Octavia

[u1061810]

Hey all,
    I was just wondering which octave pedal people thought was better,the Tycobrahe or the Octavia by Roger Mayer. I know this is a matter of taste, but I built the Tyco and I wasn't completely satisfied with it.So is the Octavia a better sounding pedal than the Tyco, and worth building?

                                              Thanks for any comments on this.

[petemoore]

I like the Tycho, I leave a Fuzz on it too.
 I matched diodes and I'm using a Ge...
 I built the RM Oct., it's pretty cool too.
 I also use SOU, and OUSB [Thanks to Gus Smalley], the Neoctavia is quite nice...all different.
 The SOU Works good with a boost or fuzz on.
 The OUSB, does...sick stuff and is quite adjustable.
 The Neoctavia has a pronounced octave sound by itself...
 They all work good IMO, and have many tones....especially if another circuit is used to blast the input a little.  
 Some experimentation may be necessary to find the octave sound that works right for you.

[Greg]

I can't comment on the Mayer but I built the Tych years ago and it's a little quirky but I like it. The key I"ve found is to switch to the neck pickup and roll the guitars volume knob back a bit and you really hear the octave. I also leave the "drive" knob or whatever it's called nearly off. I've also built the Foxx tone Machine and it's a little less work to get the octave effect with it but I put it in a bigger box than the Tych so I prefer the Tych for it's smaller footprint.
FWIW,
Greg

[wui223]

How bout the audio transformer used in the Octavia? i couldnt buy one at my area, so any alternative?

[octafish]

An alternative to the transformer is to build the Roger Mayer Octavia. No clunky transformer, and reputedly the actual Hendrix pedal. I prefered it and don't understand why all the DIYers build the tycho. Actually what I prefered was a modded octavia. Just remove all the bits before the phase splitter and stick a fuzz face(or your prefered fuzz) in there. Instant custom cookbook pedal!

[octafish]

Well, on second thought it is cool to have a pedal named after a Danish astronomer.

[wui223]

does anyone has the sound sample for RG. Octavia?
does it sound close to Jimi Hendrix's octavia?
Is there any replacement for MPSA13 ?

[u1061810]

I don't where to find the sound clip, but you can find that transistor at Mouser.

[petemoore]

MPSA Darlington transistor.
 take two high gain transistors and Darlington'ize' them. Check out ROG's Bazz Fuss schemantexts.
 Running a boost or Fuzz before, or Fuzz after may open up some new Octave territory you like to hang out in.

[petemoore]

I'm pretty sure I built exactly two of these, the second recieving Matched diodes, Ge transistor, and maybe some other slight mod like high end rolloff...
 I find it's indespensible for my getting the PH, and FL type sounds. Takes a FF also to do it with most of the 'content' I want without too much unwanted content, using the vol control shifts the frequency response...does 'all that' quite well indeed...for me, with what I'm usin'.
 Very cool once you get used to trying some of the 'experimental' sounds that can sound dissonant or obtrusive [obtrusive is cool in the right places]...
 With the b and e strings struck and open, running my finger down the neck on the low E ... I was doing the 'perfect alien landing'...a barrel of fun like that is indespensible.
 Could be 'something' is why the pedal isn't quite doing it for you..it's interactive and finicky...

[RedHouse]

My 2¢ worth, having built both.

As for me the Tyco was too rough aound the edges, and I didn't like the Fuzz part of it but the RM Octavia got much closer to the sound I was looking for (Band Of Gypsys).

After building them I did some tinkering (surprise) and found I really prefered to drive the octavia part of the circuit with a real Fuzz Face circuit and then I got exactly what I wanted with Brett's "Miss Piggy" replacing the AxisFuzz front end of the Octavia.

I also noted that setting the maximun fuzz on the fuzz ctrl doesn't give (me) the best effect, turning down the fuzz ctrl a bit, oh say like 5% or so then you can really start to hear the octave effect, and it also depends where you play on the fretboard, on my Strat it was like up around the 8-12th frets and was most noticable on the D,G,B strings.

If you build an RM Octaivia and set it kinda like I described, then listen to Band Of Gypsys "Who Knows", the part right after Buddy Miles does his scat thing when Jimi comes noodling back in, he has his octavia on and gives 3 or 4 minutes of tasty licks using it, that is the sound I always relate to the Octavia.

On the other hand for more modern guitar players, the Tyco might come into it's own now the way bands sound these days. But I wonder if the big-ol mid scoop sound might loose the octave effect... dunno.

[Fret Wire]

does anyone has the sound sample for RG. Octavia?
does it sound close to Jimi Hendrix's octavia?

RM Octavia clips (scroll down the page)
http://www.roger-mayer.co.uk/audio.htm

[Jaicen_solo]

Reputedly, Hendrix's octavia was never set above 50% on the drive control. That's pretty much the way I set mine.
To be honest, the push-me pullyou is probably an easier design to build. THe octavia is overcomplex.
Wasn't the Tycho a high voltage unit originally? I'm sure that's why it was held in high esteem, because of the headroom it used to have.

[octafish]

I don't think the MPS-A13 is the correct transistor. The front half is an axis fuzz and the axis doesn't use a darlington. Keens sixth law is what I used and IIRC it biased up just fine. Just my 2cents, Justins schematic has been around for longer than I have been building so you may prefer to try it with darlingtons.

[jmusser]

One that never got brought up was the "Super Fuzz". I think it's Univox or Unicord. RDV has some great sound samples of that one. It may be your cup of tea. It has a very distinct octave. All you need is a fist full of 2N2222 transistors! If it's something you do like sample wise, R.G. wrote a very nice thread on "Technology of the Super Fuzz", if you do a search. He goes through the whole circuit like a Craig Anderton explaination, so you know exactly what's going on through each stage.

[warioblast]

I don't think the MPS-A13 is the correct transistor. The front half is an axis fuzz and the axis doesn't use a darlington. Keens sixth law is what I used and IIRC it biased up just fine. Just my 2cents, Justins schematic has been around for longer than I have been building so you may prefer to try it with darlingtons.

[jmusser]

Are we looking at the guts of the RM Octavia here? Looks like quite a collection of MPSA13s in there to me.

[Fret Wire]

3 MPSA13's & one 3906

[swt]

afaik, the tycho was design for 24volts, and with this voltage, sounds better. The mayer is the hendrix pedal, and is better with a dist, od or fuzz pushing it. To me, the best octave is the foxx tone machine, although i don't like the fuzz part of it.
I'm about to build a new design, using jack's mosfet booster, a may booster, tone control, and a minibooster output stage. i'll let you know how it goes.
PS: i thought the rm used germ diodes...

[Pedal love]

Mpsa13's are very present in Roger's Octavia. The other day I measured an mpsa13 darlington to 60,173 hfe. All of my test equipment seems to be in order.pl