CameronJ

It's a shame they're closing down. Had some very nice gear in their heyday. Still a few gems available.

[quote name='Mudpup' timestamp='1505136748' post='3369710'] GAK have them at £500 already and RichTone Music have them at £450...... [/quote] No doubt because they have more sense than Trace Elliot and know fully well they would never have sold at the original price in a million years. Even at £450 they'll struggle IMO but they'll probably shift a handful to a few curious buyers.

I should probably clarify my thoughts on my current collection of analogue Octave pedals. The DOD Meatbox, The COG T16, the Aguilar Octamizer and the 3Leaf Octabvre Mini. I've also started a separate thread about my recently acquired Emma Electronic Okto-Nøjs which is an octave fuzz with a soloable octave. It's quickly becoming a favourite of mine but I haven't included the write up for that in this comparison... <disclaimer> At the moment I'm running these pedals with my active Ibanez BTB33 tuned E-C with stock Bartolini pickups and Aguilar OBP3 preamp through a Phil Jones BigHead with quality headphones ONLY. I'm working far away from home right now so I don't have my full rig at my disposal. I've set them all up at the start of my pedal chain without any compression or boost to aid them. <\disclaimer> DOD Meatbox I basically designed my current pedalboard layout around the idea of running my Meatbox as a parallel sub octave that I can switch in and out at will whilst layering other effects onto my parallel clean signal. This works incredibly well and nothing else does this job quite like the Meatbox. Except maybe a Mantic Density Hulk which is based on the same circuit I believe. Long story short, when it comes to chunky sub sine wave sound it can't be beaten. The wet/dry TRS output jack makes it indispensable as a switchable "thickener" on my board. Tracking here is possibly the best of the bunch but as it's a subharmonic generator rather than an octave "synth" like the others, it may not be entirely fair to compare it to the others in this department. COG T16 The pedal that comes closest to the Meatbox in its pure sub tone is the COG T16, which is one of the big reasons I like it as much as I do. Anyone who has owned a Meatbox will know just how crazy its lows are, so you can use that as a rough ballpark comparison. The Sine-like tones at the extreme right side of the T16's filter knob arguably get deeper and cleaner in timbre than the Meatbox, but in my opinion you'd want to have a bit of sonic space in your playing context for it to really shine soloed. Running those clean subs in parallel to the rest of your signal would be lovely as a fattener but not as easy to achieve as with the Meatbox as you'd need a signal splitter before it. Dial the T16's filter back counter-clockwise and it gains some more midrange grit which takes it into more easily audible synth territory. Overall it's a very cool pedal with its own sound. One thing to note though: earlier versions of the pedal don't have tons of gain available. You'll get roughly to unity gain but not far beyond, which becomes more of an issue the further clockwise you turn the filter knob as the subbier it gets the harder it is to tell what notes you're playing! I'm told the newest version fixes this. Aguilar Octamizer For pure subby sine wave sounds, the Octamizer is next in line to the throne. I've said in the past that the Octamizer is the only octave pedal I'll never sell and I'll stick by that comment. The reason being it has really usable tones all the way across its filter frequency range from the subby end (anti-clockwise ) to the gritty end (clockwise) and the octave level knob allows you to get well above unity gain. If I were fighting for sonic space in a busy band context this is probably the first pedal I'd be stomping on. I've never doubted its ability to cut through a mix - Aguilar really nailed the filter knob range here. I also find the Octamizer consistently plays well with other effects, in particular filters & dirt, largely due to its great midrange punch I think. For me, the other octave pedals mentioned here are best kept soloed on my board but this is just in my opinion with my gear. Your setup may vary! Side note: Aguilar seem to have thought outside the box with this pedal as not only is there a clean level knob but also a clean TONE knob which lets you mellow out or sharpen up your clean bass sound independently of the octave and blend the two signals to taste. I've often fantasized about having 3 Octamizers - two of them with octaves soloed but filtered at opposite ends of the spectrum and the third one with octave muted and clean signal turned up for use as a clean tone knob in pedal form. One day I shall fulfil this fantasy. The Octamizer is most likely to get a little glitchy when getting high up on my C string. Not to say it glitches easily - it really doesn't - but the others feel slightly less discriminatory at higher pitches. 