OCTAVE PEDAL??

[spook396]

This has probably come up before, but for the past 125 years, (That's how long it seems!), I've been searching for a good octave pedal, specific to bass frequencies, but that goes up at least one octave , two octaves would be better.
As I only want to use it for a couple of songs live, I don't want to pay a fortune.

Any suggestions???

 

[Jimbob Jones]

Electro Harmonix Micro POG.

 

[bongomania]

This has probably come up before

Yep.

 

[baalroo]

Nope, no one here ever talks about octave pedals.

 

[Jazz Ad]

True. It's much of a taboo around here.

 

[Mudfuzz]

Any suggestions???

Try a bunch of them, I have have five and they all come up on people's most loved and most hated lists.

 

[topper]

I just pulled out the manual for my Zoom B2. It has a pitch shifter that will go up or down 1 octave and any interval between. It also has a special +24 setting which would be up two octaves.

I haven't used this setting, but overall this is good pedal. They can be had for less than $100, plus you get eq, chorus, amp modeling, a tuner, and 100 other things you may or may not use.

 

[bassplayer4893]

i dont need an octave pedal i got a digitech whammy that goes from 1 up to 2 up octave haha(the newest version)

 

[kevteop]

This has probably come up before, but for the past 125 years, (That's how long it seems!), I've been searching for a good octave pedal, specific to bass frequencies, but that goes up at least one octave , two octaves would be better.

How about playing higher on the neck (being the octave up yourself) and adding the octave down using a pedal?

This is much easier for an octave pedal to deal with - they track higher notes much better, due to the length of waveforms and other such scientific inconveniences. If it was possible to track reliably on the full range of the bass guitar it would be happening by now, and it basically isn't.

 

[spook396]

THanks for the suggestions, folks!

Funnily enough, I have a Zoom B2, but don't use it for anything but the delay, chorus and envelope filter.
Don't think the pitch shifter on there tracks very well.

Yeah, I already play "up the neck", but I want something I can get above the guitar on certain songs.

As for the Whammy pedal - I just don't like them!

 

[JanusZarate]

The best I've used, if you're looking for clean octave-up action, would be the EHX POG (everything you need to enter organ territory if desired!), EHX HOG (probably overkill in your case), and Boss PS-3 (discontinued). All track exceptionally well, especially the EHX POG and HOG (which are nearly flawless).

The EHX Micro POG will give you a sub-octave and an octave-up, but it won't do two octaves up. Something to keep in mind if you want the little brother of the POG.

The Whammy IV is a dirty-sounding one, but I'm rather fond of it for octave-up stuff.

 

[EricF]

The EHX Micro POG (as mentioned by Jimbob) is one of the best-tracking octave pedals on the market at the moment. It will give you one octave up and one octave down (in blendable amounts), but not the 2+ you're looking for.

Edit: Boo beat me too it

 

[spook396]

The EHX Micro POG (as mentioned by Jimbob) is one of the best-tracking octave pedals on the market at the moment. It will give you one octave up and one octave down (in blendable amounts), but not the 2+ you're looking for.

Edit: Boo beat me too it

I'll certainly give it a look see!

 

[JanusZarate]

Edit: Boo beat me too it

I have lightning-quick digits.

 

[rasthedoctor]

Currently using the HOG and it's pretty ding-dang good, plus you can manipulate the attack and decay of your octaves coming in (separated between the high and low octaves, so you can make it sound very very cool), blend in your original sound, etc, plus you can save 6 settings if you get the extra foot controller. Of course, the whole deal is pretty incredibly expensive... so...

...if you just have one sound in mind, I would recommend the POG.

 

[coreyfyfe]

+1 on the POG. the only downside being if youre looking for something small to just do the two octaves it wont fit the bill. I use a Micro POG which only has the up and down, but I also have a whammy and theres one song we do where I have a loop playing thats 2 octaves up on the whammy then through the Micro POG for a +1/+2/+3 blend thats just tasty.

 

[Funky Chowder]

The best I've used, if you're looking for clean octave-up action, would be the EHX POG (everything you need to enter organ territory if desired!), EHX HOG (probably overkill in your case), and Boss PS-3 (discontinued). All track exceptionally well, especially the EHX POG and HOG (which are nearly flawless).

The EHX Micro POG will give you a sub-octave and an octave-up, but it won't do two octaves up. Something to keep in mind if you want the little brother of the POG.

The Whammy IV is a dirty-sounding one, but I'm rather fond of it for octave-up stuff.

I actually find that the tracking on the Boss PS-3 is slightly off, and the pitched note had some glitchy digital artifacts. While I love that glitchiness for other things, I wouldn't recommend it for someone looking for an octave pedal that had good tracking.

That said, that glitchiness really makes the pedal for me in Mode 7, where you can have delays where each subsequent repeat is pitch-shifted up or down a given interval. One cool trick I learned from another forum is that you can set one PS-3 to shift each repeat up an octave followed by another PS-3 set to shift down an octave. This creates a really nice, swelling organ-esque sound that can be a great texture.

For some reason, I find myself now owning the HOG and POG, and I love both for the tracking, though a bit expensive if you don't need all the bells and whistles. Also, to my knowledge, there aren't many readily available pedals in their price range that can handle polyphonic pitch-shifting, but that might be less of an issue with bass.

Aside from disagreeing on the PS-3's tracking though, I agree with pretty much everything else.

 

[CraigG]

I can go up or down several octaves with my B2.1u as well as have all sorts of other effects if I want. For most stuff, unless your bent on playing fast, the pitch shifter does an acceptable job.