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Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 11:04 am
by t-rey
I've become obsessed with octave pedals again. Had an OC-2 long ago and recently an OC-3 that I didn't really jive with. Now that I have a stereo rig going, I think that running octave into just one amp would be really cool. What say you, ilovedoom - should I consider tying out the octaveness again?

I've always liked the idea of the MXR Bass Octave Deluxe.

But should I be looking at a MicroPOG? How about the POG2 - is it really awesome enough to justify the price?

FUEL MY CONSUMERIST NEEDS :doom:

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 11:57 am
by t-rey
That's kinda the dilemma that I have as well. I love the idea of all the cool things that are possible with things like a POG, HOG, Mobius, etc...but I'm not sure how much I will actually utilize it to it's full potential...

The idea is MONOLITHIC DOOM RIFFS. And Organ sounds. 12 string sounds. And CKY style riffage.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 3:28 pm
by conky
I ran my Micropog into one amp of my stereo rig and it was the most awesome sound ever. Riffing on some shit with that booming octave down was killer. Do it. Do it now. If you want 2 octave up or down (its cool, but 2 octave down tends to get lost in the mix or just muddy up the speakers and 2 up pierces your ears) then spring for the Pog2, but the Micropog will be a workhorse.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 3:44 pm
by t-rey
The POG2 is more about the presets for me than anything. That way I could be lazy and have a lot of different sounds at my disposal. Don't really know that it would fit on my board once I add an Elements and maybe another dirt...

I should look at what used Micropogs are going for.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 4:14 pm
by Tristan
It really depends what you want to do with the octave.
For the heaviest sound possible I'd suggest an Aguilar Octamizer placed after the distortion.
The MXR Bass Octave Deluxe is quite similar to the OC-2 in sound, though in my opinion it's a bit cleaner and less special (synthy) sounding.
Digital octaves are way more versatile, they also work on chords and usually they have octave down as well as up, though in my opinion the octave down setting on the digital octave pedals I tried definitely sound much weaker for heavy riffing than on a really good analog octave pedal.
Personally I also don't like a sub octave on chords, it gives some sort of ugly / interfering extra sound, but that could be me.
Also there's an enormous difference in the way each digital octave pedal sounds, personally I really don't like the Electro Harmonix ones, they always seem to sound like cheesy organs in my opinion, I went for a Whammy 5 instead which has a completely different sound that suits me better.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 6:29 pm
by The Wood Wizard
I dig the organ sounds. I got a POG 2 and I like it, the octave up makes you jump out for solos in a neat way, the 2 down is just a mess, but one down can be pretty useful. get a bigger board and go for it haha.
THis is why i dont even use a board, it would limit how much I can buy, and we cant be having that...

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:07 pm
by skullservant
Just heard an Organizer for the first time in general on Saturday on both bass and guitar and it was pretty cool. You could definitely get that 12 string sound.

I think that I might be looking into the Aguilar Octamizer or the Mantic Conceptual Density Brute here soon for sub octave stuff. Not only for bass but also for my modular synth which I noticed is lacking some low-end.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:27 pm
by ryan summit
you know i love the ps6
bought an oc2
traded it immediately for a ps5
octron 2 is on my want list
but yes dude
you want
get somethin that does up and down simultaneously
besides the 12 string and organ stuff
makes your shit sound big
it was like the first time i heard reverb
gives your fuzz a gnarly rape boner

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 12:29 am
by Iommic Pope
I've been thinking for a while that in my dream rig (which is stereo) I'd be running a pog 2/micro pog on one side and either a boss ps6 harmonist/whammy v on the other.
Possibly the whammy cause it does 4ths, and that is where the mastodon/baroness tones of old live...when you are the only guitarist.
Plus I feel like doubling them up on each side like that would just deliver a wall of fat, orchestral goodness. So like 4ths/5ths on one side and octaves/12string tones on the other.
Could sound like shit though, cause its all in my head.
I have a whammy clone in the digitech expression factory, theyre a great pedal, but I don't use that one cause the tone suck/buffer on that pedal is nasty.

