Whether fattening up your clean tone, creating an all-out octave-fuzz assault, simulating a 12-string, or something just completely different, an octave effect can turn your guitar into a whole ’nother animal and inspire your sound crafting. We’ve rounded up a sampling of 10 solid options for you to get your octave on.
Octave OC-5
Features on this updated classic include a vintage mode for the mono sound of the OC-2, a poly mode for chord playing, and a new octave-up effect which can be blended with the octave-down effects.
Purple Platypus Octidrive MkII
Like the original, this stompbox has a frequency doubler to create an octave-up effect, which cleans up nicely for ring-modulator-style sounds to all-out huge octave fuzz.
Sub 'N' Up
This polyphonic octave pedal features an old-school monophonic octaver and individual blend controls for dry, octave-up, and two sub-octaves—to cover everything from complex chords to groovy single-note lines.
Tentacle V2
This analog octave-up pedal features the octave effect from EarthQuaker’s Hoof Reaper, and makes easy work of going high and tearing loose with it’s no-control design.
Pure Octave
Featuring 11 different octave modes and the ability to adjust the lower, upper, and sub sections of a signal, this mini was designed to deliver precise octave effects with no distortion.
Octapussy
This pedal’s preamp section is specially voiced for very dynamic playing response for high-octave lead tones on the neck’s higher registers, but also a big array of fuzz tones anywhere else on the neck.
Luminary
Here’s a quad-octave generator that provides the ability to conjure up any combination of four separate octaves, and features three presets, a filter control, and a tremolo effect.
Quint Machine
Offering octave-up, octave-down, and a 5th up, this pedal boasts ultra-fast polyphonic tracking, individual volume controls, and a master-mix dial.
Nano POG
The smallest member of the POG family, this polyphonic octave generator was designed for stellar tracking, features separate level dials for dry, sub-octave, and octave-up, and houses an extra dry out.
Jonny Octave
This analog octave-up pedal lets you play up either one or two octaves, and features separate volume dials for each channel along with four internal gain trimmers to adjust for playing style.
Last August, metalcore giants Poison the Well gave the world a gift: They announced they were working on their first studio album in 15 years. They unleashed the first taste, single “Trembling Level,” back in January, and set off on a spring North American tour during which they played their debut record, The Opposite of December… A Season of Separation, in full every night.
PG’s Perry Bean caught up with guitarists Ryan Primack and Vadim Taver, and bassist Noah Harmon, ahead of the band’s show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl for this new Rig Rundown.
Brought to you by D’Addario.Not-So-Quiet As a Mouse
Primack started his playing career on Telecasters, then switched to Les Pauls, but when his prized LPs were stolen, he jumped back to Teles, and now owns nine of them.
His No. 1 is this white one (left). Seymour Duncan made him a JB Model pickup in a single-coil size for the bridge position, while the neck is a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Staggered. He ripped out all the electronics, added a Gibson-style toggle switch, flipped the control plate orientation thanks to an obsession with Danny Gatton, and included just one steel knob to control tone. Primack also installed string trees with foam to control extra noise.
This one has Ernie Ball Papa Het’s Hardwired strings, .011–.050.
Here, Kitty, Kitty
Primack runs both a PRS Archon and a Bad Cat Lynx at the same time, covering both 6L6 and EL34 territories. The Lynx goes into a Friedman 4x12 cab that’s been rebadged in honor of its nickname, “Donkey,” while the Archon, which is like a “refined 5150,” runs through an Orange 4x12.
Ryan Primack’s Pedalboard
Primack’s board sports a Saturnworks True Bypass Multi Looper, plus two Saturnworks boost pedals. The rest includes a Boss TU-3w, DOD Bifet Boost 410, Caroline Electronics Hawaiian Pizza, Fortin ZUUL +, MXR Phase 100, JHS Series 3 Tremolo, Boss DM-2w, DOD Rubberneck, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Walrus Slo, and SolidGoldFX Surf Rider III.
Taver’s Teles
Vadim Taver’s go-to is this cherryburst Fender Telecaster, which he scored in the early 2000s and has been upgraded to Seymour Duncan pickups on Primack’s recommendation. His white Balaguer T-style has been treated to the same upgrade. The Balaguer is tuned to drop C, and the Fender stays in D standard. Both have D’Addario strings, with a slightly heavier gauge on the Balaguer.
Dual-Channel Chugger
Taver loves his 2-channel Orange Rockerverb 100s, one of which lives in a case made right in Nashville.
Vadim Taver’s Pedalboard
Taver’s board includes an MXR Joshua, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Empress Tremolo, Walrus ARP-87, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Reflector, MXR Phase 90, Boss CE-2w, and Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST-200, all powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus.
Big Duff
Harmon’s favorite these days is this Fender Duff McKagan Deluxe Precision Bass, which he’s outfitted with a Leo Quan Badass bridge. His backup is a Mexico-made Fender Classic Series ’70s Jazz Bass. This one also sports Primack-picked pickups.
Rental Rockers
Harmon rented this Orange AD200B MK III head, which runs through a 1x15 cab on top and a 4x10 on the bottom.
Noah Harmon’s Pedalboard
Harmon’s board carries a Boss TU-2, Boss ODB-3, MXR Dyna Comp, Darkglass Electronics Vintage Ultra, and a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus. His signal from the Vintage Ultra runs right to the front-of-house, and Harmon estimates that that signal accounts for about half of what people hear on any given night.
