Octave effects are really sweet. I think they are totally worth it. I plan on getting one of these Jack Whites 3rd man hardwareās collabe with copperstate pedal called the Triplegraph pedal.
They are really nice. The yellow special edition release version is an example of pedals that soldout fast at $400.00 and now worth over $1200 USD. Good thing you can still find the regular production black version. Although they are also starting to get hard to find as well. These have been out for less than a year.
Whats cool about these is you can go up and down octaves at the same time and also doubled, basically a chorus of harmony. I was at the release event for this pedal and during the live demo they showed a lot of unique things.
Cheack out the videe. Its such a cool rig. I know the girl who is playing drums, she is a belting vocalists from Kansas City, Go Bella.
No vocals. Iām aiming more for Paul Davids rather than Ed Sheeran.
Yes, it took a few hours to get my head around. People say the computer interface makes it much easier, but I prefer to work with the unit itself. The ācurrnumā and assigns make it very powerful.
I saw that! Very tempted but canāt think of a way I would need it. Itād be very handy if you were performing though.
It has octave down and itās sort of OK. But I have had a lot of trouble with this in the past - tried a number of pedals and never been entirely happy. I always get that warbling effect (it cuts in and out) on the open E and sometimes F, but I think that is a common problem. So I am using octave -1 and -2 and playing a bit higher up and it does the job. There is also a cool trick using the ring mod effect where you set it at zero and it sounds like a synth-type 70ās bass. If you combine it with the graphic equaliser and cut out all the trebles it works as a bass. The MS-3 also has a pitch shifter that I havenāt tried, but reviewers say it is one of the weaker effects on the unit.
yowza thatās an expensive pedal! Very cool functionality, though. looks like you could tap out some morse code with it.
what I want from an octave right now is just to mimic a bass without getting too deep into the chorus-y effects you can get from them. basically have the ability to completely tamp down the original signal and only play with the octave down. And really just to do fairly simple bass lines for now. It looks like the Electro-Harmonix micro POG can do this and looks straightforward enough to use. This is the level of simplicity Iād want. Maybe my needs would change later and Iād want a different one.
if the pitch shifter is weak on this one, I may not bother unless I found one super cheap to experiment with. Itās an effect Iād like to use later on (to change the key Iām playing in), akin to a capo but with the ability to drop the key also instead of just raising it. Iād like it to work reasonably well. I havenāt looked too deep into these but from what Iāve seen there seems to be quite a variety. Some seem like they are geared towards making wild sounds and others seem like they are more straightforward like the function that Iām after.
Thatās all I want as well. I was considering the Micro POG but it would have cost about the same as the Boss MS-3. Another one I was looking at was TC Electronic Mini Sub 'n Up. Nice and simple (and much more affordable).
By the way, if you ever come across a Mooer Tender Octaver Mk 1, grab it! Itās called the lawsuit pedal because it was too close to the POG and had to be discontinued. I donāt think the Mk 2 is as good.
yeah, Iāve noticed the micro POG has a bit of a price premium. Either the mini sub n up or the regular one are significantly cheaper. the reviews on it are pretty good. Iām seeing people choosing the POG instead sometimes but also seeing people choose this one over the POG soā¦yeah. The TonePrint stuff on the full size one has my attention, too. Makes it somewhat of a multifx-lite sort of pedal.
nice that the extra versatility is a bit behind the scenes and its standard controls are enough to do what I ask right now. some ppl are saying they really like to run the output through an OD pedal, too.
got a really good price on a micro POG at the guitar show today. Looks barely used if at all, came with a power supply, and got it for $100.
tons of pedals scattered around, but notably not many of the popular ones. There were only two micro POG pedals there. and the other guy wanted $150 for a fairly beat up one with no box and no power supply. probably worked just fine, but to get this one for $100? took it easy.
played around with it when I got home. definitely going to get use imitating a bass. especially once I get good with the looper. Also worked with the settings to get some of the general effects Iāve read about. general āfattening upā of the sound. thatāll be good for some solo guitar stuff. Got the āpretend 12 stringā effect figured out. also did the āimitation organā sound. All easy enough. pretty pleased with this one.
It does kinda duplicate some functions that I already have via dedicated pedals, but it serves a couple purposes.
Namely, when I want to do an open mic with my electric guitar, itāll let me get tones other than āsuper clean guitar plugged straight into a PAā simply by running an amp sim. But also being able to use some basic effects and not need to carry my whole pedalboard. Since it has an internal battery, plugging in will be dead easy. Better than bringing my pedalboard and needing an A/C plug or even bringing my amp (which some people actually do to this particular open mic).
