The following info was provided by our engineer Robert Derby—The Mad Scientist who designed the Octoverdrive as well as the majority of TWA’s audio oddities:
"So after repairing and updating an Ampex tape recorder’s electronics, I had some selenium rectifiers on my bench. I’ve seen these things most of my life, and they are usually replaced with silicon diodes if and when they go bad.
Staring at them, I got to thinking – germanium diodes sound different, LEDs sound different, Schottky diodes sound different, and silicon diodes all sound different in audio circuits. Why have I never seen SELENIUM DIODES in audio circuits? Since they will not be used in a stressful way – as in power rectification – there should be no concern of failure or any other issues.
I decided to set up a little test jig to drive that old rectifier pair from the Ampex and hear what they sounded like with audio going through them.
Surprise! Almost from the start, cool things happened. Very warm clipping, able to tune in a great octave up, and that certain something that sounds juicy-magical-saturated......
I found that selenium diodes are somewhat similar to germaniums when used in audio, but there is an N factor. I checked inductance, capacitance, and voltage drop versus frequency. All had very surprising results. There is a high inductance in these things, as well as capacitance. The voltage drop is similar to Schottky or germanium diodes, making them clip softly at a lower voltage than silicon or LEDs.
I then began testing other takeouts and also some eBay purchases, and found out that they are all cool sounding, but vary a lot!
So I perf-boarded a circuit, and tweaked it a lot, and was amazed at the musicality of a drive box using these obsolete selenium components.
I added a 3-band EQ - much like what is on mixers/consoles - so the sound could be sculpted. Wow.
I found an alternate mode that has thick, heavy distortion, a nice complement to the singing, sustaining octave voice.
More tweaks based on user wishes, and there it was - the Octoverdrive.
Simple – Yet, if you were to examine the circuit, not really that simple. Kind of crazy, actually.
The result is a sweet musical drive and sustain, from subtle to over the top."
Robert surprised me with the Octoverdrive prototype in July of 2021 during one of our regular R&D meetings.
We were going over some other pedal designs (probably the Krytical Mass!), and when we were done he pulled out this metal project box the size of a small amplifier. The excitement on his face was palpable – a rare emotion for him to exhibit.
Robert titled this original proto the “Steam Punk” since it had this crazy Road Warrior future/retro look to it (Robert has a tendency to assemble prototypes with whatever spare parts AND hardware he has within arm’s reach).
We played through the pedal and it was uber-cool. Thick, super-saturated drive that had a decidedly tube-like personality to it.
The octave-up voice had even more goodies in store – the selenium diodes do some weird stuff with audio, and there were hints of filtering, phasing, and even flanging going on that the upper octave harmonic helped to accentuate. I t was really cool to just hit a sustained note and listen to it morph and decay into weirdness.
Robert passed the Steam Punk off to me so that we could get some more ears on it and put it through the paces.
The next big lift to get this pedal off the ground would be to find a reliable supplier of selenium rectifiers. Robert even suggested just scavenging them off of eBay or electronics clearance sites, but we both eventually agreed that component consistency was required in order to mass-produce this pedal.
After some searching we located a company that specialized in current-production of selenium rectifiers (which are still used in some high-power industrial devices). They were willing to build the part to our specs, so we got some prototypes made and started shrinking the circuit down to a manageable size.
Despite Robert’s suggestion above that he tweaked the Octoverdrive to our beta team’s specs; the production unit is remarkably close to his original prototype, and the entire control complement and functionality of the pedal wound up crossing over from his original design.
The next, and perhaps most difficult task, was to come up with a product name worthy of the TWA brand that simultaneously described the function of the pedal.
I felt that Robert’s original Steam Punk moniker was a little too confining, as we would have to dress the pedal in that style in order for it to make sense.
This is where TWA co-owner George Schwab comes in. George is mostly a silent partner, but when he gets an idea he loves to share it with me and I’ll store them away for (hopefully) future use.
Since we’re both of German descent, George had pitched the idea of an Oktoberfest pedal.
I kept spinning that around in my head and eventually that morphed into Octoverdrive, which made perfect sense since the pedal was both an overdrive and an octavia.
Last but not least came the LED array, and what says October better than a Jack o ‘Lantern?!?
Will Sapanaro came up with the creepy-yet-cute graphics that now adorn the Octoverdrive, and a new Halloween legend was born.
We actually wound up sitting on the Octoverdrive project for over a year, as we just couldn’t pull things together in time for an October, 2022 release date.
This year we decided that, come hell or high water, the Octoverdrive was going to get released for Halloween 2023, so here it is!
