Everman Custom Audio Effects Octave-X

Persistence pays off with this pedal. Internal trimmers don't seem like a very intuitive solution, but for me they were essential for getting a great sound using low output single coil pickups. But, once everything is set, then the outside knobs make it easy to get the desired sound.

With my Suhr Classic, the pedal sounds phenomenal. As the other reviewers have noted, it has an organic quality, plus a very clear and majestic sound. It's very responsive through the entire range of the guitar, not just past the 12th fret as on other octave units.

This is my fourth J. Everman pedal, and I've never had a problem.

I have corresponded with Justin a few times via email, and he was always very helpful. He seems to care greatly about his product, and also the customer.

I have played through other octave pedals, and once the Octave-X was dialed in, I feel it rose to the top tier. It doesn't feel like some esoteric effect, to be used on the rare occasion. It's a very musical pedal that really seems to help open up new musical possibilities. If it were lost or stolen, I would purchase another, as I feel it is the best.

The pedal is very easy to use and the controls have a wide range of effect upon the sound. I am using it both with clean and lead sounds. Im even used it on a jazz sounds. The manual is easy and clear to understand.

You can get a Hendrix sound right out of the box. The pedal is very quiet and clean untill you try to turn all the controls all the way up then it gets really muddy. With some guitar sounds you have to play a surtain way to get a great sound, but its all in the hands anyway, isnt it.

I just started using it so I don't know if it can take what I dish out.

So far the support has been quick and on the Q.

I have been playing for 36 years and perform most types of music.
This helps me play my fusion-jazz-metal music. If it were stolen or lost I would get another. I love the big block size too.
I have tried out a lot of other octave pedals and this one is uses a 18 volt circut like the old ariginal, not a 9 volt circut.
The sweet sound you get at the 12 fret on all other pedals you get on the whole neck with this pedal.
The pedal is way too expensive for most players.
I also wish it had a midi in for control.
It should come with a power wart for the money you pay for it.

This is number 8, 5-17-2003. Bought it from my dear friend Sash who got this very early version from Justin.

Three knobs and three pots inside as in the Fuzz drive G2, but with an added filter (highs) control.

If you are into Octave pedals, this is one pedal to try. The only pedal I know of that can compete is the Chicago Iron Tychobrahe.

Organic is the keyword. Read Sash's post below for detailed review. Or... wait! Listen to the samples at www.jeverman.com!

Well.. I wouldn't pour beer into this pedal. It seems pedals can't handle that very well, so I think this pedal doesn't either.

Justin's solder quality is fantastic. So clean, no solderblobs, wires tied together very nicely, millitary spec components. Perfect!

Support? Who needs support?!

Thanks Justin!

I am not using this pedal a lot. It is not really my style, but the pedal is just so high quality, I probably never would sell.

Hi, this is the second pedal I've bought from Justin (the first was the G2 Fuzz Drive) and have no regrets. The pedal is easy to use: a Bias control - adds thickness and bass; a Drive control - adds fullness and effects the decay; and a Gain control- overall volume. There are also three trim controls inside for the Bias, Gain and one for treble boost or cut.

This pedal is absolutely quiet, you wouldn't even know it was on if there wern't a LED. It's a little picky where it wants to go in the chain of effects but that's normal for any pedal. For my set-up, it's the first pedal my guitar plugs into. I've never owned an Octavia before so I can't compare it to another brand, but from what I heard on J. Everman's Web-site clips, it turned out to be what I was hoping for - it has what I want, the Octavia effect, and doesn't have what I don't want, the dreaded mosquito buzz. This pedal's sound is not thin, nor trebly and is very fun to use. It wouldn't be an effect for every song, I don't think, but it definately has a musical use in untold ways that you'd have to explore and find out for yourself. It has a great personality.

It seems very well built and I don't see any reason for needing a backup.

