Pedals compared in this post:
- Digitech Whammy
- Line 6 Pitch Glide
- EHX Micro-POG/POG2
- BOSS PS-6
- Morpheus Bomber
Hi everyone, so this is my first post on Talkbass and I just wanted to add my own experience to this vast database of knowledge.
Just as an introduction, my interests when it comes to effects are octave up effects. I’ve gone through a decent line-up of pedals that have the octave up effects. I’ve got around to most of the more current and mainstream pedals. I haven’t gotten to the Eventide since it’s a ridiculous amount of money to spend at once for a pedal... but hopefully one day.
I’m writing this because when I first started using octave effects 2 years ago, there weren’t enough resources online that did comparisons of all the octaves that I was looking at. Most bassist were more interested in -1 and -2 octave effects and no one wanted to go into the octave regions enjoyed by the guitar. So I blindly went into the +1, +2 octave world on my own.
Anyways just as reference the gear that I’m using is my Yamaha BB-605 (5-string) with Bartolini pickups, Rotosound Jazz Bass 77, Ampeg PF-350 + Ampeg SVT210AV, and BOSS ML-2 for my distortion.
Starting with the Monophonic effects, I’m not gonna give a detailed look at these ones because I’m not that interested at monophonic and also I no longer own these pedals to have as a reference as I write this. I’m writing this from memory.
Digitech Whammy IV
I don’t own this pedal anymore because I found that the lack of chord shifting was limiting. Besides from this point, the Whammy sounded very good. The sound it gave on the +1 octave was not metallic at all, ver musical and usable. Overall it’s nice but limiting in that it glitches all the time. I would just say use a ring modulator for glitches if you want that sound. The interesting thing about this pedal, if you stand on it and you push the heel down more, it would actually go below the “dry” signal.
Line 6 Pitch Glide
From what I’ve read, this is the simulation of the Digitech Whammy (don’t know which one, I assume IV). Anyways I tried this out thru the Spider IV amp (I assume the boards and other amps are the same) and the FBV Express MkII. If you wanted to emulate the Whammy sound you definitely could do it but the Line 6 benefits from being able to tweek your tone (EQ) along side with the Whammy effect. Just be wary of the FBV Express MkII board, I had to set my pitchglide to -0.3 for the “dry” signal. When you set it to heel down, the stupid board doesn’t actually go all the way down. To get the pedal to be heel down completely you would have to stand on it and push it down. So when you switch to pitch glide mode, your pitch goes up by like half a semitone which is so idiotic. This might be a defective pedal but just be aware that it happened at least once in Line 6’s production run. I now no longer own this amp and board but it lasted a lot longer than the Whammy
Ok now to the meat of it all the Polyphonic effects *drool.
EHX Micro-POG/POG2
I currently own the Micro-POG and the POG2. Both sound pretty much the same and track pretty much the same. It feels like the Micro tracks slightly better but that might just be some paranoid idea in my brain that says it’s newer so it must be better. In any case tracking difference is indistinguishable. Ok, major points for EHX on this because of the tracking. Out of all the pedals that I have tried, this is the best!!!! There is nothing like it, when it comes to tracking. It tracks everything!!! I got it to glitch once (which I was shocked) but I don’t remember what I did -___-. In either case for single notes, for chords, for moving bass lines, to hanging bass lines, to sustained arpeggios/chords/triads/etc to does everything. Now for the sound... it does colour your tone. The dry is the same as what you put in, but when it comes to +1 and +2 it gives your tone a more “bell” sound. That would be how I describe it, a little rounder and more ringing sound. This is neither a good nor bad thing. When dealing with octave up effects you have to realize that getting a pure organic sound is not possible. Getting that perfect guitar/piccolo bass sound is not possible. The second-best option is to find a tone that is musical and pleasing to the ear. Nothing worse than getting a tone that sounds metallic and brittle (unless that is what you want). The POG benefits from the bell sound with the +1 octave (making everything standout more and more punchy), but it suffers in the +2 region (making it too shrill and piercing). So the final verdict on this is that the POGs are the best tone-wise and tracking-wise, if it had an expression pedal to control the octaves it would win hands down and I wouldn’t even bother writing this whole thing explaining each pedal. The very very very very bad thing about the POG is the toggle switch. When you turn the effect box on or off there is a click. As a clean effect it’s not that noticeable, but when you pair that with a high gain distortion it turns into a really loud pop. The POG2 has the advantage of having the preset switch (which doesn’t pop, when switching between presets) but who wants to have the POG2 on all the time (and keep a completely dry setting on their presets). In short, +1 = AWESOME, +2 = good enough