I hope you enjoy this pedal as much as we enjoyed creating it, and I hope you create music with it that’s as unique and intriguing as this pedal’s origin story.
The OCTOVERDRIVE lives!!!!
Cheers,
Kevin
Godlyke/TWA
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Roger Waters has again teamed up with guitarist Jonathan Wilson for the current This Is Not A Drill Tour. To help Wilson recreate some of the most legendary Pink Floyd/David Gilmour guitar tones, he'll be rocking the Cicognani Pompeii T1 and Pompeii PE603.
Wilson has been performing with the Cicognani Pompeii T1 for the past few months of the Roger Waters tour in Mexico in 2023. The tour continues in Europe in 2023 and we are proud to be a part of it.
“This Is Not A Drill is a groundbreaking new rock & roll/cinematic extravaganza, performed in the round,” Waters wrote in a statement. “It is a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive, and a call to action to love, protect, and share our precious and precarious planet home. The show includes a dozen great songs from Pink Floyd’s Golden Era alongside several new ones — words and music, same writer, same heart, same soul, same man. Could be his last hurrah. Wow! My first farewell tour! Don’t miss it. Love, R.”
In the upcoming 2023 European Tour, Roger Waters will play 40 shows across 14 European countries, starting in Lisbon on March 17, 2023, at the Altice Arena. Click HERE for the complete list. Waters on lead vocals, guitars, bass and piano, will be joined on stage by, Jonathan Wilson on guitars and vocals; Dave Kilminster on guitars and vocals; Jon Carin on keyboards, guitar and vocals, Gus Seyffert on bass and vocals; Robert Walter on keyboards, Joey Waronker on drums; Shanay Johnson on vocals; Amanda Belair on vocals and Seamus Blake on saxophone.
Below you can find some pictures of Wilson's pedalboard all ready for the last three shows in Mexico for the Roger Waters 2022 Tour with the POMPEII T1.
]]>THE BACKSTORY
"It was David Jenkins from Truetone Music in Santa Monica who first told me that Scott Henderson was using the Maxon SD-9 Sonic Distortion while we were hanging at a NAMM show in the mid 2000’s.
I knew of Scott from his work with Tribal Tech. I also knew that Analog Mike was offering a Scott Henderson mod for the SD-9, so I was a little skeptical about Dave’s report.
However, Dave confirmed that Scott had actually bought the stock SD-9 from him directly at the store! Apparently, he felt that the stock version sounded better than Mike’s mod (sorry Mike – his words, not mine).
At some point Scott dropped by our booth and we got to be on semi-regular speaking terms. Scott would always ask to try out various Maxon overdrives, and then he’d ship them back to us if he didn’t like them – which was most of the time!
Scott did wind up using the Maxon VOP-9 for several years along with the SD-9, and he was a big advocate for that pedal as well. We even had Mr. Tamura do some prototype VOP’s for him with different voltage configurations, but he always settled on the stock model as the best-sounding one for his needs.
Eventually Scott swapped his VOP out for the RC Booster, and he eventually wound up doing a limited-edition signature version of that pedal with Xotic.
Seeing an opportunity, I asked Scott if he would be willing to do a signature SD-9 model for Maxon. He graciously declined, stating that he didn’t really like signature gear and he only did the Xotic as a special favor to them.
We finally got Scott on video using the SD-9 at the Iridium in NYC in 2012, and over the years he continued to lavish praises on the pedal, but insisted that he wasn’t comfortable with the idea of a signature version.
When we partnered with Mr. Tamura on the Maxon Custom Shop models in 2019, one of the first things I thought of was Scott’s love for the SD-9. I knew that Mr. T was an avid fan of Scott’s playing, and that if we could get the two of them together, something great might come from it.
I reached out to Scott and we started talking about the SD-9 – at this time, Scott appeared to be more open to the idea of a signature model, but explained that if we were to do one, he would want there to be some specific improvements to the circuit to address the shortcomings of that pedal that he had discovered over the years.
Mr. T spent a good portion of the following year working on modifications for the SD-9 in hopes of realizing Scott’s vision and getting him on board for a custom-shop signature model.
We sent a prototype to Scott in late 2019 and got to the point where his only issue was a slight loss of low-end on high notes. Mr. T was able to solve this issue as well, and 2020 NAMM was right around the corner so we planned to tease the release of a signature Scott Henderson custom-shop model at the show.
However, Scott wanted to sign off on the circuit prior to the announcement, so we wound up aborting the NAMM mission.
Shortly after that the pandemic hit, and we spent a few months just regrouping and stabilizing the business.
