bass octave pedals

[Sensei Tim]

so here's a request for feeback from you guys, especially bass players.

I got a request from a girl who wants to commission a custom bass octave pedal for her bass playing boyfriend (she sounds like a keeper!)

trouble is, i don't really know what's hot and what's crap as far as bass octave pedals.

on top of that, she's not really knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff, and she can't really ask too much without making him suspicious and giving the surprise away.

So, to all you bass players... what would be a good octave pedal?  i don't know if it has to be octave up, down, up and down, 2 octaves down, etc.

any help would be appreciated!

Tim

[nocentelli]

One octave down, nice firm tracking is what I'd want for bass. Merlin's U boat sounds great and has great tracking and sustain and a cool natural/synthy switch, simple wet/dry blend or you could have separate direct and -1 oct level pots.

[Beaker]

Only ever played one bass octave pedal - an Ashdown sub octave?. I bought it when one of our gutarists quit. I thought it would thicken things up during guitar solos.

It was ok, but no more than that. It had the usual bass octave issue of tracking like shit below B (on a 4 string bass).
It meant I had to shift up an octave during solos, which changed the whole feel of things. I got rid of it after only a few weeks, as neither I or my bandmates liked it at all.

I would be more interested in an octave up bass overdrive, so I could keep pounding away at the bass riff, while the octave up acts to fill in for the rythmn guitar.

That still kind of assumes it can still track ok down the bottom end.

This is a bit of a rant I'm afraid, and may not help you too much, but it's just my limited experience.

[Muadzin]

IMHO all analog octave pedals sound like crap. Great if you like that glitchy flubbery all over the place tracking that is not, or if you're after some synthy sounds, but if you actually want the shifted down note to sound like the same note, only one or two octaves down, there is just no substitute for a POG, a Whammy, or a harmonizer. I've tried the BYOC octaver, the one from Madbean, 4ms nocto loco, Boss OC-2, MXR blue box, octave down fuzz on the Line6 DM-4, none of them came even close to the tracking and consistency of a whammy with the octave down harmony setting. And even that gets kicked by the POG.

Now if you want a DIY build that does some glitchy flubbery all over the place tracking that is not but also has a ton of other whacky noises to still make it useful I would recommend getting the 4ms Nocto Loco.

[induction]

Merlin's U-Boat is the only clean analog octave down I've ever heard. I haven't built it yet, but in the demos I've heard it tracks very well in the non-synth setting.

[rocket88]

the only bass octave i've really liked so far has been the aguilar octamizer, which is a modified ampeg sub-blaster. the aguilar has an added clean and octave filter (tone) control. i requested the ampeg awhile ago and there's a layout, but haven't had a chance to build it, so you might want to have a go at it. it seems more musical to me, like you're actually playing that note rather then it being processed.

side note, i bought an octamizer used and had to send it in for a repair. once i get it back i plan on opening it to see what they did differently to tweak the ampeg.

[Travis]

Personally I'd say just get a micro pog. As Muazdin said the analog octavers can't track nearly as well as the POG.

If you must build one, then the BOSS OC-2 is probably your best bet IMO, or if she's seriously willing to bust out some major cash you probably won't ever beat the Schumann PLL for analog octaves

[Sensei Tim]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Turns out what he wanted was a tap tempo delay or a reverb - both significantly easier than an octaver :)

thanks again, guys.

[traktop]

We bought a second hand ashdown abm 500 evoII combo a week ago. It has that same built in octave down effect. It seems quite subtle but usable on higher strings and tracks very nicely. The option of being switchable by an external pedal makes it great.