Pedalboard & my recording/playing "station" in the bedroom.

I have spent a lot of time and a decent amount of money chasing fuzz tones.

Reviews and sound / YT demos can't really paint the whole picture. Also, many of them use the same corny words / descriptions for any pedal under the sun. When you are unable to try the pedal out, you can't really know how the pedal sounds no matter how many demos and reviews you go through. The thing is that hard clipping of a fuzz pedal and those upper frequencies don't get captured or get eq-ed out on much of the demos. In general fuzz pedals (to me) sound softer on recordings than when you are in a room with an amp and you play loud or semi-loud. You can get a better picture on overdrives and distortions from demos than you can on fuzzes.

I will share short, honest opinions on the fuzz pedals I own or have owned.

KMA Audio Machines Mandrake Octave Fuzz

This one is weird. Definitely not your standard Hendrixy octafuzz. Can get unpleasant and hissy/buzzy. The left big knob is a filter control. Don't think of it as tone control. It affects the gain/sustain also. You can get great riff sounds, you can get some great percussive low gain semi-ringmod-y sounds, you can get some great synth-y sounds by putting a sub octave pedal and/or some classic overdrive pedal after it and use the blend knob on the Mandrake to pass through some clean sound. It can get you inspired and frustrated at the same time. I like it. I have decided to keep it. When you need a sound that you don't know how to get - you may get it from this pedal. However, if you want a classic rock fuzz tone... You may not get it...

Beetronics Octahive V2

You plug it in and hold on for dear life. Can work as a regular fuzz and as an octafuzz. It doesn't have tone control. It's bright. It's harsh. DO NOT THINK FOR A SECOND THAT YOU CAN USE IT WITH A CLEAN AMP. This pedal either goes to a dirty amp or you put an overdrive after it so it can go into a clean amp.

It is gated. It has a wonderfully aggressive sound. It has a big attack. The thing that sets it apart from other octafuzz pedals that I have played, it has a mean low end that is not flabby. It has a solid, focused low end. That is really cool. It has a PRE control which cuts the amount of signal going into the pedal. You can make some broken, percussive, ringmod-y sounds with this one also without messing with your guitar volume control. Tons of gain. Also it has a rough, high grain distortion. It doesn't go zzzzzz, it goes BRRRR if you catch my drift.

But I must stress this out. It CAN be very unpleasant if you don't find a way to tame those highs and high mids.

I am still deciding whether to sell it or keep it. I like the aggression, the crazy attack, the low end and the gate. I don't care for harshness. The harshness makes it unusable at times.

Mythos Pedals Argo Octave Fuzz

This is the best octafuzz I have played or owned.

It's the golden child. It just cannot make a bad sound. It says please and thank you. It cleans up after itself. It's polite, well behaved...

Joking aside, it just works. The controls affect each other in beautiful ways. You cannot just make one adjustment, but that's a good thing. It has AWESOME low gain sounds. It's super musical and inspiring. It can get harsh (but not crazy harsh) when you dime the controls, but hey... It's an octafuzz. It should get harsh if you dime it and put it into a clean amp.

I love it. It's on my board. It stacks beautifully with pedals after it because it has a blend control. A very well designed pedal. If you are looking for an octafuzz and don't know which one to buy, buy this one.

JAM pedals Octaurus Octafuzz

It's a pretty versatile pedal that I just couldn't connect with. It sounds great. I plug it in.. it sounds great... I keep telling myself that but I just couldn't keep it on a board.

It doesn't have much low end. It's kind of mid focused (doesn't matter if you use the full or the scooped setting - you'll figure out the switches somewhere else, there's too many to describe here). However the clipping and the octave do sound and feel heavenly. It sounds more compressed than the other ones I have described. That works miracles for some melodies ) playing styles. I think the biggest issue for me was that it has too much gain. It would be an AWESOME pedal for you guys who can really do solos that sound good with an octafuzz. Just go and rip one out. Big bold solo. If you can do that, and overall play good rock guitar and stuff... GET THIS ONE. It really makes the guitar SING and it has some great options in those controls. I love it but I have sold it. The pedal just fits other genres of music better. It probably has the most musical octave that I have heard when you play the right stuff.

The most realistic pedal demos that I have found are the ones from Shawn Tubbs on YT. Not saying that there aren't any other good ones.

I hope I have helped someone not waste money :)

Cheers.