Foxrox Captain Coconut

The Foxrox Captain Coconut is a three-in-one effects pedal: an Octavia, a Uni-Vibe and a Fuzz Face in one enclosure, designed by Dave Fox of Foxrox Electronics and sold through Analog Man¹. It appeared around 2000, and Vintage Guitar magazine tested a recently-revised unit for its February 2001 issue, finding it considerably quieter than the original vintage pedals it reproduces²³. The name comes from the last track on Jimi Hendrix's Crash Landing album².

The pedal is totally analog, built around faithful reproductions of the original circuits used in vintage effects like the Tycobrahe Octavia, Unicord Uni-Vibe and Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, with minor alterations to improve performance and cut noise². Each of the three effects has its own true bypass on/off stomp switch, so you can run any combination of the three sections at once².

The controls, section by section

The Captain Coconut is laid out as three separate effects in one box, each with its own controls and its own true bypass stomp switch². Vintage Guitar's review breaks the control set down by section:

The FuzzFoot's extra control is worth a note. Dave Fox describes "grit" as an additional tone shaper that is very interactive with the gain and volume knob, so small changes to the fuzz's drive and volume settings also change its character⁴.

The Provibe section offers the most control of the three. Its Center control works with the Width control to shape the sweep, and the Chorus/Vibrato switch selects between the two classic Uni-Vibe modes². Fox also describes the shape knob on the vibe section as covering the different shades of vibe sound that other makers have molded their ideas around, with width and shape being very interactive⁴.

Power and connections

The pedal operates on AC power only, which rules out the standard 9V DC pedalboard supply most players use². The follow-up Captain Coconut 2 moved to a 2.5mm power plug and shipped with a 9VAC adaptor for 120V USA power⁴.

For connections, the pedal has Master In and Out jacks for standard operation, but each effect also has its own individual input and output jacks, so the three sections can be used separately or reordered in a larger rig².

There is also a jack on all Captain Coconut pedals for plugging in a speed control pedal for the vibe section, which replaces the Speed knob⁴. Vintage Guitar's review confirms a separate jack for external operation of the Speed control on the Provibe². The CC1 needs a special control pedal like the original Uni-Vibe, built from a Dunlop wah or vibe control pedal with a dual 100K log pot and wiring; the CC2 was made easier to use and accepts any expression pedal, and a volume pedal can be used with a Y-cable⁴.

The circuits behind it and the original version

The original Fuzz Face, Octavia (Tycobrahe) and Uni-Vibe circuits are basically duplicated in the Captain Coconut, per Dave Fox's own description of the pedal⁴. Vintage Guitar's reviewer found the reproductions faithful, with minor alterations to improve performance and cut noise, and noted the distinct difference in noise levels between the original vintage pedals and the Captain Coconut, which is considerably quieter².

The first Captain Coconut appeared in around 2000³. Dave Fox had been building the original for about a year before introducing the Captain Coconut 2 as a follow-up with a new enclosure and a new circuit board with changes and enhancements⁴. The first batch of the original was tiny: only ten were made, in black, with a few more at the end of the production run in black, red and light blue; the second batch was painted in a rich burgundy color⁴.

Analog Man did not stock the pedal; ordering one meant a delivery wait of one to four weeks depending on order volume¹. Analog Man also notes that a Teese RMC wah with the Foxrox Wah Retrofit, going into a Captain Coconut (1 or 2), delivers wah, fuzz, vibe and octave sounds, per the maker's note⁵.

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