So, I had a sweet NPD recently--a custom Stomping Stones Haxan in an awesome, unique case....
That's all.
Move along.
Psych; I can never resist an opportunity to go full textwall, especially when a sweet hand-made fuzz pedal is involved
So, you know that Haxan is based on the lickle 7Ts plug-in-box Armstrong Blue Clipper, right? Well, the OG is minimalist to a fault (you pretty much have to rely completely on your guitar and amp controls to tame the beast). Haxan gives you more.
The Blue Clipper is chronologically at the head of a long chain of fairly varied but audibly related dirt boxes that, either through hive mind, convergent evolution, or reverse engineering, have cropped up in its wake. Think MXR Distortion+, OD250, Rat, andonandon: devices that generate various amounts of distortion with an opamp driving clipping diodes to ground. Components, filtering, bias all can differ, but they all hark back to the Blue Clipper.
Having had the chance to try a few of these over the years, I feel that the original was the gainiest and fuzziest of them all (with the DeArmond Square Wave a close second). I recently described the Square Wave (my first ever internet-demo-fuzz obsession) as "basically a blugeon--unrefined and spitting mad." That description definitely covers the original Clipper in all it's straight-up ripping glory, but Haxan gives you moar--moar control, moar tonal variety, moar uses in a gigging sitch.
Pressed as to whether the Haxan is a fuzz or a distortion, I would probably punt and call Haxan a fuzzstortion. I mean, it gets well fuzzy enough to be called a fuzz with the gain cranked, but it acts more like a distortion with the pedal's gain knob rolled back (a good thing!)....
I feel like the Haxan is like 65/35 fuzz-distortion...whereas a Rat or Distortion+ is more like 60/40 distortion-fuzz.... Another way to think about it is in relation to the Big Muff family. Haxan is going to be less bassy, with more articulate attack, by and large, than a Muff. But Haxan is a bit closer to a Muff than a Rat or Dist+ are.
Jero goes into detail on the control scheme elsewhere, but quickly, Haxan features your standard gain and volume controls; a toggle switch to choose between two sets of clipping diodes; and another toggle that selects variant tonal modes, which can be kicked in with the left stomp switch.
One of my customizations involved a three-way tone mode switch (the standard Haxan has a two-way switch). Basically, on mine, there is a setting that is brighter than the "stock" setting (ie., with the left stomp set to "off" (as indicated by the left LED, which is active even when the pedal is bypassed #winning)), and there are two other settings which are each successively darker than the stock setting. I understand that my choices re: degree of darkness straddle the original dark setting (one even darker than original, one not as dark). I also understand that the final state of the dark setting is still in flux. Regardless, both of the dark settings on my Haxan, and the one on Chankgeez' that I was able to demo at length, have been very useful in a band setting for finding a place in the mix, especially at higher gain levels, and I'm sure the production setting will be every bit as helpful.
The modes on the left footswitch all set up well for in-song dynamics--the bright mode cuts like the possessed bread-slicer in a cast-off short story collecting dust in Stephen King's college trunk. The medium dark setting is perfect for either alternating rhythm parts that stay behind the singer with the face melting that rightfully follows, or setting up a woody lead tone for your neck pickup jambandinations with the gain set below noon. The full dark setting performs the same rhythm/lead selector function with higher gain (and therefore brighter) settings. Also makes for the liquid smooth fuzz leads....
One thing I especially love about the Haxan is All. Of. The. Harmonics! Even in the dark settings, you can hear them popping out all the time. As mentioned, you can get a nice "woody" tone with the gain around 10, but as you push the gain to noon? Forget about it - - it's harmonic porcupine day at the petting zoo, kids! And it just gets fuzzier from there, but it never really blats out....
I hit my old favorite Dist+ "Fripp" setting @ about 2 o'clock and the gain just keeps going--love it! I also love that at lower gain/volume roll-back it never gets to that smooth dumbledore toan that all the blooze traders over on TGP are panting for. Yeah, the gain gets less dense, and the sustain goes down, and you even start to hear some cleans mixed in with the clipping, but the clipping is still right there, cursing through its teeth at song form and convention and anything that doesn't fucking RIFF!
The clipping diode selection has a big effect on gain range, volume and eq profile. The silicon diodes gain up quicker and get into compressed, fuzzier textures more easily; they also lend more of a scooped quality to the tone, with a lot more sizzle, harmonic slice and, to an extent, apparent boom.
The LED setting can seem more open at lower gains, and brings a lot more apparent mid-range (though it's not at all that the bass drops out in this setting).
I asked Jero to re-taper the gain control on mine from the original because this pedal is so fantastic for higher gain, and I just didn't imagine I would really use the original quarter-turn of low gain range, and I wanted to be able to more easily access the fantastic range of distortion-like gain characteristics between crunch and scream that can be dialed in before the pedal ramps up into fuzzdom. Worked like a charm!
I also feel that the front end of the circuit is responsive enough to changes of pickups and guitar controls that I can still roll back to more "overdrivey" gain levels if I feel that need (though, as noted before--these are snotty, pissed off overdrives that want no part of your touch-sensitive pentatonlix and are still spitting tons of grit and harmonics relative to a toobskreemer or other lower gain device using diodes in an op-amp feedback loop)....
I actually first used Haxan in my bass rig, where it performed quite nicely, though, like a Rat, if it was my only bass dirt I would most likely want to throw it in a crossover loop or a clean-blend.
With bass, Haxan doesn't want to give up the bottom end until you start cranking the pedal's volume knob, but it eventually gets in the game. Fantastic upper mid grind, though, at lower gain levels, and gets real synthy, real quick as you roll up the gain. Jero has mentioned the possibility of a bass-tuned version for you denizens of the deep.
And that's my report on what I did on Spring Break
Anybody that wants the uncut fuzzstortion flava with more slice/articulation than a Muff, or a less-refined, -defanged, or otherwise -adulterated version of the timeless Rat/Distortion+ fuzzy distortion paradigm, get @ Haxan
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 5:52 pmthat dark fuzz tone; almost like a clarinet on the decay, overall a very pre-ambient Eno tone on that lead, but a lot of range overall. I was sorry it ended
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You should hear it with a volume pedal...guess I should say try 
Adds to that vibe, and you can control the decay almost like adding spit in a way
