Octavia

This things great. I've had a ProOctavia (pretty good pedal) and a Dano French Toast (harsher but has it's charms--it nails the old Ernie Isley tone), but this pedal's IT for the octave up thing. This is the original. The others are copies of this or copies of copies of this. As with all of these, you've got to watch the treble and steer towards the neck pickup. I especially like it with a strat on the neck or neck/middle position>Octavia>old DOD fuzz (dials set straight up)> a Chorus or Vibe or both. Add a Wah either first or after the fuzz. This goes into a 1970 Pro Reverb or a Crate V32 Palomino. ...sounds great!

Solid as a rock. It could double as a weapon. It does suck batteries. I'm going to bend the bottom or drill a hole and run an adapter into it. I'd gig w/o backup but my proctavia just become that.

Easy to use. 2 knobs... kind of poorly place if you had to tweek them constantly but this is kind of a set it and leave it effect so that's no problem.

not applicable. I bought it used, but they've got a nice website.

This is a "niche pedal" for cetain sound. Obviously Hendrix comes to mind. You won't use this as often as a delay or tubescreamer but, now and then, when you rip into a solo or are doing fills around a vocalist, step on this thing and watch people's eyes light up.

I use an ash bodied 50's style custom strat with Fender 50's reissue pickups and a Fender US 57 reissue with Van Zandt Blues pickups and custom David Copeland 60's 'D' profile slab board neck into a 65 reissue Twin Reverb. I find the fuzz is to be dialled in carefully as too much loses the octave effect,I have found it reasonably quiet to use and of course I'm a Hendrix fan so this is the only serious choice as Roger Mayer invented this effect. Watch out when setting the volume as the unit is very sensitive to picking dynamics,my advice is to smack the string as hard as you can when setting volume as the unit has massive gain potential and could give you a serious fright. For me the only pick-up settings i don't use with this unit are the in-between ones, seems to sound much more defined with individual pick-ups. This effect is not for the faint hearted and is not meant to be pretty but it sounds great when you want the most vicious sounds imaginable.

It picked up a taxi radio on a gig in Belfast one night, that is the only trouble i've had.

This pedal is extremely easy to use from the word go, just volume and fuzz, how easy is that?

I've been playing seriously for around 8 years now and always wanted this type of effect since hearing Purple Haze,One Rainy Wish and the mighty Who Knows,it's still hard to play through this and not think of all my Hendrix-isms. I'm currently playing in an original fusion band and it fits in there too,use it sparingly as a treat for all who hear it. The pedal looks super cool and is built like a tank,the knobs are sturdy and in a good place to keep them out of harm,this pedal was unbelievably good value and I would definately replace it if stolen or lost.

There might be better Octavias out there but I tried a few different ones in the store (30th Street Guitars) and this by far sounded the best so I'll give it a 9. I wanted that Hendrix and SRV type sound. This gives is up very nicely. The unit seems exceptionally quiet when on but not playing - I like that. That is a big plus to me. The tone is great and playing with the neck pickup on my Strat through my Dr. Z Maz Jr results in very excellent tones. It really likes my Analogman Sun Face (Dunlop FF housing). I tried a Prescription Electronics Experience and a Facelift plus the Voodoo Labs Proctavia. The Experience pedal was not my thing - I hated the fuzz sound on it and you need the fuzz on to use the octave function. The Facelift was okay but didn't sound much better especially for the price tag. The Proctavia was okay but the RM Octavia was better sounding and a little rounder less brittle sounding in general. I got it used and was very happy with the sound and price. Next I will play around to see where I prefer it in my setup. But it is a keeper for that classic sound.

Seems reliable. It is used but seems like it's ready to keep going for awhile. Nice and solid feeling.

I found it quite easy to use. Much easier than other octavia type pedals. Bascially as other have said here: it works best on the neck pickup with the volume and tone rolled back a little. The pedal is very simple but the only reason I give it an 8 is because you have to know how to get those sounds out of the pedal. You have to play the pedal so to speak. It doesn't just make you sound a certain way.

No need yet...

Excellent pedal for what I was looking for. I knew when playing it that it'd fit into my setup better than the others I tried. It just had that sound. I can even get low notes to do the octave thing like Hendrix's stuff on Band of Gypsies. I am very happy with this purchase as I have been thinking about getting an octavia type pedal for over a year now.