PAiA 5750 Axe Grinder

Clean or fuzz each independently adjustable and blendable
Easy to follow instructions/ manual for assembly.
No instructions for use bet you just turn the knobs and see what you like. If you are not too retarted you should have no problems using this effect.

I mostly use this with small tube amps like a Silvertone 10xl, a princeton reverb etc.
Sound quality is average for a good fuzz, I personally would like a little more distortion but that isn't what this is. it is more a overdrive with fuzz but it sounds good. Not for extreme metal styles unless your amp can carry the rest of the tone further (note I have not used it with any larger amp) but it overdrives the smaller amps nicely into a rock blues distortion and gets just below metal type distortion with the fuzz. Keeps a nice tone without too much coloring of the origional amp sound so it will sound different on each amp.
controls are distortion intensity , distortion tone, distortion level and clean level. It works well and I'd recommend it if you were looking for something similar to a tubescreamer etc. not as brutal as a muff but the tone is better overall(Ive only played the older muffs so that is my comparison as they had a tendency to muffle the tone) Good deal for the price and experience of building it yourself but you will need to buy some more parts.

Here is where I was dissatisfied. When I first finished this it was very noisy and even cut out occasionally. Emailed paia and got some suggestiona, I checked everything several times they suggested, checked voltages etc, rechecked and resoldered etc several times. Finally I found that the problem was 1 of the jacks, the ones were really crappy, I noticed this when building but didn't think much of it. If yopu buy this just order some good switchcraft jacks from someone else. I did let paia know the jacks were crap but did not request replacement parts since I would have gotten parts from the same stock. New jacks and it works like a dream, quiet as can be expected as well. I just used a cheap plastic box from R.S. for the enclosure. Had I gotten quality jacks the reliability would have been rated considerably higher.

No problems, answered my questions and I assume they would have sent me replacement parts had I requested them but I chose to get higher quality jacks than they were offering.

If you are looking for a overdrive with a nice mellow to mild fuzz then you will be satisfied with this unit. I suppose most blues rock players would like it. If you are looking for more... then look elsewhere unless you just want to build it. I will likely mess with mine in the near future and see if I can get a bit more of a harder distortion but as yet I've had it over a year and haven't done so yet. I think it is a great little pedal if you just inderstand what it does and more importantly doesn't do. Sometimes the hype can lead the buyer to think they are getting something more intense, it isn't intense but it does its job well nonetheless. I can have a ball playing some old dirty blues with this and a small kay or silvertone.

The versatility of this thing is incredible. Some settings sound like fuzz and others sound more like distortion. If you keep the distortion off, you can use the unit as a preamp. One of the knobs mixes in a clean sound from the guitar; this is effected by the tone knob on the guitar but not the tone knob on the effect.

See Roctave Divider review

If you have a nice amp you probably can get by without this, but you're not going to find anything that sounds as good at this price. (the box is extra. I bought plastic one at radio shack for $3, Paia charges about $12 for metal boxes.)

This is a build-it-yourself kit which produces a very sweet fuzz. You should be familiar with soldering and I think that if you can read, and are not color-blind you can do it. It took me bout two hours to put the kit together. The instructions are quite clear, concise and to the point.
The sound was just what I was looking for. the manual not only takes you step-by-step on how to build it, but it gives you pointers on how to make a good job. It also tells you what the pots are for and how to use them. The cases they sell are very cool in a rugged do-it-yourself kind of way.
You need to practice your soldering technique a bit and the manual tells you how to do it efficiently.

I'm using both solid state and tube amps. As every distortion pedal it is a bit noisy when cranked all the way up, but it is surprisingly low-noise. I compare it to the Danelectro Fab-Tone and the DOD Grunge distortion pedals, although this is a fuzz box.
The fuzz is sweet and the distortion level has an extra "click" to drive it even harsher. I think it is awesome. It also has a pot to mix in a clean signal. This is sort of the idea with the DOD FX-76 Punkifier which actually sucks.

I've be used it quite a bit and have had no problems. The case is quite sturdy and the pedal will work as well as you build it. I think the footswith looks flimsy but I'll replace it when it breaks with a sturdier one.

Never had to call them but I've read, heard and been told they are extremely helpful.

I bought a DOD Fx-76 Punkifier pedal which cost me $70.00. The DOD mixes fuzz and overdrive to simulate in a very lame way the early sounds of punk. The 1st pot was to mix fuzz, to the left, and overdrive, to the right. It basically sucked. The fuzz was thin and the overdrive was lame. The only way that thing was any good was returned to the store. This PAiA Axe Grinder is awesome. The PAiA kit cost me much less and I had the satisfaction of building it myself. You have 4 different pots. One is tone, another distortion level, distortion intensity, and clean level. The distortion intensity has a "click" and when past it the fuzzed distortion is great. You can also overdrive your amp by using the clean level all the way to the max and reducing the distortion level to min. It kicks the Punkifiers ass to deep hell. This box really rocks. Now you can really simulate early punk styles and even emulate psychedilic fuzz with this.
If you are creative, curious or just would like to know how things work, purchase PAiA's kits. I'm definitely purchasing more from them. If you are curious purchase Craig Anderton's "Electronic Projects fo Musicians." It even includes a CD with the sound you can get from his projects.
Good luck!!! Angel ():-)