Fulltone OctaFuzz

There's a one-page manual included with a couple of important notes and tips. A simple pedal. An exact copy of the old Tycobrahe Octavia. True bypass. Battery included.

For all you people here going on and on about the old days, put aside those 'Axis Bold as Love' and 'Band of Gypsies' records for a few minutes and listen to Scott Henderson's sound on 'Song Holy Hall' (the 3rd track on the Tribal Tech - Rocket Science record). That's this little gem-pedal for real! The track is actually a long solo and the pedal's sounds are omnipresent. Listen to it growl and rasp on the low strings being bent by the vibrato bar. Listen to that hard steel sound cutting through as soon as the first higher notes are softly played and listen to those extra tones that come out of nowhere as soon as he moves up the fretboard. And the way this device handles those subtle two or three note chords, the overtones and harmonics, simply beatiful. That's what this pedal is all about: in the right hands it can do modern magic.

It is well built -- look and feel is solid.

No comments.

Two eights and a seven, then this must be a rounded eight, right?
Use it anyway you like. Be creative. Think about what you play and choose your notes well. Whether you leave it on all of the time or whether you just use it for double stops or bends, runs, the pedal does not care.

Extremely simply unit. You have Volume, Fuzz and a switch between the octave and regular fuzz. So you can easily tweak it. Anything from crunchy 70's power chords to Jimi Hendrix haunting octave fuzz. The new switch was the selling point for me. I just wanted the octave every once in a while but wanted a fuzz. They're both great. Both do what they did 30 years ago.

Octave isn't for everyone...octafuzz is like a ring modulator, like something out of a sci-fi movie. Why Hendrix used his Octavia on Purple Haze a song which was influenced by a Sci-Fi article. This unit does the trick. I'm going through a few different amps that are not a Marshall.(Ampeg Jet, Rolnd Jazz Chorus). I think it sounds best through my Ampeg due to tubes warm up the edge of the octave.

On the straight fuzz it's great. Everything from smooth fuzz to fuzz that has a little extra. It's as if there are overtones giving it a new character at louder levels.

Like I said about my Choral Flange this is what they call a tank. Fulltone costs more because they put more into it. I'm confident this unit will hold up against time.

Again I have no problems with Fulltone. I'm glad they exist. Mike was helpful when I ordered I have nothing but praise.

If you need a fuzz which is different than distortion but might need an octave too this is a great deal. It's very vintage sounding. Again you get what you paid for.

I bought this second hand, no manual, but it only has two knobs.

I've since limited my effects, so i've used the octafuzz along with only a dod octoplus into a marshall avt50 head with a 2x15 cab, an orange head and cab, with two lp copies a peavey tele copy and a danelectro double cut away with lipsticks.
This was my first "boutique" pedal and i have to say i was really impressed by the tracking of the octave effect as well as how quite it was even through the dirty channel on my marshall. I bought the octafuzz with the thought that it would replace my guyatone micro fuzz pedal, the micro ate batteries and when i used an adapter hummed. I like very heavy sounding guitars not to mention dirty, the octa can't really do heavy, but it does do dirty. at full boost settings it does swirl the notes which i like. It also does add a little noise, but not enough to bother me, and it is understandable.

WEll i bought it used 3 of the 4 screws for the bottom plate were missing, and when i placed my foot on the pedal (not on the switch) it made these "pops" so i removed screws from a big muff and installed them into the octafuzz's bottom plate and i solved that problem, I'm assuming that the pops came from the loose metal touching. I had been playing for some time and i decided to check what type of battery was installed because, i dont like the removing screws for battery access, and i was stunned to see a walgreens brand battery, i thought it was a pretty nice sound for a store brand, an it has lasted me quite a while, still going on strong for 3 weeks of heavy use. I havent gigged with it, and wont for another month, but i don't see any possible problems that can arise.

still havent dealt with them, i may have to order a footswitch from them soon though, just to have around.

I guess i play regular old rock and or roll, with sludge and doom influences. I have way too many stomp boxes and i wish i would have shelled out the bucks for this pedal early on, then i wouldnt have had to go through so many fuzz, distortions, and overdrives. I love the sound of this box, i love the fact that when i turn it on alongside my dirty channel i don't get ungodly feedback. I love that it doesn't produce excess noise. When i was trying it out, i was comparing it to very different pedals, a hombrew electronics germania and a vintage rat, homebrew was out of the question after i tried it out, it did very little for me, and i ultimately chose the octa over the rat because, the octa is a fuzz and has that octave which i think makes things more unique. So if this box were stolen i would pay full price for a new one.

this is an addendum ot the review below-i thought it was splatty/farty at higher boost settings,but i figured out that it actually swells the notes in a crazy sorta way...basically,it's supposed to do that(provided that you like this kind of thing)...cool pedal!

for me,only a few knob positions work properly,and it didn't take long to figure it out!

not noisy at all,really-does it sound 'good'? yes,BUT...it seems to fart out terribly with the boost knob up past 1:00 or so-i wonder if that's the way it's supposed to be? it's actually pretty tame for single note stuff(very 'classic')-i like the weird overtones you can get by accident the best. playing mostly a tele through a deluxe or mesa amp...

looks real nice in and out.

quick email response always...

i've also had a PE Face Lift(more like the Octafuzz) and a Menatone Chawbox(sorta more like a foxx tone machine)-don't know why i decided to try yet another Octavia type pedal besides hoping this one could be a little more subtle...it would be fun to check out an original or one of the Chicago Iron versions...this can sound pretty cool at times though,and the 'electric blue' casing is a nice touch.