During this downtime, Mr. T decided to take a different approach to the SD-9 modifications and he developed a completely new prototype. Scott shot down this new version, so we had basically hit a roadblock and weren’t sure how to move forward.
In the meantime, Mr. T had been letting players in Japan hear the first SD-9 mod, and we had also let a bunch of our guitarist friends hear that pedal. Everyone thought that the mod sounded fantastic, so we decided to release is as the SSD-9 Super Sonic Distortion mod in the fall of 2020.
The SSD-9 was received very warmly, in part because many people knew that this mod was based on Scott’s requests!
We were just starting to gain some traction with the SSD-9 when Maxon ceased communications with us and stopped filling our orders in early 2021 (see video).
Once again, we spent the early part of 2021 regrouping and stabilizing the business, with plans to offer Tamura-designed TWA pedals put into the works.
Sometime in June I got a phone call from Scott Henderson – he had heard about our parting of ways with Maxon, and just wanted to check in on us to see how we were holding up.
During our chat, Scott mentioned that several people had told him about the SSD-9 mod and how great it sounded, and he asked if he could check one out. Even though we were no longer working with Maxon at that point, we still had some SD-9’s lying around so I figured it couldn’t hurt - I modded one and sent it out to Scott.
As fate would have it, Scott LOVED the SSD-9 mod and proclaimed that this was the sound that he had been after for all these years.
My first thoughts were “Of course, now that we no longer work with Maxon we have the opportunity to do a Scott Henderson signature pedal.” Figures.
And then I thought – “Waiddaminnut – NOW that we are no longer working with Maxon, we have the opportunity to do a Scott Henderson signature pedal!” Yeah!
I then asked Scott if he would consider doing the pedal under our TWA house brand of pedals – Scott had tried the Hot Sake in the past (didn’t have enough low-end for him) and had asked for a Dynamorph (I was too afraid to send it to him!), so he had some awareness of the brand.
Scott simply said “As long as it sounds exactly like this prototype, then I’ll do it.”
With this mission objective specified, I contacted Mr. T and let him work his magic.
Mr. Tamura is already incredibly meticulous when it comes to circuit design, but with the SH9 he truly went above and beyond even his own high standards.
Every aspect of the performance of the SSD-9 was painstakingly dissected and intently analyzed, from the chassis material alloy down to the color of the LED.
Mr. T incorporated identical components to those used in the SSD-9, including the same type of ALPS potentiometers, the same Marushin audio jacks, and the same WIMA metal film capacitors that I had inadvertently selected when purchasing parts for the SSD-9 production (I figured they were German so they had to be good).
Mr. T finished up the prototype of what would become the SH9 in October of 2021, and I sent it out to Scott for approval. He quickly gave it the thumbs-up, and then proceeded to Velcro it to his pedalboard, where it has performed flawlessly for his recent South American and European tours.
Scott selected the name and color of the pedal, and although he actually didn’t want to have his signature on the pedal, he did give us his blessing after Mr. Tamura specifically requested that it be screened on the pedal’s face.
Since we figured there would be players who wanted “the pedal that Scott uses in his board” as well as those who would want a pedal with his signature, we decided to offer both versions for sale to make everyone happy.
That’s the story of how the SH9 came to be – it was really incredible to be a witness to this process, and I will never forget all the crazy twists and turns that this project took or the fascinating and often fun (and sometimes frustrating) conversations that I had with both Scott and Mr. T.
I hope you all enjoy the SH9 as much as I enjoyed being a part of its creation!"
Cheers,
Kevin
Godlyke/TWA
We took the original DynaMorph® circuit & stripped out the envelope-controlled level section to create a pint-sized powerhouse that’s simple to use yet can still conjure cascades of cacophonous creativity.
Depending on control settings and playing technique, the MiniMorph™ can expel an almost unlimited variety of filthy, flittering filter effects that will add depth and dimension to your notes. Tight chirps, greasy gurgles, & long, yawning sweeps are all available by simply varying your picking attack.
For video demos of the TWA MiniMorph™ please CLICK HERE
The TWA MiniMorph™ offers the following features:
- Unlimited range of sounds, from mild drive to extreme fuzz to massive synth filter sweeps.
- Dynamically responsive to input signal – Input directly controls type/degree of distortion event.
- Dual cascading Preamps – Each with independent Level control.
- Dual mode switch – offers two different EQ curves for added tonal options
- Dedicated Dry Level Control – allows user to blend in Dry signal to taste.
- Master Level Control – determines overall volume level of pedal
- S3™ “Shortest Send” relay-based True-Bypass switching for transparent operation in bypass.
- 3-year warranty
- Made in USA