Octave pedals?
- Thread starter Bryann
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GDPunkRock
New member
cheapest could be anything,but best for sounding like a bass probably would be the whammy pedal by Digitech.apparently jack white used that on the white stripes albums to compensate for the lack of a bass player. 
carboxymoron
New member
Yes, you can get good bass sounds using pedals on a guitar. You need good left hand technique to maintain the pitch, hold the note firmly without vibrato or bending, and make sure your guitar is properly intonated with no fret buzz as it can badly affect the tracking.
Cheapest octave pedal I've had was an Arion MOC-1 (secondhand under $50). It has a glitchy electronic quality to it that's great for experimental music, not so suitable for getting a normal rock bass sound.
You can try:
Boss PS-6 - very versatile with other features than just octave shifting, but low note tracking not perfect, and monophonic (only tracks single notes), ~$180 secondhand,
Digitech Whammy - in my opinion the Boss PS-6 can do almost everything a Whammy can and more, but I guess the Whammy is a classic and favoured by many rock guitarists. Monophonic, takes up a lot of space, ~$250?
EHX Micro POG - basically one-trick pedal but perfect polyphonic (multi note) tracking, ~$250 secondhand but might be hard to find
Zcat Polyoctaver 2 - good "clone" of the POG, relatively cheap online, though the octave signal has a slightly slow/weird attack compared to the real POG
Boss OC-2 or OC-3 - cheaper option, pretty bad tracking
I use a PS-6 and the bass octave / pitch glide effects on a Line 6 M9 for various purposes. I find it helps a lot to have a compressor (before or after the octaver depending), as a lot of these bass octaves will sound more like an organ so you want to exaggerate the attack a bit to get back the guitar/bass feel. You might also want to use an EQ pedal after the octaver to get the right bass tone (using the neck pickup on my tele and boosting the lower mids gets me a nice chunky bass tone that even my bassist is jealous of).
Cheapest octave pedal I've had was an Arion MOC-1 (secondhand under $50). It has a glitchy electronic quality to it that's great for experimental music, not so suitable for getting a normal rock bass sound.
You can try:
Boss PS-6 - very versatile with other features than just octave shifting, but low note tracking not perfect, and monophonic (only tracks single notes), ~$180 secondhand,
Digitech Whammy - in my opinion the Boss PS-6 can do almost everything a Whammy can and more, but I guess the Whammy is a classic and favoured by many rock guitarists. Monophonic, takes up a lot of space, ~$250?
EHX Micro POG - basically one-trick pedal but perfect polyphonic (multi note) tracking, ~$250 secondhand but might be hard to find
Zcat Polyoctaver 2 - good "clone" of the POG, relatively cheap online, though the octave signal has a slightly slow/weird attack compared to the real POG
Boss OC-2 or OC-3 - cheaper option, pretty bad tracking
I use a PS-6 and the bass octave / pitch glide effects on a Line 6 M9 for various purposes. I find it helps a lot to have a compressor (before or after the octaver depending), as a lot of these bass octaves will sound more like an organ so you want to exaggerate the attack a bit to get back the guitar/bass feel. You might also want to use an EQ pedal after the octaver to get the right bass tone (using the neck pickup on my tele and boosting the lower mids gets me a nice chunky bass tone that even my bassist is jealous of).
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MadWerewolfBoy
New member
Yea, I used to use the Boss OC-2 as well. It was not very good at all, so i would recommend getting something else.
PatheinRaindropMoe
New member
to get the low octave effect on the geetar, you need an octave pedal that do minus octave of 1 or 2
Most of the octave pedal offer either or combo of plus, minus octave and the intervals in between.
Most of the octave pedal offer either or combo of plus, minus octave and the intervals in between.
Hmmm would this do?
http://standardvalue.com.sg/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=33
http://standardvalue.com.sg/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=33
carboxymoron
New member
You can try testing the Beta Aivin at SV. I would guess it's about the same as a Boss OC-3, and I will bet good money that it isn't polyphonic in any practical sense.
What do you intend to do anyway? If it's just for jamming / for fun then I guess any pedal will do. Like I mentioned the Arion MOC-1 if you can find it. Danelectro made a 'Chili Dog' octave pedal that's about the same standard.
But if you actually need a proper bass tone from your guitar for whatever reason, you'll have to check out the better options.
What do you intend to do anyway? If it's just for jamming / for fun then I guess any pedal will do. Like I mentioned the Arion MOC-1 if you can find it. Danelectro made a 'Chili Dog' octave pedal that's about the same standard.
But if you actually need a proper bass tone from your guitar for whatever reason, you'll have to check out the better options.
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