Very easy to use to get a 60's Octavia sound, a little more difficult if you are a higher gain type of person like myself. It took about an hour of fooling around with it to get it where I wanted it.

Sounds amazing. Fat, gonky, dissonant, screaming octave up effect just like the Octavia. The degree of the octave up is very dependent on your picking attack. It's not something you want to overuse.

Seems well built.

I'm doing noise-indie rock and this box is great for that 'way out' effect on the occasional solo. For blues and low-gain rock sounds this thing is abso-fucking-lutely amazing.

Very simply laid out and easy to get your tone with.

I use a custom made strat with noiseless pu's into a Fulldrive 2-Octafuzz - '70 - Deja 2- RMC-3 then to my vintage fender Super Reverb. This is a versatile pedal great for covers New or Old, and great for providing an original sound to create with. I love it!!! just like the $650 Tycobrahe you wish you could own, but I'll just take the sound for now for a mear $150

Very tough, as are most of Mr. Fullers products. The Carling switches used in the past broke (in any pedal...My Teese for instance) way to easily and now he's made his own switch that rocks. I'd never worry about it or have a back up.

Never needed too, but I'm sure he'd be a helpful guy. He's taken some bad shots on this site for other work, but people he can't reply everyone to gab...and so what if other boutique makers email faster...they all don't put out the amount of pedals/products Mr. Fuller does.

I Play Rock,Blues and anything I can manage to work out, and I'm sure I could find a spot for this pedal in almost all styles. Simply Excellent!

two knobs. volume and drive

Awesome sound. it gets real voodoo like. I wish the effect would be more prominent in the lower register of the guitar, like at the very end of "Who Knows". I run a special editon strat w/texas specials into a Vox 847 wah> vintage rat> Octafuzz> Mesa dual rectifier Trem-O-verb. I set the mesa on the Blues mode with the gain slightly up and the master way up for a pretty clean sound with just a bit of preamp warmth while the the effects are bypassed. The Octafuzz sounds a lot better to me when the drive is all the way down and the volume set to equal the incoming signal AND you have another distortion,overdrive,or fuzz pedal before it(i.e. the octafuzz closer to the amp side). It does nail a lot of Hendrix style sounds though. But I want to nail that lower register sound on "Who Knows". I have a '69' pedal on layaway at South Austin Music(Bill is a nice guy)and plan on getting an OD-808. Maybe I need to get a Marshall Plexi re-issue to get closer to Hendrix' Who Knows lower register sound. Anybody "who knows" e-mail me. But this is definately my favorite pedal thus far in my guitar playing career.

It looks sturdy. Bought it 3 days ago.

never dealt with em'

I play blues rock. Played for 16 yrs. I would try a roger mayer octavia first and then I would decide whether or not to buy it again, but one of the two definately. I love the way it just sounds so bad ass when set right. I hate nothing about it really. My favorite feature is its sound.I chose this pedal because of the reviews I read here and really didn't try any different ones. I wish the Octave effect was more pronounced in the lower register. I has already helped me create a couple of new songs.

Two knobs are Volume and Boost. Boost controls level of fuzz. It is quite easy to get a good sound out of this box as long as you have a good tone to start with. I give it 10 because I didn't have to mess with stuff to get the thing I wanted. Just keep in mind that despite the fact that it only does one thing, it does it very well.

I have a Tele going into a Deville 410 with my chain in between. I put the Octafuzz 1st because it sounds better through my Bad horsie if it is before it. My whole chain is Octafuzz->Bad Horsie->TS9->FD2->Uni-vibe->HK Rotosphere. The octave doesn't really resound on any pickup but the neck. It also sounds best when used with no boost dialed in on the pedal, but rather, a separate fuzz box like an FD2 or TS9. The actual sound is a great octave up that sounds almost buzz synth like. It is a very satisfying tone. Below the 9th fret, it is more of a buzzy harmonic overtone, but once you get to the 11th and 12th fret, it really just wails. Very Jimi, Very cool. Purple Haze is yours. Beautiful tone and very simple. Just keep in mind that it can be used to much. Be tasteful with it.

Built like a tank. I think it says like 16 gauge steel or something. Don't know much about it, but I don't have money for a backup, and doubt I would need it. It would break your foot before it broke.

Haven't needed it.

I read through a few reviews before posting mine, and was a little annoyed. It seemed like people were just buying this because it said Fulltone on it and then when it didn't solve every guitar problem they ever had, they were upset. The thing about effects is that they can't immediately give your sound a dimension that it didn't have before you plugged it in. Whether in terms of tone or skills, you can't expect to rule because you buy a Fulltone pedal. I bought this pedal when I wanted a new sound to go with my already good sounding style and setup. This pedal has enhanced my solos with a cool sound and I could not be happier with it. But bear in mind, the reason I like this pedal, is because I can live without it. I am after Jimi's tone and this pedal does it well. But you need a specific use in your head before you buy this pedal. I love this pedal and I would replace it because if it were stolen.

Fairly easy, two controls, volume and boost.

Can hardly hear the octave at first, but let it sustain and you get a good upper octave fuzz. Can seem like feedback at first, but its really the pedal working the magic.

This may sound cliched, but like Boss pedals, and the rest of the cast iron pedal manufacturers, this is a tank. Always bring spare batteries, tho.

You really dont need an octavia, unless you have a "need" for one (cough cough *Hendrix wannabe*....erhhmmm). BUT, master pinch harmonics, and you could save yourself about 200 bucks. More or less, a good pedal.