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An octave up pedal that doesn't sound out of tune


MikeStockport
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I've tried a few pedals that claim to give an octave up but the higher octave always sounds horribly out of tune, like an organ that's been dropped from a sixth storey window. 😊 Does anyone know of any pedal that produces a nice clean tone that's genuinely one octave higher, or is it that none of these effects can track the low notes of a bass accurately enough to do that? (I'm not interested in sub octaves.)

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4 hours ago, dudewheresmybass said:

It’s a familiar tale- been trying for a good while myself
Which ones have you tried?

The first one I tried was a cheap Chinese one from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Octpus-Polyphonic-Octave-Electric-Guitar/dp/B08HHZ6GP3/ref=sr_1_33?crid=3HTFC6XGFRYBV&dchild=1&keywords=octave+pedal&qid=1600781261&sprefix=octave%2Caps%2C229&sr=8-33

It sounded horrible. Then I saw this:

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/fishman-fission-bass-powerchord-fx/53647?gclid=CjwKCAjwwab7BRBAEiwAapqpTOry_7PfmgVcfdBEuBAVPbHbtYVItncun76etF8-MkxPwKaBpTk-3RoCIAgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

This was better, but still very limited. The second octave above the source pitch still sounded out of tune, and the overall sound of the unit, if you turned off the distortion, still sounded like a not-very-good organ.

After reading lots of rave reviews, I decided to give the Hotone Ampero One a try:

https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Hotone-Ampero-One-Multi-Effects-Unit/3B56

But the octave and harmonist effects sounded as bad as the cheap pedal from Amazon.

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Most of these cheap pedals use the same circuits. The Mooer Tender MkI though was a supposed clone of the EHX MicroPOG, they were forced to stop making it and came out with a MkII which I hear is decent but not quite as good. Mooer also make a Pure Octave which has that horrible out of tune sound you describe, so I bet most of the ones you tried are just like that!

The MkI Tender was going for high prices (higher than the EHX original due to people wanting a small pedal!) when they stopped production, they're pretty rare now though. 

Edited by dannybuoy
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I think a fully ‘nice clean tone’ doesn’t really completely happen with octave up effects ever in my experience.

That said, I’ve tried a few, largely as I’m in a bass/drums duo where I’m doing a dual channel thing with one being an octave up with distortion. As a result I don’t use the effect clean much, but when I’ve experimented I’ve found the T-Rex Quint Machine to have the better, more natural clean octave up sound of those I’ve tried. It’s a very capable pedal generally as it does a fifth above and octave down too.

I’ve also tried the octave up on the Digitech Ricochet (very artificial so wouldn’t recommend if ‘natural’ is your thing, though actually I generally use it for 2 octave up stabs and that’ll always sound synthetic!). Also had the mkii Mooer Tender Octaver for a while. The mkii is still similar to a POG in terms of its octave up sound but still comes some way behind the Quint. YMMV though.
 

Have heard the TC Sub n Up get some decent props too though haven’t tried one. Yet...

Edited by mr4stringz
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+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.

Edited by Al Krow
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On 22/12/2019 at 20:28, Friskydingo said:

I can't read through every page so sorry if this has been asked but has Anyone used the Pigtronix Octava Micro? Small footprint and the option of a fuzz is nice

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...

Edited by Al Krow
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Not the best sounding by any means but the best designed I've found is in  the Zoom multi effects. They include a fine tuning control so using an external tuner you get it bang on. 

If they didn't sound quite as much like a warbling space canary with a cold they'd be perfect. 

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22 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

I'd seek out bass clips of the Octava first, it might not be what you're looking. Octave up fuzzes tend to only realy be audible on the higher notes, and you can't get a clean octave out of them.

I've not managed to find anything on YT for the Pigtronix Octava on bass...guess I'll get my own chance to give it a spin when it lands next week! But I think the combination of LS2 + Octava may be the ticket.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 24/09/2020 at 13:47, dannybuoy said:

It's the same octave up as the older Pigtronix Disnortion apparently, so perhaps there'll be a clip of that somewhere...

Pigtronix Octavia arrived last week. Aimed at guitarists, but I like it a lot on bass (not least its compact form factor). It has a brighter, crisper fuzz than my Red Ripper which I suspect could cut through the mix very well, and sports a capable LPF for dialling back treble / producing a more vintage tone. It's definitely not an octave-up pedal in the way we normally think of one, though!

Edited by Al Krow
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