Boss OC-3 Super Octave

[bubbabruin]

I'm a hack who started playing in his 40's....for my nephew's birthday I want to play Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. I bought a used Boss OC-3 Super Octave to play the bass part, but when I hook it up I have a hard time not making it sound super muddy, and there's even almost a slap-back delay sound. I didn't get any instructions with it and all the stuff I find online don't cover this. I also need advice on how to kick on my drive pedal at the same time as kicking off the OC-3 pedal...like I said, I started late and am a bit spastic. Any advice would be welcome.

[Larryz]

Welcome aboard Bubbabruin! I'll let the pedal guys chime in on your questions. You might use a pedal switcher something like this:

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/voodoo-lab-commander-guitar-footswitch/150460000000000?pfm=item_page.rr1|ClickCP (sorry for the link not coming up but you can google on voodoo lab commander guitar footswitch at MF...

 

or maybe an A/B/Y switch to avoid the on/off tap dancining...good luck with it!

[Winston Psmith]

Couple of things -

 

I find that Octave pedals like to be at, or near, the front of your signal chain, and before any dirt pedals. The OC-3 has several Modes, including a Poly, as in Polyphonic, Mode. Try the Poly Mode. If you have it in OC-2 Mode, you're stuck with one-note-at-a-time playing, where an open string droning will cause an unstable response. This might be some of the slap-back effect you're hearing, as it flip-flops between notes?

 

As far as double-switching (Octave Off/Distortion On), I've seen people rig things like a metal bar (a 6-inch metal ruler would probably work) across the top of two pedals, so you can hit both with one stomp. There are also FX-switching rigs, that let you hook up an array of pedals, and switch among different combinations; they're not cheap, however. Clown shoes are a last resort . . .

[p90jr]

I use this pedal for several things... as an octave fuzz destruction machine; as a clean octave doubler; in acoustic sets where I loop bass lines to play over...

 

In my experience, yeah, you have to put it at the beginning of the chain. I was shutting mine down by having it after boosts and drive pedals... it would freak out and shut off.

 

You'll have to elaborate on the rest of your set up as far as muddiness...

 

As far as turning it off and hitting a drive pedal at the same time... people have suggested loop pedals and A/B/Y already...

 

tap dancing is part of being a pedal user. My wife has video'ed me onstage just to show me how funny it can look sometimes... like I'm doing a quick fast softshoe...

[bubbabruin]

Thanks, both of you were very helpful

[Winston Psmith]

An A/B or A/B/Y pedal probably won't solve your problem: It sounds like you're trying to switch between two FX on one signal chain, not between two signal chains, or Inputs, which is what an A/B or A/B/Y box would do for you.

 

Something like the Boss LS-2 Line Selector would do exactly what you want. You can switch between two discrete FX S/R's, so your Octave pedal could be on one and your Distortion pedal could be one the other. One tap on the LS-2, and you go from one to the other. With a daisy-chain, it might even power your other two pedals off of one Boss power supply? It's right around $100 new, anywhere you find it.

 

Boss LS-2 Line Selector

[bubbabruin]

Awesome, thx

[Caevan O’Shite]

Lots of good info above here.

 

I'll add that I love my all-analog Foxrox Octron for these kinds of things. FAT and warm and IMMEDIATE.

 

That perceived, "almost a slap-back delay sound" is almost certainly the inherent latency of the Boss OC-3's digital processing.

 

A little "English" on your "touch" goes a LONG ways with such things; experiment with where and how you pick to get the best, most consistent response from the octave-pedal. Clean, precise technique can make a big difference. Fingerstyle without a pick can be a major plus. When applicable, that is, whenever the sound is right for what you're doing, use the neck-pickup; it's a little trickier to get the right response with the bridge-pickup.

 

Any good, clear compressor or even a clean-boost before the input of most octave-down pedals will usually help.

 

If you need to kick-in two stompboxes at the same time, usually stepping on each footswitch with each of your feet will do it. Takes a little practice and focus, but it's often not as difficult as it might seem. Alternately, you might rig-up something like a board covering both footswitches so that one stomp onnitt will switch 'em both...

 

FWIW, when I was in a band that covered "Seven Nation Army", I let the bass player play the "bass" notes; IIRC, I don't think that I bothered using my octave-up OR octave-down fuzz (my Octron) for that song, and just played the simple, nearly crude, but effective slide-parts with some loud overdrive/distortion.