Octaver Pedal Recommendations...

[mazdah]

MXR M280 Vintage Bass Octave is made as a copy of vintage, MIJ BOSS OC-2 borrowed from Janek Gwizdala. 

I'd rather choose MXR rather than cheap, chinese Valeton OC-2 rip-off. 

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, mazdah said:

I'd rather choose MXR rather than cheap, chinese Valeton OC-2 rip-off. 

FWIW I've had MXR M288 octave pedal and found it to be noisy as well as a lot more expensive. The cheap chinese Valeton OC-2 rip-off is actually very good and from a quick read there seem to be a lot of very happy BCers on this thread who have one.

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by Al Krow

[mcnach]

3 hours ago, mazdah said:

MXR M280 Vintage Bass Octave is made as a copy of vintage, MIJ BOSS OC-2 borrowed from Janek Gwizdala. 

I'd rather choose MXR rather than cheap, chinese Valeton OC-2 rip-off. 

 

So Valeton's copy is a rip-off but MXR's copy isn't... ok, got it.

 

[sshorepunk]

Valeton - best £35 I’ve ever spent on a pedal and I’ve had a few octave pedals over the years

Shame to write it off before even trying it!

Tony

[stewblack]

Best octaves I've used.

For a pure octave up which I can use to play chords and sound like a guitar: Digitech Ricochet.

For OC2 like synthy stuff: Valeton OC-10

General all round octave up/down : Joyo XVI

I've also owned POG, Sub'n'up, EBS, various Zooms.

[Al Krow]

@stewblack - that Ricochet looks versatile i.e. both octave up and down plus other intervals. Does a lot more than the Digitech Mosaic which I'm a big fan of, but which only does octave up (very well!).

I'm guessing the Digitech pedals are analogue rather than digital but couldn't find anything immediately to confirm.

[mazdah]

2 hours ago, mcnach said:

 

So Valeton's copy is a rip-off but MXR's copy isn't... ok, got it.

 

I was referring to the quality rather than being a copy. 

For example you have many version of Jazz Bass: vintage Fender (old Boss), modern build Lakland (MXR) and of course you can buy from aliexpress (valeton) - for the price of 5 packs of strings  

it’s up to you whether you can hear the difference and pay for the quality and durability or choose cheap (even good sounding) gear. 
 

for me - I’m too poor to buy cheap. 

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

@stewblack - that Ricochet looks versatile i.e. both octave up and down plus other intervals. Does a lot more than the Digitech Mosaic which I'm a big fan of, but which only does octave up (very well!).

I'm guessing the Digitech pedals are analogue rather than digital but couldn't find anything immediately to confirm.

I know not. I had the Whammy and that was good too. The Ricochet I very nearly sold but its just too good. My soul band has no guitar (JOY) and if ever we really really felt we needed a couple of chords somewhere I could in theory provide them. Say the intro to me Nutbush for example. 

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, mazdah said:

I was referring to the quality rather than being a copy. 

For example you have many version of Jazz Bass: vintage Fender (old Boss), modern build Lakland (MXR) and of course you can buy from aliexpress (valeton) - for the price of 5 packs of strings  

it’s up to you whether you can hear the difference and pay for the quality and durability or choose cheap (even good sounding) gear. 
 

for me - I’m too poor to buy cheap. 

 

I get it, but I would not put Valeton as the AliExpress of the pedal world.

Some cheap pedals are just cheap. Some cheap pedals are actually quite alright, and Valeton seems good enough to me. I've got the OC-10 and the envelope filter... Katfish I think it's called, and I can't fault them... I'm not too poor to have to worry about the price of pedals, but the Valeton OC-10 does a great job with a small footprint and that's what I needed, not a specific label.

To suggest that those who like them just don't have discerning enough ears is a little funny, but whatever makes you happy.

 

 

 

 

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, mazdah said:

I was referring to the quality rather than being a copy. 

And exactly how do you know it has poor quality and lacks durability? It's just a ridiculous statement to be making, unless you are basing it on your own or others' actual experience. 

In fact the octave pedal with the worst reputation of the three you mentioned (Boss, MXR, Valeton) is the MXR. It was well known for being noisy and it seems to me a big reason for the release of the latest model to deal with that particular issue.

Oh look here's another noisy MXR pedal...

https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/mxr-10-band-eq-is-making-tons-of-noise-and-popping-sounds.332880/

It's been replaced with a more recent (silver version) "and it’s been upgraded with noise-reduction circuitry,"

Please don't assume that just because you pay less for bass gear, it's automatically going to be worse!

[paul_5]

FWIW I’ve had Boss, Aguilar, EBS, EHX etc... In the past and have settled on the Valeton; it sounds and behaves just like an OC2, is a fraction of the size and less than half the price of a used OC2. 
 