Not as nasty as a rape boner.

That shit is gold.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 8:56 am
by kbit
I had a POG 2 for a while and having a lot of -1 down and a little bit of -2 down was so sweet, but in a band mix I'm sure the -2 would be washed out. I think a micropog constantly going to a separate amp would be more than sufficient.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 9:27 am
by Iommic Pope
A guy I was jamming with last year had a pog2 on octave/2octs down all the time. It turns tone to low noise in a band mix, fucks with how you hear the bass and gets real old real quick.
Use sparingly.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 9:28 am
by t-rey
The Wood Wizard wrote:I dig the organ sounds. I got a POG 2 and I like it, the octave up makes you jump out for solos in a neat way, the 2 down is just a mess, but one down can be pretty useful. get a bigger board and go for it haha.
THis is why i dont even use a board, it would limit how much I can buy, and we cant be having that...


That's exactly why I use a board hahaha - keeps me confined and makes me consider what I will actually use vs. wanting a new toy to play with. Well...it does that most of the time. Sometimes I do impulse buy (cheaper) stuff just to try out and sell a few weeks later after I never use it again.

vidret wrote:i'd get an organizer or a whammy V if I were to get one. you talked about faking organ sounds and 12 strings, organizer should allow that without taking up too much space. whammy might be too big for what you want.


If the organizer didn't always warble I would be all over one.

skullservant wrote:Just heard an Organizer for the first time in general on Saturday on both bass and guitar and it was pretty cool. You could definitely get that 12 string sound.

I think that I might be looking into the Aguilar Octamizer or the Mantic Conceptual Density Brute here soon for sub octave stuff. Not only for bass but also for my modular synth which I noticed is lacking some low-end.


Ohhhhh - I didn't know about those. I will have to take a look.

ryan summit wrote:you know i love the ps6
bought an oc2
traded it immediately for a ps5
octron 2 is on my want list
but yes dude
you want
get somethin that does up and down simultaneously
besides the 12 string and organ stuff
makes your shit sound big
it was like the first time i heard reverb
gives your fuzz a gnarly rape boner


I always forget about the Boss PS stuff. May need to look at some demos. Rape. Boner.

Iommic Pope wrote:I've been thinking for a while that in my dream rig (which is stereo) I'd be running a pog 2/micro pog on one side and either a boss ps6 harmonist/whammy v on the other.
Possibly the whammy cause it does 4ths, and that is where the mastodon/baroness tones of old live.


Congratulations on being the first person ever to make me want a Whammy.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 9:44 am
by Iommic Pope
They do have their advantages. If you could rig up a dual/stereo true bypass loop to sit both of them in you could hit the one button and get wall of harmony all at once. That would be tits.
Plus the whammy (modeller) I have does this really awesome thing on the 2oct up setting where if you hit a power chord while you tread on it with the dirt on heavy, you get this warble in the tracking. I'm guessing the new ones don't have this problem, as they can do the polyphonic, but I dig it. It sounds like glitchy sort of record warping meets digital break up.
Again, its probably related more to the expression factory.
the 4th setting is my favorite though. It makes everything sound epic.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 6:31 pm
by hashshashin
A POG/OC-3 is the only thing keeping me from drooling at the new 8-string basses like the Schecter Stiletto Studio-8. I'm torn between my love for rhythm guitar and bass. With one octave up and down, I can just grab one and go.

Re: Talk me into or out of an octave pedal.

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 12:52 am
by Iommic Pope
hashshashin wrote:A POG/OC-3 is the only thing keeping me from drooling at the new 8-string basses like the Schecter Stiletto Studio-8. I'm torn between my love for rhythm guitar and bass. With one octave up and down, I can just grab one and go.

8 bangers are cool though...

While we are discussing this, who prefers their harmonisers/octave pedals before and after dirt? I know they track better before dirt, but they do sound more "doubly" (like layered guitars) afterwards.