3Leaf Octabvre Mini Finally the Octabvre Mini. This is my latest octave acquisition and I like it a lot. I was after a Boss OC2 for a while but after hearing about its relatively low volume output I decided to look elsewhere. I heard the Markbass Octaver was also a decent clone but after doing some more research the Octabvre seemed more versatile and was therefore the one for me. With the tone knob all the way to the left you get Classic OC2 but with more volume available. Turn the tone knob to the right and you introduce a tone with higher harmonics and a bit more synthy grit into the mix. Hard to explain this sound but it gives me another tone to play with so I'm happy. Anyway, I tend keep the tone knob fully cranked to the OC2 end of the spectrum as that's the sound I bought it for! This is overall the least subby/deep sounding of these octave pedals. The core sound is more mid-focused but it's funky sounding and still plenty deep enough to get booties shaking. In Summary... All of these pedals are excellent and have something unique to offer. They all sound fantastic to my ears but sound is subjective so it really just boils down to what tones you like best. The output level of the COG T16 might have been an issue for some but now that they've fixed it on the new version of the pedal that complaint goes out of the window. Tracking is good enough between them all to make it a negligible factor in making your decision. They all track down to AT LEAST the lowest B on the E string which is plenty for 99% of musical purposes anyway. I've never really understood the obsession with wanting analogue octavers to track to a low A and below but maybe I'm missing something? When using octavers I don't play my bass as I normally would at the "low end" of the fretboard. I'm only ever utilising the area between the 5th and 15th frets roughly so the synthesised octave notes are doing the heavy lifting in the real world bass register. I never actually want my octave sound to go below the range of a standard 5 string bass (BEADG) as I find that much below that is just mush. I often have my octave sound soloed but if I do mix in my clean sound then I've got the octave at bass pitch and a natural sounding "octave up" coming direct from my bass. It's the tracking at the high end of the fretboard which slightly differentiates these pedals for me, and even then it's splitting hairs really. Having seen demos and reviews of each of these pedals on YouTube myself, the sounds you hear online are accurate to the sound of the pedals in real life. Of course what you'll never get from a video is the sheer SPL these can produce through a rig, the technique adjustment required to cleanly play the effect or exactly how tracking will be with YOUR bass. Hotness of bass output, onboard preamp settings and string gauge will all play a role here. If at first you try one of these octavers and find the tracking isn't as good as you'd expected, don't be afraid to boost your onboard mid/bass controls slightly or give your tone knob a little turn. Try plucking a little closer to the neck to give the pedal a rounder, fuller input signal to track. Experiment before writing any of them off. My heavily dumbed down summary of these pedals: - If you want the most signal routing flexibility, get the DOD Meatbox. The TRS output lets you split the octave & clean signals and send them wherever you desire. Find yourself a stereo insert cable (I use an EBS one) and away you go. You only get two sounds with this thing - fat subs or fatter subs. - If pedalboard space is a major concern, get the COG T16. It's by far the tiniest pedal of this bunch. You can literally fit it anywhere. Sounds awesome and could be seen by some as a partial alternative to the Meatbox but with much more versatility in its sound spectrum. - If you want the most tonal flexibility, get the Aguilar Octamizer. Fully independent octave and clean circuits with a level AND a filter/tone control for each give you fine control over your sound. Can be subby or gritty and I can see it being useful in a live context across the whole range of the filter knob without too much effort mixing. - If you're after "that OC2 sound" with a bit of extra spice on top, get the 3Leaf Octabvre Mini. The core sound is the real deal and the tone knob is a nice bonus. It's an OC2 on steroids. Check out the full sized Octabvre for a few more bells & whistles at the expense of pedalboard space. A more of a mid-focused sound with less raw bottom end compared to the others. - If you need octave up or polyphony/chords, look elsewhere! This personal comparison highlights to me just how useful a service like FXPedalRental could be in a market where there are so many variations of the "same" effect. I'm not affiliated with the company at all but when I do the math I realise that I've spent over £500 on these 4 pedals alone. I'm a self confessed octave junkie so I feel no burning desire to move any of them on but if I were on the quest for my one ideal octave sound, the option to trial or rent them would have saved many weeks of searching/bidding/PMing/PayPal gifting As always, take the above with a pinch of salt. Hope it helps.

