Shin-ei Companion OB-28 Octave Box

Shin-Ei's OB-28 Octave Box is a really cool looking octave pedal that I've used in the recording studio for electric guitar. This is a pretty rare pedal from what I can tell, as the one that the guitarist brought in for the session was the only one I've ever encountered. I believe that the Octave Box is made up of all analog components, with standard 1/4" connections. I don't know what sort of power supply is necessary with this, as we were powering it with a nine volt battery that goes inside of it. It can't be racked up in any way.

UTILIZATION

There's nothing complicated about using the Shin-Ei OB-28 Octave Box, but it did take some playing around with to get the full grasp of the pedal. Everything is self explanatory if you have the pedal in front of you to use and to get acquainted with. It's got parameters for octave volume and sensitivity. It also has two switches for engaging or disengaging the effect. The only thing that it lacks is something to set different types of octaves if you wanted to.

SOUND QUALITY

I wasn't the player on the session where the Shin-Ei OB-28 Octave Box was in use, so I can speak to the overall sound that we got with the box rather than the feel that it has when playing with it. The Octave Box might not be as versatile as other octave boxes since you can't set exactly what kind of octave you'd like, but the sounds that are possible with the OB-28 are more than enough to work with for a good amount of time. We didn't use this pedal for too many parts, but when we did it added another dimension to the sound that wasn't there before. It really helped to beef up the sound in times that we wanted to extra girth and also worked great when we wanted the effect to stand out.

OVERALL OPINION

To determine whether or not the Shin-Ei OB-28 Octave Box will be helpful for you, it's important to identify what kind of octave effects you're going for. The OB-28 Octave Box definitely has a unique sound that doesn't offer the most manipulative flexibility, so knowing what kind of sound you're getting with this box is really important. The problem is that they don't sell this pedal in stores, unless you can find a used one or a dealer. I don't even know where you'd get one of these, but just be sure to try out a variety of other octave pedals before making a choice since different octave pedals can have extremely different types of sounds.