Fulltone Ultimate Octave

Pretty easy to use. Volumne, tone, and fuzz knobs. Fat/bright switch, and controls for octive up and turning the fuzz on. It came with a one page guide. It just basically tells you where to put it in your effects chain, and a couple of tips on knob settings.

It sounds great. I agree with other reviewers, who said you need to take the time to play with the controls. Some of the bad reviews that I have read, I think are from people not taking the time to experiment with it.

I have five guitars I use with this, an American Fender Strat with a Dimarzio Paf Pro (neck), Seymour Duncan Hot Rail (Middle), and SD Invader (bridge); Ibanez JS100 with Dimarzio Paf Joe and Mo'Joe; Kramer with SD Live Wire; Jackson with SD Jazz and JB; and an old Epiphone Genesis with Gibson pickups. The pedal sounds good with all of them. Even in split coil mode.

The amps I use are a Peavey JSX 212 Combo and a Fender Princeton Chorus. This pedal sounds good on both amps.

As far as complaints of it being noisey with the octave swithch off, I noticed it only has excess noise if used on a gain channel with the gain on the amp and the fuzz on the pedal turned up. You really need to turn one down, either the gain on the amp or, the fuzz on the pedal. If you do this there is no excess noise. I usually put the gain on my amps to 1 or, 2, and turn the fuzz on the pedal up if I want more fuzz. The volumne knob seems to do nothing once it is turned past 9 or, 10 o'clock position, but only on a gain channel.

On the clean channel on both of my amps, you can really get some crazy old school fuzz sounds. Kind of like the Stones/Hendrix styles. And all the controls, even the volumne work properly.

When I started playing with the octave switch I immediately thought Satriani. It sounds good but, it does drop off a bit before the ninth fret. The bright/fat switch is all right but, I usually leave it in the fat position. The tone knob is great, you can really dial in some good sounds with it.

I have a lot of effects pedals mostly MXR but, also Electro-Harmonix, Dunlop, and some old DOD pedals. The only one I think that can really affect the UO is my MXR Super Comp pedal. It can help tame the fuzz.

It is still too new to comment on this. I have only had it a few weeks. It seems to be made pretty well. The only concern may be the location of the fat/bright switch. It is kind of close to the octave up switch and it is only a small dp switch. You may have to be carful you don't break it off when activating the octave up switch.

I E-mailed Fulltone a couple of weeks ago because, I didn't have a warranty card in the box. I wanted to make sure I just needed to keep my receipt if I needed some warranty work if something happend to it. I still haven't gotton a reply from them, and they won't give you their phone number. It even says this on their website. So I gave them the lowest rating I could. I believe with the money we're spending on these pedals they could at least be helpful to their customers. Hopefully, I won't need any warranty work. I would hate to see how long that would take.

I like the pedal a lot. I tried this along with the Fulltone Octa-fuzz. Both are fine pedals but, this one seemed like it had more tone variations.

I also, tried the Fulltone GT-500, which is on my list for pedals to buy. As long as this one can hold up to normal use. They seem to be quality products.

Overall, I give it a low seven, and that is only because of the un-availibility of the customer service center, and the fact that the octave can't be used by itself. If not for this I would have given it a strong nine.

Piece of cake. Simple as can be. If you can't work it - you're a moron.
No patches to edit - just (3) three simple knobs. No manual. No BS.

Volume - Tone - Fuzz - Fat/Bright switch.
On/Off Button - Octave Up Button.

Easy to get Satriani's sound that he uses on a few different songs with this pedal. That's my main reason for getting it - once I got it - I couldn't stop busting it out on leads. The pedal just rocks! The fuzz is decent fuzz but I don't use a lot at all - maybe 1 on the scale. I let my amplifiers distortion power the fuzz part.

I'm using a Gibson Les Paul BFG --> Ultimate Octave --> Boss DS1 (Keely modded) --> Mesa/Boogie Mark IV head. The pedal is slightly noisy depending on how much distortion or on board fuzz you're using. Use a noise gate if necessary. The total effect sounds incredible. Nothing like it in my opinion.

So far so good. Rugged design.

Not sure you need a back up for this pedal.

Never dealt with them - must mean it's a good product.

I play rock, blues, metal, Jazz and instrumental rock mostly. This pedal shines all over depending on your distortion settings. Great match for me. I've been playing for over 15 years now. I have TONS of different pedals for different things - this one is the most fun yet. I usually play Ibanez guitars but my recent purchase of the Les Paul is making me think otherwise.

