MXR Bass Octave Deluxe - Too much for my rig to handle?

[CarmineCarnage]

I recently added the Bass Octave Deluxe to my arsenal, mostly to accentuate the feel of my Boss SYB-5 but for certain verses with the band as well.

I feel, however, the frequency that this thing pumps is too much for my amp?

We play in Dropped Bb (Bb, F, Bb, Eb), my rig is an Ampeg SVT-7 Pro and an SVT-810E.

Pedal chain is (I believe in this order), TU-3, SYB-5, Octave Deluxe, DD-5, ODB-3, CEB-3, back to head.

Basically, when I engage the octave on the 2nd string, it sounds about proper to an open 4th. However, on the open 4th, the sound seems to drop maybe 1.5-2 steps for about a half second then returns to the natural tone...

I turned the compressor down a bit and the speakers yelled at me

Any suggestions? Bunk pedal perhaps?

[hennessybass]

I don't think you have a bunk pedal... I think you are just too low for that pedal to handle. I think the pedal is just having trouble tracking down that low.

check out this vid starting about 7min in -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHauQR3Pi3U --

Ed talks about tracking. He starts to get some glitches around his low F#. I have experienced the same thing with my low F and open E string. the pedal has a hard time hanging on to those super low notes, and will slip and return to just passing the original tone.

I think you are just experiencing a limitation of the technology combined with your super low tuning.

[RCCollins]

Originally Posted by hennessybass

I don't think you have a bunk pedal... I think you are just too low for that pedal to handle. I think the pedal is just having trouble tracking down that low.

Yep. Your amp is fine. There are limits as to how low an octaver can realistically go, and when you start out in such a low tuning, the tracking is an additional problem.

[RickenBoogie]

+1 you are expecting an analog octaver to go lower than it's capable. Try playing farther up the neck, but when you're way low, turn it off, or get a digital octaver.

[RedMoses]

I found i have much better results with the Octave BEFORE the SYB-5, only down side is both octaves will produce the same low note, until you get up to the third position then you get a higher octave. The SYB sounds pretty big on its own, adding the octive def fortifies the sound but its not absolutely necessary but try putting the octve before the Synth, it should help.

[Downunderwonder]

It's a good thing the octave does fail to track or you would be asking the impossible of your 8x10. Some of the notes you can get it to track on probably won't be very healthy either.

The sealed 8x10 filters its own lows to an extent but people still blow them up from too much low end, good luck with octave below downtuned C of your A.

[RoeyHaviv]

Originally Posted by RedMoses

I found i have much better results with the Octave BEFORE the SYB-5, only down side is both octaves will produce the same low note, until you get up to the third position then you get a higher octave. The SYB sounds pretty big on its own, adding the octive def fortifies the sound but its not absolutely necessary but try putting the octve before the Synth, it should help.

The SYB 5 is monophonic (except for settings 11&12).
If you put the MXR in front of it and have your clean signal blended it would not track.

As for the original issue - my MXR B.O.D. only tracks well down to low G.

[sillyfabe]

Get a EHX HOG, set it for OCT bend and the slide to -2OCT. Set the sweep for reverse and now you have -3OCT. Play a benefit for elephants and it'll be a huge hit!