Why is EBS OctaBass not more popular?

[MCS4]

I suspect it has to do, at least a bit, with the flavour of the octave down sound. It’s a very natural sounding octave down, in contrast to the octave pedals with “OC-2” origins, which tends to lean synthy.

This was also my thought, even though it is a "plus" for me personally.

 

[projectapollo]

The OC-2 variants don't have deep impactful bass. The EHX POG devices have so much deep bass that it upsets my downstream pedals. The OctaBass is just right. The MXR Octave Bass Deluxe's Girth control is similar. That is my experience to-date.

 

[Maxi Funkl]

Haven't tried it I'll added to potential check out pedal list. But between the OC-5 & Subsonic I'm rather happy with what I have.

 

[Gorilla Monsoon]

I loved my Octabass until it quit working. Until recently, it was the only pedal i ever owned out of close to 100 that failed. I could see going back to one, i suppose.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

EBS was using a bad footswitch on one of the versions of the OctaBass, I think bad solder? Anyways, they had a replacement program going for maybe a year, but if your pedal failed after that, you were out of luck. With shipping, etc, getting the replacement footswitch from them was prohibitively expensive. Look like they lost a lot of customers with that.

 

[deepestend]

Maybe this is why I got mine so cheap off of ebay. The problem is that the footswitch was soldered to the PCB using stiff wires. If the footswitch got loose and turned at all, there was no flexibility and the solder would break. That was the issue. If anyone is even slightly handy with a soldering iron, I can tell you what to do.

 

[deepestend]

EBS was using a bad footswitch on one of the versions of the OctaBass, I think bad solder? Anyways, they had a replacement program going for maybe a year, but if your pedal failed after that, you were out of luck. With shipping, etc, getting the replacement footswitch from them was prohibitively expensive. Look like they lost a lot of customers with that.

On mine, at least, the footswitch was fine... it was just the connection of the footswitch to the board that was poorly designed.

 

[acleex38]

I have the Octabass and OC-5. The Octabass easily gets me the sound in my head that made me want to get octave pedals in the first place.

I'm *hoping* I don't have one of the bad footswitches, but I've had this thing at least 8 years with no problem. But I'm also not abusing it too hard, so who knows. But of the 15 or 20 pedals I have, it's in the top 3 of my rotation.

 

[Sparkl]

I don't feel like a hear a ton about this one. I have been through a few octaves over the years and am currently playing the Foxrox Octron. I wanted to check out something different and remembered that I had an old EBS OctaBass that I bought five years ago off of ebay as parts. I figured I'd give it 15 minutes and was able to bring it back to life no problem. Sounds really warm and great! Makes me wonder why this isn't more popular among the octave pedals. Any reason?

No particular reason. If anything it's a bit on the meh side because it doesn't offer the wide versatility of something like a boss octaver because you cannot blend the octaves on the octa bass.

Otherwise it's a solid octaver.

 

[deepestend]

I never used the 2nd octave down on any of my octaves anyway.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

Back in the day, it was the octave pedal that everybody liked. I owned one, and the tracking was great. It's hard to explain why I sold it, but it kind of sounded "boring" to me. I like the more synthy-sounding OC-2, and that might be why. I still think it is a great pedal as all the other EBS pedals.

My favorite analog octave down pedal that does NOT sound like the OC-2 is the Aguilar Octamizer.

 

[thisSNsucks]

Another fan of the HX stomp octabass model here. I use it pretty sparingly in a song or 2 but it hits just right.

 

[Tom Bomb]

Subbed.

(Don't mind me — the pun's not intentional).

Nice to know more of the detail surrounding this pedal. Cheers! I may gravitate.

I love me tender octave but it's been parked for a while. Still a novel effect, for me, and desirable.
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[Smurf-o-Deth]

As other folks have said, it doesn’t sound like an OC-2.

 

[lordradish]

I don't feel like a hear a ton about this one. I have been through a few octaves over the years and am currently playing the Foxrox Octron. I wanted to check out something different and remembered that I had an old EBS OctaBass that I bought five years ago off of ebay as parts. I figured I'd give it 15 minutes and was able to bring it back to life no problem. Sounds really warm and great! Makes me wonder why this isn't more popular among the octave pedals. Any reason?

It's pretty popular in my house! I just love how versatile it is and how much it tracks.

 

[deepestend]

How do all of you that have it like to run it? on my board, it really likes a boost or overdrive in front of it. Is that how you are running it?

 

[perfektspace6]

Not sure but I have one and it tracks really well and sounds natural as others have said. Maybe not effectsie enough for some.

 

[Ben Clarke]

I love how they track - it's pretty great at grabbing the low note of a chord too. But the filters on the Octamizer are just too right for me.

 

[Dynacord]

I'm a fan. Have had one since the 90's and still have the same. Never felt any need to look for a replacement. Perhaps I've been lucky as it's never had any issue and has been used a lot. I liked it much better than the Boss it replaced (granted there were far fewer choices then).

 

[fauxtoe]

I've been using the newest Blue Label version since the moment it became available, and even then I still ordered it from Thomann so I could get it faster (and cheaper at the time). Best analog octave I've ever used and nothing else I've tried over the years has come close. For an analog octave the tracking is superb, especially with the two settings available. I've done a whole song with it on while playing at the 12th fret on my 5 string so I could make a low A and it performed beautifully. The biggest plus is that it's controllable and you can set it to where it won't get out of hand when engaged.

Two thumbs up here!