Thinking about an octave pedal...

[stevie_bees]

The title pretty much sums it up. I'm in a 3-piece band, and we mostly play cheesy 80's pop/rock. Some of the solos I take are approximations of keyboard/sax solos on the originals, and I'm toying with the idea of an octave pedal to thicken up the sound and add a slight 'keyboard' quality to them.

What do you guys think? Who uses one regularly and what are the best options out there?

As usual I'll be on a tight budget and would probably end up buying from eBay.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

I had a Boss for about an hour and returned it. this is the one I would get

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDssde6C8tY

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

There are three types of octaves.
-Octave Fuzz a la Octavia that uses ring modulation
-Analog sub octave like the Boss that uses some sort of frequency halving
-Digital octaves like the POG

Only the POG types can handle miltiple notes and chords. The POG works great for synthy or organ type tones. A boss Octave will give a sub-octave that's kind of cool for single notes and Octavias will sound like an octave fuzz, think Purple Haze solo.

For your use, a Micro POG plus modulation may work well.

(I guess there's also older digital pitch shifters like the old Eventides and Whammy, but other than the original Whammy they all sound like the solo in Owner of a Lonely Heart to me)

 

[jeremy]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

i use a boss oc2. it only works right on single notes and doesnt work well on really low notes. it tracks pretty well as long as youre playing single notes higher on the neck and it adds a cool synthy quality to the lower octaves. for what it does i like it alot. i didnt like the newer oc3 any where near as much even on the oc2 setting.

i use it for fattening solos, usually with some overdrive going on but its cool clean too

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

Yeah, the OC-2 looks good. I like the sound from the EH Micro POG but it's beyond my budget. I'd only be looking to enhance single note stuff. (Think Video Killed The Radio Star solo)

 

[GoDrex]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...



http://proguitarshop.com/store/effe...7_243/mxr103-blue-box-fuzz-octave-pedal-p-624

 

[briggleman]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

All I can do here is give you my experience. I just went through this very octave phase. I auditioned the Boss OC2 and 3 and the Modtone Deep Dive. The Modtone Deep Dive blew the boss out of the water. It has great tracking, in fact, it is note for note, I could not detect any latency what so ever. The Deep Dive also had the mod switch which sort of added a ring modulation which really did give the notes a synth quality. Purchased the Modtone and loved it for all of about 5 minutes after I got it home. They are dead serious when they say single note playing, leads only. It is not polyphonic. Here was my issue..... I am not the greatest when it comes to leads but I get by. However I would stray and hit an adj string and the Modtone would go bananas. Weird artifacts would sound and it was not uniform in any way. Pluck an open string then hit a fretted one and same issue, the existing vibrating string would disrupt the fretted note and to me, it became unusable. If you are a really good lead player, this would be the one I would get.

Now what did I do, I ebayed the ModTone, only got half my money back after fees and purchased....... the Electro Harmonix Ring Thing. This will do everything you want...for now and boy will you have fun with it later. Plus it has 9 presets. It is -2 octaves to +2 octaves in its pitch shift mode. You can downtune your guitar with the press of a button. Go from reg. tuning to Eb if you want, to baritone guitar. Thats what the presets do for you. You can get the organ, synth, sounds so easy. Yes, its around $210 street, but it is worth that and more. Check out the demos at EHX and let us know your thoughts

 

[Simon_F]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

Going back 10 years or more I used to run a Boss ME-30 into the front of a Marshall for a few simple effects. It had a digital octave effect, probably not a million miles from the OC-2, that I used on a few solos and it was fine. Filled the sound out and tracked OK (not that you hear a lot of detail in a pub gig ). Like jeremy said about the OC-2, it didn't sound good on low notes, but was fine for soloing from the middle of the neck upwards. If you're familiar with Ace Frehley's solo on the KISS Alive II version of Christine Sixteen, I was able to get that kind of effect. I think you'll be fine with an eBay OC-2.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

Yeah, I'm not looking for over the top, just something to subtly fill out the sound for some solos. It'll all be around the middle of the neck so not to worried about how it would sound with low notes.

 

[jcthejester13]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

Until I got my POG1, I used a Dano Chilidog. It is a nice little analog octave pedal. It tracks great for single strings and sounds really nice in front of anything. Just don't play more than one string on it.

 

[tonefreak1527]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

i've got one, don't get an OC-2 they are aweful

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

I can dig the EH stuff, but I can't dig on anything else. I hate it when the cheap octave pedals don't track well. It sounds like a very loose bowel movement.

 

[James Rock]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

they all sound like the solo in Owner of a Lonely Heart to me

But if we wanted that effect is their a cheap alternative (not rack gear). Sorry to the OP for the Hijack.

 

[wickenspoet]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

Love the Modtone for fuzzy analog single note stuff. Just got it a month ago. Great construction and surpising quality. You can find them new on ebay occasionaly for $99. Love it's small size, no noise, and standard 9 volt power consumption... probably less than 30 mA.

Love the Micro Pog for small chords and organ sounds. Love the octave down tones. Octave up is a little more harsh, but still nice if used modestly. I feel that the Micro Pog is noisier than the Modtone and requires more power... at least 200 mA. Better resale value than the Modtone if you should decide to sell it later.

Never tried the Fox Rox Octron, but it appears to be a hybrid of both of these type of pedals. Like an analog POG, sort of.

Put a dirt pedal after any of these pedals and you've got it.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

My buddy had an OC-2. It was useless for anything other than single notes. He ditched it and got an EH micro-POG. That is the coolest thing ever. Full tracking on open chords. You can dial in both the octave up and the octave down individually. Can make your guitar sound like an organ. Totally amazing!

 

[theguitarguy478]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

Big fan of the OC-3, most of the buyers sites seem to recommend that one too. Also toyed with getting a Micro POG, had a play around with one at Dawsons at it was surprisingly reactive for the price. This site is alright for recommendations https://guitaarr.com/pedals/octave-pedal-buyers-guide/

 

[jeremy]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

two posts and two links to your website... this is also a 9 year old thread

 

[Jacew]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

There are three types of octaves.
-Octave Fuzz a la Octavia that uses ring modulation
-Analog sub octave like the Boss that uses some sort of frequency halving
-Digital octaves like the POG

Only the POG types can handle miltiple notes and chords. The POG works great for synthy or organ type tones. A boss Octave will give a sub-octave that's kind of cool for single notes and Octavias will sound like an octave fuzz, think Purple Haze solo.

For your use, a Micro POG plus modulation may work well.

(I guess there's also older digital pitch shifters like the old Eventides and Whammy, but other than the original Whammy they all sound like the solo in Owner of a Lonely Heart to me)

I have micro POG. It's brilliant for those sax/keyboard tones for guitar.

also does nice dobling acoustic effect.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

I got a POG-like Ammonn pedal

I too want an OC3
But the POG does up and down which is what I wanted

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Thinking about an octave pedal...

EHX Pitch Fork polyphonic, so it can also do chords and harmonize, So can a Boss Super Shifter plus a lot more -both are more powerful than an Boss OC2 or 3 which are single noters -good but very limited.