You might be surprised if you try one.

[mazdah]

4 hours ago, mcnach said:

I get it, but I would not put Valeton as the AliExpress of the pedal world.

Some cheap pedals are just cheap. Some cheap pedals are actually quite alright, and Valeton seems good enough to me. I've got the OC-10 and the envelope filter... Katfish I think it's called, and I can't fault them... I'm not too poor to have to worry about the price of pedals, but the Valeton OC-10 does a great job with a small footprint and that's what I needed, not a specific label.

To suggest that those who like them just don't have discerning enough ears is a little funny, but whatever makes you happy.

I admit, maybe I overreacted since I'm getting kind of frustraded seeing that a lot of players sacrifice the quality and tone for pure convinience. Today I got Peterson tuner for the price you could get a beaten-up Boss TU-2 few years ago.

I see pro SWR or Eden gear people are unable to sell for pennies, just because the amp weights 10-15kg not 2-5kg when indirect comparison those amps will deliver way better tone through cabiet and most of the time through DI than most modern lightweights.

I stupidly tried to sell my AMP BH-420 dirt cheap - without any succes - and I know I can put it against any modern produced solid state amp and deliver clearer tone, better dynamics, better headroom and less noise (mechanical since it is passive cooled and electrical). 

I see a lot of great instruments people are unable to sell, just because there is Sire or Harley-Benton hype. 

We should aim for delivering the best, not the easiest  

4 hours ago, Al Krow said:

And exactly how do you know it has poor quality and lacks durability? It's just a ridiculous statement to be making, unless you are basing it on your own or others' actual experience. 

In fact the octave pedal with the worst reputation of the three you mentioned (Boss, MXR, Valeton) is the MXR. It was well known for being noisy and it seems to me a big reason for the release of the latest model to deal with that particular issue.

Oh look here's another noisy MXR pedal...

https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/mxr-10-band-eq-is-making-tons-of-noise-and-popping-sounds.332880/

It's been replaced with a more recent (silver version) "and it’s been upgraded with noise-reduction circuitry,"

Please don't assume that just because you pay less for bass gear, it's automatically going to be worse!

As I stated above, my reaction might not be totally fair. But I've never had any problems with MXR products and while it's not my favorite brand, I consider them solid and high quality.

Also - many problems with effect pedals are caused by poor and cheap power supplies - especially those without transformers inside (the ones that look like phone chargers) or daisy-chaining. Maybe I'm just lucky, because my main dirt pedal for now is Pro Co Juggernaut, well known for being the worst and most problematic dirt pedal ever created for bass - and mine is dead quiet in operation and switching (most problems other people had with loud pop when switching). 

But I also use some cheap gear - like my Behringer monitors - without any issues.

I also have some riddiculously overpriced and very low quality gear like Sovtek Big Muff (black russian - I paid about 50 pounds 10 years ago for brand new and it was a fair price, sold it for 35 and got it back for 100 recently) or Sovtek BassBalls which I love but I don't use because of quality issues. 

In conclusion - my apologies if I offended anyone. As mentioned above - I just thing we should not sacrifice tone and quality for convenience - and money saving    

[stewblack]

Interesting reading the above how differently we can all see similar things. I still see cheap or modern lightweight stuff denigrated and treated with contempt often by folk who don't actually use it. Yet the last post speaks of Harley Benton hype! 

I would love these quality, inexpensive instruments to get the recognition they deserve. Price tags don't interest me unless something is astonishingly good or astonishingly poor value for money. 

Anyway I don't sacrifice anything to get the sound I want, but I have made decisions which take into account weight and size. As a working musician I have no choice but to use the cheapest possible car. So my three cab Trace Elliot stack had to go. 

[CliveT]

I had an 80's Boss OC2 many years ago and I could never get a decent level out of it.  I realise now of course that it would have needed a 12 v PSU 🙁

Now I use the MXR bass octave deluxe and have no issues.  I don't find it noisy and with the growl and girth, and mid boost I can get any octave effect I want.

[Al Krow]

38 minutes ago, CliveT said:

I had an 80's Boss OC2 many years ago and I could never get a decent level out of it.  I realise now of course that it would have needed a 12 v PSU 🙁

Now I use the MXR bass octave deluxe and have no issues.  I don't find it noisy and with the growl and girth, and mid boost I can get any octave effect I want.

Yeah and that's fair about the MXR BOD - the folk I know who have one seem to divide roughly 50:50 into the 'no issues it's fine' or 'noisy circuit' camps. Mine was unfortunately in the (very!) noisy circuit camp.