BOSS PS-6
What a pile of c***. Ok, it isn’t that bad, I enjoyed all the other effects that this pedal has to offer but since we are looking at strictly +1 and +2 octaves... what a pile of c***. First off this pedal does -24 (-2 octaves) to +24 (+2 octaves), but the way you control it is one of those standard circular knobs on most boss pedals. I’m not sure exactly what it’s called but I can complain about it. There is no way dedicated way of selecting exactly +1 octave or +4 or -5 or -2 octave, it’s all done by visual inspection and ear. The only ones you can be sure of is -24 (turn the knob all the way to the left) and +24 (turn the knob all the way to the right). So you won’t know until, in mid-song you turn on this pedal, whether you have +1 octave on or +7. Besides from this point the sound is terrible. It’s so sterile, metallic, and brittle. To make this octave effect even remotely good, you would have to EQ the c*** out of your signal first to get anything decent out of it. The PS-6 does benefit from the expression jack (I used a BOSS FV-500). And the S-bend function is a very interesting idea. In short the S-bend function does a whammy effect without the expression pedal of which you can preset the rise and fall time with a dedicated knob on the pedal. Tracking is not bad on the pedal, not good either. It tracks single notes wonderfully, chords = not bad, it does warble a little bit with low register chords. In either case was so unhappy with the tone that I didn’t bother testing the tracking all that much. This went back to the store.
**Obviously when I say terrible tone – I mean it’s not anywhere close to organic sounding. If you are looking for a very metallic tone, replace all terrible with amazing and amazing with terrible.
Morpheus Bomber
I got the Bomber a few days ago, and I’ve decided that it’s replacing my POG2 on my main board. With that said the only factor in that decision was because of the expression pedal. The Bomber loses to the POG in tracking and tone. It does tracks single notes and chords as advertised but the Bomber does not track lower-frequency as it does higher-frequency (probably made for guitar grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr). If the POG tracks 99% of the time, the bomber tracks 90% of the time. So not really much of a difference. Tone wise, it makes you miss the bell like quality of the POG. It muddles a lot of the +1 octave. Having a colour on your tone is actually sometimes beneficial because it brings out each note better. The Bomber sorta muddles everything together. With that said the +2 octave is better on the Bomber. Since it muddles everything up, it takes the edge off the high +2 octave. The POG creates a sharp piercing sound when using the +2 octave. Although not an always usable +2 octave it sounds a lot better than the POG. The Bomber isn’t ideal but it is IMO very very good. Main complaints about it: reverse polarity AND 12V!!!!! DAMMIT!!!! I mostly use a daisy chain to power everything when using my main board... *sigh time to buy some more Godlyke accessories. Another complaint would be the select setting switch. So the Bomber can do Dive bombs, -2, -1, -5, etc etc, all the way to +2. But it only lets you scroll through them in that specific order. So you can’t do +2 to +1 octave or +1 to a +2. You would have to keep hitting select until you reached the setting (oh how I miss the presets on my POG2). This also has a clicking problem like the POGs but it is definitely a lot better than the POG. With distortion it just sounds like for a split second air escaped from a balloon. Also, this is one noisy pedal. Apparently it’s bypass, but when it’s engaged it’s really noisy, lots of white noise. At lower volumes it’s ok, but if you crank your amp, you’re screwed. This pedal would definitely benefit from noise gate or something.
Winners:
+1 Octave Tone: POG2/Micro-POG
+2 Octave Tone: Bomber
Tracking: Micro-POG
This thing is with most of these pedals, they are optimized for guitar players, so when lower register signals go into these pedals they aren’t made to handle it that well. So my reviews of these pedals may be VERY different from a guitarist’s experience with these pedals. Like the BOSS pedal, i’m pretty sure it’s awesome for guitar, especially since Marty Friedman uses it.
At the end of the day, I still haven’t found the perfect octave up pedal. Someone seriously needs to make a POG sounding + expression pedal or a POG sounding + S-bend pedal.
Hope this helps anyone looking into octave + effects. I know that a glaring omission of the Eventide hurts the overall quality of my post but I really can’t justify buying a 500 dollar pedal at this point. Hope my first post complies with the forum’s rules.
Thanks for reading,
Alex
