TWA's Selenium-Diodes Octoverdrive Thick Overdrive + Octavia is a beautifully appointed and richly textured Octave Distortion

I first featured this pedal in the run-up to Halloween 2023 - where it most definitely has a suitably seasonal pumpkin theme to the artwork. So it’s taken a while to land - thanks once more to Kevin Bolembach and Trevor Shaikin for the assist.

Obviously the first thing you notice is the excellently themed appearance of the pedal, while it’s not without its idiosyncrasies. Bypass state delivers an all-green lit-up pumpkin - which then becomes orange, with green stem when engaged. While there are 2 indicator LEDs next to the left footswitch - which tell you which of the 2 modes you are on. The lower green one indicates Octave Mode, and the upper red one indicates Thick Drive. For my own sensibilities - I feel this could have been incorporated into the main Pumpkin LED - with the stem lighting up to indicate Octave Mode. Also I think it makes more logical / ergonomic sense to have the upper status LED represent the Octave Mode - versus the lower one as current.

The only other tiny niggle is the inverted nature of the 3-Band EQ which takes some getting used to - and in tandem with that - the lack of markers on those mini knobs - I often have to paint those in on these kinds of pedals - which is a slight inconvenience.

Controls - Drive, Dry-Blend, Level, Bass, Mid, Treble, Mode Footswitch : Thick Drive / Upper Octave, Engage / Bypass Footswitch.

Those few quibbles aside, the pedal is still incredibly straight-forward and potent to deploy - and the Dry-Blend makes it fantastic for Bass Guitars too.

The core and unique Selenium-Diodes infused breakup is really quite densely textured but rich and well-balanced - where a little added Dry-Blend helps open that out a touch - which is a very useful adjustment to have. The 3-Band EQ is initially a little fiddly - but you very soon get acclimatised to how it works - I do tend to have the occasional acute reaction to unconventional control topologies - and feel that such an inverted arrangement is somewhat sub-optimal - as you need to concentrate a little more on the dial-in - and because of the inversion it’s not immediately obvious as to what the impact of those knobs is.

I’m glad to report that there’s plenty of range on each of those knobs, and their tapers are even and predictable - it’s just the mini knob inversion that makes things very slightly trickier - and where I’ve never understood the purpose of that practice. The same is true for me of the inverted nature of the Timmy controls - which work in the opposite direction to the convention. Convention and familiarity are both essential tenets of learnability and usability.

You can’t argue with the overall Octoverdrive experience though - beautifully richly textured thick and dense overdrive with an additional piercing Upper Octave which lifts everything further and helps really cut through the mix.

My own preferred settings are per the above visual - with Drive @ around 3 o’c, Blend at c. 8 o’c, Level @ Max, Bass @ 2/3rds, and Mid and Treble at Max - those settings work really well for both Thick Drive and Upper Octave Modes.

As always with Totally Wycked Audio pedals - the use of primo components combined with a superior fit and finish is very evident. I’ve always loved the really high quality of their power jacks in particular. Another final niggle might be the absence of top-mounted jacks here, but it doesn’t bother me too much - and not nearly as much as the inverted EQ controls!

Overall this is another really high quality TWA experience. And as an October child - one that I cherish having in my reference collection. I guess the devious pumpkin kind of makes it fully acceptable that this pedal should have a few of its own idiosyncrasies - I really rather like it. It’s certainly not a novelty pedal - despite some outward appearances.

The Octoverdrive Thich Octave Distortion is available for orders on the TWA and Godlyke Webstores - where it goes for a very reasonable $249. This is most definitely an all-year-round pedal rather than a once a year Halloween special - I sincerely hope that people give it a proper try-out - I think all will be very pleasantly surprised!

I would love to hear from you dear readers on how you feel about heavily seasonally themed pedals - are you generally fans of these sorts of formats like me, or do you consider them somewhat more novelty items?