[mazdah]

11 hours ago, stewblack said:

Interesting reading the above how differently we can all see similar things. I still see cheap or modern lightweight stuff denigrated and treated with contempt often by folk who don't actually use it. Yet the last post speaks of Harley Benton hype! 

I would love these quality, inexpensive instruments to get the recognition they deserve. Price tags don't interest me unless something is astonishingly good or astonishingly poor value for money. 

Anyway I don't sacrifice anything to get the sound I want, but I have made decisions which take into account weight and size. As a working musician I have no choice but to use the cheapest possible car. So my three cab Trace Elliot stack had to go. 

There is no quality in Harley Benton instruments other than low quality and poorest value for money.

I was curious enough to buy their 51 precision and had to bypass the volume and tone pots to get some kind of low and thin signal pass through from the weak pickup. The fretwork was poor, the body had two sets of holes for pickguard. I also tried their JB and it looked and felt like a Squier VM but before “final touch” - sanding and smoothing the curves of the wood. Terrible. Maybe I had bad luck, twice. But I wouldn’t buy that as a tool and expect others to pay me for the “job done“. It’s like serving premade microwaved dishes in the restaurant.

But we are drifting away from the topic, so we either end here or move to bass or food section  

[mcnach]

12 hours ago, mazdah said:

I admit, maybe I overreacted since I'm getting kind of frustraded seeing that a lot of players sacrifice the quality and tone for pure convinience. Today I got Peterson tuner for the price you could get a beaten-up Boss TU-2 few years ago.

I see pro SWR or Eden gear people are unable to sell for pennies, just because the amp weights 10-15kg not 2-5kg when indirect comparison those amps will deliver way better tone through cabiet and most of the time through DI than most modern lightweights.

I stupidly tried to sell my AMP BH-420 dirt cheap - without any succes - and I know I can put it against any modern produced solid state amp and deliver clearer tone, better dynamics, better headroom and less noise (mechanical since it is passive cooled and electrical). 

I see a lot of great instruments people are unable to sell, just because there is Sire or Harley-Benton hype. 

We should aim for delivering the best, not the easiest  

As I stated above, my reaction might not be totally fair. But I've never had any problems with MXR products and while it's not my favorite brand, I consider them solid and high quality.

Also - many problems with effect pedals are caused by poor and cheap power supplies - especially those without transformers inside (the ones that look like phone chargers) or daisy-chaining. Maybe I'm just lucky, because my main dirt pedal for now is Pro Co Juggernaut, well known for being the worst and most problematic dirt pedal ever created for bass - and mine is dead quiet in operation and switching (most problems other people had with loud pop when switching). 

But I also use some cheap gear - like my Behringer monitors - without any issues.

I also have some riddiculously overpriced and very low quality gear like Sovtek Big Muff (black russian - I paid about 50 pounds 10 years ago for brand new and it was a fair price, sold it for 35 and got it back for 100 recently) or Sovtek BassBalls which I love but I don't use because of quality issues. 

In conclusion - my apologies if I offended anyone. As mentioned above - I just thing we should not sacrifice tone and quality for convenience - and money saving    

 

No offence whatsoever, don't worry, we're allowed to disagree...  

Although now that you expanded it we probably agree about a lot more than I thought at first, just not everything  I am someone who is willing to sacrifice a little (a little!) for the sake of convenience, so I enjoy my small and light Mesa D800+ and a pair of compact and light Barefaced Two10 immensely. If I had roadies and bulk/weight were not an issue, I will probably be using something else, but I am really happy with my sound and when it comes to packing up/tearing down, I am extremely happy I chose this gear

 

 

 

[mcnach]

11 hours ago, stewblack said:

Interesting reading the above how differently we can all see similar things. I still see cheap or modern lightweight stuff denigrated and treated with contempt often by folk who don't actually use it. Yet the last post speaks of Harley Benton hype! 

I would love these quality, inexpensive instruments to get the recognition they deserve. Price tags don't interest me unless something is astonishingly good or astonishingly poor value for money. 

Anyway I don't sacrifice anything to get the sound I want, but I have made decisions which take into account weight and size. As a working musician I have no choice but to use the cheapest possible car. So my three cab Trace Elliot stack had to go. 

 

Indeed, but it's also easy to see why some of the feeding frenzy surrounding certain instruments/brands sometimes look a bit ridiculous too.

