ONE MIGHT
THINK THAT WITH
THE INTERNET
EXPANDING EVERY
DAY THAT EVEN THE
MOST MUNDANE
MYSTERIES
WOULD BE PIECED
TOGETHER. Yet, even with
electric guitar ruling the airwaves for
over half a century, some mysteries
are still patchy at the absolute best.
One such company is Tychobrahe
engineering.
Tychobrahe’s roots are in the live sound
arena, and some of its products were
as simple as multi-channel mixers.
However, Tychobrahe also had its
fingers in some extremely unique
pedals back in the fledgling days of
effect usage. If you’re lucky enough to
own one, you can probably put a child
through college with the money it’s
worth. Outside of the designs, much of
Tychobrahe’s history remains a riddle.
Only three pedals escaped Tychobrahe
headquarters, and no sales records are
known to exist. No pedals are serialized
in any discernable pattern, and each
is worth a mint. The three pedals are
the Pedalflanger, an early example of
tape flanging in a wah pedal-style form
factor; the Parapedal, a deep synthstyle filter sweep in another enormous
blue wah-style enclosure, and the
pedal that needs no introduction, the
Octavia.
The Octavia was extremely innovative
for its time because it incorporated an
actual transformer into the circuitry,
as well as an array of transistors and
diodes. That is to say, the Octavia was
packing some serious semiconductor
firepower, and with one goal in mind:
searing octave-up fuzz tones unlike
much else commercially available at the
time. Like many fuzz pedals of its time,
it was operated by a battery only with
a positive ground. The sound of the
Octavia is a close relative to the Roger
Mayer Octavio that some guy named
James played. Even Roger Mayer
himself says that the Tychobrahe pedal
is extremely similar but lacks voltage
optimization. Does it sound as good? I
think so, but you will ultimately be the
judge.
But before we can do that, check this
out...
DISCLAIMER: Neither I, nor Tone
Report Weekly bears any responsibility
for any kind of personal or property
damage that may occur as a result
of the instructions provided herein.
Legal mumbo-jumbo aside, we ask that
readers be familiar with a soldering
iron and its accompanying safety
procedures before trying anything
listed here. Furthermore, if you fire the
pedal up and it does not work, it
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