At home, Iāll be able to use it to experiment with other effects I donāt have dedicated pedals for. It has a tuner built in, so I am going to pass on buying a separate tuner pedal. I probably wonāt use it a ton at home for now, anyway, since Iām still on the beginner side and I donāt really need or want all that much on the effects side yet. But the price is really good for this and it solves the bland tone issue when plugging an electric into a PA.
I might even try using it with my acoustic at some point to spice things up a little like a friend of mine has started doing at open mic with a different small multifx pedal.
Itās a bit of fiddling with importing and setting your NAM files and you must remember that you either need a regular guitar cab OR select a āfull captureā NAM profile because you canāt do NAM+IR.
Besides the fiddly stuff, itās a fun pedal capable of a lot of things! Great deal for the money, it even has a battery and it can serve as an audio interface.
BTW. If youāre a bit handy with a daw, you can create your own combined captures by placing an amp-only NAM profile in front of a cab IR of your choice, render it and upload it on the tone3k website to create your own āfull captureā. You could even do my āacoustic guitar IRā trick with that pedal. (I improved the sound of my cheaper electro acoustic by running it through an impulse response of a different acoustic guitar. Not much of amp manipulation there
thanks for the tips. I donāt really know what most of that means yet, but Iāll learn soon enough once I get my hands on it. not sure how long it will be before I want to play electric at open mic, so I donāt have to rush that learning curve.
I did see that it can function as an audio interface. Iāve got a smaller Focusrite so I probably wonāt use it that way except in a pinch. I do see myself using it before the Focusrite as a regular pedal, though.
I havenāt really dived into DAW stuff at this point (Iāve only dipped my toes in so far), but I may reach out if I decide I want to create my own ācombined captureā as you describe. at first I will probably just select something thatās already been done.
shoot, my wife might end up using this more than I will (even though she doesnāt realize it yet). she performs with some regularity, and sheād probably benefit from some subtle effects on her uke when sheās solo on stage. especially when I have that electric uke finished.
Funny. Last night I was chatting with some of the other musicians Iāve made friends with at the open mic. The guy who started bringing a battery-powered multifx pedal was there and I told him that I bought the GP-50. Turns out, thatās the one he has.
Of course, telling him that I bought one got him excited to geek out about the pedal and he started showing me (kindof a whirlwind tour if you will) a bunch of the things it does. And he sent me a video he did of how he set it up the way he was using it.
He said he actually likes the sound of the GP-50 better than his Helix, though there are some things the Helix can do that the GP-50 cannot.
That Valeton GP-50 pedal is starting to get my wifeās attention.
She had a little gig at a pub in Nashville last month and I took the opportunity to talk to Bob, the uke player who invited her out, about the pedalboard he uses and why he chose what he did. He chose what he did because he likes the tone he gets. He treats it as a set-and-forget setup for the most part. Itās different than what people expect from a ukulele and it works well when he plays in his duo (with another ukulele doing different things) and also with his full band (his duo partner is also in the full band, but they add percussion, bass, and another person who plays accordion, mandolin, and a couple other things).
My wife and I have chatted a bit about pedals and sheās begun playing with the GP-50 at home to get a feel for the ways she can change her sound - in subtle ways but also more extreme ways. I have a feeling that when she gets more comfortable with it, sheāll wind up giving it a whirl at open mic. Wouldnāt be surprised if she starts wanting her own pedal setup. She has mentioned that she doesnāt want to play with a lot of heavy effects, but sheās showing some interest in adding a little subtle āflavorā if you will. But sheās also found some more drastic settings that work well for a song or two she already plays.
We are beginning to find ourselves short on clip-on tuners these days, too. We have a couple of snarks and another cheapo clip-on tuner thatās even less accurate than the snarks. We talked awhile ago about just keeping a bunch of tuners around so thereās always something available. Sheās also finding that some of her uke cases donāt have enough space even for snarks so she has to carry her tuner elsewhere and that means that we sometimes canāt find a tuner because she forgot where she put it. So I went in hard on tuners today. Ordered the Strobostomp Mini for my pedalboard. I got the bundle with the Stroboclip HD and I also ordered her a couple different Dāaddario tiny tuners. One is a clip-on headstock tuner, but the other clips onto the soundhole. I figure she can try them both and see what she likes. Either way, there will be 4 more tuners floating around so we shouldnāt have any problems finding one. It helps that 2 of her ukes have tuners built into the pickup preamps, but thatās just 2 out of 10 or 11 ukes so you see the problem. The Valeton GP-50 has one, too, that I havenāt tried to use yet, but given that I got that pedal for a specific purpose, I think that tuner will be more useful again for that specific purpose.
