Tone Report Weekly Issue 157 | Page 43

ONE MIGHT THINK THAT WITH THE INTERNET EXPANDING EVERY DAY THAT EVEN THE MOST MUNDANE MYSTERIES WOULD BE PIECED TOGETHER. Yet, even with electric guitar ruling the airwaves for over half a century, some mysteries are still patchy at the absolute best. One such company is Tychobrahe engineering. Tychobrahe’s roots are in the live sound arena, and some of its products were as simple as multi-channel mixers. However, Tychobrahe also had its fingers in some extremely unique pedals back in the fledgling days of effect usage. If you’re lucky enough to own one, you can probably put a child through college with the money it’s worth. Outside of the designs, much of Tychobrahe’s history remains a riddle. Only three pedals escaped Tychobrahe headquarters, and no sales records are known to exist. No pedals are serialized in any discernable pattern, and each is worth a mint. The three pedals are the Pedalflanger, an early example of tape flanging in a wah pedal-style form factor; the Parapedal, a deep synthstyle filter sweep in another enormous blue wah-style enclosure, and the pedal that needs no introduction, the Octavia. The Octavia was extremely innovative for its time because it incorporated an actual transformer into the circuitry, as well as an array of transistors and diodes. That is to say, the Octavia was packing some serious semiconductor firepower, and with one goal in mind: searing octave-up fuzz tones unlike much else commercially available at the time. Like many fuzz pedals of its time, it was operated by a battery only with a positive ground. The sound of the Octavia is a close relative to the Roger Mayer Octavio that some guy named James played. Even Roger Mayer himself says that the Tychobrahe pedal is extremely similar but lacks voltage optimization. Does it sound as good? I think so, but you will ultimately be the judge. But before we can do that, check this out... DISCLAIMER: Neither I, nor Tone Report Weekly bears any responsibility for any kind of personal or property damage that may occur as a result of the instructions provided herein. Legal mumbo-jumbo aside, we ask that readers be familiar with a soldering iron and its accompanying safety procedures before trying anything listed here. Furthermore, if you fire the pedal up and it does not work, it ToneReport.com 43