Chicago Iron Octavian vs. a real Tychobrae Octavia

[hairyandy]

Has anyone A/B'd these?  I just did last week while I was at a friend's studio in London.  He had one of each and it was no contest.  The Chicago Iron didn't even come close.  It sounds kinda like a not-so-good Si FF with a half-hearted attempt to add an octave effect.  The real deal Tychobrae was AMAZING!  It had a nice squishy sag to the fuzz and the octave effect was super pronounced, even with the bridge pickup.  When you backed off the guitar volume, the fuzz and sustain cleaned up a bit but the octave was still real nice, very Green Ringer-ish.

I was really disappointed with the CI Octavian.  For all of the trouble that they went through to cop the enclosure look, I would've thought that they could get it to sound more like the original.  Maybe this isn't a good one and there are some that are better?  Does anyone have one and like it?

My friend disliked it so much when A/B'd with his real one that he gave it to me to try and make it more like the real Tycho.  Does anyone have any ideas on where to start?  Maybe swap out the trannys and diodes?  I'm not really sure and I'm hesitant to carve up an expensive boutique pedal, but he really wants me to try and he'll never use it as-is.  I haven't even looked inside it yet..

:?

Thanks,

[cd]

Does anyone have any ideas on where to start?

The obvious answer is, take a look at all the pictures, notes, measurements of voltage/inductance/capacitance, etc. you made of the REAL Tycobrahe Octavia.  Wait a minute... you DID pick apart the original, right???

You've got the real thing and a pretender - see what's different between the two and make the appropriate changes.  What's in the CI version (pics, notes, measurements, etc.)?

[hairyandy]

Unfortunately I didn't (wasn't allowed to ) bring the real one back from England, just the Chicago Iron copy.

[puretube]

Hi Andy: late, but there...

{EDIT]: Actually, I don`t know if there`s a connection between "Chicago" and "Warwick",
but the schemo above is an interesting, different approach...