The Octava Micro uses five controls—a fuzz-circuit pushbutton and volume, master blend, filter, and drive knobs—to cram an updated take on the analog octave-up circuit from Pigtronix’s Disnortion into a housing with proportions roughly the inverse of its havoc-creating potential.
While the fuzz is unfortunately not independently footswitchable, the Octava Micro is capable of lardaceously huge tones even with fuzz disabled, thanks to the powerful drive section at the beginning of the signal path.
With fuzz engaged and extreme blend and drive settings, the Octava becomes far more than just an octaver.
The blend knob determines how much classic-toned octaving goes into the mix—vintage-flavored tones that’ll remind some of Hendrix and Trower—while the low-pass filter control lets you brighten or tame EQ response for different pickup types. And the volume control packs serious amp-driving wallop.
With fuzz engaged and extreme blend and drive settings, the Octava becomes far more than just an octaver, going from ring-modulator-ish sounds that eff-up certain scale intervals in a deliciously unpredictable way to transforming just about any guitar—including my vintage-voiced Tele—into a doom-rock/metal bludgeon.