Digitech Synth Wah vs. octave/EV

[scottfeldstein]

My pedal board is nearing completion. No, seriously. As soon as I get my grubby mitts on the MXR Bass Octave Deluxe, I should be set for a while. I'm really interested in what it can do by itself and also in combination with my MXR envelope filter. Anyone who saw this video with Ed Friedland knows what I'm talking about. Near the end he uses them together and, whoa. I'll have some of that.

Anyway, I just heard some clips of a cheap pedal, the Digitech Bass Synth Wah, and I'm already jealous. Have I been barking up the wrong tree? The straight up envelope filter sound isn't as good, but I'm really digging some of the synthier, more "out there" sounds this thing gets. It's like the $100 version of the Source Audio Envelope Filter.

How much of that am I going to be able to reproduce using my MXR octaver and EV? Some, I hope.

 

[Bassmike62]

I'm a big fan of the BSW. I bought mine of Ebay 18 months ago and that pedal is a constant on my board, along a BDDI and a tuner. I prefer a smaller board (right now I'm using a PT2) and a pedal that multi-tasks as efficiently as the BSW (IMO) is a precious asset. The BSW is a rather inexpensive and quiet pedal, built like a Tiger tank.

I'm using it primarily as an octaver and I found it so good, I ended up selling my BOD. It tracks well, no matter where I am on the fretboard. I prefer its synthy tone to the MXR, which I found glitch (maybe my unit was defective ?). I also use the filter settings sometimes, as well as a setting that gives me a decent enough live-usable fuzz that I ended up selling the BBM I was not using that much anyway. It’s the one pedal I’ve had that I would actually consider having 2 on the board, if I would have to use one of its functions on a more regular basis. Still beats having to buy separate fuzz, octave and filter. The other filter I use right now is a modded Bassballs and I’m selling a few pedals to buy a GR2 or an MXR BEF.

Disclaimer: I don’t use octave and fuzz extensively. I use octave in a few introductions or breaks. So far, I use fuzz in only one song of our set (Blur’s Song 2).

EDIT: At one point, I also used it as a mock-sequencer in a Legs cover. I had it working with a Boss BF-3 (pan mode, I think), a Boss LS-2 and an EHX Small Stone. But I don't use its pure synth functions.

 

[bassbrad]

The BSW is a pretty cool pedal, had one for a while - it turned out not to be my thing but that ain't the pedals fault.
The octave tracked well and sounded fairly girthy and I liked the envelope filter and the combos were quite nice.