The Maharishi pedal was first an expieriment that basically took the concept behind 2 totally different types of effect pedals and made them into one. The first is a classic design called the Octavia. Most of you probably are familiar with the octava...it is after all one of the most famous pedals ever and was even used by Jimi Hendrix himself!!!! The effect is a fuzz with an octave-up effect IF you play single notes ABOVE the 12th fret. I like octave-up effects but they ALWAYS have a fuzz of some sort built into them right? I wanted to have the octave-up effect but I wanted to use my own Overdrive/distortion/fuzz behind it. Sooooo I tried to create an octavia type circuit that had very little gain/distortion to it so that I could use my favorite dirt box in conjuction with it without coloration to my tone. Coincidentally the octavia type circuit is strikingly similar to that of a passive RING MODULATOR! I found that when you play 2 notes together... high up on the fretboard especially...you get a sort of ring mod type effect with this weirdo pedal I had made. Now.....the kicker to this whole thing was that I discovered something else that this pedal did....if used correctly (thats a relative term ehhh?) you can effectively get an extreme treble boost which sounds very very close to a SITAR!!! SOooo I guess the moral to this story is....expieriment with this pedal a LOT...you never know what it can do in the right, or wrong, hands!!!!

CONTROLS

Timbre- This knob basically changes the level of treble the pedal will throw at you. To the far CCW position it will have very little effect at all....turning it more CW will give you more piercing treble sounds. It should be noted that this knob is HIGHLY INTERACTIVE with the ORDER knob. You will find certain "sweet spots" depending on where the 2 knobs are in relation to eachother. In some settings you will get the pedal to start self-oscillating...it will sound similar to a theremin noise. Have fun with it!

Order- This knob reacts to the Timbre knob in that turning it CCW tends to give the pedal a more pronounced effect. Turning it CW will mellow out the effect or...if you don't like piercing loud treble..this is one way to sort of "blend" the treble out.

Volume- Pretty much a no brainer here...this is your volume level. Turning it CW will make it shake the paint off your walls. CCW quiets it down so the cops don't come.

Karma- This 2-way switch controls the amount of gain the pedal has. In "Good" karma mode it is more mellow and cleaner sounding. When you switch it over the "Bad" karma it almost gets a sort of fuzziness to it, along with a little more volume.

Now that I have tried to explain what the controls do...I can honestly say that depending on how you play your guitar, what pickup position you use, and where you have you guitars tone knob set play a VITAL ROLE in how the Maharishi will make you sound. If you use your bridge pickup with the treble maxed out and pick the guitar very close to the bridge it will give you the "sitar" effect. If you use the neck pickup and roll your tone knob so it is Bass heavy and play single notes up above the 12th fret listen to the octave up type effect...pretty neat huh? Now try the bridge pickup again...and play two notes together (higher on the neck seems to be better) now you get a ring modulator type sound!!! These are just 3 settings...I swear that everytime someone plays this pedal and messes around something new and weird come out of it. REMEMBER!!! THIS PEDAL IS TAILORED FOR SOMEONE WHO LOVES TO EXPIERIMENT WITH THEIR EFFECT PEDALS AND TRY NEW THINGS OUT. YOU MUST BE WILLING TO EXPIERIMENT WITH THIS PEDAL TO GET MAXIMUM FUN/USE OUT OF IT. This being said...enjoy it!