His company is still going today, and he builds his classic effects, like the Octavia, with studio-grade components and a focus on recording applications. The Original: Roger Mayer Octavia FuzzĪfter designing pedals for Jimi Hendrix, in the ’70s Roger Mayer started his own studio recording equipment company and designed consoles and pro analog recording gear. Rather interestingly, we weren’t able to find relevant information about the difference in sound between these two effects. The sound of the Octavia can most famously be heard on Hendrix’s solos for “ Purple Haze” and “Fire” in his 1967’s debut album.Īlthough the Octavia was the first octave-up fuzz heard on a record, the first commercially available fuzz of that kind was the Univox Super Fuzz, introduced in 1968. Turning the gain up will result in a more straight-up chunky vintage fuzz sound. To really bring out the upper octave sound, play one note at a time above the 10th fret on the neck pickup, with the fuzz turned down some. It works best first in the pedal chain and with single-coil pickups. The Octavia’s circuit is all analog, of course, so no polyphonic pitch tracking here – you have to play to the pedal, so to speak. A few years ago, to put things straight, he penned a history of the Octavia, and also shot a 2020 video talking about a vintage unit used by Hendrix he was able to buy back at an auction. Mayer later created his own manufacturing company through which he released many versions of the pedal there are currently two available with different shaped cases. However, the effect wasn’t available commercially until the early ’70s, when a Californian company called Tycobrahe released what Roger Mayer refers to as an “inaccurate rip-off” of his circuit, also called Octavia. The resulting signal is then sent to a fuzz. The circuit uses ring modulation and frequency doubling to create an octave up above whatever you are playing. The original Octavia Fuzz circuit was designed in 1967 by engineer Roger Mayer specifically for Jimi Hendrix.
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