dannybuoy

My Octabvre can do a low F# no problem. It doesn't sound very good to me, as I don't find notes that low very usable, but it tracks just fine. It can handle short or pulsing notes on the low E and F, but sustained notes glitch out. Moving down to the low B string, it can even do C#/D/D# no problem. If I pluck nearer the bridge or use a pick then tracking goes haywire, so a lot of it is down to technique too.

Yamaha BB1025X into a low gain overdrive (I keep flipping between a Bearfoot Blueberry, Pike Vulcan, Aguilar Agro and Darkglass Alpha Omega) into Orange Terror Bass into dual Ampeg SVT210AV stack. Pretty much always have the drive pedal on, it just sounds dull without one!

That's where opinion is divided. Personally I prefer the tone of the OC-2 by a wide margin, but plenty of others have replaced their OC-2's with one with no regrets.

You will be able to get many synth effects out of the Zoom, but nothing approaching the OC-2. Try and find some demos to hear the OC-2 octave soloed on bass if you're not familiar with how it sounds!

New 'Alpha Omicron' on the way! https://www.talkbass.com/attachments/photo-8-19-17-1-04-13-am-png.1555823/

Check out the Wounded Paw range of blenders too. If you want the same level of wet/dry blend in all modes, then adding a simple blender like the Mosquite (or another LS2!) to your LS2 will work too!

They changed about 4 weeks ago according to a Talkbass thread, but could well have been earlier than that, and the volume issue might not have affected the whole range, so best to ask Tom. If you want an octave to fill out the sound with an added sub in the background then the COG is awesome. The tracking is stellar and being able to dial the tone right down to sub bass makes it blend really well. If you want to use it 100% wet, essentially just using it as a synth pedal and playing higher up to compensate for the difference in pitch, the Octabvre Mini just has a great solo voice that you can't get from the COG. Conversely, this punchy mid-heavy tone doesn't work as well as the COG when blended with clean, where a milder sound often works better.

Btw, word is the newer COGs now have more output volume, which fixes my biggest problem with the T16 I had. Al, there are just as many people reporting they think the COG is the best octaver they've ever had as there are those that were disappointed with it. You're just going to have to try one yourself, otherwise it's like conducting a survey to find out if you should try eating marmite!

Pint and a spliff?

Bear in mind a TM4 doesn't sound much like a Stingray due to the MM pickup being quite a bit close to the bridge. But the answer should be play both and get the one that sounds and feels best! You can play the 'Ray in store, was your friend's Sandberg a TM4 so you can compare?

Price is usually a poor indicator of performance, especially when the differences aren't that great. The biggest reason for those price differences are due to how and where they are manufactured, and how many they produce. E.g the Mooer Tender Octave outperforms the EHX Micro POG which cost 3 times as much!

An EHX engineer has posted on the Talkbass thread. He said he tried to clone the best sounding tall font they could find, and the resulting pedal has kicked the BBM off of his own personal board. That Russian Pickle sounds amazing though, I'm surprised it hasn't received more attention!

It's weird how my experience of the COG was so different - I thought the tracking was amazingly good out of the box. It's a great sounding octave for adding a beefy sub under your higher register playing, but I just preferred the tone (and volume) of the 3Leaf when soloed, and at the time I was chasing that solo keyboard synth style effect. I don't think looking at it in terms of it being a low priced poor quality pedal is fair - COG pedals are extremely well made, better than most mass produced stuff, and the only reason it's cheaper is probably because they are made in the UK and imports are expensive these days!

I'd love to see a shootout between that and the Way Huge Russian Pickle that has been tempting me as of late: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FO0zJCG770

Interesting about the COG mods, my T16 was quieter than an OC-2, did your mod give it more volume? Also I reckon the POG and Digitech Whammy track and sound better than Eventide's algorithms. This is just based on a few versus comparisons out there on Youtube however such as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92A5Gv0NlU8 Pedal A is the Eventide and it has a bit more latency and glitches out every now and then whereas B (the Micro POG) is solid.

Those that are strongly against tab seem to be those who play in situations where they are handed a sheet of music to play and are expected to keep up without having heard the piece before. Therefore they need something that can convey rhythm properly, which tab is not really capable of. For most other situations where you can read the tab alongside listening to an original recording, it does its job perfectly!

Totally different kettle of fish I think. The Zeus is two pedals in one, a sub octave and a fuzz. The octave fuzz in the Aftershock is a fuzz with a hint of octave up, like the classic Octavia.

Cab sims are usually used when recording direct or for when you want to feed the PA an amp-like sound, particularly to remove the top end fizz from distortion/fuzz. Using one to make your cab sound like a different cab isn't so effective unless you have a flat sounding speaker since your cab will impart its own character on top of the simulated one. If you want to make your 15 sound like an 18, what does that mean exactly? If you just want more bass and less treble then maybe all you need is EQ, or an amp with better EQ. 18" cabs are rare for a reason - they are big and heavy, and more suited for use in PA subs where they're not expected to need great midrange performance that you would typically want from a bass cab.

I think it'll sound fine with an active bass as long as it doesn't have a really hot output, as that may tend to give more overdrive than intended, even at lower gain levels.

The OmniCabSim is good, fully analog with adjustable parameters - no explicit option for 18" speakers but are you sure you really need it? The Digitech DryCabVR has an option for a 1x18: http://digitech.com/en/products/cabdryvr There are digital ones such as the Two Notes Torpedo and AMT Pangaea where you load in an impulse response, and there's bound to be some profiles for 18" cabs floating about.

The power ratings usually refer to how much power it can put out and stay clean. So for example a 120W bass amp might be designed to be used clean, putting out about 120W clean with the volume knob cranked. A 120W guitar amp on the other hand might be designed to hit 120W clean with the knob at halfway, so you have extra room to push it into overdrive, which is something many bassists don't want from their amps.

Nice. I was thinking recently of getting the same bass but adding chrome Thunderbird pickups to it!

28.6" scale, comes in sparkly purple. This is what I would buy: http://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/jumpstart/GSRM20.html

First time I've seen one with a Jazz body too! A search for Precision Bass Junior on Google images brings up plenty of the 28.5" scale P-shaped basses, but nothing like this.