Octave UP pedal...does it exist??

[oboylebass]

Does anyone make a pedal that gives you an octave up (as opposed to the standard lower octave). I've not heard of one. Seems like it'd be quite popular among bass players...especially those of us who play in "power trios". THAnks!

[LowDown Hal]

I use a Micro Pog.
It has Octave Down & Octave Up

[Jazz Ad]

EHX MicroPOG, Akai Unibass, Guyatone PS-009, any pitch shifter, Exar OC-3, there are a bunch.
With a power trio, octave down usually works much better though.

[Twocan]

My Boss ME50 had it, as did the Digitech 200. DOD Octoplus has it.

[rusackas]

I've been playing around with a Digitech Whammy lately. Goes one or two octaves up. Downside is that it sounds pretty "fake" for lack of a better term.

[Amitio]

a lot of these pedals do tend to sound digital but loads of distortion covers it up.

[oboylebass]

Thanks for the info guys...now on to some research.

[stflbn]

Line 6 M9 and M13.


.

[DiscoFreq]

http://www.effectsdatabase.com/type/octaver/1up and sub categories...

[TheMutt]

EHX HOG
EHX POG
EHX POG2
Eventide PitchFactor
DigiTech Bass Whammy
BOSS PS-3
BOSS PS-5
Foxrox Octron / Octron 2
MI Audio Pollyanna

These are some other octave pedals that have not previously been mentioned.

[PhatBasstard]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

With a power trio, octave down usually works much better though.

[René_Julien]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

EHX MicroPOG, Akai Unibass, Guyatone PS-009, any pitch shifter, Exar OC-3, there are a bunch.
With a power trio, octave down usually works much better though.

My experience is different.
I had good experiences with octave up in a powertrio, with an Akai Unibass and EHX POG.

I like octave down too... for different situations. I never used octave down to fill to sonic spectrum in a trio.

I see how this could be done though, if you play your original notes in a higher register and the octave pedal is there for the bass spectrum.

I prefer it the other way around, playing in the lower register and have some octave up effect for depth.
Of course, this is all a matter of tastes and depends what kind of music you play.

I'm lately investing in my guitar setup. I'm getting a Marshall Haze all-tube 30W combo.
I can run my Akai Unibass through a guitar amp, right? And the original signal to my bass rig.

Originally Posted by rusackas

Downside is that it sounds pretty "fake" for lack of a better term.

Yup, that's right.

But IMO, that is the charm of (digital) octave up effects.
I love having a generic artificial low-resolution guitar-simulated sound running alongside my high quality original bass sound. (Assuming I have a high quality bass, high quality amp... and am a high quality bassist. )

[Nic.]

I'm using the Octron. Awesome analogue octaver. I usually set it to no octave down, 12:00 octave up and adjust blend to taste when I want a "distorted guitar plays same riff as bass" kind of riff.

[chicago_mike]

Analog Octave up is not a clean tone. Digital octave up can be. Analog octave up is very similar to ring modulation. Its to a point the same principal.

My Fender Blender does it as well as Octavias. You hear octave up effects on bass better in the higher register with analog octave up pedals.

I dont have much experience with digital octave up. I kinda dig the ugliness of analog octave up.

Brassmasters also give off the upper octave. Of course those are seriously distorted tones too.

[PhatBasstard]

I'm currently using the MicroPOG for my octave up needs, but used to use an Akia Uni-Bass in a similar way. I play in power trios 90% of the time these days.

A few tips:
Since both the Uni-Bass and MicroPOG have effect only / bass only output capabilities, the first thing I do is run the effect out thru a chorus pedal. This takes away a lot of the mechanical fake sound of it.

This "effect only" signal then runs thru a distortion pedal that can be turned on or off as needed. "On" for a guitar following my bass. "Off" for 8 / 12 string bass sounds and (since the MicroPOG is polyphonic) adding great shimmer and fullness when I use my 6 and do a lot of "bass note plus upper extension" chording on ballads and such.

