My Octaurus Octafuzz has landed - and you can always count on JAM Pedals to deliver the maximum full fat flavour
Anyone who knows anything about JAM Pedals - knows that they are all about high quality components - fully hand-made and hand-painted / hand-finished enclosures, and they consistently deliver the richest and most beautifully textured and full-flavoured varieties within and beyond their respective pedal genres.
My favourite all-time Tremolo - is the JAM Pedals Harmonious Monk, and this Octafuzz is most certainly in that same category of quality. I’m of course all about harmonic and textural richness - which means having the pedal on Full Voice and Asymmetrical Clipping. So - left switch down, right switch up. All other variations deliver more subtle and less textured flavours, with significantly less harmonics and core timbres - but obviously those are suitable for somewhat different applications.
The three main knobs are all fairly interactive - meaning that if you change one, you typically need to change the other 2 at the same time. You typically get more texture as you dial those knobs up - but for both Volume and Gain and starting at around 3 o’c the increased compression starts to subdue some of those textures - so there are optimal limits for peak richly textured harmonics!
Controls - Voice : Scooped / Full, Tone, Clipping : Asymmetrical / Symmetrical, Level, Gain.
Preferred settings - Full Voice, Tone @ Noon, Asymmetrical Clipping, Level @ 3 o'c, Gain @ 4 o'c.
I get my perfect properly potent Octave Fuzz tones at my preferred settings. And wholly per expectations - this is indeed one of the most flavoursome Octave Fuzzes out there. Probably right at the peak of that genre alongside my other all-time favourite - Anasounds' Crankled Bitoun.
If you want a full-flavoured Upper Octave Fuzz then this is surely one of the very best ones out there. I believe there were only enough components (Those Rare 60's NOS Silicon Transistors) to make roughly 200 or so units. I reacted a little late - and contacted my JAM Pedals buddy Ilias about a week after launch - only for him to tell me that no special parts remained (those 4 metal can transistors), and they had already sold all of their allocation of Octauruses. Ilias advised that I quickly phone up a few dealers as some of those might just have one remaining unclaimed one.
The first friend I thought to phone was Steve at FX Pedal Planet - and after some negotiation, he finally agreed to sell me one of the 2 I think it was - that he had on order.
The one I have has the serial number OC188 - so presumably towards the end of the overall Octaurus quantity built.
There were various delays along the way (pedal launched in December of last year), and at times it looked unlikely to ever happen - but thanks to Steve's dogged persistence - the pedal is finally within my grasp - it was initially due to land in April!
Even the final stages were fraught with added difficulties - as first the courier delivering into Steve was a day or two behind schedule, and as is often the case with Royal Mail in central London - and Parcelforce too for that matter - they mostly deliver on the day after you first get the notified that your pedal is supposedly out for delivery.
I paid £359 for mine - including UK VAT of course - and it was all totally worth it in the end. One of the very best and most full flavour Upper Octave Fuzzes on the market for sure. I believe these really are all long sold out now, while you can read up further details on the JAM Pedals Website!
Many thanks again to Steve at FX Pedal Planet - for making this happen!
Demos
12 Degrees of Saturation 2023 Compact Edition