I've used a Voicelive Touch 2 for a number of years now and love it. I am a solo vocalist/beat boxer, very technically minded and have spent a good amount of time learning the ins and outs of the unit down to MIDI commands etc. You definitely need to have a somewhat technical mind to really get the most out of the higher end TC units. The more entry level pedals/units are MUCH simpler but you should definitely still devote some meaningful time getting to grips with everything they can (and can't) do. As said above re: the harmonies, DO NOT overdo it. I mean that in terms of how often you use them as well as the volume you have them set at. The louder you have the harmony volume set, the more apparent it will be that your singer is effectively being accompanied by a computer chip. Also, make sure your singer writes down the settings for each song and remembers to change said settings from one song to the next, lest the whole band face the embarrassment of wildly out of key harmonies. The bemused audience member will cast looks of blame at the guitarist, drummer and bassist assuming it's your fault. Because there will be plenty of people who aren't paying attention and just assume the BVs must be coming from you guys. To really avoid this, you should go for one of the mid-ranged units (e.g. Play Acoustic or Play Electric) as, mentioned in earlier posts, they can be set to listen to the instrument plugged in and follow in real time. This can give you more nuanced results as the harmonies are no longer locked to the vocals but to the surrounding instrumentation, which can often sound more musical and natural. Just make sure the guitarist who's "controlling" the unit plays reasonably cleanly and that the Root and Third of the chord are loud and clear as this is what the TC algorithm uses as primary reference for tracking. Above all, if you're going to go down this root, have patience with it but also have fun. If as you say your vocalist is "definitely not technically minded" then maybe steer clear though as whatever you buy may end up becoming the responsibility of another band member to set up and learn...which may breed resentment of it

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1505078633' post='3369375'] And getting half the features?! Si [/quote] Sometimes less is more though...especially when you know that the "less" can nail it with less effort than the "more"! [quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1505080137' post='3369389'] I have boutique fuzzes with more features that I thought sounded better at bedroom level or through headphones, but the Russian just dominated when playing at high volume. I even saw the lack of features as a plus, it takes up less board space and there's fewer knobs to worry about tweaking live. Considering the price of this though, just get both! [/quote] Well now that you've suggested it I have no choice...

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1505029782' post='3368886'] Just had a look at the price of the 2 X 8 cab....£650 ? So a 250 watt Elf plus cab is £900? My MarkBass 250 watt 2x8 Minimark is less than £600! [/quote] The price of that cab is pretty mental I must say.

Gah! I was about to buy a Wounded Paw Battering Ram (v2.6) but I may just have to concede that spending half as much on this Green Muff may well be a wiser investment...

I'd like to hope a company as big as EHX would sort you out. Will be interested to see how they deal with it. As above, fingers crossed.

It turns out I'm an idiot. Upon further inspection, the Okto side of the pedal has plenty of juice and is easily as loud soloed at max volume as my 3Leaf Octabvre Mini at the same settings! Also, I have to admit I think I slightly prefer the variety offered by the sweep of the Okto circuit's tone knob over the Octabvre mini's... I have to say also that the Okto-Nøjs is such a well behaved and quiet pedal when active. The octave side is one of the least glitchy octave pedals I've ever heard and the fuzz side has zero hiss going on at all. I literally maxed out all knobs and it was completely silent until I plucked a note, at which point my ears were ripped off . There must be some gating/filtering going on inside but it doesn't feel artificial at all and I didn't notice how clean it was until I found myself double checking if I had the pedal engaged! This pedal would be an absolute dream in the studio or live.