Justin always answered my e-mails promptly. Before I bought the Octave-X, I was going to bid on an older one he had made that was selling on Ebay. I asked him how it differed from his newer ones and he told me it was a very good pedal and that I wouldn't be disappointed. He said the difference was that the older one is more Lo-Fi and the newer ones are more Hi-Fi. It was tempting to go for the deal with the older pedal, but I went for the new and doubt I made a mistake.

I play in a blues-based rock trio and am always looking for a big and as high-quality a sound as I can afford. Justin's products just suit me. The Octave-X and the G2 Fuzz Drive pedals are musical, smooth and sound professional. I feel confident in recommending both these pedals to anyone looking for the effect they produce.

This pedal is as easy to use as I expected it to be. I don't believe there are any Octave pedals out there that just magically set themselves up to sound beautiful with the knobs at any setting, so you will have to tweak it until it sounds the way you want it to. Once I got it where I wanted it, the ease-of-use skyrocketed because I just started playing and my jaw dropped in amazement at all the great sounds coming out of this thing.

The manual is well written and explains the functions of the outside knobs as well as the functions of the little screwdriver-adjustable pots inside the unit. Also, I think it would be nice to be able to adjust the low-pass filter (the control is inside the box) using a knob on the outside of the box, but then the box would become needlessly large. Also, that is a control you only want to tweak just a tiny bit every once in a blue moon, not regularly. So putting a knob for it on the outside would actually make the pedal less user-friendly.

All-in-all the Octave-X is very easy to use as far as Octave pedals go, but since Octave pedals by their very nature are still a little tough to set up it I give it a 9.

I currently play a Jimi Hendrix Signature Strat through the Octave-X, then through a London Fuzz, then a P.E. Vibe-Unit into a Marshall TSL 100.

This pedal sounds *excellent* on the neck pickup! It can be tweaked to produce anything from subtle octave overtones in the background to an all out octave wail. And it all sounds *superb*!! Listening to recordings of "The Man" (Jimi) playing live through his Octavia, it seems like he has to labor to eek octave tones out of his guitar. If Jimi had to work hard to get a good sound out of a pedal you know it's gonna be tough for you! But this pedal is much better than that- it is not tough to play with because it is consistent and predictable in it's sounds, not fidgety. Now we can all sound as cool as Jimi! If more people owned the Octave-X I predict you would hear this type of effect in a lot more music.

As far as the fidelity of the sound I rate it very high. When the unit is off, it's silent (true bypass). When it's on and you are not playing, it's silent. You can't hear anything until you start playing. This is excellent!! With the guitar volume at full you get a blend between the octave tones and your overdriven guitar. As you roll off the volume you begin to hear more of the pure octave tones and less of your guitar. So you have excellent control over your sound right at your fingertips. This is definitely a sweet little number. And boy do those octave tones sound sweet!! I can only imagine it's because of the 18 volt charge-pump inside the unit.

I prefer playing the unit using a 9V battery. I feel like the Octave sounds are more pronounced, the sustain is a bit sweeter, and the fuzz is less harsh. Using a high quality DC power adaptor (Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2) the unit still sounds good but is a bit more edgy. The difference is subtle.

Since this pedal sounds incredible and is very quiet when it is supposed to be, I give it a 10!

I have taken it apart several times. It is built solidly and it is apparent the highest quality components were used. Honestly though I don't feel like I can rate any pedal's reliability until I have owned it for at least a year.

Justin definitely gets a *10* in this category! Many times I have emailed him and had a response within 15 minutes!! Is that amazing or what!? He will answer your questions skillfuly and is always helpful. If anything ever went wrong with the pedal, I know he would fix it in a flash.

Overall this pedal gets a *10*! I wish the price were a bit lower, but hey it's the best Octave pedal out there so it's gonna cost. The octave tones are sweet and pure, and the sound is consistent and predictable. That's not to say it sounds boring, just that you can eek those octave tones out with far greater ease than even The Man ever did. And finally, the blue L.E.D. is *super cool*!!

When this pedal came in the mail, I eagerly pulled it out and played solos through it on my guitar for more than 3 hours straight! My fingers haven't had a hashing like that in a very, very long time. The Octave-X is a superb little unit and I highly recommend it if your are in the market for an octave pedal!

