzz Faces were clones of the Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz but they don’t appear to be to me as they have way more boost/volume than the Axis Fuzz. Honestly, the Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz is most similar to my big red germanium Fuzz Face (JDF2). However, the Fuzz Face mini’s might be the best since they are much quieter and don’t buzz/hum when you aren’t playing like the big Fuzz Face and Axis Fuzz. Also the Fuzz Face minis can be used with a power supply and are pedal board friendly.

In conclusion, the Fuzz Face is probably the most historically accurate fuzz if you’re looking for Jimi Hendrix tones. And then if you throw in the Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz you have all the posibilities covered. As for Dunlop and the Band of Gypsys Fuzz, I think it’s probably the least historically accurate and has the least support for historical accuracy (even though it doesn’t sound bad, and is actually the hottest of them all if you want a ton of boost).