Catalinbread Ottava Magus SOUNDCLIPS

assboglin · #1 03-17-2008, 02:36 PM

So I got the Ottava Magus. It's an Octavia type pedal, or an octave up fuzz. On bass it's basically a snarly fuzz pedal that can do some funky octave stuff. I'm not sure how I feel about this pedal yet, so your feedback on these sounds would be appreciated. I'm not familiar with the pedal enough to convincingly coax all the cool sounds out of it so that's my fault if the clips are lacking a bit. Anyways check it out:

The first clip is one of my stock riffs played through the pedal to show the gnarly, kinda clangy fuzz you can get:

http://media.putfile.com/OM4

The next clip is some playing above the 12th fret (where the octave is more prominent). Excuse my sloppy playing:

http://media.putfile.com/OM1

And now I'll attempt to get some ring modulator-ish tones by playing a low out of tune note under what I'm playing:

http://media.putfile.com/OM3

And here's some melodic playing with a D drone:

http://media.putfile.com/OM6

And here's some (bad) Purple Haze just for the hell of it:

http://media.putfile.com/OM2

Like I said I'm not sure how I feel about this pedal so your honest feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

SpankyPants · #2 03-17-2008, 02:40 PM

I'm not especially impressed. There are already a lot of pedals that do the same thing.

assboglin · #3 03-17-2008, 03:10 PM

The Ottava Magus is probably my favorite Octavia pedal I've played through, but I know exactly what you mean. When I play though an Octavia type pedal I find myself wishing I was playing through something that had some more balls. While doing these demos I kept finding myself kicking on the Box of Rock. I guess Octavias work a lot better on guitar than they do on bass.

The BurgerMeister · #4 03-17-2008, 03:19 PM

the first clip sounds BAD-ASS to me. you got a good greasy groove goin' there!

assboglin · #5 03-17-2008, 03:24 PM

Thanks. And I forgot to mention, the Octavia kind of pedal is good for SPACESHIP music. To hear some spaceship music check out the links in my signature.

OhThePeacock · #6 03-17-2008, 03:36 PM

Good sounds but still a bit generic like said above, I don't know if I could justify 150 on it.

assboglin · #7 03-17-2008, 03:45 PM

http://www.proguitarshop.com/product...97&CategoryID=

You can get it there for 119, so for that price I'd compare it to the Voodoo Labs Proctavia. The Proctavia has more voodoo I think but it's also harder to power and whatnot.

Max Roberts · #8 03-17-2008, 03:49 PM

$111 from Tonefactor

Toasted · #9 03-17-2008, 04:09 PM

@ assboglin: thank you for the clips.

assboglin · #10 03-17-2008, 05:26 PM

You're welcome. It's just a shame I didn't find talkbass sooner to do soundclips for all of the interesting pedals I used to have.

Oh and for anyone interested, I liked the sound of the Ottava Magus better with my SG Bass, but unfortunately I forgot it when I went to do these soundclips and whatnot. I could demonstrate it if someone was interested.

assboglin · #11 03-18-2008, 12:01 AM

I did gig with the pedal and I did get some use out of it but I can't decide whether I think it's cool or not so I'm still up in the air as to whether or not I want to put this on my board so if anyone has any input it would be much appreciated. Don't get the impression that I'll get offended if you have negative input, if that's what it is, that's what I'm looking for.

Anyway for anyone following my soundclips I ordered an MXR Carbon Copy Delay so I promise a few clips of that when it arrives.

roflol · #12 03-18-2008, 06:05 AM

sounds fat

OhThePeacock · #13 03-18-2008, 06:47 AM

I think this could do some great things in a three piece to fill out solo passages, make up for the lack of a second guitard. I don't know if that's your case or not.

**grygrx** · #14 03-18-2008, 11:22 AM

Thanks for the clips.... not sure I like the sound but it will be interesting to compare to the Devi Ever GZ I have coming in.

assboglin · #15 03-18-2008, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OhThePeacock

I think this could do some great things in a three piece to fill out solo passages, make up for the lack of a second guitard. I don't know if that's your case or not.

I can get plenty of use out of the pedal in my band, that's not the part I'm worried about. Like grygrx I'm not sure if I like the sound so that's what I'm on the fence about.

But good point this pedal can be a simpler alternative to something like a whammy or pog set to add an octave up through an overdrive/distortion/fuzz. I've done the whammy thing before and I kind of thought it was a little harsh/artificial and personally I think octavias are a little less so albeit a completely different animal.

assboglin · #16 03-18-2008, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grygrx

Thanks for the clips.... not sure I like the sound but it will be interesting to compare to the Devi Ever GZ I have coming in.

Yeah, please do some clips so I can compare too. I didn't check out that one when I was octavia shopping.

Hmm, I'd also really like to check out the Dunlop Octavio which I really dug the sound samples for on guitar but I decided to go with the Ottava Magus because it was more convenient on a pedalboard and to power and whatnot. Plus there's a cool purple LED.

TaySte_2000 · #17 05-30-2008, 05:43 AM

What did you decide in the end?

Mark Olson · #18 05-31-2008, 03:29 PM

I can get a really cool synth tone out of it. But it's also one of those pedals that requires a lot of technique to utilize properly, so I'm keeping it around because it will be more useful to me down the road if I become a better bass player or spend some time practicing the different techniques that work well with the pedal. I only keep a relatively small collection of pedals and sell a lot of them, but I do know I want an octave fuzz around and it may as well be this one. It's one of my more favorite octave fuzzes I've heard, but I'd also like to check out the Dunlop Octavio, I really like how that things sounds.

funkalicious101 · #19 05-31-2008, 05:47 PM

Wow, this might be the fuzz that I'm looking for. I love that sound.