Shoctave Harmonizer Review

[jmusser]

I wanted to do a DIY analog down octave pedal. After I heard RDVs sample of it, I thought I'd get me a fist full of 2N5089s and have at it. It fired up right off, so thet means from now on, I'll have to have Ron Rico and Coke around for inspiration! :lol: I thought it tracked very well, especially for an analog pedal. I played it on the neck pic up, and the guitar's tone controls rolled off, and it did a great job. I even got by with playing A position (3 string) chords, if I got off of them before the "octave boiling" started. Of course, it's only fair with chords, and you have to strum lightly, but it actually does sound like a chord. My Arion MOC-1 (which I brag about all the time) will not even attempt anything like chords. It's single string only. If you set the reverb up as high as it will go on your amp, you can get some pretty close approximations of the the big ship talking to the guys on the keyboard on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", on the E string. I don't like the sound much on the bridge pic up, and with the guitar's tone controls up. It's still octave down, but it's whimpy. Right now it's the stock version without any mods. I may try some, but it sounds and tracks really good just the way it is. The octave does get a little "confused" at time on a few notes, but I'd say it tracks well basically 99% of the time. Very nice circuit Mr. Davisson!

[ryanscissorhands]

Are any sound clips in the works?

[jmusser]

Ryan, if you go to RDVs site, he has the sound sample I heard, and it's basically like what I have now. If for some reason you can't get to it, let me know your E Mail, and I'll send it to you. While you're there, treat yourself to his Super Fuzz and Ugly Face samples!

[Paul Marossy]

I like mine!  

[jmusser]

I was just messing around with it a little bit ago (I'm on vacation), and that bass E is awesome. It has a major growling fuzz going on there. This effect for me, will nail the "Spirit in the Sky" sound, especially since that's only a single string riff anyway. Mine has that heavy of a fuzz. This is something that's a lot of fun to mess with, especially if you don't have a bass.

[Marcos - Munky]

Which layout did you used?

[Paul Marossy]

I built mine on perf, and it's laid out almost like the schematic.

[RDV]

My site's working, but a couple of the samples won't work cause the other server I've been using is down at the moment. I don't know what's happened there but should find out by Friday.

Here's the link to my samples page.

RDV