As Octobvre has turned into Novembvre, I've now gotten the opportunity to spend a bit of time with the Octabvre since it arrived, and am completely digging it. It cost more than I ever spent for an octave and it tracks much better than any other octave I've ever had, so it's a totally fair value. I tried without success in the past to get good tracking with: a new edition EBS Octabass, Octamizer, MarkBass Octaver, MXR BOD (3 of them at different times, hoping to luck into a "good" one), and a few others. The only octave I've had previously that comes close to the tracking on the 3Leaf is an old gray label single mode EBS which alters the tone in bypass.
One thing I especially like about the 3Leaf tracking is that even with a low output bass (passive J with Barts) with dead spots on the neck, if the octave down note does start to drop out, the remaining note sounds OK on its own. With the MXR, Octamizer and others, when the tracking began to drop out at a given note, the remnants of that note sounded sick enough to be rushed to the hospital. Some really cringeworthy moments.
On an early Spector NSCRFM 34" scale fiver strung E to C and tuned D to Bb, the 3Leaf tracked and held the open D plenty good enough for my money. That bass is wearing old flats to boot. An ample challenge successfully met.
Haven't done much with the sub yet. It's not something that was at the top of my must-have features list. My main goal was finding an octave with great sound, good bypass, and superior tracking. The search is over. This box is the king. The sub is extra gravy that I'll have fun finding occasional uses for. Devilish, unexpected uses that create looks of fear and apprehension on the faces of the unprepared.