I love my SX guitars, I've got a couple. The SX Telecaster I got a few weeks back, I can't put it down. I keep commenting how much I love it to anybody who is near me  But I'm aware it's not the best Telecaster, it's just a perfectly decent instrument that punches way above it's £129 tag and that's pretty much what I needed: a decent Telecaster to have around the house which would make the right sounds when recording some basic demos. The problem comes when people start talking about how they are comparable or better than brand X costing 10x as much... and I'll call that 'hype'. I'll still prefer to listen to that than to nay-sayers that have no personal experience of the instrument in question. We haven't had much Behringer bashing lately, but it was a great example of this kind of thing, as invariably you'll get people chiming in to say how rubbish Behringer was all while admitting they do not use their gear. It used to mildly annoy me and amuse me at the same time, for I used a LOT of Behringer equipment when my income was a lot lower than now and while it was not the best, it worked perfectly fine and gave me a chance to play which I would not have had otherwise. I still have a small mixer which works just fine almost 20 years later, and my first bass head was a BX-4500T which was, ahem, inspired on the Ashdown MAG series, and it actually sounded pretty good and did the job without fault while I had it... 

I'm also a little of a reverse-snob  I love it when I use some 'lowly' gear but get good results out of it, however I still like nice gear so I mostly use that, but not based on a brand name, logo etc, just based on my experience with it. I can't deny that the stuff I like best tends not to be found in the lower budget ranges, even if I find some great cheap gear too. 

[mcnach]

51 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yeah and that's fair about the MXR BOD - the folk I know who have one seem to divide roughly 50:50 into the 'no issues it's fine' or 'noisy circuit' camps. Mine was unfortunately in the (very!) noisy circuit camp.

 

I had one, and mine worked well, but I heard of quite a few reports like yours. I sold it because at the time I had a bunch of other octaves and there were others I liked more. I love the EBS Octabass, which a lot of people just go 'meh' at it  and ironically I do not have one right now. I've kept the MarkBass Octave (the original large footprint one) for 'cleaner' octave sounds, and the Valeton OC-10 for the dirtier types (and for guitar, it's great with guitar). I think I'll probably buy again one day the Aguilar one, it was a funky octaver that one... should have kept it, but none of my bands needed me to use one then

[mcnach]

26 minutes ago, mazdah said:

There is no quality in Harley Benton instruments other than low quality and poorest value for money.

I was curious enough to buy their 51 precision and had to bypass the volume and tone pots to get some kind of low and thin signal pass through from the weak pickup. The fretwork was poor, the body had two sets of holes for pickguard. I also tried their JB and it looked and felt like a Squier VM but before “final touch” - sanding and smoothing the curves of the wood. Terrible. Maybe I had bad luck, twice. But I wouldn’t buy that as a tool and expect others to pay me for the “job done“. It’s like serving premade microwaved dishes in the restaurant.

But we are drifting away from the topic, so we either end here or move to bass or food section  

 

well, it's nearly lunch time 😛

 

[stewblack]

26 minutes ago, mazdah said:

There is no quality in Harley Benton instruments other than low quality and poorest value for money.

As you say let's leave it here, I can't debate with someone who can publicly say something this silly. Unless it's a joke in which case 😂😂😂

[mazdah]

23 minutes ago, stewblack said:

As you say let's leave it here, I can't debate with someone who can publicly say something this silly. Unless it's a joke in which case 😂😂😂

No joke here. For the price of HB instrument you can buy 4 packs of strings. Or 2 packs of strings and 2 instrument cables. Or nice octave pedal by Boss, MXR or Valeton with pack of strings. 
That’s good value for money.
  

[Al Krow]

41 minutes ago, mcnach said:

I love my SX guitars, I've got a couple. The SX Telecaster I got a few weeks back, I can't put it down. I keep commenting how much I love it to anybody who is near me  But I'm aware it's not the best Telecaster, it's just a perfectly decent instrument that punches way above it's £129 tag and that's pretty much what I needed: a decent Telecaster to have around the house which would make the right sounds when recording some basic demos.

Dammit. Bloody typical BC thread. I came on here to share some insights on Valeton OC-10s and ended up with GAS for an SX Telecaster. Lol!

[lee650]

On 02/07/2020 at 10:06, Al Krow said:

Yeah and that's fair about the MXR BOD - the folk I know who have one seem to divide roughly 50:50 into the 'no issues it's fine' or 'noisy circuit' camps. Mine was unfortunately in the (very!) noisy circuit camp.

Mine too was very noisy! Which is a shame as it's a wonderful sounding octave with great tracking. 

[Jonse]

I picked up an MXR BOD on reverb earlier today. I've owned one in the past, I was impressed with the sound and didn't find it particularly noisy. I thought the octaver tracked well, had a decent amount of girth but I sold it as I needed the money and didn't find myself using octave effects that often anyway. 

I like MXR in general and have found all their products for both bass and guitar to sound good and be high quality. Hoping the one I got today matches the one I owned in the past.