An octave stomp can open creative doors in myriad ways—from adding muscle to your sound to unleashing octave-fuzz assaults, simulating a 12-string, and more.
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.
Catalinbread adds a Saturation control and refines the original circuit for the Ottava Magus II
The Ottava Magus II adds a new Saturation control, which alters the playing feel for a more saturated, spongy feel. It also adds some more gain, giving you, in the words of Catalinbread, "those 'Holy crap - mah amp is fixin' to 'splode' sounds."
Catalinbread has also refined the Intensity control for better control over the useable range of sounds, and altered the original circuit to sound more appealing plugged into a clean amp. Catalinbread says it will have a little more meat, a little less rasp and even more articulate octave up sound.
Says Catalinbread, "Don’t let these changes worry you! We left all the original’s good stuff alone! No glitching out when your signal starts to decay, and you can still use any pickup you wish and play anywhere on the neck you want."
The pedal will be available Monday, December 21. MSRP: $179.
For more information:
Catalinbread