Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
My Electronic Audio Experiments' Glaive Opamp Octave Fuzz has landed and it's every bit as good as I expected!
I’ve described this as a blistering opamp octave fuzz right from the start - and that still very much holds true - its potency is immense - and you really don’t need to go much above noon on the Level and Fuzz controls - this one gets so loud and saturated - where you’re never going to want to get near to diming it - as it really reaches extremes at max Level and Fuzz - too much for me for sure!
So in tandem with that potency it has the most gorgeous fuzz sound - really warm and articulate - and just uniquely pleasantly textured. That richness of texture is highly unique for Octave fuzzes - they typically don’t go this broad in their profile - it’s a glorious thick textured sound - indeed it sounds pretty magnificent to me. It seems all Octave Fuzzes operate at sightly different frequency clusters - and John Snyder has hit some magic formula here - this is such a good sounding Octave Fuzz. Many of those are quite sharp and strident - while this one is exceptionally well balanced!
Controls - Level, Fuzz, LPF : Strong Hi-Cut / No Cut / Mild Hi-Cut, Squelch : Strong Gating / Off / Mild Gating, Weight (HPF Cutoff), Texture (Analog Octave Level).
Ports - TS In, 9V DC [-] 100mA, TS Out.
Voltage inside the pedal is boosted to 24V from the 9V input - presumably via some manner of charge pump - that is the major reason for that immense output / sound!
In case you weren't familiar with 'Glaives' they were a type of Medieval Polearm - essentially a single sided blade / sword - on a stick / shaft. John Snyder has previously referenced another Polearm - the Halberd - which is rather more of an elongated Axe - or an Axe-head on a stick. So the two of those are distinct but related categories of medieval arms!
The cutting nature of the Glaive is a particularly apt metaphor here!
My Preferred Settings are : Level @ 1 o'c, Fuzz @ Noon, No LPF-Cut, Squelch on Mild Gating, Weight @ 3 o'c, Texture (Octave) @ 2 o'c.
Generally I have the Hi-Cut Off, and Squelch on Mild Gating - that sounds best for my setup. You can of course experiment on how much Level, Fuzz, and Texture (Octave) you can stand - while I guarantee that you won't be able to handle everything on Max - there is so much range onboard here on every control.
This is a genuinely distinct and uniquely textured octave fuzz. My only change here would be to deploy a second Octave On/Off footswitch! Otherwise the device is perfect!
The Glaive Octave Fuzz is $249 and equialent from the Electronic Audio Experiments Webstore, and £259 from Joe's Pedals in the UK. Alas the Glaive seems to be momentarily sold out nearly everywhere - there will surely be more in stock soon enough.
Demos
