Al Krow

Came across your post on another thread and found myself intrigued. I'm guessing you didn't take it any further with this pedal? It's obviously an octave up rather than down and unlike, the digital Digitech Mosaic or Ricochet which does an excellent polyphonic clean octave up as mentioned above, this is an analogue frequency doubler with diode clipping fuzz and with lpf to roll off any grating toppy-treble. It seems to be very much aimed at guitarists but I reckon it might be interesting on bass, although I've not found anyone who's reviewed it on bass yet. Apparently it's crap at handling minor chords but deals with major chords well! From the YT clips I've seen, the blend seems to either swamp the dry signal or have no wet signal at all. But paired with an LS2 this thing might just be freakin' brilliant! Love the compact form factor and the fact it's got an excellent built in fuzz. New prices can be a little bit punchy on this, which definitely puts me off makes trying one out on spec but I think I may have managed to snag one used on Reverb...

+1 for the Digitech kit. I've got the simpler Mosaic and it does an excellent job at just octave up. I recorded some clips a while back, using the Mosaic and managed to persuade at least a few BC'ers that it was a genuine 8 string! The Ricochet adds a ton more features, though, for not much extra cost.

Yeh something like that (with an octave up) would be pretty neat! Kinda reminds me of some of the pedals that Tom at COG was doing half a decade ago...

Not really harsh - his "big" thing was going to be the octave up, wasn't it? In the end, not too much has changed on Mk3 and it's left a lot of his fan base a little disappointed. Don't always have to be a mega corp to deliver good value, although I agree it can help. The most faithful OC-2 clone IMO is the Valeton OC-10 which is even better value - not sure we would regard them as a mega corp either? Besides mega corps have a LOT more mouths to feed, property rental costs etc. etc. I think the OC-5 is going to put a lot of pressure on boutique OC2 clones who's key selling point for charging £££'s was you get an OC-2 but better.

So £300+ for a 3Leaf Octabvre Mk3 - key selling point that it does the OC2 thing very well and with better tracking, but singularly failed to include an octave up, despite promises that it would or £119 for an OC-5 which does the OC2 thing very well and with better tracking and with octave up. Hmmm...I wonder which one is going to outsell? 😁

Going the other way: there's a rumour on the TB OC-5 thread that Boss have put the SY-1's tracking into the OC-5. If that's the case, it's a bit of a game changer! Clearly the feedback to Boss on just how fantastic the SY-1 is at tracking has not been lost on them! Obviously the SY-1 is a fair bit more expensive and can do a whole bunch of other cool stuff besides octave down (and up), and it also has a parallel loop facility and can be used with an expression pedal which the OC-5 doesn't. fauxtoe said: ↑ fauxtoe said: ↑

Good point - that now makes complete sense (even if its the wrong way around for us bass players)! This pedal does have a switch to go from guitar <--> bass mode (similar to the SY-1) so it's clearly been aimed at both markets as you say. Wouldn't it have been bloomin' marvellous if by dint of switching from guitar <--> bass mode the 'polarity' on the range sweep was also reversed so that bass players could select how low the octave down went? That way they would be keeping both bass players and guitarists happy - it would certainly have tipped me over the edge into getting one! Boss if you're reading this thread...

Haha - I was simply trying to give you an example that might work for you when you are playing 4 strings. 5 string players have more flexibility of using or not using an octave pedal at all, as I think we have just demonstrated. Hence my earlier comment of having much less use of octave pedals these days! And don't get me wrong having the low B string is great! Which is why I play 5ers. But it will be a somewhat different flavour to playing the notes an octave up with an octaver-down pedal added and two notes simultaneously ringing out, as you already know. IME octave-up pedals don't quite cut it in the same way: I find they sound much tinnier than the equivalent pitched note played normally, and often come with greater latency issues than octave down pedals.

