Octave distortions

[hippietim]

I really don't know much about these but I've been intrigued by the sounds. I had tried a couple of the models out there like the Prescription, Roger Mayer Octavia, and several Octavia clones. I really had not found anything I liked yet.

About a week ago I was in Guitar Center and they had a used Voodoo Lab Proctavia so I tried to check it out in the store. You know the drill here: the overhead music was so loud I could barely hear what I was doing and then they give you dirty looks for turning up. It was a reasonable price and they have a 30 day return policy so I just picked it up. I get the thing home and start to play with it and I'm thinking, eh, not too bad - it'll do. Then I borrow my bandmates homemade Foxx Tone Machine clone and it kicks the crap out of the Proctavia. The Proctavia sounded harsh and brittle next to his pedal. The Proctavia is getting returned.

I was in Guitarville in north Seattle yesterday and they had a few pedals to try. They had the Perscription and the two from Fulltone. The setup was a very nice Les Paul into an old JCM 800 half stack with a Power Soak hooked up that I was buying. I tried the Prescription again and it was still not to my liking (not even as usable as the Proctavia).

Then, I plugged in the Fulltone Ultimate Octave. Holy banana peels Batman! This thing sounded amazing! It is also very versatile - it was a really good fuzz box as well with a lot of different tonal characteristics.

I had heard good things about the Danelectro French Toast Foxx Tone Machine clone. It should be good shouldn't it -- didn't one of the Danelectro guys design the Foxx Tone Machine? Anyway, I picked up a French Toast from a store that got one for me and brought it home yesterday. I plugged it in and it didn't work. Ugh, another pedal to return.

So the standings so far are:<ul>[*]Prescription - costs $299 has some potentially cool innovations but really didn't sound good to me[*]Some Octavia clone - I forgot the brand but it was right at $200 and sounded very brittle and harsh[*]Proctavia - they're $110 new, sounded very brittle and harsh[*]Roger Mayer Octavia - costs $179 sounded brittle and harsh (hmm...I'm seeing a trend with the Octavia line here)[*]Danelectro French Toast - cost $35 but arrived DOA - not a good start[*]Fulltone Ultimate Octave - sounded great. The price was $179 which puts it in the same range as the Octavia family but this pedal offers much more. [/list]Where does that leave me? You can probably guess that I want a Fulltone pedal but first I'm going to exchange the Danelectro pedal and give it a shot - I've been suprised by Danelectro gear before.

[dubs]

yes one of the Danelectro owners did design the Foxx tone machine so I hear dthe copy sounds good, but the build quality is not very durable.

I recently built a Ampeg Scrambler Octave fuzz clone that sounds real mean!

[John Harrison]

Had a Fulltone Octafuzz and found it way over the top and unusable, for my tastes. Had a PE Experience and found it even more untameable.
I saw Warren Haynes, with Gov't Mule, using a Boss OC-2, to great effect, but mine had a weird click noise (almost like it was repeating delayed pick noise), so I returned it.
I haven't had much luck with any "combination" pedals, so I prefer to go with individual pieces. YMMV.

[decay-o-caster]

Check out the ZVex Octane III - I just bought one used. Combination of octave, fuzz, and ring mod. Totally weird and it scares me to death and it's absolutely killer!

[Bernie]

I bought a used Octane (first version) and it is a very cool pedal. The gain, octave and ring mod are, as mentioned by decay-o-caster, a scary combo. I like the fuzz on this pedal - *very* high gain. As suggested by Zack Vex, it is best used for neck pickup single note work around the 12th fret or for two note chords. Add a third note or more and you'll start getting looks (that's not necessarily a bad thing...) The first version receives radio stations when the gain is high, and I get this killer Mexican radio station in my neck of the woods. I just try to work the station in as part of my playing style ; ) Zack discontinued this model because of this and has since altered the Octane III so it doesn't get radio stations.

Anyway, this is one of the top three pedals I've *ever* owned. It is wild beyond belief.

Bernie

[Tim Bowen]

Fuzzy blue Foxx Tone Machine got away from me many years ago, unfortunately... don't know how the Dano stacks up.

