The October Audio Junk Lantern is an octave-up fuzz with ring modulator that’s hand-made in Richmond Virginia by two friends who followed a joint path from being band mates to pedal builders.
Not your traditional fuzz, the Junk Lantern produces classic ringer-type octave-up tones and, exploiting its extra frequency boost modes, a variety of garagey fuzz tones.
The 3-way ON&ON toggle is what opens up this pedal’s sonic palette – here’s what it does:
- Center position produces the most pronounced octave effect- unity gain is when the volume is all the way up;
- Down position is a high-frequency gain stage that creates cutting aggressive tones and cleans up with the guitar volume to produce metallic, slightly dissonant sounds;
- Up position kicks in a full frequency gain stage for extra impact, with results ranging from blown speaker chords and searing solo tones.
Have a listen to what this pedal can do in the video below.
October Audio Junk Lantern, Builder’s Notes
OCTAVE UP & GARAGE FUZZ
WHAT: Dirty octave up with 2 additional frequency boost modes
INSPIRATION: Quirky analog octave and ring mod devices
CIRCUIT SAUCE: Full wave rectification and modernized matched diode array to produce vintage octave up tones. Low pass filtering to improve signal to noise (like AM radio!).
SOUND: The base sound is a classic ringer-type octave up that pairs well behind a fuzz or drive- the Robotic Celebrity Head is an excellent choice! Additional frequency boost modes create intense garage fuzz tones, while still retaining interesting character from the dirty octave mode.ON&ON Toggle: Center position is the base mode and most pronounced octave effect- start with the volume all the way up for unity gain; Down position is a high frequency gain stage that creates cutting aggressive tones and cleans up with the guitar volume to allow metallic, slightly dissonant sounds; Up position kicks in a full frequency gain stage and kicks in your teeth! This results in blown speaker chords and searing single note passages. You may want to adjust the volume knob with these gain stages, just saying!
Made with modern parts that still capture the vibe of old octave/ringer devices.
