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Ridiculous response from Dunlop on MXR Bass Octave Deluxe's noise problem

1976fenderhead

By 1976fenderhead,
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1976fenderhead Collaborator

1976fenderhead

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Many of you will know about complaints that the MXR Bass Octave Deluxe is noisy. I asked Dunlop about it as I had to return one recently due to that problem. Here's their response:


"The crackling you are hearing is caused by the pedal trying to track the
noise floor of your guitar. The reason the M288 can track so well is because
of this sensitivity. To solve this issue you can use a noise gate. Let us
know if you have any more questions."

Isn't that just brilliant. Other brands have perfectly good tracking without noise, we sucked at achieving it so just buy another of our pedals to solve the problem this one creates...

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1976fenderhead Collaborator

1976fenderhead

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I returned the pedal straight away.

The noise is there whenever the effect is on and no notes being played. It's a low frequency crackling which is doubled 1 octave down and is bassier if you had Girth and throatier if you add Growl :D It's only mildly annoying on its own, but if you hit a fuzz after it it's too much. Was equally present with all my 3 basses, different cables, power supplies, straight to amp or to computer, daisy-chained or on its own. It's just the pedal and external factors make no difference...

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1976fenderhead Collaborator

1976fenderhead

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I expected them to say it was a bad unit or that it reacts bad to some basses or whatever, so that some people might get it and others not, and the product would have no noise to at least a good proportion of users so that a decision to release it would be understandable.

I didn't expect them to put out a poorly developed, unresolved pedal, not tell anyone there are issues and then act like it's the most normal thing in the world to have to buy another pedal to get rid of the noise, or that it's a consequence of their pedal being so awesome at tracking like I'm an idiot and don't know many other pedals track just as well without noise.

Wouldn't be a big deal if it was Behringer or Ibanez or EHX, but I expect a little more from MXR, or expected...

I won't be too surprised if I buy a super cheap tv and it doesn't tune perfectly well a channel or 2, but if I buy a great Samsung tv and it doesn't tune properly a load of channels, and they say that's a consequence of their tv being so awesome and I just have to buy this other box that helps it tune better... should I be ok with that or should that damage their brand?

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BB3000S Enthusiast

BB3000S

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Sounds like a bad specimen to me, I have the same pedal and never had a problem with it. On the contrary it's the best tracking octave pedal I've ever had and it sounds awesome! The Octamizer is also very cool though, but tracks sliiiightly less well. IME, YMMV and so on.

Very strange response from Dunlop - even if I do agree more pedals is generally a fun idea.

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1976fenderhead Collaborator

1976fenderhead

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[quote name='BB3000S' timestamp='1336517168' post='1647032']
Sounds like a bad specimen to me, I have the same pedal and never had a problem with it. On the contrary it's the best tracking octave pedal I've ever had and it sounds awesome! The Octamizer is also very cool though, but tracks sliiiightly less well. IME, YMMV and so on.

Very strange response from Dunlop - even if I do agree more pedals is generally a fun idea.
[/quote]

It is odd, a guy on Talkbass also wrote to them and they said that's just how their circuit works. But another guy went back to the shop and bought another one and that one was fine, no noise! so he was in touch with Dunlop to get the 1st one fixed. Don't know how that went...

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ahpook Grand Master

ahpook

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[quote name='1976fenderhead' timestamp='1336515761' post='1646979']
I didn't expect them to put out a poorly developed, unresolved pedal, not tell anyone there are issues and then act like it's the most normal thing in the world to have to buy another pedal to get rid of the noise...
[/quote]

maybe they're run by ex-software developers ?

;)

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Bigwan Veteran

Bigwan

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I emailed Dunlop yesterday about getting a schematic for the broken MXR bass octave (not the deluxe version) I bought here last week...

They don't hand out schematics, even for obsolete pedals.... Their tech support manager says he'll talk me through repairing it, but using email and the time difference that'll take FOREVER! With a schematic I could find the problem in no time (comparatively). Most other companies don't have an issue.

Grrrr...

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