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Hatsubai « Famous octave pedal »
Published on 03/21/11 at 12:03The Boss OC-2 was one of the first pedals I bought. I found it real cheap at some store, and I remember my hero Yngwie Malmsteen using one. I just had to try it out, so I bought it. It features two different octave knobs and a level knob. These allow you to choose between one or two octaves below the note -- or both.
UTILIZATION
The OC-2 is an absolute beast in terms of reliability. These things have been around forever and withstood the test of time. Failure rates are extremely low thanks in part to Boss' sturdy housing. The manual is clearly written, and they even give you a few example settings to try out. Just playing with the knobs should give you some idea as to how everything operates.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound of this is somewhat iffy. It does what it says though -- it fattens up the tone by adding one or two octaves to the sound. This can make your guitar really fat sounding, but it's different from a pitch shifter. I actually thought I'd be able to emulate a bass guitar sound with this, but you really can't. It's not that kind of pedal. If you're looking for some real cool doom and sludge style riffing, this pedal can help boost that low end during the heavy chord parts. Just be sure not to use too much of it or else you can get lost in the mix.
OVERALL OPINION
If you know what an octave pedal is and does, it's worth checking out. After all, it's the world standard of octave pedals. However, I found that the usage was fairly limited in the real world. I'm not a big doom metal player, and when I want to play that kind of music, I prefer using an aggressive fuzz instead. If you want to thicken up some clean tones, this can actually work pretty well. Overall, it's a pedal that's worth experimenting with, but I couldn't find a practical use for it.
UTILIZATION
The OC-2 is an absolute beast in terms of reliability. These things have been around forever and withstood the test of time. Failure rates are extremely low thanks in part to Boss' sturdy housing. The manual is clearly written, and they even give you a few example settings to try out. Just playing with the knobs should give you some idea as to how everything operates.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound of this is somewhat iffy. It does what it says though -- it fattens up the tone by adding one or two octaves to the sound. This can make your guitar really fat sounding, but it's different from a pitch shifter. I actually thought I'd be able to emulate a bass guitar sound with this, but you really can't. It's not that kind of pedal. If you're looking for some real cool doom and sludge style riffing, this pedal can help boost that low end during the heavy chord parts. Just be sure not to use too much of it or else you can get lost in the mix.
OVERALL OPINION
If you know what an octave pedal is and does, it's worth checking out. After all, it's the world standard of octave pedals. However, I found that the usage was fairly limited in the real world. I'm not a big doom metal player, and when I want to play that kind of music, I prefer using an aggressive fuzz instead. If you want to thicken up some clean tones, this can actually work pretty well. Overall, it's a pedal that's worth experimenting with, but I couldn't find a practical use for it.