From Freakshow: "The Maharishi pedal was first an experiment 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 octavia... 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 conjunction 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 (that's 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... experiment with this pedal a LOT... you never know what it can do in the right, or wrong, hands!!!!"