The Prescription Electronics Clean Octave Boost is an octave pedal that adds a clean octave-up signal to your guitar's sound, sitting in the octave and pitch family alongside other octave and pitch pedals. It is best known under its shorthand name, the COB, and it is the design other makers have turned to when building their own clean octave boost pedals.
What it does
The COB's core idea is in its name, and it points to a different approach from a fuzz-style octave pedal, where the octave effect usually arrives wrapped in heavy distortion. Players who want an octave-up voice that keeps their fundamental tone intact are the audience for this kind of circuit.
Who used it and where it stands now
The pedal has a documented player in Doyle Bramhall II. Pedal of the Day, writing about a pedal based on the COB, described the original as "a now rare (and crazy expensive) effect used by Doyle Bramhall II"1.
That rarity is worth knowing before you go looking: original units are no longer common, and used prices reflect that. The design itself has been influential enough that other builders have made their own versions, including the Shin-ei Screaming Sister 8ctaveBoost, which Pedal of the Day reviewed as an octave boost based on the Clean Octave Boost1.
Videos
PSQRCL
Distortion LTD
Tone Collector
Sources (1)
- Shin-ei Screaming Sister 8ctaveBoost, Pedal of the Day, 2018-06-08
