EBS Octabass Pedal

Dave44 · #1 09-11-2002, 09:01 AM

Does anyone have any experience with this pedal? I've read and talked to a few bassists and they have said if you are going to get this effect buy the EBS version. Also, can you let me know what effects if any do you use? what makes are they?

Thanx Mo

**BFunk** · #2 09-11-2002, 09:39 AM

Very good pedal. Tracks well. Good sound. Questionable, IMO, quality.

It was too refined for my tastes. I replaced it with a EH Octave Multiplexor.

FretNoMore · #3 09-11-2002, 11:53 AM

I have all the EBS Black Label pedals, and also had a couple of the previous version. I've not had any problems with the pedals with one exception: the battery cables have had a tendency to break at the circuit board (especially with the previous version of the pedals, but it has happened with one of the new ones as well) so I've had to solder a few back. Now I power the pedal board with a combination of an external rechargeable battery pack and phantom power from the mixer, so this is not an issue for me.

There has also been a problem reported for the previous version of the Octabass, a couple of them had a weird low level "grumble" sound, they seemed to pick up and enhance noisy cables etc. It was fixed by exchanging a component.

Apart from the problems above I've had no reason to complain about quality - on the contrary, they have a very solid feel to them.

stevekim · #4 09-11-2002, 12:38 PM

what has been your experience with ebs quality, lo-z? i've had two ebs multidrive's die on me in the past two months. i'm really hoping i got a bad batch because ebs makes great pedals otherwise.

-steve

**BFunk** · #5 09-11-2002, 02:00 PM

I had the Octabass. Worked ok for me. Sold it to someone on line. He said it wasn't working. He sent it to EBS. They sent it back without a charge and wouldn't tell him what the problem was. Turns out it was the battery cable as described above. Looked online to confirm they were having problems. Also had a switch die early on the compressor.

FretNoMore · #6 09-11-2002, 02:39 PM

I realize I didn't answer the original question - what pedal to use for the octaver function. I've only tried the Boss OC-2 before I bought the EBS, and there is no comparison IMHO. The EBS has far superior tracking.

Jazz Ad · #7 09-11-2002, 04:52 PM

I've tried the Boss PS-5 this morning, after hearing the samples.
The low octave is a real killer, and it tracks way better than the EBS.

FretNoMore · #8 09-11-2002, 11:56 PM

I havn't played the PS-5 myself, but from what I hear in the samples there is a quite long delay before the octave signal kicks in, something you don't have with the EBS. Once it starts it seems to track very well, but that delay will be very annoying. I'll go check out the PS-5 though, it does some other tricks that might be fun.

plankspanker13 · #9 09-12-2002, 05:11 PM

There's always the MXR bass octave; simple and hands-free-adjustable during performance. Tracking is helped considerably with a compressor in front of it, but I usually dont use one or need to. Then again, style of music played, and the presence of a Hipshot Bass Xtender key are also factors to consider. I have demo'd the EBS and love it, just not the price. I have never tried the EHx, and have no intention of doing so unless the MXR dies on me. Since I only use it for my church gig and not my rock band, I don't see that happening.

dermihi · #10 11-23-2011, 09:06 AM

I know this is thread-necromancy, but still:
I just bought a used grey-version Octabass for a few € and it produces a quite loud grumbling noise when I stop playing. I tried different cables, battery or 1spot-powering, but that makes no difference. The noise is quite loud and in this state the pedal is unusable for anything serious.

FretNoMore said the following (see above) in 2002: "There has also been a problem reported for the previous version of the Octabass, a couple of them had a weird low level "grumble" sound, they seemed to pick up and enhance noisy cables etc. It was fixed by exchanging a component."

Does anyone know anything about this? I tried google but didn't find anything. I'm pretty good with my soldering iron, so if it's an easy fix I'd like to try it.
Any thoughts

danomite64 · #11 02-14-2012, 05:58 PM

I'd like to know which component to replace to rid my old grey Octabass of that grumbling too..........

chuck3 · #12 02-14-2012, 06:07 PM

I generally like EBS pedals and I use a bunch of them. The Octabass was good, but I wanted something with even more octaving options, and went with the POG 2, which I love. I sold the Octabass to a TBer in a trade.

ribafish · #13 02-15-2012, 12:19 AM

I tried it, but wasn't impressed. I was waaaay more impressed with mxr bod, which i ended up buying. It tracked better and sounds (at least to my ears) way better.

HolmeBass · #14 02-15-2012, 08:39 AM

I started with the EBS and it's nice, but too polite for my tastes. I got the MXR BOD and it instantly replaced the EBS. I was only using the most aggressive setting on the EBS, the MXR allows lots of tweaking in that tone neighborhood with its two different low octave tones.

Then the guitarist in my band wanted to try the EBS for his solo/looping gigs, and he loves how he can emulate bass with just the octave down signal, much smoother and less square-wavey than the OC-2 he was using, so he traded me his OC-2 for my EBS. That's win-win as I love the OC-2. The BOD still slightly edges it out on my main board, but for funky use in the FX loop of my QTron+ the OC-2 is killing.

Condensed version: if you tried the OC-2 and it wasn't to your taste, try the MXR BOD. If you want something "smoother" than either of those, then the EBS might be your pedal. But if you want to bring the synthy funk, I'd stick with either the OC-2 or the BOD. If you want something even more digital/dry sounding, try a POG2 or Whammy pedal.

zebra31 · #15 01-09-2013, 08:00 AM

Is anyone has a problem with the octabass... kind of pitch switching when a note is sustained ?

Phagor · #16 01-09-2013, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zebra31

Is anyone has a problem with the octabass... kind of pitch switching when a note is sustained ?

This is the classic problem with all analog octavers. The Octobass has the best tracking of all the ones I've tried. You can try:

Playing higher on the neck, around the 12th fret,
Turning the treble down on your bass,
Switching to the front (neck) pickup, if you have one.

No analog octaver tracks really low notes, and you probably wouldn't want it to (your amp won't be able to reproduce the low frequencies properly).

Even though my EBS tracks great, I've gone over to an OC2 for a fatter synthier sound.