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MXR Bass Octave Deluxe

MultiScaleMale

MultiScaleMale

Gold Supporting Member
Jun 19, 2003
27,228
39,030
Maryland
#1
I've posted more than a few posts stating my dissatisfaction with the MXR BOD. On a whim I bought another one tonight at Guitar Center which reminds me that I forgot to use the 15% coupon. Crap. Oh well.

Anyways, I brought it home, plugged it in and I'm very happy with the pedal. The tracking issues I had with the other two units are gone. Tracking is fast and stable. The octaves sound great. Overall, thumbs up.

Apparently I had two pedals in a row that had issues. Glad I gave it another shot.
 
#4
I bought one used here in the classified section last week and I have no problem having it track down to a low D#, if the note is fretted. I have a comp in front of it and couldn't be happier with mine.
 
#5
Hey Cybersnyder,

I have just picked up a BOD and yeh it sounds great but the tracking across some notes on the G string is very iffy (usual suspects 4-7th fret and some higher notes) - this is across 2 different basses. These basses don't have obvious dead spots (ones a Warwick and one a Fender) but tracking does glitch. I appreciate you have to 'play' an analog octave pedal but do you have these issues with your new pedal, I know your first 2 you weren't happy with??
 
#7
rabs said:
Hey Cybersnyder,

I have just picked up a BOD and yeh it sounds great but the tracking across some notes on the G string is very iffy (usual suspects 4-7th fret and some higher notes) - this is across 2 different basses. These basses don't have obvious dead spots (ones a Warwick and one a Fender) but tracking does glitch. I appreciate you have to 'play' an analog octave pedal but do you have these issues with your new pedal, I know your first 2 you weren't happy with??
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I ran into before. The first BOD I had was terrible on the G string. Up around C, D and E on the G string there was a half of a second delay between playing the note and getting an octave.
 
#10
rabs said:
Hey Cybersnyder,

I have just picked up a BOD and yeh it sounds great but the tracking across some notes on the G string is very iffy (usual suspects 4-7th fret and some higher notes) - this is across 2 different basses. These basses don't have obvious dead spots (ones a Warwick and one a Fender) but tracking does glitch. I appreciate you have to 'play' an analog octave pedal but do you have these issues with your new pedal, I know your first 2 you weren't happy with??
Click to expand...

cybersnyder said:
That's exactly what I ran into before. The first BOD I had was terrible on the G string. Up around C, D and E on the G string there was a half of a second delay between playing the note and getting an octave.
Click to expand...


I've just come back from shop, where I tried BOD out of curiosity. I have Jazz with obvious dead spot on C# on G, and much smaller dead spot on C on G string. Well, what BOD revealed to me is that I have dead spot on H on G string as well, which I can't notice by ear (so much 'bout my ears). BUT - it didn't manifest as any sort of delay, but rather octave would start to warble during note decay, more prominent dead spot = sooner it would go to warble city. Sinca I play fast rock, only C# would be an issue - further more warble on C# is not bezerk-ish, and it only does octave jumps, so for me - not an problem but a feature. Somebody else might cringe.

OTOH (and why I'm writing this post at all) - bloody thing tracked everything else bloody perfectly, right down to F on low E string (it only started to warble on open E). (Notoriously problematic for analog octavers) open A was perfect, G and F on E great. Kudos to MXR, they will soon get new customer.

There is of course one thing I need to mention. I play with pick, very clean and precise, with string stopping, and (of paramount importance) I play with neck p'up full on, bridge backed by 20%, and I pick from halfway between p'ups to right above neck p'up. When I soloed bridge and started to play between bridge and bridge p'up, it was warble city all over the neck. So BOD works perfectly for me (with favoured setting : all on 11), but I gues it might not work at all for somebody else.
 
#14
the low one said:
Very happy with the BOD but if the Mid + button is on it's blue LED lights up even when the pedal is off. Is that normal? It will flatten the battery I guess if left on when the pedal is not in use?
Click to expand...

When the pedal is bypassed (footswitch pressed), it is normal for the mid-boost led to still be lit if engaged.

Regardless of the mid boost being engaged, you will waste battery power if you leave a 1/4" cable plugged into the 'input' jack of the BOD when not using it. Technically, plugging in to that jack is what "turns on" power to the pedal. Whatever small amount of power that extra led is drawing is really insignificant to the life of your battery. What is more significant is unplugging the pedal when you're not using it.

The only exception is if you have an adapter plugged into the dc adapter jack. In this case, the battery is technically disconnected and not draining power.

Hope that makes sense!
 
#17
I've always had my pedal board set up so that it was tuner->octave->filter->compressor etc. That way I can tame the filter spikes with the compressor. Well, my new Protron doesn't really go out of control like other filters I've had. So I put the compressor up front (compressor->BOD->Protron). Wow! Should have done that from the start. Any slight warbling I had with the BOD is gone and it sounds fantastic no matter how low you go. Steady, solid, deep, ballsy. I'm very fickle, but I think this may stay on my board for awhile. My only gripe with the BOD is the power supply connection on the side. Put it on the top!!!
 

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