Roger Mayer Rocket Octavia – RARE Purple Chrome (1 of ~20) – Signed & Documented Provenance!

Roger Mayer Rocket Octavia – RARE Purple Chrome (1 of ~20) – Signed & Documented Provenance! Welcome to another listing from Sterno's STRATosphere & Pedal Emporium. We are incredibly proud to offer a true "holy grail" piece of boutique fuzz history. This is not your standard Roger Mayer Rocket Octavia. This is a highly undocumented, exceptionally rare Purple Chrome experimental edition. Only about 20 of these were ever manufactured, making it a spectacular find for serious Hendrix tone chasers and fuzz collectors.

THE PROVENANCE & HISTORY

I purchased this pedal back in September 2005 on eBay. The original seller claimed it was a limited run (1 of 50), but I recently reached out to Roger Mayer directly to get the true story. Here are the exact replies I received from Roger Mayer himself:

"We made only about 20 of these special paint purple chrome finished Octavia to experiment with a new paint chrome finish, These were personally signed by me and this finish was discontinued due to technical problems in applying the finish. It never really took off commercially as it was too difficult to apply and maintain consistency."

"The problems were in the application of the chrome process by the metal finishers as the ingredients used were not as simple to use as regular polyester based paints."

This pedal is an experimental artifact from the man who invented the Octavia. The finish has a wild, almost raw metallic texture to it—the exact "inconsistency" Mayer mentioned, which ultimately killed the production run and cemented this pedal's rarity.

THE CIRCUIT & TONE

Plugging a Stratocaster into this unit and pushing it past the 10th fret is an absolute revelation. Here is how Roger Mayer's official 2005 documentation (printed from his website) describes the magic under the hood:

• "The OCTAVIA produces a sound that is an octave higher than the note you are presently playing."
• "This doubling effect is accomplished through electronic mirror imaging techniques that are program sensitive and also respond to the feedforward inputs of the player."
• "The electronic circuitry is analogue in design and will react faithfully to all the subtleties and harmonic overtones from the guitar."
• "Electronically the OCTAVIA is an analogue circuit with the properties of a frequency doubler, envelope generator and amplitude modulator with addition[al] frequency shaping filter circuits."
• "This unit represents the "latest evolution of Octavia that Jimi used and contains the feedforward and gating effect that my earlier evolutions lacked."

As Roger Mayer's website stated perfectly: "The modern clones today often copy the Tycobrahe unit that in fact was a rip off of my earlier 24 volt versions... so it makes sense to buy a unit from the man who invented it."

CONDITION & INCLUSIONS

The Pedal: Functions perfectly and sounds massive. The purple chrome finish is wholly unique. Hand-signed in gold marker by Roger Mayer on the bottom plate.

The Box: Includes the original Roger Mayer shipping box. Please note: The original 2005 seller unfortunately used the actual product box as the shipping box, so there is USPS priority tape over it, but the original "Roger Mayer Octavia" blue and red label is still clearly visible beneath the tape.

This pedal sounds absolutely incredible and remains one of the most expressive octave-fuzz effects I have owned. This is a rare opportunity to own a verified 1 of ~20 prototype from pedal royalty himself, Roger Mayer. Don't miss out on this piece of Sterno’s STRATosphere & Pedal Emporium! Please review all photographs carefully for condition and provenance. Message me through Reverb if you have any questions. Thanks for looking and best regards from Sterno’s STRATosphere