Bigfoot Engineering Octo Puss review

Passive octave pedal

  • £109
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Controls options are somewhat limited: on or off

MusicRadar Verdict

Vintage-style octave, but needs thoughtful placement in your chain.

Pros

  • +

    Works brilliantly with a distortion pedal. Good build quality and value.

Cons

  • -

    Needs to be placed after a buffered stompbox.

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Unusual among stompboxes, the Octo Puss from West Sussex-based Bigfoot Engineering is passive, requiring neither battery nor adaptor. This restricts where it can be used in an effects chain, because it has to be plugged in after a buffered pedal.

"Inspired by Josh Homme, the Octo Puss is designed to deliver an octave up in the style of a vintage octave pedal"

It also means that it has no LED. Inspired by Josh Homme, the Octo Puss is designed to deliver an octave up in the style of a vintage octave pedal, with that character recreated by the use of original germanium diodes and a transformer.

Clean, the pedal yields a gritty tone with octave added and you can get a faux sitar sound when playing single notes. But it really comes alive in conjunction with an overdrive, distortion or fuzz pedal or a driven amp, offering an extra dimension to single notes as that octave harmonic comes through, plus a veneer of brightness on chords.

If you already have a favourite fuzz, stick one of these in front of it (but after a buffered pedal) for that vintage octave fuzz sound.

Trevor Curwen

Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.