reccomend an octave up build

[rosssurf]

I have built several pedals : Fetzer, BSIABII,Thunderchief, May Queen. Most have been on vero some have come from "ready to solder"
I am looking for a good Octave up pedal. I really do not need distortion or fuzz along with it.  Is there a "best"  ( I know!..,.I know!..) sounding pedal that just does octave up or are most of them a combination of both Octave and Fuzz.
I have never owned a "Fuzz" pedal. It's not really my sound. I used one in the studio once but I am not that familiar with them.

[jonathan perez]

although it can feel a little stale sometimes, the OCTRON does it for me...assuming you want to pay $180.

but if you want something with that BLOOMING octave, my vote is for the octavia on GGG.

[tcobretti]

The ampeg scramler is awesome.  If you search the archives you can find my build report with sound clips.  It'll make any fuzz/dist into an "octave".

[Mark Hammer]

Foxx Tone Machine is the most robust-sounding octave I've played.  Good enough for Adrian Belew, good enough for me.  As a fuzz, it's so-so, but the octave is sweet.  If you don't feel like building one, you can buy a Dano French Toast, which is apparently a Foxx circuit with FET switching.

[oldrocker]

I've not heard the Foxx Tone and I'm sure it's awesome.  I do like the Scrambler and the Neoctavia though.

[aron]

Dano French Toast

There it is and cheap.

Otherwise, I like my Tyco Octavia!

[Mark Hammer]

They all have their charms, my friend

[aron]

The Bobtavia is simple too and works fine.

[Pushtone]

No one mentioned the Octup at
http://www.tonepad.com/

It was added in August. I'll be building it in the near future.

Only one build report on it so far at Tonepad.com from a fellow named Andrew B.

"this is my first completed build boxed and everything, and i have to say its a much more subtle effect than the green ringer. I've found that it works best on notes right around the 12th fret. On chords, it kinda sounds like a fake weird ring mod distortion. I kinda wanted a less subtle effect although this definitely has its uses. i might try using a higher gain npn transistor because ive found that driving it hard with a boost in front it tends to be less subtle. any way, if you want a 'ghost' octave pedal then this one is what your looking for."

I wonder if Andrew tried turning down the tone knob like when using the Foxx or Scrambler. It makes octave effect stronger.

[dmk]

i like the foxx tone machine big time.

[Marcos - Munky]

There's the Pushme Pullyou at Tim Escobedo's site too. It's a simple and good octave up circuit.

[KerryF]

The Bobtavia is pretty cool.

[petemoore]

  I like my Fuzz with some Octave on it...all the cool octaves are really pretty fuzzy anyway.
  That way I can get from Fuzz to 'right octave tone' by hitting only the octave switch, I have more call for this 1 switch option than going from clean to octave.
  So I use an Octavia w/pregain and a touch of LP filter. Or a Green Ringer w/null and the other mod at GGG.

[MetalGod]

Foxx TM for me - WILD OCTAVE TONES!!!

[dano12]

Can you folks provide any guidance regarding which octave circuits add the least amount of their own fuzz? I'd like to add an octave in the same enclosure as a Big Muff clone and rely on the BMP for the majority of the fuzz.

Also, any advice on putting the octave before or after the BMP?

Thanks!
-dano

[Noplasticrobots]

Green Ringer all the way.

[petemoore]

Can you folks provide any guidance regarding which octave circuits add the least amount of their own fuzz? I'd like to add an octave in the same enclosure as a Big Muff clone and rely on the BMP for the majority of the fuzz.
 It's easier to lump them all as having Fuzz as part of the octave process, excepting the Mosfet Octave...er the one at GEO nobody tries [anyone?] much...it promises clean octave up and..lots of circuit tuning to get there.
Also, any advice on putting the octave before or after the BMP?
 Yes, this is where my Tycho Octavia is, quite exciting with, without fuzz it's 'sore'...cool but weak in the sustain/oct dept.
 Most Octaves never approach anything close to 'clean'.
 I like it because of the many various flavors it provides with Comp/Boost/Tr.Boost/Etc. before it.
 and with BMP/FF etc. after it it does a real nice guitar volume controllable range of control, these dynamics at input [from turned down guitar to guitar full on/boost added...] it seems to handle different input levels in interesting/predictable enough to use for consistant results...anyway, set up as octave needing something more...it makes a 'versatile' a multi-trick pony.

[tcobretti]

The octave part of an octave fuzz is quite distinct and you could try tacking it onto the end of a BMP.

Look at this schematic:



If you remove the transistor network at the left of the schematic (keep the 100uf cap) and insert a BMP, you MAY get a BMP Octave (BMPO?).  If you include the switch you can turn the octave on and off.  The most common transformer for this kind of effect is a Mouser 42TM022.  I frankly am not certain that this will work, but I believe that it will because it is a fairly common technique.

Another possibility based on the Mayer Octavia:



You can omit the first chunk of the circuit up to the 0.01u cap (after the 2nd tranny) and insert a BMP.  Should also make your pedal into an octave fuzz, but off the top of my head I'm sure how to make this switchable.  I guess you could try a SPDT that routes the signal thru the add on section, or around it directly to the 1M pot.

This is pretty cool stuff to mess around with.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Take any ring modulator. If you run a duplicate of the input signal into the multiplier, instead of the local carrier oscillatr, then you get an octave up. With as little fuzz as is possible.

[tcobretti]

Take any ring modulator. If you run a duplicate of the input signal into the multiplier, instead of the local carrier oscillatr, then you get an octave up. With as little fuzz as is possible.

I can't believe I never thought of that!  I guess the problem is that you need a lot of signal, right?  So you'd need input and output stages to boost the signal to where it needs to be.  Does that mean you could manipulate the octave part of an RM Octavia into ring mod territory?