Carl Martin Octaswitch

Carl Martin Octaswitch Review

Carl Martin Octaswitch Feature

• Plug in up to eight effects into the eight effects-loops on the back of the switcher
• Two External Switching jacks allow you to use two amplifiers and/or switch channels on those amps
• Bypass Switch allows you to completely bypass all eight pedals for the clean sound of your amp
• Turn on or off the numbered switches in each of eight DIP Bank switches, and determine which effects you wish to use simultaneously in each Bank
• Blue LED for every effects loop used and for each Bank
• 100% true-bypass, impedance free, gold relays so you can run any of your pedals

When Carl Martin decided to create a baby-brother for his world famous Combinator, the details of simplifying an already simple effect controller made his head hurt. So Carl enlisted the help of Thomas Guldmann, and the Octa-switch was born. The concept is simple….take your eight favourite effects pedals, plug them into the eight individual loops (all true-bypass gold relays) on the Octa-switch, and then designate what effects you want connected to each of 8 banks via the worlds simplest and smallest DIP switches located over top of each of the eight bank switches. Thomas chose DIP switches because they are just eight individual on-off switches in a tiny tiny package. So if your effects are plugged into Loops 1-8, you simply turn the DIP switch ‘on’ for each of the effects you want in Bank 1, and then Bank 2 etc up to Bank 8. You can use one or all of the effects in each bank, and once you have designated a bank, do us both a favour and cover the DIP with a bit of tape to ensure nothing happens to the DIP switch when you are not looking……like an errant hand, or a flood of beer. The Octa-switch is mono-in and mono/stereo out, with a choice of a buffered signal or not. The unit is powered by dual 9v batteries, or a regulated power supply like the Carl Martin Big John Power Supply, and is housed in an all metal case with heart-stopping (ok, well almost) graphics. So, the same basic options found in the digitally controlled units the famous guys are using, at a fraction of the cost! Carl’s head stopped hurting…..