Voodoo Lab Proctavia

Pretty simple pedal; two controls. one for volume and one for boost. the real tone sculpting will come from the latter knob, however. volume is pretty straightforward.

I imagine this will be seen as a fairly polarizing pedal (see review below me as proof) in terms of how well lauded it is. I find it to be a wicked cool offering from VL. it absolutely nails the old octave sounds from band of gypsys era hendrix. if that's the sound you're looking for, then YOU HAVE TO PUT IT BEFORE ALL OTHER DIRT BOXES!!! otherwise it doesn't sound quite like it's meant to. it's the first pedal in my chain. it goes strat/tele > proctavia > tubescreamer > wah > tubescreamer > little big muff > nano small stone > carl martin delay > fender blues deluxe. this thing is really responsive to your pick attack, and really kills it above the 12th fret on your neck pickup. that's the best place to use it. it does the octave up tone, but can also get you a nice fat fuzz sound depending on how you saturate the boost.

a neat trick was to actually max out the boost so i get the fuzzy sound, but by rolling back the guitar volume it really brought out the octave up sound; you can get both tones at the roll of a volume knob.

i also bought the voodoo lab power supply (long after the proctavia, mind you), and this makes a really nice compliment to the pedal. with the isolated outputs of the PP2, you can run the proctavia on a sagged output (bringing the voltage from 9v down to 4v) and this REALLY brings out the broken/octave up tone. i used to just run it with a battery, and noticed it always sounded best right before the battery died; that's where i've got the pedal set now all the time thanks to the power supply. i'm not one for giving 10s (is any pedal really 'perfect'?), and i won't here because i'm only getting the most optimal tone (consistently, mind you) now that i have the power supply also.

i said this thing is probably polarizing because people don't set it up in their rig properly, don't use a proper power supply for it, or were just expecting to get a different sound out of this pedal (which would seem odd as it is pretty much exactly what it's advertised to be)

seems pretty solidly built. have not had any troubles using this thing live before, but i haven't really given it a serious gigging workout. this score is tentative because I haven't run into any issues. mind you, not running into issues would seem to be an indicator of this pedal having good build quality

i sent one email not even regarding this pedal to voodoo lab, and they were very helpful. so they're getting good points here for timeliness and effectiveness of response

i do mostly blues based music with some psychedelic touches in there, and this pedal is a lot of fun. i've been playing for 8 years and would like to think that i've picked up a thing or two in my brief playing time thus far; this is just a quality sounding pedal. reading reviews below, i shook my head in sadness at the ignorance of people. dismissing this thing as useless because it doesn't work with their power supply. for god's sake just buy a battery if you don't have a properly isolating power supply!!

if you're looking for hendrix-esque tones from band of gypsys era, then you're gonna love this pedal. otherwise, i might suggest looking elsewhere for a fuzz thing.

also, totally aside, this thing sounds f'n spectacular when coupled with an octave down effect! super high and low pitch simultaneously! just be sure to run the octave down behind this pedal

Even if you haven't used an Octavia before it's easy.

Exact copy of a copy of a Tychobrahe copy. This pedal sounds like a tychobrahe that is on it's last breath maybe. Not an exact copy, overhyped and overpriced, but will work well for a kid or rookie player after a cheap octave up thing like Jimi Hendrix...yawn.

You can depend on this as much as any cheap imatation of a Tychobrahe.

Wouldn't waste my time dealing with people advertising a piece of crap pedal as an "Exact copy" of a Tychobrahe sound co. Octavia!

For how often the average guy will use this pedal it might be worth getting one for $20, or you can maybe get a job save some money and hear what a Real Tychobrahe sounds like and come on a review board and slam guys cheaply copying it. Next.

Two knobs. Volume and boost. Couldn't get much easier than that.

Right now my setup constists of this: Fender American Standard Stratocaster/Gibson Les Paul Standard/Epiphone Sheraton -> Proctavia -> Fulltone Full-Drive 2 -> Fender Super Reverb. I started digging the whole octave up effect after hearing Hendrix use it on Who Knows from the Band Of Gypsys album. I never cared about it to the point of going out and buying something to recreate that sound until I saw this on e-bay for pretty cheap. I guess it was somewhat of an impulse buy but I got it and I'm happy with it. If you get it, take it out of the box, and plug just straight into an amp you might be a little disappointed. It will sound like crap. If you run guitar -> overdrive -> Proctavia it will sound like crap and suck up every bit of your tone. Now if you run guitar -> PROCTAVIA -> overdrive, the unit will really shine. Replicates those Hendrix tones in a pretty authentic manner. The one key to it though (if you are looking for the good octave up effect) is to keep the Boost setting almost totally down, and adjust the volume accordingly. The higher up you set the boost, the less definition there is in the octave up effect. Also I've gotten the best results from this using it with my Strat on the neck pickup...go figure.

Seems pretty sturdy to me. I'd gig without a back up either way though because it's not really a necessary effect. It's more along the lines of just something cool to break out once or twice here and there. Definitely not something that can be used in every tune. Or even every other tune for that matter.

Haven't dealt with them and hopefully won't need to.

I've been playing since I was 11 (I'm 24) and play almost any style but right now I'm mainly doing blues and jazz and like I said earlier, this pedal is great for using here and there. Can't use it much, but when you DO use it, it gets the job done. If this were stolen from me, I would probably purchase another one if I could find the same deal that I got for this one. Even at full price though I would recommend this to anyone looking for that unique octave up/crazy ring modulation sound.

