MXR Octave

[BrotherMister]

I've recently got hold of one of these octave pedals and it is really struggling to track notes. I'm talking long notes and high up on the neck. At some points it isn't even playing the octave and just comes out mush. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[Dash Lashes]

 

[Sufenta]

I found pretty much the same thing when I demoed the MXR. There are those who almost swear by it. I almost swore at it.

 

[BrotherMister]

It is a second hand purchase which only arrived today. It works but I just find the tracking to be really poor. I know it doesn't track well at lower notes, as to be expected, but even D's and E's on the G string are really really poor.

 

[kevteop]

If other notes in the same region track strongly then it might be down to dead spots on your bass (analogue octavers make dead spots REALLY obvious and problematic).

Otherwise make sure your input signal isn't too weak - does your bass have a low output? Try picking harder - does that improve matters? Make sure you are only playing one note at a time, no ringing from neighbouring strings because that will result in glitching/burbling sounds. Also try to avoid fret buzz. If your bass is set up 'virtuoso low' then the octaver will struggle. As will anybody who is forced to listen to you who isn't a bass guitarist who likes 'virtuoso' bass guitarists.

If none of those things are causing your problem then maybe it's a problem with the pedal. Have you used other octavers successfully? I haven't owned the MXR but I demoed one in a shop last year. The tracking was as good as any other analogue octaver so if you know how to use an octaver you shouldn't be having problems. Ultimately though it sounded boring compared to my OC-2s so I didn't buy it.

 

[FretNoMore]

A clean technique (as in no extra fret noise or lose strings) and plucking closer to the neck can help too.

The MXR is the best tracking analogue octaver I've tried.

 

[Unemploid]

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which one do you have?

 

[jumblemind]

The MXR is the best tracking analogue octaver I've tried.

Same here.

 

[BrotherMister]

I'll give it a try tomorrow and run it through a few different basses to see if it is just a dead spot on my bass. Although I ran a students precision bass through it this afternoon and it showed pretty much the same sort of issues as well. My technique is pretty clean and my set up is medium to medium high on my precision bass for the old school tones. I'll try it with an active jazz bass and see if it still occurs.

 

[mmbongo]

I'll give it a try tomorrow and run it through a few different basses to see if it is just a dead spot on my bass. Although I ran a students precision bass through it this afternoon and it showed pretty much the same sort of issues as well. My technique is pretty clean and my set up is medium to medium high on my precision bass for the old school tones. I'll try it with an active jazz bass and see if it still occurs.

Look at the pics above..which do you have?

 

[blindrabbit]

Send it to me, I'll take care of it for you.

 

[Jared Lash]

I'll give it a try tomorrow and run it through a few different basses to see if it is just a dead spot on my bass. Although I ran a students precision bass through it this afternoon and it showed pretty much the same sort of issues as well. My technique is pretty clean and my set up is medium to medium high on my precision bass for the old school tones. I'll try it with an active jazz bass and see if it still occurs.

If you have experience with analog octavers feel free to ignore this but I find that they require a certain bit of technique to really work well. For me that means plucking near the end of the fretboard with heavy emphasis on muting all the other strings.

But of course it may just be that you got a bum unit. Because a functioning MXR Bass Octave Deluxe tracks on par with the Boss, Aguilar, etc

 

[chinjazz]

Whenever I play with an octaver I play a bit more deliberate or staccato to get the full effects note to blend evenly.