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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Do you guys have any recommendations about octave pedals? I'm interested in something that will give a bass mimic but an octave down from what I'm playing for my electrics.
Thanks |
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February 2006
Posts: 76
Location: Fairfax, VA | If you've got the budget for it, check out the Electro-Harmonix P.O.G. (Polyphonic Octave Generator). It's kind of tough to describe how cool this thing is, but you can use it to sound like a bass, an organ, or a whole lot of other stuff that 'tain't natural. The problem with most octave effects is that they can't handle polyphonics. If there's more than one principle frequency in their input they get confused. The POG's signal processor can handle as many simultaneous notes as you care to throw at it. It's pretty cool. I believe it's a POG (in combination with various boosts and distortions, most notably a big muff pi) that Jack White used to get some of the bass-y guitar tones on the latest White Stripes album. |
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Location: NJ | "BigMuff"(snicker,snicker) . . . |
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Location: Burbank | You've heard of her too ay Cliff? |
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Location: NJ | Hey!! . . . I'm from Jersey!! |
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Location: Oregon | Man Electro-Harmonix is my favorite brand ever. Their POG is on Joe Satriani's new cd. I believe there is also a video for it on their web site. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Boss makes a few decent ones but they choke if you hit more than two notes at a time.
Short of something really awesome like the Roland VG88 or GR33, the P.O.G. is definately the way to go. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I like the Boss OC-2. It does break up when sent a lot of notes, but like any effect, it has its place. I find on leads, just bleading enough of the Octaves in to be heard, just barely, makes an amazingly fat signal, and the instability actually makes it sound more natural under distortion conditions then others. However, if you are trying to do more pure 12-string sounding lush acoustic stuff, it's not the right unit, and I'd go for Lexicon or high Digitech gear for that... or just not bother. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Thanks for the tips fellas. The POG seems like the way to go, just don't have the scratch for it at this time :( :( :( oh well. |
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Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | The newer Boss OC-3 is a pretty big improvement over the earlier models (IMHO) and might work well for you. If not exactly what you want, using it as Miles suggested does make for a nice fat sound.
I believe I might have an OC-3 tucked away in my gear closet somewhere. If you are interested, email me and if I can dig it out we can work something out. I have about 25 pedals in their that I really need to sort out and sell off. |
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Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | the boss pedal is good but I picked up a fulltone ultimate ocatave and it is GREAT.
the problem with octave pedals is the tracking. the original ones glitched all the time and well some people really like that sound. if you are looking for one to track well you need something that is newer and "beefy" |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I think, before I commit, I have to go down to my local GC and try them out. I guess I want to have my cake and eat it too, in that, I want to strum and use the down octave effect, and switch it off and play a lead clean. Kinda the reverse of what Miles does. I met some reps from Electro Harmonics at a guitar show last year and I was looking at distortion stuff, there was no else around, and I wanted to talk about the stuff and they really were disinterested in me, like because I wasn't a guitar god, I was beneath them. So they turned me off to their products.
I did find the line-6 people (speaking of effects), and of course the Ovation Reps, to be genuinely sincere in showing off their products.
It was a pleasure talking to them.
Can you strum the boss oc-3 and not have it turn into mud, or is it a single note at a time unit? |
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Location: Fairfax, VA | Line 6 makes some fantastic gear, but there have been durability problems with some of their pricier stuff--especially the DL-4 delay modeler--which is a shame since it's about the most fantastic delay I've ever touched.
If you're looking to strum an octave down, the POG is the only thing I know of that will let you. The problem is that a traditional octave follower works by first isolating the primary frequency from it's input and then creating the following octave up or octave down signal. If there are more than 1 strong signal competing for being recognized as the primary frequency (ie, if you play two different notes at the same time) it flakes out, jumps between notes, etc.
Now, there are ways around this. If, for instance, you just wanted the octave follower to glom onto the bass root note from what you're strumming and reproduce it an octave lower you could split your signal, EQ out everything but the bottom end, and feed that to the octave, then mix the original signal and the output from the octave pedal back together. I've never tried that, but I think it ought to work in principle. Maybe I need to build an octave pedal next. |
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Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I read the reviews of the OC-3 and they seem rather dim in its polyphonic capabilities. So ... I'll wait for the next version to come out or see if I can get a deal on a used EH POG.
Thanks again guys. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | The OC-3 sounds really good with 2 notes (power chords) but will get muddy with full chords. It does have a knob that allows you to control how much effect you get.....the less the effect, the less mud. |
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Posts: 54
Location: Kingston Ontario | I am a fan of really cheap pedals although I do have some tasty expensive ones.
I picked up a Danelectro Chilli Dog Octava Pedal.
It has controls for two down octaves as well as a guitar/effect blend control.
You can't play chords with the thing unless you want to get thrown out of the band. It sounds best with a strong input signal and played in the upper register.
You can adjust it so that your guitar sounds like a bass or do a blend and get a nice fat jazz sound.
It's an effects pedal and for under $50 it works for me. |
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Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | then there is always the holy grail..the original Digitech Whammy. Still craps out on multiple notes but allows you some incredible effects and different harmonies...3rds, 5ths, 7ths, etc. |
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Posts: 486
Location: North Carolina | Can you set any of these pedals to register ONLY below certain notes? I have put a GK2 on one of my Ovations and run a GR-33 set to the bass and send it to a separate mixer channel. I can choose any of the 3 lower ( 4,5 and 6) strings, and have set patches up so I can change them on the fly. This gives me the low end I like for solo gigs. But I was thinking an octave pedal that does not reproduce the treble strings might make life a little easier, plus I could then use any guitar. |
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Location: closely held secret | I think you're only going to find that common using a hex pickup like the GK-2.
But now that you bring it up, I guess if you could get the 6 element piezo that the stereo models use, you could devise a switching system to send the bass strings to a separate jack.
Does anyone know if the outputs from the individual elements run to the preamp as 6 separate signals, or are they paired internally (before they leave the pickup assembly) then go to the preamp as ground/left/right? |
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Octave pedal recommendations
