octave pedal that goes 8va w/ a true bypass??

jebo · #1 07-09-2011, 05:45 PM

I'm looking for a (octave) pedal that does an octave up feature and does not eat your tone while in bypass (POG, bass whammy, etc)...does such a thing exist??

rratajski · #2 07-09-2011, 05:53 PM

With digital, you get that sterile quality.
With analog, you get mild distortion.

It's 6 of 1, 1/2 dozen of another.

The newer ehx pedals' bypass is pristine.
The bypass on the boss pedals I've tried are fine as well.

Swift713 · #3 07-09-2011, 09:16 PM

I found the bypass on the EHX Micro Pog and BMS, Exar Octavium, and Line 6 M series just fine. I like the tone of the BMS' octave up the best.

BogeyBass · #4 07-09-2011, 09:38 PM

Yah old school analog octave pedals sound purdy dumb,

unless you like the tracking errors and square wave sound, it makes a great synth tone.

Otherwise digital is the way to go, it takes a good amount of delay lines to get good octave down or up. Without it sounding like a 1bit fart. So digital is going to sound better than analog...and the analog pedals are basically turning it into a 1bit squarewave. Which is not clear at all, or resemble the original bass signal in any way. Even with the best digital software based octave effect. There will always be some strange artifact or distortion to the final effect

True Bypass = pure BS
tone sucking disappeared about 50 years ago, hype and BS keep it alive.

just get a digitech and call it a day

Bob C · #5 07-10-2011, 10:28 AM

[quote=BogeyBass;11161299
True Bypass = pure BS
tone sucking disappeared about 50 years ago, hype and BS keep it alive.
[/QUOTE]

Most people will disagree with both points, at least to some degree.

Also, OP is asking about tone/volume suck in bypass mode - not +8ve distortion.

OP: Have you tried any of the pedals mentioned?

kaputsport · #6 07-10-2011, 10:41 AM

Akai Unibass...

HolmeBass · #7 07-10-2011, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BogeyBass

Yah old school analog octave pedals sound purdy dumb,

unless you like the tracking errors and square wave sound, it makes a great synth tone.

Otherwise digital is the way to go, it takes a good amount of delay lines to get good octave down or up. Without it sounding like a 1bit fart. So digital is going to sound better than analog...and the analog pedals are basically turning it into a 1bit squarewave. Which is not clear at all, or resemble the original bass signal in any way. Even with the best digital software based octave effect. There will always be some strange artifact or distortion to the final effect

True Bypass = pure BS
tone sucking disappeared about 50 years ago, hype and BS keep it alive.

just get a digitech and call it a day

I agree w/ characterization of analog octavers as sounding square-wave-ish. I completely and utterly disagree w/ the "tone suck is BS" BS. You listen to my unbypassed pedal board w/ all effects off, then bypass it, and you will hear the tone suck of 6 effects together, most of which have true bypass.

The truth is that true-bypass is not in and of itself a tone savior. It works great if that's your only effect, but put together with multiple effects, multiple cascaded buffers do not necessarily help your signal. The March 2010 Guitar Player (w/ George Benson on the cover) has a great column about this issue.

Eric! · #8 07-10-2011, 10:55 AM

Exar Octavium!

sillyfabe · #9 07-10-2011, 11:14 AM

I use a POG2 and thanks to the way you can blend in the different octaves, the Q control for res, the LP filter, and some knowledge of how it works and you can have a VERY natural and clean sounding octave up or down. I use it for lots of things but I really enjoy making it into my "8-string bass in a box".