Joyo JF-12 Voodoo Octave Fuzz Review

Joyo has been cloning circuits and releasing super cheap versions of them for a while now. They have their fans and their critics. I had been wanting an octave fuzz to play around with for a while but I wasn't sure how much I would use one. So I picked up a Joyo JF-12 Voodoo Octave Fuzz. It fits the bill, switchable octave, versatile fuzz, crazy sounds and cheap.

Ocatve Fuzz pedals are a strange breed of fuzz. Distortion and Fuzz pedals create upper and lower octave harmonics as part of the distortion that you hear. An octave fuzz pedal doesn't create a pitch shifting effect, it emphasizes the octave frequency at the upper register (or lower in some cases). That's why you can hear the effect better on certain parts of the fret board better than others. The Joyo Voodoo Octave fuzz is NOT an Octavia clone but a clone of the Foxx Tone Machine.

JOYO JF-12 Voodoo Octave Fuzz

It has three knobs, volume, tone, fuzz, a normal/mid cut switch, and two stomp switches, one to activate the octave and one with true bypass of the whole pedal. Some of the things I like about this pedal is that it has no problems with buffers like a lot of fuzz pedals. There are a lot of fun fuzz tones in this box for how little it cost. It sounds equally nasty with humbuckers or single coils, and the foot switchable octave was a selling point for me.

There is a graphic of a ram's head on the pedal and I wondered how close it would get to a Big Muff Rams Head.... not really. In mid cut position it is closer to the Big Muff Op Amp. This means it will handle early Smashing Pumpkins riffs all day long. In the normal position it's a nasty midrangy fuzz that will cut through a mix. Kicking in the octave switch in the normal position doesn't exactly nail Hendrix, you'll hear the octaves more in the lower register of your guitar than in the middle of the neck like on an octavia. In the mid cut position the octave switch takes out the bottom end. It also doesn't stack well with other gain pedals, and while your volume and tone knobs on your guitar do make a difference it doesn't clean up or respond to picking dynamics very well.

I don't think an octave pedal will ever end up on my permanent board but I like having that sound to throw in there when I need it or just want to experiment with some new sounds. If your looking for a fun, nasty, versatile, and cheap fuzz pedal check out the Joyo JF-12 Voodoo Octave Fuzz.