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good uses for an octave pedal

I have an EHX Ocatave Multiplexer (big silver one) and I use it with my Swollen Pickle to get a great synth tone. My band does only covers and we play a lot of Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and other current stuff where sometimes there really isn't a bass. Throw in my little delay pedal and the Dunlop Bass Wah and I really make things shake with some cool tones!!!!
 
I kind of struggle with this as well...Ive been playing for a long time and only ever used a little chorus here and there, but in the last year or so Ive been bitten by the effects bug. Even though I would like to get an octave pedal (in my case, an EBS Octabass) there isnt alot of instances where I would need one.
 
OK, so I'm curious about octave pedals too, but thought most (all?) were focused on providing octave DOWN effect.

Who makes one that goes up an octave? or perhaps either/both?

There are several options, including any Whammy (won't do both at once, though), the Eventide Pitchfactor, the EHX HOG, POG, and MicroPOG, and my personal choice, the FoxRox Octron.

To my knowledge, the FoxRox is the only analog pedal that will do Oct Up and Down at the same time. Typically I would likely promote a digital octave, purely for the improvements in tracking (I should note that I never use octaves without distortion, so the infamous digital tone gets blanketed). However, the FoxRox tracks pretty well, and I find that while I don't hate the tone of the digital octave up, I LOVE the tone of analog. It gets a really nice distortion that's just enough for my tastes, so I blend in just a little to give a nice upper register grind to my tone when I go for that super heavy octave down tone.
 
I use the MXR Octave Delux (into MessDrive Hybrid!) and it's made playing a 4 string with a guitarist who uses a dropped D (so D is the tonic of many riffs) much more enjoyable. We now have 3 or 4 songs that use my octave sound, and it's a very satisfying, pfat sound. Other octaves I've used didn't track well enough to keep up with the guitarist, the MXR delux is fast enough. Down to low F#!
 
Awesome Hip Hop, Reggae, and Synth tones can be had. It's absolutely great for making earth-shaking deep lows (I use my Octron 2 for this), I also use it to outline the chords being strummed (I use my PitchFactor for this). Not to mention whammy shifts, reversed pitch shifting ambient goodness, and random jumpy arpeggiated goodness. Honestly, most of this has no real use in what I play, but it sure is fun when you're jamming or just goofing off at home.
 
There are several options, including any Whammy (won't do both at once, though), the Eventide Pitchfactor, the EHX HOG, POG, and MicroPOG, and my personal choice, the FoxRox Octron.

To my knowledge, the FoxRox is the only analog pedal that will do Oct Up and Down at the same time. Typically I would likely promote a digital octave, purely for the improvements in tracking (I should note that I never use octaves without distortion, so the infamous digital tone gets blanketed). However, the FoxRox tracks pretty well, and I find that while I don't hate the tone of the digital octave up, I LOVE the tone of analog. It gets a really nice distortion that's just enough for my tastes, so I blend in just a little to give a nice upper register grind to my tone when I go for that super heavy octave down tone.

The only other I can think of off the top of my head is the MI Audio Pollyanna, which does -2, -1, dry, +1, and a tone control for the octaves-- its suboctaves are 'synthier' than, and not as flexible as the Octron though and are squared/gated and fuzzed.
 
Is it the M88?The blue one? Glad I`m not the only one owned one but had no idea on how to use it in a musical fashion. :p

I`ve always just had my plate full with worrying about my normal sound and such.Still,you have to admit cranking tht lil guy full on and playing 'Destroying Galactic Rock Avenger Am I' earned you major cool points with guys. :bassist: :D

Need to search forums and see what most experienced players feel is(or would be) the single most "useful" or "utilitarian" effect (oxymoron?) for bass guitar and why?
 
Well, I'm not "experienced" with octavers...but I used the DigiTech Bass Synth Wah as a sub-octaver for a long time. I always used it for added 'meat' on higher parts of the fingerboard. Like when playing stuff like Primus's "Toys Go Winding Down," it feels like there's a gap when I'm doing the high notes so I just use a sub octaver to do it. I don't know if that helps. Hope you find a good use!