MXR M288 Bass Octave Deluxe tracking issue

[johnDeereJack]

Evening (or should I say 'morning') BC'ers,

I have a rather odd thing happening with my MXR octave pedal. I was always under the impression that OC pedals would lose tracking at the lower register as opposed to the higher but mine seems to hate anything I play on the G string until it kinda 'warms up' after about 10 mins then it's fine.

I can easilly get down to low G on the E string without issue but when I plug everything in then start widdling (as one does) it refuses to track anything I play on the G string. I can play the same notes on the D without issue but if I try the higher string I get a complete breakup until it seems to settle in after about 10mins.

It was bought second hand from a member here, and I need to make it clear that I'm in no way suggesting the member is at fault for selling me dodgy goods, but it has a pricetag on the box of £199.00 from 'Kenny's Music'. I have no idea where 'Kenny's Music' is but I'm assuming that these units have been around for a while considering the £199.00 price tag and that I may have one of the early units.

Anyone else came across this?

Signal:
USA75RI Jazz > Boss TU3 > Dunlop Bass Wah > MXR Bass Envelope Filter > MXR Bass Octave Deluxe > Boss OBD3 > Amp

Even using the OC on its own I still get the problem.

Any help would be appreciated

Ian

[BigBassBob]

I'm afraid I have no experience with the M288 but I just noticed this thread on TB and thought you might be interested:

[url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f36/mxr-bass-octaver-technical-difficulties-812768/"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f36/mxr-bass-octaver-technical-difficulties-812768/[/url]

[pantherairsoft]

I had one. It struggles to track treble heavy signals. Obviously the G string has more 'top' end than other strings. Also, any fret rattle and it stuffs the tracking as it takes the high frequency of the rattle then realises it can't reproduce it.

To get even triggering you need to either add bass or preferably, roll off treble on your bass Pre (or with an EQ pedal before the octave if you play passive) and put it back after at the amp stage. You must also have a medium/high action to avoid any rattle (it's not uncommon for your G string to have a slightly lower action than other strings).

Hope this helps.

[cheddatom]

I'm interested in this "warming up" after 10 minutes. Are you sure that really happens?

[Rumple]

Have you tried it with your other basses? as it may be slight string rattle as mentioned above, I have an M288 and like most octave pedals it does need a nice clean signal and seems to work best on the A & D strings.

[johnDeereJack]

Sorry folks, the new site wont let me multi-quote for some reason so I'll have to do it this way I'm afraid:

@ BigBassBob: Cheers for that mate, this sounds like the type of thing I'm experiencing but I've never actually paid attention to how far up the neck on the G string it goes. Most definately worth investigating though. Again the OP mentions the possibility of a defective pedal but I'll certainly check it out once I get home after work.

@ pantherairsoft: I do play mostly with the bridge pup on full and neck pup off with the treble rolled off slightly and I have my action pretty low but not to the point where it's causing any noticable buzzez or rattles.
I'll try raising the action and adding some neck pup to see if that helps but I honestly think it's an issue with the unit itself.

@ cheddatom: Yeah it totally sorts itself out after about 10 mins and this is a reasonably recent issue as well as I never used to have any problems with it.

I assumed that as the pedal was:
1) second-hand and
2) has a £199.00 price tag on the box that it was an older model and perhaps prone to being a bit twitchy?

I tried one at Guitar Guitar (I took my own fretless along as they seldom have fretless basses there and this is the bass I play it through most often) against a Boss OC3 and an Aguilar Octamizer before I bought it and it just blew the other two out the water and there was no tracking issues with the 'new' one on my fretless.

@ Rumple: yep, tried it with three different basses - two fretless (one is active) and a passive fretted - and still have the same problem.
The thing is it clears up after a period of time so I'm assuming there may be a problem with the pedal?

I'll try raising the action as pantherairsoft suggests to see if that helps any and I'll report back.

Many thanks for all the advice folks

[dr Szelma]

I own this octave pedal and I must admit - it's the best of the beast! I will sugest changing pedals places in your chain. bass - wah - octave - od - ef - amp. tuner needs to go into amp's tuner output or get the true bypass modification if you want to keep it in chain, otherwise it sucks life out of your bass! octave pedals are usually very fussy about input signal and I struggled with mine until putting pedals in THE RIGHT ORDER hope this helps mate!
PS - if I were you, I would true bypass odb-3 as well... but that's off topic.

