Prescription Electronics COB

The Prescription Electronics COB, short for Clean Octave Blend, is an octave fuzz pedal from Prescription Electronics that lets you mix a clean guitar signal with a mid gain analog octave-up fuzz tone, plus extra output volume¹². Guitar.com described it as "a Hendrix-style octave fuzz tailored for lead tone"³. Aion FX describes it as far from a typical octave fuzz: "At some settings it's much more suitable for blending, and at others it sounds good on its own with no clean signal"¹.

The controls: octave, blend and volume

The COB relies on three knobs to unlock its full potential: volume, octave and blend³. Premier Guitar's review explains that it is actually an octave-fuzz pedal that lets you independently vary each effect, unlike the original 2-knob Octavias used by Hendrix, via the octave and blend controls⁴.

The blend control is the pedal's defining feature: BLAMMO! Electronics describes it as allowing users to mix clean guitar signal with a mid gain analog octave fuzz tone, while adding more output volume². That makes it a different animal from a straight octave fuzz, where the effect is all you get; here the clean signal stays in the picture under the fuzz. For more on the wider category, see Octave & Pitch Pedals and Fuzz Pedals.

Circuit origins

Aion FX reports that the octave section is clearly based on the fOXX Tone Machine with a few value tweaks¹. Premier Guitar's review of the reissue adds that it uses the same octave and fuzz circuits and components as the original 1990s C.O.B.⁴. The reissue also adds power-supply filtering and protection, as well as an internally switchable buffer⁴, a practical addition for players running long cable runs or large boards; see Buffer Pedals for why that matters.

History: closed, reissued, closed again, and back

The COB's production history is unusually stop-start:

• Prescription Electronics was founded in 1993, and the COB was introduced within a couple of years of that¹.
• The pedal was produced up until the company closed its doors in 2014¹.
• In May 2019 the brand relaunched, opening pre-orders for reissues of its 90s pedals including the C.O.B, at a pre-order price of $299.95³.
• Aion FX reports that PEI made a brief comeback in 2019 and reissued most of their lineup, but after Jack's passing that same summer, they seemed to disappear for good¹.
• Premier Guitar reported in June 2023 that after nearly a decade of inactivity, Prescription is again making the C.O.B. (and other previous offerings), with prescriptionpedals.com as the company's site⁴.

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar's verdict on the reissue was positive: "Fantastic octave-fuzz tones for old-schoolers, headbangers, and everything in between."⁴ Premier Guitar review⁴

The reviewer also noted the flexibility the blend brings: the octave and blend knobs let you independently vary each effect, something the original 2-knob Octavias used by Hendrix could not do⁴.

Original versus reissue prices

The original 1990s pedal has become a secondhand commodity. Premier Guitar noted in 2023 that the original 1990s C.O.B. now goes for upwards of $900 used⁴, and MusicRadar put it at about 800 bucks online in 2025⁵. The reissue, by comparison, listed at $299 street in 2023⁴ and $299.95 pre-order in 2019³.

A related take on the design exists elsewhere: BLAMMO! Electronics makes the Slob, described on its product page as a pedal from Prescription Electronics lineage, the COB or Clean Octave Blend².

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