The "effect only" signal then runs thru a delay for a very quick slapback. This not only makes the fake guitar sound thicker and more realistic, but also makes the 8 string bass mode more like a 12 string bass.

This signal is then recombined with my "bass only" signal (small 4 channel Behringer line mixer). I have two distortions on the board for the bass. One has the bass only through it. The other is post Berhinger mixer (VT Bass set to an SVT mode). The reason is that, for a Cheap Trick type 8 /12 string bass sound, it is much more realistic running the bass and the re-added clean octave thru the VT Bass combined.

The other reason is, If I'm playing a song with distorted bass (using the other "bass signal" only distortion box) and then need to add the guitar effect (not the 8 / 12 string bass effect), It's much more realistic sounding as two separate instruments if I don't run the guitar effect thru the same box and just have is run thru it's own.

The "bass only" line also has it's own effects such as chorus, flanger, etc. that do not effect the upper octave signal coming out of the MicroPOG.

[Jazz Ad]

Originally Posted by René_Julien

My experience is different.
I had good experiences with octave up in a powertrio, with an Akai Unibass and EHX POG.

I like octave down too... for different situations. I never used octave down to fill to sonic spectrum in a trio.

I had great results with an Unibass but only with split signal, octave part going into a guitar amp.
This way it really sounded like an additional guitar was in the band. Otherwise it sounded thin or processed, for a lack of better word.

With a low octave I find i much easier to fill the holes in the wall. Playing up the neck with low octave gives a tighter tone with more definition. The bass sounds very different from the guitar so they don't sound clustered. WIth high octave they tend to blur together.

[PhatBasstard]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

I had great results with an Unibass but only with split signal, octave part going into a guitar amp.
This way it really sounded like an additional guitar was in the band. Otherwise it sounded thin or processed, for a lack of better word.

With a low octave I find i much easier to fill the holes in the wall. Playing up the neck with low octave gives a tighter tone with more definition. The bass sounds very different from the guitar so they don't sound clustered. WIth high octave they tend to blur together.

I did this originally with the Uni-Bass, but carting around an extra guitar amp was a pain. Now with my effects setup as described in my previous post I not only don't need the separate amp, but I don't need an extra channel on the mixing boards. Plus, with any sound guy, I know if the bass is in the mix properly, so is my "fake" guitar.

I can guarantee that, for this particular purpose, the octave up, processed the way I do it, sounds much more authentic than any octave down will.

It must. We've had more than one guitarist come up to our guitarist to ask him how he's getting the extra parts in.

He just points to me.

[René_Julien]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

I had great results with an Unibass but only with split signal, octave part going into a guitar amp.
This way it really sounded like an additional guitar was in the band. Otherwise it sounded thin or processed, for a lack of better word.

I'll definitely try out a setup like that.
I have a Marshall Haze combo on order and have serious GAS for an Orange combo amp too.
(Yeah, I've been playing more guitar lately. Band is in a rut.)

Like you say: thin and processed, I agree with that. But like I said before, for me that is the charm of the Unibass.
I love it through a regular bassamp too.
For me this is an awesome legendary pedal, which has it flaws.
The Unibass definitely isn't for everyone.

Although I must admit, I don't use it that much. Just home use and experimenting.



PhatBasstard's setup is interesting too.
I have been thinking about such a setup myself. But I never did something like that cause to me it seems like too much a hassle and I never really needed to simulate a rhythm guitar.
When I can, I like to keep it simple.

[PhatBasstard]

Forgot to meantion:
When I first got the Uni-Bass I ran the effect/guitar output to a Stereo Chorus pedal that had the stereo outputs. I actually, for the first couple of gigs, setup two guitar combos. One on each side of my bass rig, each getting one of the stereo outs from the Chorus pedal and each being panned hard left or right on our P.A. (yes, we run that in stereo most of the time).

The sound was truly inspiring, however, all the extra gear and extra channels needed on the board were just too much of a hassle.