Went looking for a Tycho style octave box a while back, played these three -

Voodoo Proctavia - I'm with you, hippietim. Thin & buzzy. I think Voodoo pedals are generally solid but didn't get along with this one at all.

Fulltone Octafuzz - Much cooler tone than the Voodoo, but very compressed, anemic output. Fuller's revised it, but I don't know in what way.

Addrock Electric Smile - Clear winner for my money. Balanced across the fingerboard, clear & distinct, tons of output, tracks like a champ. Does the ring modulated steel drum stuff, ghost octaves above the 12th fret, doesn't crap out in the lower registers... I love it. Plus, it has two green LED's above a smile, so it looks like this >>> :-)

Variables on the Tychobrahe theme:

Prescription Electronics Experience - not a clone of anything per se... INCREDIBLY amp-picky pedal, will not play at all with a spanky Fender, is tricky enough with a Vox, brown Fender, & other amps that will generally accomodate octafuzz... Fuzz is independently selectable, sans octave - very thick and over the top, will not clean up like a nice fuzzface, so having the fuzz available on it's own is of no use to me here. Swell and octave up features are great fun at parties, not very practical...

Z.Xex Octane - Zach's never cloned anything, he's the last of the mad scientists... Over the top as only Z. knows how, sounds wonderful, not the one to cop the Hendrix thing, but maybe go somewhere else just as cool...

For traditional Tycho octave up, I'd get the Addrock... for a different spin with tons of attitude, go for the Z.Vex....

$.02...

[brodus24]

I have owned three Dano French Toast pedals and one Dan-o-wah, that has what is supposed to be the same circuit in it.

Here's my take:

1. Sound quality is really there, and quite adjustable. I am consistently stunned by the sound I can get. I can nail a Hendrix sound for $30. Insanity. The cost to performance ratio is huge.

2. I agree, construction isn't near a Mayer pedal, but...

3. Dano has excelletn customer service. Send them a broken pedal, you get a new one in five days (I've done this twice)

The last time they screwed up though--I sent a tremolo and they sent me back a French Toast, so now I have two! (Anyone want one?)

--J

[jordanl]

I have the Dano French toast and a Fulltone Ultimate Octave. The UO is bulit much better and has more versatility, but the FT does a surprisingly good job, for very low $$. I find that neither is a pedal I'm going to use very often so I'm planning on selling the UO to a friend and keeping the FT for when I feel like doing the Jimi thing.

I also have a Guyatone Tz-2 fuzz. It has just a touch of the upper octave present in its tone, not nearly as present as a true octavia type pedal.

[hippietim]

I returned the defective Danelectro French Toast pedal -- unfortunately they didn't have any more in stock. So I ended up ordering the "summer of love" pack from Musicians Friend - the pack includes the French Toast as well as a crappy tuner (Ebay bound), a very cool phaser (pepperoni), and a decent octave pedal (chili dog). Not bad for $69 considering I paid $35 for the French Toast to begin with.

I plugged in the French Toast and had a BLAST! This cheap little pedal kicks butt. It's not as flexible as the Fulltone Ultimate Octave but it absolutely nails the sound I was looking for. The French Toast pedal is smoother and more musical than every Octavia clone I tried. If you turn off the octave tone it's also a decent little fuzz box.

I also have a Guyatone TZ pedal coming to try out as well. I am having too much fun with pedals!

[alabubba]

I agree on the French Toast being a musical pedal. I've found that I use the basic fuzz more than the octave fuzz. I'd like to A/B it with a real Foxx Tone Machine sometime, but haven't, so I don't know sonically if it is truly a clone, but it doesn't really matter - the fuzz it produces is capable of standing on its own. It also responds musically when you back off of the volume knob on the guitar, so that is a "voice" worth exploring with it if you have one.

It's been on my pedalboard close to two years now, along with a Tuna Melt tremolo, which is another good sounding pedal in that mini pedal line. With three kids at home, it's nice that "cheap" can sound so good!

At first I was concerned about durability of a plastic pedal case, and the knobs, etc., but I think that since they are mounted on a pedalboard and protected between use, not just tossed into a gear bag, the durability issue is not as much a concern for me. Neither pedal seems any the worse for the wear after almost two years of use.