Just a note - all those people complaining that the Proctavia can't be daisy-chained with a load of other pedals off any cheap "ordinary" power supply need to do some research before parading their lack of knowledge publicly. The Proctavia's power supply requirement is exactly the same as the pedal (Tychobrahe Octavio)it's a copy of.

The circuit is a copy/re-creation of a 60s effect that used the early transistor designs which were based on germanium rather than silicon (even now, for some jobs germanium just happens to sound better/warmer). Germanium tranistors are basically "backwards" regarding earth compared to silicon transistors (which are used in most pedals).

If you daisy-chain the proctavia with a silicon-based pedal all kinds of power shorts/smoke will occur. The same thing would happen if you could get hold of the original Tychobrahe or an original (or even current Dunlop) Fuzz Face, which is also germanium based.

To use a power supply this pedal must not connect to the earth used by the silicon stuff - it needs it's own seperate supply. Voodoo Lab probably suggest using their pedal power because it can provide power to pedals while leaving them electronically isolated from each other. One result is no earth-loops (=much less hum), the other is that it can power silicon and germanium-based stuff at the same time.

Voodoo Lab aren't trying to rip you off, nor have they designed a pedal that can only use their power supply. That's how the originals were, and it's a by-product of a circuit based around germanium.

Anyway, the Proctavia works fine on batteries (in fact probably better than using any power supply), and a battery lasts for ages in these.

If you'd get rid of a really nice effect (one of the best of it's type) because you might have to put a battery in it once every couple of months or so then that's your loss. Just don't blame the manufacturer if you went and bought something without bothering to find out about how it works and what it does.

You need to work at it to get a good sound. Is it easy to use? No. Hence the 5. Also need to consider where in the pedal chain it goes. It will sound different in different chain positions.

Having heard pretty nuch every octave-up FX box there is, this one sounds as good as anything out there. More versatile than the much less expensive and cheaply built Danelectro French Toast, which has just about one pretty cool setting that works. I use the Proctavia with an AC-30. Sounds good. Nails Hendrix, KWS "Blue on Black", Storyville "Bitter Rain", etc.

No backup required.

Haven't had trouble.

Two knobs....easy

Pretty quiet. This must be used before an overdrive or fuzz, otherwise it sounds awful. But it's sounds very good with my Keeley Fuzz Head.

Seems solid

THIS IS A POSITIVE GROUNDED PEDAL AND WILL NOT WORK WITH MOST POWER SUPPLIES. Because of this, it would not work with my MPS PedalPad Power Pad or my Dunlop DC Brick. They do not mention this anywhere on their website. When I emailed them to find out why it wouldn't work, they told me to buy their power supply. This is total BS!

What a scam! Buy this pedal and you have to buy their power supply. eBay time.

I suggest first using the suggested settings provided by VoodooLab. Then after you understand it, tweak it for yourself. Very easy to use after you understand it. It is not like any other pedal.

This is truly THTA sound, The solo form " WHO KNOWS " tone is very accesible with this pedal. I STRONGLY recommend you put it before any other overdrive/fuzz/distortion pedals. If you don't, the beauty of this pedal will be missed. Put it before them and you will experience the joy of having the OCTAVIA!!!!!!!

Have only had it for a few days, but I know they are a great company!!

When you call Voodoolab, you talk to John Aycock...to sum it up....
This guy GETS IT!!!!!!!

Me and my guys play blues based funk and rock. If you have herad of Ronnir Baker Brooks, Bernard Allison, and Anthony Gomes then you will have a good I dea of what we do. I did not tell my guys I got the Proctavia, I just kicked it in on a solo, and they really liked it. I recommend this pedal.

Easy to use, two knobs, one footswitch, you don't even need a manual.

You need to put this in front of your distortion boxes, oterwise it'll sound like crap! Used alone, it'll sound like your speakers are blown! But in front of your dirt boxes it adds an awesome Hendrix like octave effect. This pedal is more of an accent pedal than a full sound. I've found it usefull for Hendrix, 70's, fuzz type of tones, thats all it's goog for. If thats the sound you want this is a great pedal, if not you'll hate it. I'll rate it a eight for those specific tones mentioned.

This is my first voodoo lab, they've been around for a while and have a good reputation, seems tough built to me.

Never needed them

I play Priest to Jimi, to blues. As I said before this is good as an accent pedal and needs to go in front of you dirt boxes, even if you use a dirt box with an over drive this needs to go before the overdrive. I haven't tried other fuzz, octave boxes, but this seems to capture that 70's fuzz, octave sound to the top!

An octavia is not easy to use, and I don't recommend it to beginners. But once you know how to play with it, the sound is very cool

I use a fender strat and a yamaha dg 60 112. You can easily get Hendrix's tone with that pedal and it must be aweomse with a tube amp. The proctavia really adds a nice touch to a solo especially with long sustains.

I bought mine from a guy who bought it from a guy so I suppose they are strong. I would bring it on stage with no problem

If you're a fan of jimi, then get an octavia. At 1st, I wanted the roger mayer octavia but the price is so high so I went with the proctavia. The voodoo lab is the same thing as the Mayer's octavia. The sound samples on voodoo lab's web site really sucks and doesn't do justice to this pedal. Go buy it now ! You can't go wrong

just a note to anyone using octavia type pedals. they were designed for use with marshal amps. the marshal's take all the top end of these things....if your using a fender twin type thing or an ac30, octavia pedals are gonna rip your head off. but roger mayer has a new one with a tone knob now.....so everythings gonna be ooooo..kkkk.