You and me both - just had one gig a couple of weeks back and no rehearsals in the past six months! Agreed - it won't be for every track for sure. And tbf I have much less use for octave down now I'm playing 5ers exclusively. But I guess an obvious example would be something like Bruno Mars - Runaway Baby to kick in the octave down part way through the main bass riff which I mainly play an octave above low E. Will save me physically playing the main riff an octave down starting on the 5th note of the low B string to provide contrast. Yup, that would be an awesome combination - the Proton MkIV (I've got on my board) and Octabvre MkIII have both come out this year. And a combo that would also leave your bank balance a tad lighter too 😁

It will track lower and tighter without glitching than anything else out there. I also really appreciate not having to modify my playing style or needing to select a particular pup to "keep the pedal happy", which is the case with a lot of octavers. Which is bliss in terms of one less thing to have to think about in a band mix. It has a very clean octave down tone though - which is fine for fattening up your dry core bass sound. If you want something more coloured then you'll need to add a dirt / gated fuzz / bit crusher pedal of choice. I'm finding it pretty hard to justify getting a separate octave down pedal, right now, 'cos I know they simply won't match the SY-1 on tracking. It's also obviously a bonus having one pedal that does both octave and synth duties in terms of cost and PB space saving.

Here's a clip of the B1-4 Tape Echo and drum machine in use combined with the Red Ripper Fuzz and Proton Filter played on my Yammy BB1025 to get a not too shabby synth sound effect: RipProtoTape 1 - BB1025.wav

Cheers for sharing the review Lee. My key takeaways were: (15.00) Good classic OC2 sound! And without the volume loss that OC2 suffers from on solo -1 Oct? (17.37) Not bad digital octave up - more rounded and less 'tinny' than EHX / Pog pedals, but still prefer my Digitech Mosaic for oct up - which I think would do a better job than what I'm hearing at (26.50) (22.27) Seems to be implying that it has analogue oct down in vintage mode (OC2) but digital oct down in poly mode (OC3) Poly mode seems to be straight from OC3 - which never particularly impressed me. And they still have threshold the wrong way around - why would you want to only have Oct down on the low notes and not the high notes? The other way around I totally get! But it seems to have improved / less glitchy tracking as compared to its predecessors. I still don't think it matches the Boss SY-1 for tracking (tbf there is nothing out there which does!) which is currently my goto Synth and Oct pedal. Am I tempted to get one? Possibly - but really only because it gets so close to classic OC2 without volume loss. The rest I'd happily give a miss.

Some pics + sound clip, would be great!

Go for it! What's the worst that could happen (particularly if you manage to bag a used one)?

A few pointers from me: In terms of size the B1-4 is actually half way between the M6-60B and B3. Looking at the dimensions online just now, its almost exactly half the footprint of the B3. As you said, the B1-4 does have the latest chip set and its defo a feature rich piece of kit. I've had the MS-60B, B3N, B1-4X and have settled on the B1-4 and am very happy with it. Personally, I found the interface on the MS-60B the least user friendly but with the advent of Tonelib editing software, it's much easier to create and edit patches, so that should be less of an issue. The B3 and MS-60B have some legacy patches that are very cool e.g. a couple of the synth effects which are not (yet) available on the B1-4 and B3N; although tbf there's quite a bit of new stuff on the B1-4 that's not on the older models. The B3 has a DI out which the rest don't and I believe a better interface for recording, and still has a LOT of fans!

Referring to you @Happy Jack's recommendation on this FS post for anyone in a 3 piece band! ...and apologies for the shameless plug!

@Old rocker and @PaulThePlug - gents congrats on the new purchase. The B1-4 is the best value pedal on the market bar none!! Worth the price as an easy to use LED lit tuner, and headphone amp with aux in. Then there's a really useful drum machine for home practice and it's already easily paid for itself before you've used ANY of its effects - lol! There are a few patch settings on this thread you could try out and a fair few experienced hands e.g. @stewblack and @JohnDaBass whose brains you can pick. My advice for starting out would be: (i) work through each of the pre-loaded patches and delete all the ones you're never likely to use (about 80% in my case!); (ii) download the free editing software from Tonelib and start creating your own patches. The software makes it both easy and fun: https://tonelib.net/ (iii) get yourself a decent quality USB cable to connect up your B1-4 to your PC; (iv) be aware that this £60 box of tricks won't do everything amazingly well - it would be unreasonable to think that it could and why I've still got a bunch of dedicated pedals to use alongside it; (v) for the patches you're keeping / creating - adjust the effects output so that you get a similar volume on each patch as you do on clean by-pass (vi) I've recently discovered the Tape Echo on the B1-4 and OMG it's just so delicious!! Example attached of what Tape Echo sounds like with the fuzz and filter on my board and the B1-4 also providing the beat. And finally... (vii) don't be too surprised if you find yourself having a lot fun using this hugely clever budget bag of tricks

Interesting - the spec on Spector's website says its a reverse PJ for the Euro Classic 5...you'd hope Spector would manage to get it correct! But if not, they've saved my bank balance - so I guess I should be grateful!

