The Octavella Upper Octave Fuzz from Lastgasp Art Laboratories is a silicon fuzz that generates a note one octave above what you play, sitting alongside the fuzzed fundamental. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson described it as "a silicon fuzz with a full, searing, complex texture" and called it "Definitely one of my most favourite Upper Octave Fuzz variants."1
What it does
As an upper octave fuzz, the Octavella takes the guitar's signal, produces octave-up harmonics from it, and blends that with a full silicon fuzz texture. It belongs to the same family as other fuzz pedals that track an upper octave, a genre where the octave content rises and falls with how the guitar is played1.
Karlsson ranked it highly within the genre. In a later comparison with Lastgasp's Gomorrah, he wrote123:
"Possibly I would place the Octavella second actually - it really depends on my mood at the time."
That places it just behind the Gomorrah in his personal ordering of the maker's range2.
Price and availability
Guitar Pedal X listed the Octavella at £179 in the UK, at retailer Joe's Pedals, as of May 2024, the same price as the Gomorrah.2 That figure is in pounds sterling as stated by the source.
The circuit, from a builder's layout
Guitar FX Layouts, a hobbyist stripboard (vero) layout site, published a DIY layout for the Octavella on 25 December 2022, describing it as "another noisy octave thingy in style of LAL."4 The layout gives a look inside the circuit:
| Circuit detail | What the builder found |
|---|---|
| Octave transistor | Settled on a J201 JFET after trying a number of other FETs: "Tried a bunch of fets but stuck with a J201 in the end."4 |
| Feedback control | Present on the pedal; the builder suggested "A higher log value for feedback pot could make it a bit more usable."4 |
| Feedback behavior | "The feedback is horrible but keep it low and stack with another fuzz or overdrive and it sounds good."4 |
The feedback control can run away quickly. The builder's recommendation is to keep it low and pair the Octavella with a second pedal, such as an overdrive or another fuzz, to get the best result.4
Related circuits
The Octavella is close enough to the original design that PedalPCB, a maker of DIY pedal boards and parts, sells a project board described as "Compare to Lastgasp Octavella," aimed at builders who want to assemble their own version.3
Videos
Dennis Kayzer
VintageandRare
Guy Incognito
Sources (4)
- Guitar Pedal X, Guitar Pedal X, 2024-05-03
- Guitar Pedal X, Guitar Pedal X, 2024-05-10
- Ottava Octave Fuzz, PedalPCB.com
- Guitar FX Layouts: LastGasp Art Laboratories Octavella, Guitar FX Layouts (tagboardeffects.blogspot.com), 2022-12-25