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.
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| JOYO JF-12 Voodoo Octave Fuzz |
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.
I got one of these, but when I activated it the pedal hummed like a bastard! It was louder than the effect itself! What am I doing wrong? Or is it just faulty? I use a hotrod deville 4x10 and it's never reacted like that with any other pedal!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a bad one. Make sure your polarity is right on your power if your using a daisy chain. Or try a battery. But I'm guessing it's faulty. Hopefully whoever you bought it from will replace it.
DeleteI keep seeing conflicting reports of the octave feature. Some say it only does octave on fuzz setting. Others say octave works clean, too! Which is it? I saw a video on utube and the guy did demonstration with fuzz knob low, then fuzz know high, then turned on the octave switch. But he never turned the fuzz knob below halfway with the octave switch on. I wonder if turning fuzz knob all the way low with the octave switch on would produce clean octave.
ReplyDeleteI just got the Joyo and couldn't get this thing to produce octive tones at all...
DeleteLate, I know. But in case anyone is asking, the octave function in this pedal is not like a pitch shifter. Rather, it's 'halving/doubling' (depending on how you look at it) some of the distorted waveform to emphasise the first octave harmonic. So, unless this is unusual, and I believe it's a clone or near clone, the octave thing won't do anything without fuzz. But if you think about it, that makes sense. Even if the octave feature was unrelated to the fuzz, you have true bypass or on. So the octave is only present when the fuzz is present. If you turn the fuzz knob way down, the octave effect will be way down as well.
DeleteIf you want something to pitchshift up an octave, you are probably looking for something like the POG. Sure, you can get monophonic pitch shifters, and they used to be the only sort you could get, but getting a mono pitch shifter/harmoniser these days is restricting you to single note lines only. This sort of simpler pitch shifter can even glitch when you are playing monophonic lines as it tries to pitch shift fret noises, finger squeaks etc.