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Help me find a good & cheap octave pedal

#21
Phagor said:
Tons of great info.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation! I use my neck pickup on my jazz bass, model J's with all 250k pots...so the tone isn't very bright to begin with. Round wound strings though.

If I can track down to my G on my 4 string then I'll be fine...much lower than that and the octave down's fundamental is below the human hearing range anyway.
 
#22
bluesdogblues said:
OC-2 is better.
OC-2 is full analog while OC-3 has digital signal in it (?) sorry I'm no expert in tech side. but that's what I notice & heard. OC-2 is better for me.
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I have an OC-3 and while Boss seems to claim that it can be the OC-2 and more, it really doesn't do the OC-2 as good as the OC-2. If you set up the OC-3 right, it seems to have a little better tracking perhaps. I like the OC-3 but I think it has some options/features that I haven't found a use for. Of course, tracking is greatly effected by how long you hold a note. Quick changes will track pretty well, IME. If you sustain a note for awhile or play half and whole notes at at slower tempo, that's when you start to hear the tracking fall apart and the note seems to jump around more sporadically and make your bass sound like it's yodeling.

Basically, the OC-3 will give you more options and better tracking than the OC-2. The OC-2 does the classic OC-2 sound the best of the two, of course. IMHO/YMMV, etc.
 
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#24
not sure what the best one is, I'll be following this thread for the answer! .
... but I can add that I was really let down by the MXR BOD's poor tracking, maybe it was a one-off bad pedal but it was really bad
 
#26
Alright, I went to a local music shop and they had a Digitech Bass Synth Wah. I read that on mode 7 it can be used as an octave pedal, so I tried it out. It sounded good and track very, very well, so I bought it.

Thanks for all the help and info guys!
 
#27
congrats, but it's digital octaver effect (?)...not so sure, but I've tried it before, so I'm sure that it sounds ...umm....far different than some we talked above... (esp. the OC-2)...but if it's good for you,..good luck & be happy then :D
 
#28
bluesdogblues said:
congrats, but it's digital octaver effect (?)...not so sure, but I've tried it before, so I'm sure that it sounds ...umm....far different than some we talked above... (esp. the OC-2)...but if it's good for you,..good luck & be happy then :D
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From the clips I've heard, the OC-2 sounded great. I'd love to get one some day, but but I got this pedal for 1/2 of what the OC-2 goes for used, and it does what I need well enough. The tracking is very important to me for what I'm currently recording and the Digitech is tracking outstanding.
 
#29
I am coming to a point where I might include both the OC-2 and the Mutron clone on my board as they can be so different.

I love the look from our guitarist when I turn on the octaver effect. His face just lights up EVERY time.

Such a cool effect but as people have said you definitely have to learn how to play it rather than just layering it on. The more you play to its strengths, the better it sounds
 
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#30
I'll confirm the Digitech BassSynthWah, to my surprise. I've tried a few (lesser expensive) pedals looking for an octaver with acceptable tracking and have been rather disappointed. I've owned a Boss ME-50B, Zoom B2.1u, Zoom B3, and found the octave functions in each to be unusable due to poor tracking and/or tone. At the music store I've tried the Boss and MXR Octave pedals and was also disappointed. Unless I'm doing something wrong (not), I don't quite understand how they are so popular. The Pog2 was better but couldn't justify the price. Anyway, I recently bought a $40 Digitech BassSynthWah on Ebay for laughs and bingo! it does what it's supposed to do. Actually, 90% of it is unusable cartoon sound effects, but set to the simple octave function, it puts out a smooth-sounding, stable-tracking octave.
 
#31
moegreen77 said:
I'll confirm the Digitech BassSynthWah, to my surprise. I've tried a few (lesser expensive) pedals looking for an octaver with acceptable tracking and have been rather disappointed. I've owned a Boss ME-50B, Zoom B2.1u, Zoom B3, and found the octave functions in each to be unusable due to poor tracking and/or tone. At the music store I've tried the Boss and MXR Octave pedals and was also disappointed. Unless I'm doing something wrong (not), I don't quite understand how they are so popular. The Pog2 was better but couldn't justify the price. Anyway, I recently bought a $40 Digitech BassSynthWah on Ebay for laughs and bingo! it does what it's supposed to do. Actually, 90% of it is unusable cartoon sound effects, but set to the simple octave function, it puts out a smooth-sounding, stable-tracking octave.
Click to expand...
I don't have the problem with OC-2. It tracks good enough, Perhaps not the best IDK, but I don't really care, since I have no tracking peoblem with it.. If you'd like to know why they're popular, because for many musicians ears, it sounds good.
 
#33
Bumping an older thread with another cheap octave option. I just got it, but I'm liking the Onerr Nickel Octave, it seems to track (fast) and sound just like an OC-2 but costs even less. It's bare bones but does a great job. I'm liking it more than a Pearl Octaver clone I had briefly. The -2 Octave is useless for most bass notes, but I think they all are.
 

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