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Bass Octave Pedals For Active Basses

drewonedge

drewonedge

Dec 25, 2017
30
27
#1
Okay, so I know there are tons of discussions out there about the various Octave effect pedals that are used by Bass players. Maybe the information I am looking for is already there. I have responded to threads started by others, tried several different pedals first hand, and have come to a basic understanding of what I am seeking, but would appreciate a little input from the community.
First consideration, I play active Basses, and what I have experienced is that some octave effect pedals distort sound when used with my Basses. Most recently I have tried a Boss OC2 and a Cog TC16, and the only way I could get a good sound was to go passive.
I own a Foxrox Octron, which works well with my active Basses, however I enjoy using that pedal in conjunction with my distortion effect.
So what octave effect pedals out there will work well with active Basses? I am considering an MXR Bass Octave, however I just read a recent review of a youtube demo where someone mentioned that they returned their's due to it not sounding good with their active Bass. It seems manufactures don't even want to address this issue? I would think some kind of adjustable input would remedy the problem, but what do I know?
 
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#5
drewonedge said:
Okay, so I know there are tons of discussions out there about the various Octave effect pedals that are used by Bass players. Maybe the information I am looking for is already there. I have responded to threads started by others, tried several different pedals first hand, and have come to a basic understanding of what I am seeking, but would appreciate a little input from the community.
First consideration, I play active Basses, and what I have experienced is that some octave effect pedals distort sound when used with my Basses. Most recently I have tried a Boss OC2 and a Cog TC16, and the only way I could get a good sound was to go passive.
I own a Foxrox Octron, which works well with my active Basses, however I enjoy using that pedal in conjunction with my distortion effect.
So what octave effect pedals out there will work well with active Basses? I am considering an MXR Bass Octave, however I just read a recent review of a youtube demo where someone mentioned that they returned their's due to it not sounding good with their active Bass. It seems manufactures don't even want to address this issue? I would think some kind of adjustable input would remedy the problem, but what do I know?
Click to expand...

What bass are you playing?

I was playing an EBMM 4 string 3 band EQ and it wouldn't track well without really careful technique and flatwound strings. My P bass would track all day and night on the same pedal.

Once I found out there was a high pass filter in the active preamp that cut some of the fundamental's volume I ventured to fix it. In the end a simple capacitor change made all the difference in the world.

Distortion suggests the volume is too high, have you simply tried turning your bass volume down a bit to see if it goes away,or if volume doesn't matter?
 
#6
All my Basses are active. I use a TCE Sub N Up.

I don’t like the lousy tracking tracking and artifacts of the classic octave pedals, so until a solid, competitively priced, digital octave pedal came out, I wasn’t interested.

The original POG was out of my price range, so I forgot about it, until the Sub N Up was released.

I use it in the poly setting, because I play more than my share of chords. I tried the Smooth Bass TonePrint, but I keep reloading the default the organ sound because it’s so handy to have that tone available, so I just use the poly setting with the 2nd octave rolled off.

Works well for me.
 
#8
JimmyM said:
I've used an OC-2 for years with both passive and active, and it never fails to sound awesome. I don't get this thread even a little.
Click to expand...
I think it depends on what you’re looking for.

The sound of an analog octave like the OC series never appealed to me. I wanted a pure octave down tone. The glitchyness and unpredictability of analog pedals drove me crazy. Lots of players love them though.
 
#9
JimmyM said:
I've used an OC-2 for years with both passive and active, and it never fails to sound awesome. I don't get this thread even a little.
Click to expand...

Same here, I don't get it. I use an analog octaver (MXR BOD) with both my passive and active basses and it sounds exactly like an octaver should. The fact that my active has a notoriously hot signal changes nothing in how the effect sounds. Maybe something else is messing up your signal? Or you simply don't entirely like what octaver does? Posting a clip of the problem you're having would help us find out what's going on.
 
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#10
tfer said:
I think it depends on what you’re looking for.

The sound of an analog octave like the OC series never appealed to me. I wanted a pure octave down tone. The glitchyness and unpredictability of analog pedals drove me crazy. Lots of players love them though.
Click to expand...
Well that's a whole different ball of wax.
 
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#11
This discussion is interesting to me because of the mixed reactions. I realize that there are plenty of players out there that don’t seem to encounter any Clipping/overdriven signal issues with octave pedals. However, there are no shortages of threads here on TB where players are describing this very issue. In fact I recently responded to another thread started by someone experiencing the same issue I had with the Cog T16.
If I ran my T16 by itself right to my amp head, leaving my bass settings where I normally play, with the effect on, my signal instantly clips my amp, even with light playing technique. Sure I can lower my bass volume, and I can also adjust my amp input gain, but seems like a lot of alteration just to get a decent sound out of an effect.
I have a Warwick NT $$ 4 that has an active preamp bypass. With the bypass engaged, the effect does not clip my amp. So that is why I figured with that particular pedal, the passive signal is the best playable option(which I’m just not crazy about).
Now I also experimented with it in my pedal board, in front of compressor, after the compressor, the bottom line for me and that pedal was that with my Warwick (or my ESP LTD 406/ EMG’s), I would have to adjust and compensate to be able to work with the effect in a way that sounded good to me.
Some people I have heard from make good suggestions where they would customize the sensitivity of the input, which to me makes sense, and would be a nice feature on the effect.
At this point, I would just like to come across a different pedal that works well with my setup and gear. I think that I would like to try the MXR BOD, largely because I happen to have a few other MXR effects that seem to work well with what I have. With all of the different instrument/amp/effect combinations out there, it makes sense that what works well for one person, may not work well with another. So I accept the reality of trial and error. That is why I like to hear what different people use and why.
 

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