Captain Coconut 2 Owner's Manual

Octave

The OCTAVE section of Captain Coconut is based on the Tycobrahe Octavia, which was produced in the early 1970’s. The Tycobrahe Octavia was modeled after an early “Octavio” prototype that Hendrix used. The combination of a fuzz circuit, an audio transformer and a pair of matched germanium diodes results in an octave effect that is unlike any pitch shifter or octave divider. By playing two notes at once, you can get some wild ring modulator type sounds, and with the right settings and playing style, you can get a sweet upper octave sound that jumps out on the higher notes.

The effect is very dynamic and can take some time to master. For the best results, use your neck pickup and roll back the guitars volume control to around 80%. Turn the DRIVE control all the way down.

Octave and Overdrive - If you use the Octave effect through a clean amp, you’ll notice that it’s very bright and can be quite shrill sounding. In the right context, this can sound great, but for the best sounds it’s good to add the warmth and character of an overdriven tube amp. Try setting up some overdrive after the Octave, either with an overdrive pedal or in your amps front end. Also, it helps to set your amp up for a dark tone, not bright. With the right settings, the shrillness of the Octave effect gets converted into a singing upper - octave fuzz sound that is very smooth and can take on a life of it’s own. Delay and reverb effects sound great with the Octave.

Octave and Fuzz - The Octave effect can get a little unruly when used with the FuzzFoot, or any other fuzz. If you switch on the Octave and the FuzzFoot at the same time in the default order (Octave>FuzzFoot), you may notice that it “sputters” a little when you pick, no mater how you set the GRIT control on the Fuzz. Try turning the volume on your guitar down a little and you’ll notice that it smoothes out beautifully. If you patch the Octave effect so that it comes after the FuzzFoot (FuzzFoot>Octave), you may notice that the sound thins out and drops in level when you pick notes. Through a clean amp, this doesn’t sound so good, but when you add some overdrive you will notice that the sound fattens back up and you get a great mix of upper octave and the straight note you’re playing. Be careful about maxing out the DRIVE and VOLUME controls, under certain conditions these effects (when used together) can cause oscillation. Be careful when using high gain settings.

Controls
Drive: Go from flute-like octave tones to all-out hell fuzz. Sounds best all the way down, unless you’re looking for some very aggressive fuzz sounds.
Volume: Unity gain is around 70%. There is plenty of available boost.