Home Brew UFO (fuzz/octave) review.

[Sludgenutz]

It is a nice pedal, and covers a lot of ground! It has the '60's fuzz tone all the way up to Niel Young's live "Like a Hurricane". I have not been able to duplicate the Davey Allan "Blues Theme" tone, but I am also using humbuckers and non-vintage gear. It does do a really good job at the jagged Stooges tone!

This pedal has HUGE amounts of gain on tap if you want it. The "vintage/modern" switch is versatile, and the Octave feature really pulls the covers off a lot of tones that were just mysterious to my ears before. Looking inside shows a professional/clean interior to this four silicon transistor unit (check out that heavy duty battery clip, and the full size jacks). This unit has "splat" if you want it, or the more common "muff" tone too. I call this a 1-1/2 pedal, as the fuzz function must be enabled, before the octave portion of the the pedal can be toggled on or off.

The one really nice feature I found to be very cool is backing the tone control down to zero. There is a bass hump that is astoundingly good for goosing and thickening a wah pedal. My quest for fuzz box is over. This one is a keeper!

edit:This pedal is quiet, too. I have never heard dist/fuzz/od this quiet before.

 

[cvansickle]

Re: Home Brew UFO (fuzz/octave) review.

This is my favorite fuzz. It's so good I bought it twice - I have one on each of my pedalboards.

If you really want to hear that octave up at its finest, get your hands on a Strat with a single coil in the neck. Roll you tone knob down. It's even better when you can goose it with another fuzz too.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Home Brew UFO (fuzz/octave) review.

I almost got one of those...I really likeed what I was reading about it but a good deal on a Fulltone Ultimate Octave came up so I snagged that instead.

Can one of you guys compare the 2???

 

[cvansickle]

Re: Home Brew UFO (fuzz/octave) review.

I looked into the Fulltone at the time too, as well as the Voodoo Lab Octavia. Both were very made and sounded great too. What won me over on the HBE was that the octave up effect had a footswitch. The Fulltone was only a mini toggle, and the Voodoo Lab wasn't switchable at all.

I already had and was using a HomeBrew Electronics Germania at the time, so I knew I could count on the UFO's quality. It was the clincher for me. Now, I own lots of HBE pedals, and they're my favorites. I just installed the Power Screamer with Fat Boost on my big board (Fat Man), which also sports a UFO, Big D and Germacide. The small board (Little Boy) has a UFO, Medicine Bawl wah, and two different Germanias.

HBE's sales rep was at Austin NAMM last month. He let me try a prototype of a fuzz that's based on a Jordan Bosstone circuit. If it goes into production, I'm buying that one too!

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Home Brew UFO (fuzz/octave) review.

Hehe, cvansickle -- you sound like you're as addicted to HBE as I am!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Home Brew UFO (fuzz/octave) review.

I looked into the Fulltone at the time too, as well as the Voodoo Lab Octavia. Both were very made and sounded great too. What won me over on the HBE was that the octave up effect had a footswitch. The Fulltone was only a mini toggle, and the Voodoo Lab wasn't switchable at all.

I already had and was using a HomeBrew Electronics Germania at the time, so I knew I could count on the UFO's quality. It was the clincher for me. Now, I own lots of HBE pedals, and they're my favorites. I just installed the Power Screamer with Fat Boost on my big board (Fat Man), which also sports a UFO, Big D and Germacide. The small board (Little Boy) has a UFO, Medicine Bawl wah, and two different Germanias.

HBE's sales rep was at Austin NAMM last month. He let me try a prototype of a fuzz that's based on a Jordan Bosstone circuit. If it goes into production, I'm buying that one too!

Really?!

My Fulltone Ultimate Octave has a footswitchable octave...the mini toggle is a tone switch (fat and bright). Either way at this point I am pretty happy with it. All that said, if HBE (or anybody for that matter) starts building a good Bosstone clone Im all over it...I wish I had never sold my original:yell: :smack:

 

[cvansickle]

Re: Home Brew UFO (fuzz/octave) review.

Really?!

My Fulltone Ultimate Octave has a footswitchable octave...the mini toggle is a tone switch (fat and bright). Either way at this point I am pretty happy with it. All that said, if HBE (or anybody for that matter) starts building a good Bosstone clone Im all over it...I wish I had never sold my original:yell: :smack:

Sorry, I missread your post. I got the Ultimate Octave and the Octafuzz mixed up. It was the Octafuzz that I tried and was comparing the UFO to.

Nobody is building anything better than Joel Weaver and crew at HBE. Granted, Fulltone, Analog Man and several others are building pedals that are just as good, and it's comparing apples to apples for the most part. It's great to have all these choices, isn't it?

 

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Home Brew UFO (fuzz/octave) review.

I got a UFO in a trade that included a few pedals....figured I'd just sell it if I didn't like it.

Still got it