Redbeard Effects Honey Badger Octave Fuzz

The Redbeard Effects Honey Badger Octave Fuzz is a fuzz pedal with a footswitchable sub-octave mode: a second footswitch stomps in octave-down layers on top of a big silicon fuzz tone, and a Divide knob lets you choose how far down those octaves go¹². Where most octave fuzzes push the pitch up, the Honey Badger works entirely in the other direction, offering either two octaves down, one octave down, or a blend of the two³⁴⁵.

Redbeard Effects describes it in character: "Thick skinned and unbelievably aggressive, this golden box of doom does not care for pleasantries and goes straight for the tonal jugular."¹. The company says it is a completely original circuit that picks up where traditional octave fuzzes left off, with a 100% analog signal path, and that every unit is dreamt up, designed, engineered, built, tested and packaged in the UK, by hand¹.

A fuzz with one and two octaves down

The core of the pedal is what Redbeard calls a huge, aggressive silicon fuzz tone². On top of that sits the octave section: the footswitchable Octave mode adds what the maker calls massive sub-octave layers to your fuzz tone², and the Divide knob sets whether those layers sit one octave down, two octaves down, or somewhere in between, including a mix of each⁹⁴.

Guitar World's reviewer Trevor Curwen framed the appeal against the usual octave-fuzz template: "An aggressive fuzz with footswitchable octave: this time, though, you get lower octave action with either -2 or -1 octav[es]"³. Guitar.com called the result "an uncompromising rock monster with some seriously glitchy down-octave effects"⁵.

Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, who has reviewed the pedal more than once, described the plain fuzz as "a fantastically richly textured fuzz - very much a High Gain Fuzz with amazing breakup character," and found it "goes even more impressively textured and nuanced when the Octave mode is engaged"¹⁰.

The pedal is aimed at more than guitar. Redbeard says it aims to provide an exciting and original effect for guitar, bass, synth, or anything you plug into it², so bass players and synth players are part of the intended audience rather than an afterthought.

The controls: Divide, Octave, Bass, Treble and Volume

The control set breaks into the fuzz side, the octave side and a two-band EQ. Guitar Pedal X lists the full layout: Volume, Divide (Sub 2 to Sub 1 ratio and blend), Octave (level), Treble, Bass, Fuzz, plus the bypass and octave footswitches⁹.

The two-band EQ is worth having on a pedal like this: with one or two octaves of sub-bass in play, the Bass and Treble knobs give you a way to keep the low end from swallowing the amp or to tame the top of a high-gain fuzz setting¹⁹. Guitar.com's NAMM coverage also noted that the Octave control can be used to adjust the precise amount of modulation in the fuzz¹¹.

History: Redbeard Effects' second pedal

The Honey Badger Octave Fuzz is Redbeard Effects' second release¹⁸. It follows on from the Red Mist MKIV overdrive/distortion pedal and uses similar visual cues, housed in a custom powdercoated and anodised enclosure⁶⁷. Like all of the company's pedals, it was dreamt up, designed, engineered, built, tested and packaged in the UK by hand¹.

The circuit itself came from outside the company. Guitar Pedal X reports that the Honey Badger is a Thorpy production, developed collaboratively from a blank canvas by Thorpy and Mikey Demus, and that it is an entirely unique and distinct proposition rather than a variant of an existing design⁹¹⁰.

The pedal picked up attention in its first year. A reviewer found the Honey Badger sounded louder, fuller, thicker, punchier and clearer, with broad, consistent granularity across the overall sound⁹.

How it compares

Guitar Pedal X ran the Honey Badger head to head against the Way Huge Stone Burner in a sub-octave fuzz comparison, and Karlsson's verdict on the Redbeard was that it "sounded louder, fuller, thicker, punchier and clearer, with broad, consistent granularity"⁹. In the same outlet's write-up of the Redbeard overdrive, distortion and fuzz range, he grouped the Honey Badger with the Angry Rhubarb as the company's fuzz offerings, both described as entirely unique and distinct propositions from the Thorpy and Mikey Demus collaboration¹⁰.

The pedal's published specifications list true bypass switching and power from a 9V mains supply only, which is not supplied with the unit, and give the dimensions as 126 x 70 x 60mm⁸.

Players shopping the wider Redbeard range will find the company has gone on to release further fuzzes, including the Hairy Squid, while the Honey Badger itself sits in the octave and pitch corner of the fuzz family.

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