Had a chance to play with it last night for a little while. Still getting to grips with it to be honest but my early verdict is that there are a lot of sounds available. The Okto circuit is very simple. You've got your usual octave level, octave tone and dry level. The tone all the way to the right is OC2-esque but becomes rounder and darker with the tone knob rolled to the left. The Okto soloed doesn't seem to have enough juice to get much past unity gain so I've been running it maxed out and taking the fuzz level down to match it. How much level control I need to apply is obviously dependent upon how aggressive the fuzz settings are. The dirt circuit is more complex than any I've ever used - but bear in mind I'm not exactly a "dirt specialist" and have only recently developed an interest in drive pedals. The way the gain, tone, colour and nøjs knobs interact with each other makes for a seriously broad palette of sounds. At certain knob settings and with the Okto engaged you can get a 3 octave split with the octave up being generated by the Nøjs harmonics. I think it's gonna take me a little while to really dial my sound in on this one! I suspect I'll need to make a decision as to exactly how I want to use this pedal and therefore how I'll need to dial it in. Tones that I'd love in isolation on either the octave or fuzz side won't necessarily sound great married together. So do I dial it in for use as two separate pedals or do I dial it in as a permanently combined octave fuzz? My gut tells me it'll be the latter. I also thought I might be able to run my other octave pedals into the soloed Nøjs with the onboard Okto circuit disengaged but for some reason that doesn't seem to sound good at all...not quite sure what's going on internally but I'll have to do some more knob twiddling and playing around with my signal chain to investigate. I suppose the Redwitch Zeus or MXR Sub Octave Bass Fuzz are direct competitors but based on what I've heard of them the fuzz on the OctoNøjs has much more character and tweakability. You can't really control the tone of the octaves on MXR or the Redwitch either. To be fair, their relative simplicity probably makes them easier to dial in and they may well beat the Okto-Nøjs in terms of their available octave volume. The Octo-Nøjs is also narrower than the MXR or the Redwitch as the knobs are much closer together. It would have been nice if the jacks were top mounted but that was probably difficult to do given just how many knobs are crammed in up there. Even with side jacks it's still fairly compact for what it is.

So I was browsing the FXPedalRental website the other day and came across this pedal. Watched a few YouTube demos and knew I had to have it! My octave GAS is unstoppable Check it out: https://youtu.be/hQWvrVgRUaI https://youtu.be/xx5gjnwzHhg Andertons only had one in stock and I nabbed it - it arrived today! Can't wait to get it on my board when I get home tonight

I've had my eye on Rainger FX for a little while myself, and the Pulsar would likely be my first purchase too. Some really cool pedals and I like the Igor concept a lot. I think Roland Rock on this forum has a Rainger pedal on his board, might be worth contacting him directly in case he doesn't see this thread.

Haha! I haven't seen that one but I may well search for the thread just for the comedy value. I love how the Lakland guard is completely different from the stock guard shape and encompasses the volume knob! Top quality craftsmanship.

Here it is. I think it's still for sale: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/301150-sage-green-fender-bitsa-loaded-jazz-body-chi-sonics-price-dropped-again/page__fromsearch__1 Buy it, nab the pups, sell the body on unloaded?

I think there was a green Jazz body loaded with Chi Sonics on sale here not too long ago...it may still be available!

I know...and my BB isn't exactly a lightweight as it is but oh well. I'm a large guy myself so I'll deal with it.

Hmmm...that does look a bit suspicious!

Any idea where I could get such a thing done over here? Edit: actually, since he seems to be the best guy in the world for this kind of work, I may as well just put in a custom order with him. He's sent guards all over the world so it shouldn't be a problem. Now I just need to find out how much they cost...

Truth!