BOSS OC3 as an overdrive ?

I keep trying to make that feature work. It sounds great in the living room, but as soon as I try it in the mix, it just sounds ugly. Too bad... I really want to like it.

Anyone have any tips to get the ugly out?

 

For women, I hear booze works.

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I want to like the OC-3 also. My bass and I have been to a M. store a couple times just recently to play with it (..uh - OK, we ARE talking about an octave pedal now!), and I think there's something to that 'poly mode' - the only thing I don't like is how it completly and abruptly stops 'octaving' above something-like E on the G-string. Next time I go in, I'm going to try it using the 'guitar input', and hope it works better; I don't mind if it drops-out for the lowest notes - the idea would be for me to play HIGH-UP, and have it 'play the bass'.

Now that you mention it - I was neglecting to evaluate the distortion mode. I'll have to mess with that too!

Joe

 

As for the overdrive mode on this pedal, I've only tinkered with it slightly, and I did not particularly like the tone, although I did not try it in a band setting. But I wouldn't say I gave it a fair shot.

The reason is: you have to completely readjust the settings to use this feature compared with the octave feature. The levels are different and the knobs have different effects. I don't like having to turn all the knobs on pedals between songs, because it's pretty easy for me to forget to do that, resulting in

<stomp> ***?!?!?! I wanted octave and got super loud overdrive!

So since I got this pedal to give me lower octaves I use it just for that function. Coceivably you could set it up just for overdrive and use it that way if you like the sound.

As far as the octave range, I believe the pedal starts having tracking problems below D (5th fret 2nd) or so, give or take a few. In poly mode, the octave becomes quieter as you get higher oon the neck, so for me it is useless above the 16th fret or so. This was a stupid design shortcoming since the whole purpose of the low octave is defeated for the very highest notes.

If you play a 24 fretter this would be particularly annoying, (although if you play a 24 fretter you probably have also have a bunch more strings and don't need this anyway!)

The best range is to stay on the D and G strings. Also, a compressor in front helps track more solidly.

Judging from what I've read so far, no one has yet built an octave pedal that does what we all want - give you one octave down, solidly, all over the bass, with no funny business.

 

Its crap on the drive setting. Dont waste your time i already have

 

Nope, I haven't found the drive setting to be at all useful. Whatever the opposite of "warm" is, is what it is.

I also find that, below about the 5th fret on the D string, the octave starts sounding more like a 4th below. Down around the C on the A string, it disappears entirely.

This wouldn't bother me, call it a safety feature to keep me from blowing my speakers. But - I also notice how the octave slowly dissapears above the 16th fret on the G string. Infuriating.