Octaver pedal shootout

Posted 2007-02-22 in Effects by Johann.

In this shootout, I will compare five octaver pedals.

Danelectro French Toast

The French Toast is a copy of the Foxx Tone Machine. At 35 €, it’s the cheapest of the bunch. It’s not true bypass obviously.

The French Toast doesn’t really do low gain. At higher gains, there is a nice rubbery-ness that reminds me of “Spirit in the Sky.” At full gain, it’s an insane screaming wall of fuzz.

Dice Works Astronimus

The Astronimus is sold by the builder on eBay. The seller says it is a direct clone of one of the Octavia pedals Roger Mayer made for Jimi Hendrix. Like Mayer’s original, it uses two 9 V batteries.

The Astronimus does chords much better than the other effects. It also can be extremely loud. At lower gains, it is very sweet and full. At higher gains, it still stays dynamic.

Atmos prototype

The Atmos is a variant of the Dan Armstrong Green Ringer with an LED clipping frontend.

Like the original Green Ringer, it doesn’t have much sustain. Cranking the gain/volume control helps to some extent.

Burford Electronics Mosquito

The Mosquito is sold on the builder’s website and on eBay. The Mosquito has a two-way switch for “Mosquito or Swarm” and an output control labeled “attack.”

On the “Mosquito” setting, it strangely reminds me of my squarer prototype. The “Swarm” setting lacks sustain, but is cool for it’s insanity value. The maximum output volume is below unity gain.

Studio Electronics Helium

The Helium has a couple of extra switches – that don’t do much in reality. The “mix” potentiometer is nice though.

The basic character is rather bright. There also is a lot of gain available.

Sound clips

• Clean sound: MP3 400 KB, Ogg Vorbis 240 KB
• French Toast low gain, then near full gain: MP3 4.6 MB, Ogg Vorbis 2.8 MB
• Astronimus: MP3 2.3 MB, Ogg Vorbis 1.3 MB
• Atmos, first low gain, then cranked: MP3 2.3 MB, Ogg Vorbis 1.4 MB
• Mosquito, first “Mosquito,” then “Swarm:” MP3 5.0 MB, Ogg Vorbis 3.0 MB
• Helium: MP3 2.3 MB, Ogg Vorbis 1.3 MB

All soundclips were recorded from an Ibanez 2027XVV 7-string through the pedal into a Boss VF-1 effects processor that did amp and cabinet simulation, some delay and some reverb.

Conclusion

For the money, the French Toast can’t be beat. The Mosquito is also a nice choice at around 90 € but not always available (and needs a boost). The Helium isn’t all that exciting but slightly more flexible than the others (around 200 €). The Astronimus (around 150 €) is a different sound that works well slamming an amplifier.

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