will someone double check this for me? octavia vero i just whipped up.

[ode2no1]

this would be with the switch that takes the octave out of the circuit. thanks guys.

[pinkjimiphoton]

you need a cut on row h between the input cap and r6.....
other than that, looks good to me, i believe it matches your schematic, nice layout!
i may try it out even.

but don't trust me yet, wait for someone with a better set of eyes.

[ode2no1]

There is actually a cut under r5...I should make that easier to see. Anyway sweet! Not that this is a super complex circuit, but it's the highest parts count schematic I've ever transposed to vero. I'm excited to get going on this...especially since I just returned the octafuzz I had for a few days.

[pinkjimiphoton]

cool! my only suggestion is to move the cut under r 5 to the 5th hole in that rail, so you don't miss it.
but other than that, looks good to go bro, nice layout!!

[Jazznoise]

Make both pots 10K, that way with the gain down you can do the Sitari-type Jawari sounds aswell as octave fuzz.

I find this a weird pedal. The gain seems abit high in mine, but interestingly if I roll the volume and tone off with the gain up abit I can get a suboctave and an octave up with very little fundamental - it's interesting! I swapped the polarity of the transistors in mine, though, and used 2n5087's and 2n5088's.

I never did the diode switch mod. Pinkjimi, have you any opinions on it?

[ode2no1]

To be honest, the only reason I'm even adding the switch is because I'm going to build it into an old electro harmonix baseballs enclosure that I've had for years. It already has a switch built into it, so might as well. I bought a fulltone octafuzz and I liked it except for the splatty nature of the fuzz, but with the pre gain knob I'm sure I'll find more use for it. Plus, this costs 1/3rd of the price to build. And the reason for putting the cut under that resistor was purely for simplicity's sake as far as cutting traces, but I might as well move it over so that others can use the layout if they want and have it be noticeable. I'll post the final layout soon.

[pinkjimiphoton]

with the switch added, you get a very nice overdrive, pretty brown sounding. to me, it's a worthy addition.

[ode2no1]

well, the good news is it works. the bad news is that it sounds awful. i haven't checked voltages yet...but it's super misbiased. it'll probably actually do what i need. i just wanted a bit of octave and with the gain down it'll pass for that running into my distortion pedals, but it definitely doesn't sound good on it's own.

[pinkjimiphoton]

it may be fine. octave ups are no good for anything but single notes, and usually only above the 12th fret with the tone knob down on the neck pup.
they're a particularly grating, nasty earwiggy kinda distortion.

if ya want a REAL nice octave up, google up gus smalley's octave pedal, the octave up sick box...

that's probably the best sounding of all the octave ups i've tried.

pm dave (lucifer's trip) i bet he'll have some good recs on what gains to shoot for.

[ode2no1]

ok, i don't know how or why, but it's working now haha. i only have a little vibro champ xd at home though so i won't know what it really sounds like until i get to my rehearsal space tomorrow or sunday. one note, the straight fuzz seems to sound a little better as is, but if you flip Q1 (which apparently is common?) then you don't get the whole oversaturated ducking/swell effect. i'm mostly just going to use it for the octave with the boost knob set almost all the way down, but i'd like the option of having it be a fuzz also and the ducking/swelling is annoying. i think the octafuzz is set up with Q1 flipped too cause the straight fuzz sound is reminiscent of what i'm getting now...where individual notes are fat and it sounds like it's biased a little hot. ugh, that was frustrating. i desoldered all three transistors and put sockets in, which is fine i guess, but i wanted everything to be soldered in. i guess i'll just put a dab of hot glue on each of the transistors.

[Jazznoise]

I like octaves for rhythm  Aint nobody heard "Now I Wanna Be Yr Dog"? Lots of Stooges stuff has a strong Octave fuzz thing to it. Very full sounding, to me at least.

Post your voltages, I found mine gated very hard when my Q3 voltages were wrong - simply running a scribe through the jacks helped with that! No need to glue them in, sockets hold pretty well - I've taken my Octavia to a few shows and had no hiccups. Well, at least none that were the Octavia's fault! 

[ode2no1]

ok so i had a bad 1k pot. phew! i was wondering what the hell was going on. anyway here are my voltages with the transistor oriented the way it is in the layout:


power supply 9.76v

q1
e 4.49
b 2.93
c 2.96

q2
e 2.46
b 2.96
c 9.76

q3
e 1.81
b 2.45
c 5.17

[pinkjimiphoton]

is it just me, or does q1 seem like the voltages are backwards from what i'd expect?

i've found sometimes transistors seem to work better rotated 180 degrees from what i'd expected to be right. weird!