[soldersqueeze]

I have one of these and use it all the time, can't say i've had anything like this. Mine's one of the first batch too...
How are you powering it? If it's "warming up" it sounds like the CHT (constant headroom technology) might be acting up. It's a power regulator which brings the input voltage up to 18v (i think so at least, if i'm wrong someone say), so that could be the source of the problem?
For the record I use mine after a Boss EQ and before any other effects because I find they confuse it and severely limit the tracking accuracy.

[johnDeereJack]

Well I raised the action and adjusted the intonation on my fretted jazz bass for rehearsal on Sun (as suggested by pantherairsoft) but it still has the same issues so I'm going along to Guitar Guitar with it (my fretted jazz) to see if there's an issue with their new one. If there is, then it's a bass set-up issue I'd guess.

@ dr Szelma: Yes I completely agree with you about this pedal being fantastic.
As I said I A/B'd it against an Aguilar Octamizer & the OC3 and it's way better than the Octamizer and just destroyed the OC3. I'll try the order you suggest and see if that makes any difference.
(Always looking for help on which pedal should go where )

@ soldersqueeze: I'm using the TU3 to power all the pedals via daisy-chain but I'll swap round the pedals so the OC is at the head of the signal chain to avoid any confusion that may be generated by the EF.

Many thanks once again folks

[kostasl]

I know this is a really old post but i stumbled upon it because I have the same exact problem with my brand new m288. Mainly at the 7th fret on the G string.

Did you actually find out what the source of the problem was?

[CliveT]

7 hours ago, kostasl said:

I know this is a really old post but i stumbled upon it because I have the same exact problem with my brand new m288. Mainly at the 7th fret on the G string.

Did you actually find out what the source of the problem was?

That sounds like a dead spot on your fretboard.  It's the classic spot for it.  I presume it's OK everywhere else?  I've had a MXR M288 since 2012 and always been great.

[basse_groove]

Hello, I get out this old post, I encounter the same problem mentioned in the subject line. I have tracking problems on the ground strings.
The problem seems to diminish with after 10 minutes of play.
Did you identify the problem and find a solution?

Thank you

[basse_groove]

For your information, This is the return of Dunlop Tech :

Analog Octave effects can seem to have tracking issue if you are not familiar with how they work and do not know the tricks to using them. The cause has to do with the way the pedal tracks the signal and the physics involved with stringed instruments. The M288 actually tracks the signal extremely well but can have difficulty distinguishing the  fundamental note from the harmonics if the harmonics become louder than the fundamental.
When you play a note on the guitar you are not hearing just one note. What you are hearing it the fundament note along with the harmonics. If you play a sustained note and listen, you'll notice that the harmonics will rise and fall as they decay. You can hear this as a subtle tonal change even though the fundamental note remains the same. When the harmonics become louder than the fundamental note itself the octave effect will jump between the fundamental and the harmonic causing a warble type sound as it tries to
track whichever is loudest.

I've listed some tips to working around this below...
1.) Try to decrease the harmonics as much as possible before the octave effect. Using fingers rather than a pick, switching to the neck pickup, and turning the tone on the guitar down can all help to reduce the harmonics.
2.) Some areas of the fret board can be more trouble than others, exactly where can differ between instruments. You may need to experiment with playing notes in different locations to avoid these areas.
3.) New strings will aggravate this issue as they tend to bring out the harmonics. Older strings typically track better than brand new ones.

Best regards,
Jon

[Chopthebass]

I have the same pedal and same issue when the compressor is on, on my Bergantino Forte HP. I also have the new Empress compressor pedal, and same thing happens no matter where the compressor is in my chain. I don't use the octave pedal much, but when I do I just have to turn the comp off. 

[basse_groove]

15 hours ago, Chopthebass said:

I have the same pedal and same issue when the compressor is on, on my Bergantino Forte HP. I also have the new Empress compressor pedal, and same thing happens no matter where the compressor is in my chain. I don't use the octave pedal much, but when I do I just have to turn the comp off. 

Maybe you can install the octaver before your comp.

[Chopthebass]

2 hours ago, basse_groove said:

Maybe you can install the octaver before your comp.

That’s how I now run it, but it has same problem. It’s odd. Running on its own is perfectly fine