Great pedal - get one!

Not too difficult to use. But there are some problems: there is not much to dial in. The fuzz is full out, even with the dial set in on 1. The tone is usefull, and the volume speaks for itself. The fat switch works, but only because the thin option is terrible.

I played it for about 3 years and was satisfied; no more no less. Liked it a little better than the FT octafuzz. But as i mentioned before: this is a one track pony, well a two track pony, as it has also a fuzz. But: the preferred dial in of both effects are the same and that is not always what you want.
I'm a huge Jimi fan,also for his octavio sound.
Then I bought a Foxroxx Octron. And it blew the fultone away! Now you have an octave up and an octave down extra (awesome on it's own and also helps to take some of the thinness of the octave up). And you can dial in the mix between direct and effect sound. And the amount of octave up and down! See my review of the octron.
I play classic rock, semi-professional. Use old ptp Marshall amps, speakers and Fenders. Only boutique effects.

Had it broken down twice on me. Probably as I was struggeling with the bloody 69 fuzz, who needs opposite DC current.
OK, my fault. But had to wait for months before our musicshop got spares from Fulltone. Not very impressive.

See above

There is nothing wrong with this apparatus, but there is a better competitor on the market: the octron, made by Dave Fox of Foxroxx. It has the same price (even a little bit cheaper I believe).

The pedal consists of three knobs (volume, tone, fuzz), one toggle switch (fat/bright), and two on/off switches (fuzz, on/off and octave-up on/off, with the octave up only being available when the fuzz is engaged).

Simple? Not really. The volume, tone and fuzz knobs are so interactive, that adjustments to the tone or fuzz will necessitate adjustment of the volume to compensate. The pedal is VERY sensitive to slight tweaking, and so there's a good, long learning curve in finding the "right" settings.

Of course it's entirely subjective what these "right" settings are, not to mention dependent on other variables (guitar, pickups, amps, other effects...). However, for me, the following seems to work really well:

volume:
Set this to the desired level in relation to your volume level with the pedal in bypass mode. I set mine so that with the pedal engaged, my volume level is the same to when I'm playing clean. I use a Fulltone Fat-Boost in the effects loop of my amp to get a higher volume for leads.

Set the volume knob last, since settings of tone and fuzz knobs will dictate where it should be.

Tone:
In the "bright" setting, full counterclockwise to 3 o'clock.
In the "fat" setting, from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock.

Past 12 o'clock is to shrill for me no matter what I do with the other controls.

Fuzz:
To taste. Past 11 o'clock, it's really, really fuzzy. Not much difference between 12 o'clock and full clockwise really. My preference varies but it's usually set around 9 o'clock, sometimes higher if needed. In a gigging situations with my amp half-cranked or more, I get incredible feedback with this pedal with the fuzz set between 9 and 11 o'clock.

When engaging the octave-up effect, I use my neck pick-up and roll the tone knob on my guitar all the way down. This seems to produce the clearest, most ringing octave-tones...particularly if I roll the volume back on my guitar too. I don't adjust the controls on the pedal when switching the octave-up feature on and off.

I usually leave the "fat/bright" switch in the "fat" position. When I was borrowing a friend's strat (I usually play a Les Paul), I found I liked the "bright" position better.

The manual could have given some starting points (sample settings) and explained a thing or two about interactivity between guitar, guitar knob settings, and the pedal's performance, but it offered basically no assistance. Perhaps it's that way by design to encourage experimentation, as an earlier reviewer suggested.

I'm basically a bluesy player with a fondness for psychedelia. My setup:

Les Paul into an Ernie Ball volume pedal with a line out to a tuner > Guyatone analog phaser > Electro-Harmonix Tube Zipper > Fulltone Ultimate Octave > Marshall 60 watt combo amp with a Fulltone Fat-Boost in the series effects loop, and two digital delays (one short, one long) in the parallel effects loop.

I love the Fulltone Ultimate Octave pedal. It snarls, sizzles and sputters. It sounds like hot lava. It produces incredible feedback. It's AWESOME just as a fuzz pedal. The octave-up feature is an incredible bonus which can produce the "Purple Haze" and "Who Knows" sound perfectly. It can also produce ring modulator like sounds, and with a lot of fuzz it can get pretty shrill and hairy.

