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Meet Roger Mayer, the navy acoustics engineer who created sound effects for the giants of the 1960s rock scene

How did you get into sound engineering?

I joined the UK鈥檚 Royal Naval Scientific Service when I left school, training as an engineer. We were working on underwater warfare, using vibrational and acoustical analysis to detect anything at all that makes a noise at sea.

What type of engineering was involved?

The navy was interested in detecting noise from enemy vessels and in the prevention of noise generation in our own ships and submarines. My work involved the mechanics of sound generation and the electronics to measure it. When a steel-hulled sub is running silent, the sound of a dropped spanner can be picked up 鈥� and the sub鈥檚 position located 鈥� from up to 160 kilometres away. We could recognise the engine note of each Russian sub and work out which way they were going. It really was like the stuff of [a Tom Clancy thriller and blockbuster movie].

What linked your work with music?

Everything I learned about acoustical transmission and electronics was also applicable to guitars, guitar pickups, preamplifiers and effects.

How did you get involved with guitarists?

I grew up with [of The Yardbirds] and [The Yardbirds and later Led Zeppelin] and we all used to go to the same pubs in Surbiton and Epsom to the west of London. We listened to the same music and I helped them out technically. I made some 鈥渇uzz boxes鈥� for them in around 1964, improving on some American ones that Jimmy Page and Keith Richards [The Rolling Stones] had used.

Tell me about Octavia, the effects device that you developed and Jimi Hendrix used

It鈥檚 quite complicated. It introduces a series of harmonics at twice the frequency you鈥檙e playing at but in a way that complements your playing 鈥� doubling the frequency of the guitar sound, placing it in the octave above. An analogy is the way that a mirror placed in front of another mirror creates a series of reflections that ricochet into infinity. I used analogue mirror-imaging circuits to create a similar acoustic mirror. The guitarist can vary the effect by 鈥渧iewing鈥� it from oblique angles.

How did you get to work with Hendrix?

I met Jimi at a club in 1967. When I showed him what Octavia could do he loved it, and wanted to use it on the solos in his next singles 鈥� Purple Haze and Fire 鈥� and many more tracks after that. That started a collaboration between us that continued until Jimi died in 1970.

So he wasn鈥檛 a purist about technology besmirching his art?

Absolutely the reverse. He was like an artist of old being given a new range of pigments. I was providing new colours, techniques and textures for his palette. We worked together to further the range of sounds he could possibly create. He loved breaking new ground.