@dave74200 - you should clearly have posted on this forum for a more sympathetic response! Have a good weekend mate.

Dammit - I really wished you hadn't pointed that one out! Exactly the model / colour / reverse PJ, I would want too (and 34" is just perfect for me)! "Fortunately" I can't find anywhere that stocks it!

Hi Rob - I had exactly the same thoughts as you, a while back, about stringing a normal 6 string bass E to E with "guitar" tuning in order to play both chords and classical but in an octave-below register. Key learning points for me that I can share with you are as follows: 1. It sounds fantastic - there is a richness to the sound of both chords and classical played an octave down. 2. If you add something like a Digitech Mosaic pedal for chords, you end up with a 12 string bass, which can sound ridiculously good! 3. I kicked off my project with an Ibanez SR1206, on the grounds that the Ibanez have narrow string spacing and fast playable necks, but I still found it quite a stretch to shape chords, and there is no doubt that a Bass VI would be a lot easier for that - I did briefly flirt with a Squier Bass VI - but the string spacing near the headstock was too narrow to comfortably play classical and the Squier was also at the top end of comfortable weight for me. 4. I ended up with a very happy compromise by getting an Ibanez GVB 36 which has 'fixed' 14mm string spacing for the whole length of the fretboard and is a signature design by Gerald Veasley, who uses his for jazz playing including a lot chords. Sadly they are no longer in production (I managed to source the very last new one from Germany as discounted end of line stock - which was kinda amusing as I would have paid extra to get my hands on it!). They do come up used from time to time. I've really enjoyed re-learning some of my old classical guitar pieces on this during lock-down. 5. In terms of string gauge - normal E to C bass strings are fine (and just de-tune the C one semi tone to a B). I then added a 25 gauge for the top E which has worked fine. Hope that's helpful. It's a fun and rewarding project - let us know how you get on.

Fixed 😁 Tbf I'm not sure you've held on to any of the 5 pedals you've bought off me?! So if I'm your official "pedal pusher", that's gotta make you my official "middle man"? PS - what was I saying about you being my middle-man? 😄

I found myself wanting to disagree strongly with this observation Dan, probably 'cos it's certainly not always the case with basses - where there are some fantastic basses which can hold there own against basses that cost several times as much. But in the context of cabs - there's actually a lot of truth in the statement: the really good cabs are IME generally more expensive than the mid-range quality cabs and those, in turn, tend to be better quality and more expensive than budget cabs. I'm maybe a little biased in placing a huge amount of importance to cabs in our signal chain - given that they are the key final link between us and our ears and those of our audiences. So I guess my recommendation is not to scrimp on your cab, but get the best that your budget allows.

Sold Nik a Zoom multi-fx. Fast payment, good comms and a pleasure to deal with! No hesitation in recommending or dealing with again. Enjoy the pedal! Cheers, Bas

I've been having a bit of a gear clear out - mostly pedals. Lockdown has been really helpful in getting me to see that some of my gear was not getting used just because of a lack of time - or at least that's what I'd been telling myself was my excuse. Quite a lot of us, me included, I suspect have had a fair bit more time with less commuting / meetings etc. over the past four months. Kinda made me realise that the real reason that some of my kit was not getting used was that they were actually more appealing on paper than in real life! Certainly in terms of the amount of reward for buck of time invested. Obviously I'm just speaking from my own purely personal perspective here. So I've kinda resolved that any "pseudo multifx" pedals that aren't actually multifx, but where you still need to get into PC editing or midi or your bluetooth phone etc etc to get the most out of them are not for me. PC editing headspace is gonna be reserved for proper bona- fide, good dog, multifx like my amazing value Zoom B1-4 and the very capable Helix HX Effects I'm fortunate to have. Anyway! The main point of this neo-luddite ramble is that interestingly (to me anyway!) 1/3 of my pedal sales over the past couple of weeks have been to bass players from the EU. I'm guessing that things might just be a little more positive on the continent than for us Brits, right now, on the music front and that £:euro may well be making our used gear seem like good value despite postage costs being +£10 more than it is to send within the UK. Just a thought.