I'm giving a 9 out of 10 here only because there is a very noticeable hum present whenever the pedal is on in the "fuzz only" mode (it's dead silent in the "octave-up mode"). The hum is present even when my guitar volume and/or volume pedal volume are rolled all the way back. I compensate by switching the pedal off between songs. This is a quibble really. The pedal sounds absolutely great.

It's built like a tank. I always gig without a back-up. I couldn't afford to have a back-up.

I've played 2-4 gigs a month for 2 years with it and it hasn't acted up once.

I've had no need to deal with customer support from the manufacturer.

I've played guitar for 22 years. I currently play in a funk band with a heavy emphasis on acid-rock guitar rather than horns. Think of Funkadelic during the period when Eddie Hazel had a large influence on their sound (69 thru the mid 70's). The curious can see some Youtube clips linked here:

http://www.myspace.com/thecsc

The Fulltone Ultimate Octave is probably my favorite single piece of gear that I own. It gives me the fuzz/distortion tone I've wanted since I was a teenager listening to Hendrix and wondering why I couldn't get my solid state amp to distort that way. It's my primary distortion/overdrive effect.

It was expensive, but in my opinion it's well worth the money spent.

Stander 3 knob volume/tone/fuzz. 2 foot swicht fuzz/octave.1 toggel swicht fat/bright.I think all octave pedals are for advance players. If you just started playing this pedal would be difficult use becouse you need strong knowleged of scales and how the sound works for it to be effective.But, if you gone around the block and back this pedal very easy use.

SET/UP:tele/335>Fulltone Soulbender>HBE Germania(treble booster)>Ultimat Octave>Cry Baby>MI Audio Crunch Box>MI Audio Blues Pro>Volume pedal>65' Super Reverb RI.

(I only use the pedal with the fat on the bright scoops the mids and I do not like that)

I'll start with the Fuzz. I think it sound's like a solid state amp with every knob turn up.It has more volume than it needs. I think they could of taper it off some.But, the sound is smoother and more usefull than a Big Muff. Not as opean sounding as the Soulbender so there is some contrace between the two( a good thing).I can use the Soulbender and the Germania to drive or add treble to the Ultimate Octave.I can also use the Ultimate octave to drive the Blues Pro and the Crunch Box.Sounds good with the Cry Baby too.

The Octave part on this pedal is like a Dan Armstong Green Ringer. It has more ring modulater to it than the Tycobrahe Octavia.It starts to adding the upper octave around the 9th or 10th fret.It nails the JIMI TONE with the Cry Baby !You can bring it out more with a treble booster or a overdrive/distortion box after it.

Over all I think this pedal is a use full tool.There is some change to the octave when the fuzz or tone knob is moved around .But, the interaction with other pedals is a real pluse.

I have had no problems with my soulbender .I don't see having any with the Ultimate Octave.

N/A

I have been looking at octave/fuzz pedals for a year.Now I'm happy with what I got.Works great in my Blues/Rock band.

really sweet!!, it's small, good looking, 3 knobs, 2 switches, 1 togle, great overall , easey,just try everything out , try to be your self , manual good

it's fantastic, i've got my self a roctron purple haze( wich is great for heavey metal,rock) , but this just is the best overall, quality,sound,and it's a hell of alot simpler to use

hasen't let me down yet, and if it does( nothing lasts forever) , hey i'll get another one!!!!!!!!

great, 100% satisfied, a very friendly

overall, it's a cool pedal to own, it's built to last, signed in the back, simple to use, it colors your sound, but doesn't hide the real tone ( you!) good lookin, try one , buy one

Not many knobs to figure out but its difficult to get a useable sound.Its very picky about placement in a chain,amps,etc

im using this with a couple different guitars,carvin and gibsons with some other pedals into either a framus or hughes and kettner.I dont like the pedal.It always sounds harsh to me and not in a good way.I have a big muff a little big muff and a blue box I like all of those much more than the fulltone.The octave setting sounds very video game like but not in a fun way like the blue box. With the tone below half way its alright anything after that I dont see how anyone could use it unless they had a very dark guitar and amp.

My first impression was that it was built very well but in the process of letting someone try it to buy it from me the toggle switch broke.It felt stiff and it just broke.The battery desing is absolutely retarted.You have to remove the bottom panel to chage it and the wire is kind of short.If you are not carefull it could easily rip out the power wires.Maybe I got one with a bad switch so I wont rate it too low but the battery thing is just dumb.

