Octave pedal with acoustic guitar

pdadda

pdadda

Captain Sea Boots
I am looking to thicken up the sound for my solo act. My budget is around $80, and I am looking at the MXR blue box and the EHX Octave Multiplexer. I tried the Boss Oc-3 and did not like the harsh sound. Neither of these pedals is in local stores, so I can't go try them out first. I haven't run across any reviews of people trying either pedal with acoustic guitar. Has anyone tried this with good results?

Also, will an octave pedal sound like ass through a single 12" speaker in a small enclosure?
 
12" should be okay. Watch the volume, though.

I'm honestly not sure about using an octave pedal with an acoustic - it sounds like a good idea, though. I would imagine (but this is entirely speculation) that a magnetic pickup will work better than a piezo.

As for the model - If you're budget conscious, look at the Danelectro. I have just ordered it, having read some mixed, but generally good, reviews. I'm looking forward to checking it out. Apparently, it doesn't track very well below the third fret of the low E string, which might be a problem for acoustic playing. I'll let you know what i think when it arrives.

In the meantime, how about bringing your electro-acoustic to the local guitar center and asking to try any model of octave pedal, purely to get a feel for the sound?

One further thought that has just occured to me - when playing live, how about micing your amp and also your guitar, and blending the two at the desk? This might stop the bottom end dominating your sound entirely.

All in all, it sounds like a very interesting idea, and I would like to hear how it works out for you. Good luck.
 
32-20-Blues said:
One further thought that has just occured to me - when playing live, how about micing your amp and also your guitar, and blending the two at the desk? This might stop the bottom end dominating your sound entirely.
Click to expand...

It's generally one or the other....combinations can range from interesting to awful!
 
I would try a delay pedal to thicken it up before the octave. Its probably going to sound like a giant fart on big strummed chords, but on single notes, it will be cool.
 
pdadda said:
I am looking to thicken up the sound for my solo act. My budget is around $80, and I am looking at the MXR blue box and the EHX Octave Multiplexer. I tried the Boss Oc-3 and did not like the harsh sound. Neither of these pedals is in local stores, so I can't go try them out first. I haven't run across any reviews of people trying either pedal with acoustic guitar. Has anyone tried this with good results?

Also, will an octave pedal sound like ass through a single 12" speaker in a small enclosure?
Click to expand...

Try one in a store before you spend your money. Octave pedals work OK on single notes, but on chords... not so much. An octave box can only synthesize one note at a time, and if you send it a chord, it gets confused as to which note it should be replicating, so it will jump around, causing a kind of low freq "yodeling" and inharmonic growling sounds. That's what mine does, anyway; I don't think you'll get what you are hoping for out of a simple octave box.
 
Sorry, I might have been a bit unclear with my original post. I am not looking to play chords through this pedal. I do a solo act where I make alot of loops on the fly. I want a pedal where I can use my acoustic to lay down the low end and loop it (single notes only). Think of the beginning to "7 Nation Army" by the WHite Stripes. I'm pretty sure he uses a digitech whammy, but I can't spend that much right now, and I only need the octave feature. It doesn't really need to sound like an acoustic bass, it just needs to be in a different frequency range than the acoustic guitar by itself, and it needs to track well with acoustic guitar.

Also, the following are already in my signal chain:
Turbo RAT, EHX Big Muff Pi, BOSS DD20 Giga-Delay, Akai Headrush E2.
 
Listen to the LP "Acoustic Sketches" by Phil Keaggy. Keaggy uses a looper A LOT and an octave pedal in concert. I saw him in concert last fall and attended a clinic he presented. He uses an Octaver pedal with his looper (an original JamMan, not the current incarnation) for bass runs. What you're suggesting can work.

I'd be tempted to try it but I lack the eye-hand-foot coordination to pull it off.
 
Man, Keaggy rules. I went ahead and bought the EHX pedal, and a snarling dogs crossroads aby pedal as well.
 
Well, this sucks. The EHX pedal is on backorder for 2 weeks. I got the ABY pedal today, and it definitely doesn't do what I want it to do. At first I thought the A+B>Y feature wasn't working. I have vocals and drum machine through my board out to one input channel of the ABY. I have my electric into a Turbo RAT into the other channel of the ABY. The guitar is way lower in volume (probably obvious in retrospect considering the mic is hitting a pre-amp first). I can't hear the guitar until I turn the RAT on and crank up the gain. There is a huge volume loss of guitar when it goes through the ABY pedal. Someone please help me figure out a way to get this to work.

Here's a reminder of what I need. I want vocals, drum machine, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar all going into the single input of my Akai Headrush E2. I didn't buy the Line6 DL4 for its reliability issues and higher price, but it does have 2 inputs. I'm starting to wonder if I made the right choice. Or would I have this same problem with the DL4, considering the vocals would still be hitting a pre-amp the electric wouldn't before the pedal?

I guess I'll return the Crossroads ABY tomorrow. I also found a local dude selling a used boss oc-2. Should I get that instead of waiting a few weeks for this stupid backorder. I hate to wait weeks for a pedal when I have never even demo'd it.
 
I guess I can't get around the pre-amp/no pre-amp before E2 issue. Unless...

I could do the following set-up:
Electric guitar>all pedals except looper>amp>mic it up through mixer (along with acoustic and vocals)>run the mixer output through the looper and out to a separate PA.

I was hoping to just be able to use my guitar amp for everything (no separate PA), as I am mostly planning to do this in small venues.
 
I believe that the guy from white stripes uses the EH Hog pedal, which will "do" chords, but its well over your budget. The blue box is neat, but it induces distortion as well as the octave down. I own the whammy and its pretty cool, and will do many things to your signal. I often use it as a low octave doubler and sounds fine. I'd recommend saving, for something better.
 
The saga continues. The ABY pedal introduced too severe a volume loss to be useable for me. So I returned it, and I cancelled the order on the EHX pedal. I found a guy close to me who is selling me an oc-2 instead.
 
Update. The OC-2 is amazing. Once you get used to how it tracks, this pedal sounds great on acoustic and electric guitar. It sound smuch better with distortion if it goes before the distortion pedals. You can hear some tracks where I used it on my "Captain Sea Boots" page in my signature. All the low parts are done with the OC-2.
 
I just ordered a Digitech Whammy to put in my guitar chain. It sounds awesome to run my vocals through the OC-2 (dry at 12 o clock and octave 1 at 3 o clock), so that may permanently move to my vocal chain after the newbie arrives. I'll post clips when I get the new whammy.
 
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