Octave pedal funkin' around

[Robert****]

This is my cheap Arion octave pedal. It's not the best, but it is a lot of fun to improvise with!

• Check out the Octave Pedal Demo and let me know what you think!

[Jimi75]

That was cool Rob!

The sound of the pedal reminds me of my old Boss Octave pedal, that is rusting away somwhere down in my basement.

The synthesizer-like sound is fun to play and especially playing on the higher frets it fattens the sound and the octave effect gets a little smoother.

Definitely no pedal if you are looking for Band Of Gypsy "Who Knows" kinda sound.

I heard that those guys who composed the Ocean's 11,12 and 13 soundtrack sometimes used only a guitar with such a more "synthetic" Octave pedal plus drums.

One qustion though:
Do you regularly buy new pedals, or are those relics that you reanimate?

[Robert****]

Thanks Jimi75, I regularly buy new pedals. I can't help myself.

Next I am thinking about a Fuzz Factory or an Octave Fuzz...

[Jimi75]

Hi Robert,

If you are talking about the Zvex Fuzz Factory then be careful, because this thing gives you more ghostnotes than you can handle and sometimes it makes noise when you didn't even play. This thing lives. For me, who really likes crazy guitar noise, this was a little too much.

If you are talking about the Fulltone Octave Fuzz, than this would be a more appropriate toy for you and everybody. Last year I have played a blues session in the Netherlands where I had the chance to play that pedal and it was very very good. Unfortunately, I had no chance to chekc if you can play Fuzz and Octave seperately, so I only played the Fuzz+Octave. Nice ringmodulated tones that are very controlable.

[Spudman***]

Cool Robert.
I had a Boss octave pedal for quite a while but never could get happy with the sound. It did the same thing yours does. The notes would break up or just sound bad.

Now get this, I have a Digitech Synth Wah pedal that also has an octave function, but it doesn't break up or sound weird. Go figure.

[als_lespaul]

That was cool!

[sunvalleylaw]

This is my cheap Arion octave pedal. It's not the best, but it is a lot of fun to improvise with!

• Check out the Octave Pedal Demo and let me know what you think!

Cool! Kind of makes the guitar have the quality of an old organ. I think the effect would be useful for some types of things, especially dramatic type pieces.

[R_of_G]

Very nice Robert. I too love pitch-shifting effects. My Dan-o-Wah has an octave divider [which when combined with the wah has a very Jimi sound], but my true love for that is the Digitech multi-effects thing I have. It has Intelligent Pitch Shifting, that allows you to not only change the distance in the tone you are shifting [ie. to a third, a fifth, an octave, etc] but to change them according to different modes. for a modal jazz player and bill frisell junkie like myself, this pedal is a fun toy. i enjoyed your demo, the licks were frisell like [though the tone was pure robert]. well done.

[marnold***]

I like doing that with my EX-7 with the Whammy setting too. It suffers from the same warbling/tracking problem, especially on lower notes. If you keep it subtle it's OK. But what's the point in being subtle with a Whammy pedal? That's really my only complaint with the EX-7.

[FrankAxtell]

Very cool!

[duhvoodooman***]

I have a cheapo octave-down pedal, too--the Danelectro Chili Dog. Sounds very much like this one, and has that same habit of falling apart on low notes. And God help you if you strum apower chord! They're fun to fool around with, though. Cool/unusual sounds.

BYOC has an octave-fuzz pedal now that I've been thinking about trying at some point. But that octaves up, of course....