MXR Bass Octave Deluxe - Tracking problems on G string

Animal Mother · #1 09-11-2009, 08:35 AM

Hi everyone,

I tried an MXR Bass Octave Deluxe yesterday at the guitar shop and I thought it was pretty nice until I went up to the G string. For some reason between the 1st (G#) fret and the 5th fret (C) the tracking was really off and the note would go up and down randomly.

All other notes were fine. The lower frets on the E string weren't very precise but it was OK for the price I guess.

I was using a Fender American Jazz Bass into an Ampeg combo.

Anyone got that problem before? Is it common on all those pedals or the unit was defect?

Actually I'm not really looking for an octaver, more of a subtle sub-bass generator... any suggestions? The Micro-POG?

In fact I was supposed to buy an used Strat Plus 1988 (Red Fiesta) yesterday and my bank froze my pay check.

So I finally bought a EHX Bass Big Muff Pi as a consolation prize until the check is unfrozen... I'm pretty happy!

Thanks!

Ant1977 · #2 09-11-2009, 09:07 AM

Check out my post here -
Octave "Flub" out help

gastric · #3 09-11-2009, 09:13 AM

Generally speaking I've found the octaves to always track notes higher on the fretboard much cleaner and reliably.

Toasted · #4 09-11-2009, 09:35 AM

Neck pickup, clean technique.

rratajski · #5 09-11-2009, 09:54 AM

An octaver will eat up a bad setup like no other. The bass you used might be in need of a good setup. Dead/bad frets won't track well in octavers, generally speaking.

Chronicle · #6 09-11-2009, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rratajski

An octaver will eat up a bad setup like no other. The bass you used might be in need of a good setup. Dead/bad frets won't track well in octavers, generally speaking.

+1.

Animal Mother · #7 09-11-2009, 11:44 AM

Actually it was a brand new bass at the store, so maybe it needed some setup but it seemed pretty nice to me.

The other thread Ant1977 linked talks about dead zones on Fender basses, very interesting. In any case, I can play the notes on the 3rd string and it works beautifully, so it's not that a big problem.

pedroims · #8 09-11-2009, 12:36 PM

I had the same problem, sent it back to Dunlop, I got an email telling me that they repaired the pedal and sent it back to me, I havent checked it yet since I am overseas, Dunlop did not tell me what the problem was but the pedal supposed to work fine now. Excellent customer service by the way,

gastric · #9 09-11-2009, 02:27 PM

Except the pedal will probably work exactly the same.