Well, I'll first clear up this: EVERY sound produced by this pedal is good! Some of the sounds don't really work out for me, but they aren't bad at all. I tried a lot of octavia's but this is the first one I played which sounds good with the drive open.
When you open the fuzz knob on the Roger Mayer Octavia the signal get's to fuzzy to work with, especially on a Fender amp.
But with this one it really works out great. The more Drive the better the unit sounds!

Their are 3 external pots and 3 internal trimpots. The external pots are named: Bias, Drive and Gain.
These controls are pretty obvious (bias=bass, drive=fuzz, gain=volume).
When it comes to the internal trimpots you need either the manual, or a pair of well trained ears and some tweaking.

The manual describes the internal trimpots as following:
Bias - This trimmer pot controls the range the external Bias control has.
Drive - This trimmer pot allows the user to tailor the fuzz breakup to their guitars pickups.
Filter - This trimmer pot acts as a low pass filter and servers to attenuate the high frequencies produced by the circuit.

The factory settings on these pots are marked so if you've been tweaking and you find that the factor setting sounded better you can always go back to it and start over again.

I admit that it is a lot of work to take off the bottom plate everytime you wish to adjust something, but for a tone slut like me that isn't a problem at all. I really love tweaking and it gives a bit of a kick too, everytime you manage to get everything the pedal has to offer, out of it.

I'm using this pedal in combination with a J. Everman Fuzz Drive G2, a Menatone Red Snapper, a Teese RMC3 wah and a Dunlop Univibe (which is for sale!). With everyone of these pedals the unit sounds amazing, even with the wah (when you put the Octave X in front of it)!

It really sounds like Justin describes it, organic. Last weekend I compared it with the RM Octavia from a friend of mine and I got exactly the same sound of it, but more organic. That is probably the only way to describe it in one word.
It really sounds like there's an wild beast inside who wants to break out, and that is something I really like.

The fuzz circuit used in this pedal is the Fuzz Drive G2 circuit. This circuit pushes a dual transformer Germanium ring modulator matrix. All this together is powered by 18V. Justin used the CPC (charge pump converter) internally in this pedal to convert the 9 Volts to 18 volts. Because of the 18 V the pedal get's a LOT more headroom and it gives you the biggest Octavia sound you can imagine.
I found that the unit sounds better when it's powered by an adaptor.

I compared this pedal with some other famous Octavia's (Fulltone Octafuzz, Fulltone Ultimate Octave etc.) but the Octave X literally pisses on all these pedals.

The first time I heard Purple Haze, I wanted an Octavia. This unit can give me the exact same sound but, even better, my own sound! That is an other thing I really love. The ability of creating your own personal Octavia sound which nobody else has.

The housing is a standard Hammond box. Strong enough to hold up a long time!

Justin is a great guy! He works fast and is reliable. When you send him an e-mail you'll probably have an answer the same day.
Luckily, I still haven't had to repair anything (and I hope that day doesn't come soon), but when I will I know Justin will help me out in a great way.

I mostly play Texas blues and sixties and seventies rock. This pedal really fits my musical style, and, most important, my playing style.

I've been playing for 3 years and the last year I've got addicted to boutique effects after I bought my first boutique pedal, a Fulltone '69. Since then I've been buying and selling almost everything that came on my path.

I have now found the ultimate Octavia pedal. As far as I know their are only 2 Octave X units in Europe (both of them in the Netherlands), so I consider myself a very lucky man for having one ;-)

If it were stolen it would take a while for me to get all the money for it , but I would definitely buy it again!

I play on a Strat with big strings and high action, the way most of the Texans do it ;-). My amp is a blackfaced '75 Pro Reverb which still needs some modding (Bassman OT, other speakers etc.).
This pedal really works together with my amp and guitar to create the sound I want.

Like I said, I really love the ability of creating your own Octavia sound, and their are a LOT of possibilities, because every one of them sounds great.

I'd like to thank Justin for designing these great pedals and for helping me out!
May the tone be with you!