Waiting on a reponse about the toggle

Some people seem to really like this thing but not me.I read up on it for a while then finnaly bought it online because no one carries them in my area.Dumb move because now im stuck with it.I dont see how or why it is so expensive my 70$ big muff does everything this can aside from the octavia and I find its tone very useable.This thing gets completely lost before distortion whereas the muff adds a nice low wall of sound.

This pedal is my third fuzz. Fuzz #1 is the Prescription Electronics Experience pedal. Fuzz #2 is the Zvex Fuzz Factory. The Ultimate octave is easy to get a sound out of, if you like fuzz. I find the tone control and Bright/Fat switch very useful for dialing in many different types of fuzz tone. I really liked the Prescription experience pedal's ability to switch between regular fuzz and Octavia, and that set up is what I really liked about the Fulltone.

I've used this pedal live with a Fender blues jr. amp and it sounds very sweet. It is a fuzz, so on regular fuzz mode it is a bit noisy, but I have a volume pedal and a volume control on my guitar so there is no excuse for me if somebody says I'm noisy on stage between songs. The octavia has a built in noise reduction circuit.I find that dialing in a nice fuzz tone is a matter of understanding how it works with an electric guitar. One way of figuring it out is to start with a guitar an amp and a fuzz pedal. Try it with a completly clean amp sound first, and try the fuzz knob at a lower setting. Use your guitar's volume control to vary your attack. Next try it with a more overdriven amp sound, not dimed- just kind of medium gain. This setting is great for the octavia sound, make sure to alter your guitar's volume control and vary your attack, try hitting hard and soft and everything in between. Where the octave really jumps out is when you're playing notes around the ninth fret and up. The more you roll your guitar volume back, the more pronounced the octave will be. You should be able to get the "satisfaction" fuzz sound with this pedal, as well as "purple haze". After you get the feel of the pedal, start adding your other effects to the chain and see what happens.

Fulltone pedals are the best built pedals around. Mike Fuller has been repairing pedals for a long time and you can tell that he has designed his pedals to anticipate heavy gigging and any kind of abuse. Yes I would gig without a backup.

I haven't had to use the company's repair dept. but I have heard a lot of positives from trusted individuals.

I play roots rock and use a lot of ambient textures with fuzz, tremolo, delay etc. I have been playing for 25 years, but I am still learning a lot every day. I have a carl martin comp/limiter, a voodoo labs 1st version tremolo, a Top hat wonderboy drive pedal, a Danecho, and an Ernie ball vol. pedal on my board. I went through a couple of fuzzes to get to this one, My P.E experience sounded great but I had a situation where it sometimes wouldn't switch back and forth between modes. The Fuzz factory sounds great, but it lacks a really convincing octavia sound, and I like to switch from reg fuzz to octavia and back, so this pedal really adressed those issues. As usual, I love Harmony Central's gear review pages and I'll be using this resource heavily when I start shopping for a nice analog delay.

It took me some time trying different placements in the effects chain and combinations with other effects before I found the sounds that I liked and could use. The controls are very sensitive and can make big differences from one setting to the next.

This is a Fuzz/Octave pedal and if you don?t like over the top FUZZ tone you should stay clear of this pedal. It does the Hendrix Thing very well but when used in combination with other pedals it can also do other things as well My Effects chain is as follows: Les Paul, Stratocaster or Telecaster ? E.B. Volume Pedal / Vox Wah with all Fulltone parts / Deja 2 / Ultimate Octave / VooDoo Lab Tremolo / VooDoo Lab Analog Chorus / Line 6 DL4 into a Fender Hot Rod Deville. I normally keep all 3 pots around the 10 to 12 O?clock position the switch in the fat position it is then feed to the Fulldrive Overdrive which adds more bottom end to the tone. This combination can give my Telecaster Tony Iomi?s War Pigs tone.

Have never hasd a reliability issue with this or any Fulltone pedal. This one is 6 years old.

Great service although you will more than likely never need it. My e-mails have always been answered.

A FUZZ with a capital F if you don't remember the 70s or you don't like tones from that period you may not like this pedal. But if you long for tones of a day gone bye this may be your ticket.

Not to ease to use! to find the right sound between the fuzz and octav features is a hassle.

To much fuzz to begin with. Why not make it less fuzzy in the low range. Fuzz only is very noisy and not so good to my ears. That should not be a problem to fix at the factory you might think!? But you sound like hendrix when you turn on the octavia.

good

Don't know

Pretty good but I should rather have bought the Fulltone octafuzz instead. Less fuzz and more guitarsound left!