STOMP BOX STEALS: OCTAVE PEDALS ...

OCTAVE PEDALS

TRACKING

The original Octave pedal were analog and tracked very poorly. Tracking is their ability to correctly change the guitar's notes to an octave above or below the note played ...and to hold onto those notes and not be confused by the overtones. The overtones are related to but are often a different pitch then the fundamental.
In other words...perhaps you play an... A note and an overtone that is an... E makes the pedal go searching for an...E
This may last a split second but the 'tracking' heads for the...E. The...E overtone quickly fades away and with only the...A ringing..... the tracking goes back to the...A.
The result is a mess...called flutter.
Any string buzz or clatter or an open string ringing sympathicly confuse the pedal.

All modern pedals track very well at a moderate tempo. The best track well at blistering speeds.
The pedal must 'hear' the note first in order to know what to play. All modern pedals are very good at containing the stability of the note played and there is very little if not any flutter.

THE TIMBRE or SOUND

Most Octave pedals have a similar tone. the tone is best described by the sound of the Sub Octave tone. They sound dense...dark and heavy and with little or no high end content. Think of a Fender P
bass with the tone knob turned back to full bass. Then think of that tone as a bit synth like sounding.

The big exception is the Electo -Harmonix POG....It sounds very much like a Acoustic Bass guitar. Perhaps a bit like a impression of that sound...but very impressive. It has become the standard to which all other pedals are compared.

THE CHOICES

Current Price $40.00 USD

TOM'SLiNE
AOS-3
OCTPUS
Yes as usual yet another of Mooers Rebrands....Mooer has recently stopped selling this under their own name as they now have a new pedal to replace it.
The Tender Octaver. A simple octave above or one below can be had on it's own or blended with the guitar signal.
This setup is becoming the new 'norm'. Pedals with multiple octaves to choose from have fallen from favour. Octaves over or under an octave tend to sound like crap sometimes simply because a guitar speaker was never designed to perform outside of the guitar's range. Sometimes because of the restrictions of the technology.
More important is that in a band context other instruments will compete with these ranges.

In short...forget about it...they do not cut it in a band...and do not sound great anyway LOL

The important...tracking is acceptable. Usable but not great.

Current Price $55.00 USD

MOOER
TENDER OCTAVER
Same set up as the Tom'sline...The tracking is better but still not tops. It is a CLONE of the EH POG
The sound is quite close...but perhaps a bit thinner & darker then the new POG NANO...but considering the upgrade over all budget Octave pedals and a few mainstream pedals.
....it is a killer!!!!
If money is a problem...save up for it even if you use it only occasionally...it will be a 'KEEPER'
you could well find it sitting on your board years later.
I have a friend at a major music store...he has access to
all the pedals...and he bought this one.

Most sites are asking $100.00 USD and getting it.
So...the $59.00 USD price on Ali Express is a steal!!!
Do not wait too long if you want the pedal.

...THIS THING IS A STEAL AT $59.00 USD

ELECTRO-HARMONICS
MICRO POG

This is the EH master piece! It is the pedal to beat. Fat and very rich sounding...easy to use.

The sound is not only great...but so distinct that you will listen to a recorded tune you have heard before and it will jump out. In fact if you noticed it before you may not have thought it came from a guitar!!!

There is now a new version the NANO POD. The company swears up and down that it sounds the same as the MICRO POD.

IT DOESN'T

The pedal is so new that someone has not done a simple comparison on the low octave to show you in 2 seconds that the MICO POG blows the NANO POG out of the water!!!!

There are actually a lot of players that use a finger style using a POG often blended a bit back behind the guitar sound to give an orchestrated effect. The NANO sounding thinner and perhaps tighter may even work better.

But the MINI...works very well doing this too.

If used for single note riffs or power chords...especially distorted...the MICRO is KING...simply MASSIVE!!!! I just cannot exaggerate how good it is.

The NANO is said to track better. BUT...tracking means accuracy...my guess is it is just faster.
Is that good. In this case maybe not. If you are running a guitar signal blended with the octave...a micro second delay causes an automatic double tracking effect. Your ears tell you that you are hearing the octave sound being played by a second player. Cool!
Two players always sound fatter then one. Double Cool!!!

THE ORIGINAL POG