What does the transformer do in octave effects?

[smashinator]

Hey there,

I'm looking at the Jawari (kinda octave-y) and the octavia and I notice they both use diodes (facing the same direction) on the primary leads with the center-tap grounded, and send the guitar signal in on the secondary leads.

I sort of get what the diodes are doing (two pulses instead of one pulse/one dip = double frequency).  I have a very, very small knowlege of how transformers work, however.

1. What is the transformer doing?

2. How is it doing that? (the answer to #1 might answer this one too...  I'm not sure)

3. If it's a 1:1 transformer, would the circuit still work if the transformer connection was reversed?  Why/why not?

I'm looking at the schematics here:
http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folkurban/fuzz/snippets.html#jawari

and  here:

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/toctsc.gif

[bwanasonic]

Check for *octavia* here:

http://www.geofex.com/effxfaq/distn101.htm

Kerry M

[smashinator]

Thanks for the link.  I guess I needed it to pound the "how does full-wave rectification work?" question into my head.

So, I went and looked up full wave rectification.  If anyone else wants it, there's a pretty good explanation (that covers everthing I asked above, I believe) here:

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_3/4.html

I am now slightly smarter than I was before.