Re: Octave Pedals

["Louis Rossi" <tarbit@hotmail.com>]

The octave sounds on the digitech whammy petal work well... & for bass 
players the EBS box
cheers
LOU

>From: mwsmart@insightbb.com
>Reply-To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>Subject: Re: Boss Octave Pedal
>Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 20:10:16 +0000
>
> > I have to assume some people on this list use the Boss Octave pedal in 
>their
> > looping setups, to achieve "bass guitar" sounds.  To those of you that 
>do....do
> > you like it?  what do you think of the tracking?
>
>I use a Danelectro Chili Dog for bass sounds in my loop setup...
>
><http://www.marksmart.net/gearhack/jazzpedalboard/jazzpedalboard.html>
>
>..., but I've
>played the Boss OC-2 in stores a couple of times. My impression was that 
>the
>tracking on both units (assuming you play only one note at a time and are
>careful about damping open strings) feels instantaneously fast, but they 
>both
>have a tendency to bounce octaves sometimes on low notes on the low E 
>string.
>With the Chili Dog I reduce this quite a bit by using the neck pickup 
>(actually
>a special Copeland hexaphonic humbucker in the neck position), rolling the
>high end off a lot, using fingers to play the bass a lot of the time, and
>picking nearer to the neck.
>
>Tone-wise, the Chili Dog and OC-2 sound TOTALLY different. The OC-2 has 
>the
>traditional square-wave type octave sound. I'm not sure what they are 
>doing
>in the Chili Dog, but it doesn't sound like that. It's more like they took
>the square wave and multiplied it by the input signal or something...the 
>timbre
>of the incoming signal affects the timbre of the output. It can kinda 
>sound
>like an acoustic bass if you use your imagination a bit.
>
>One time in a music store I played with a reissue Electro-Harmonix Micro 
>Synth.
>The bass sound on this thing sounded and felt so much like the Chili Dog, 
>that
>I think Danelectro must have ripped off the Chili Dog's circuit from it.
>
>To further complicate matters, Boss has at least two other octave units, 
>the
>OC-20 (twin pedal requiring GK-2a synth pickup) and the OC-3 (a stompbox 
>like
>the OC-2 but which can supposedly handle chords). I haven't tried either 
>of 
>these
>and can't offer an opinion. I'm really happy with the Chili Dog.
>
>I also have a Roland VG-8, which is of course much fancier and more 
>expensive,
>but can be used for bass sounds...the Chili Dog (and the OC-2 for that 
>matter)
>tracks much more quickly because there is no harmonizer (record stuff 
>into 
>a
>delay and play it out at a different speed) effect involved.
>
> > I'd like to get the EH Pog,
> > but can't justify nearly $400 for an octave pedal (especially after 
>just 
>buying
> > an EDP), so I was wondering if the Boss pedal is "good enough."  I 
>want 
>to use
> > it with my Taylor 814 and my Gibson Les Paul, (i.e.. with acoustic and 
>electric
> > instruments).  I think I'm most curious as to how well it tracks with 
>acoustic
> > guitars to simulate a bass.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Brian
>
>You can't beat the price of the Chili Dog...$30 from most mail order 
>places.
>Definitely worth a try. And not only that...it's purple!
>
>Mark Smart
>http://www.marksmart.net
>