Akai UB-1 Unibass

very easy to get a great sound from this. an octave up with distortion, adding a 4th or 5th, tone knob, line in volume, noise gate knob, distortion mix knob, gain nob, on off switch, modify switch. simple and easy.

musicman sterling basses with gallien/ampeg heads through eden 4x10 and carvin 18" cab loaded w/ an EV. the effect is AWESOME. great tracking, even on detuned notes (one of my basses is set CGCF) and it tracks well from low to high. can add a nice highlight on single note runs and fill out areas of songs (i play in a power trio). the guitar up is a nice modulated sound. the box is not noisy at all and allows your true bass tone to come shining through. i put this effect before my guyatone flip tube overdrive pedal, and when i want some extra guts i run both together- a little more grit on the UB distortion makes it sound dirty and a little more "real". used sparingly this pedal is AMAZING. i can't believe they stopped making this, it's one of the best tools for bass that i've come across in my years of playing. it's NOT PERFECT, but for what it is, it's the BEST OCTAVE UP EFFECT FOR BASS THAT YOUR MONEY CAN BUY.

i was having problems there for a while in that the input volume wasn't working right. it stopped working in the middle of a show. i switched it's order on the chain of my 1spot power supply and it didn't do anything. i got it back to my studio and it worked fine for a while, then stopped working again. i was about to be upset, and at the last moment before i took it off my pedal board, i put it first on the chain, and it's been working fine ever since. see below for more info.

i emailed and called and left a message for AKAI asking them if there were authorized AKAI repair shops or if i could send the unit back to them when i was having trouble. NO RESPONSE from the email or call. LAME LAME LAME

i play mostly progressive hardcore music. i use 1001RB2 Gallien Head, 4x10 Eden, 18" Carvin w/ EV speaker. this week my effects are:
sansamp bass driver to- bass limiter to- Crybaby Q bass wah, to behringer (yes behringer!) ultra octaver, to akai unibass, to guyatone flip tube distortion, to boss DD5 delay. i've compared it to many pitch shifters and cotavia type products, multi-effect crap units, guitar pedals, etc and the original bass tone is usually lost in the mud, or it sounds like a bad 80'd video game. this one is THE BEST. it adds a unique flavor to any bass, highly recomended for 3 piece bands.

This thing is so simple to use, it's got abit of switches and knobs but they don't reallt complicate it. You don't even need the manual.

Ahh it sounds extremly mechanical. Also it can only handle one note at a time so you can only play on one string unless you practice. The distortion it comes with is hopeless, the noise gate on the other hand is one of the best I've seen in action. On the plus if you have your own distortion it will mask out the computerised sound.

It seems like it's strong but those footswitch's look kin of dogdy.

It's not exactly what I as looking for but it does most of the tasks I need and for half the price of a Digitech Whammy or Boss Super Shifter it sounds much better. It passes.

Piece of cake - one quick read of the one-page "manual" (debatable whether this is even necessary) and I was off and running. There are just a couple words Akai used to label things that you need to learn: Latch/Unlatch and Mix.

Latch/Unlatch controls whether the right stomp button needs to stay depressed in order to take advantage of the added upper 5th or lower 4th on the effect. Latch = stomp it and the added effect stays put. Unlatch = you have to keep your foot on the button.

Mix is how the left rear output is labeled. If you only output through here, you'll get the original bass signal mixed with the effect. But, if you run an output from here and also run one from the output labeled Effect, then Mix will just output the dry bass signal and Effect will output the octave effect. So it's only "Mix" under certain circumstances.

Bottom line is that is all pretty easy to discover once you plug it in and start using it. Once I did that, I had a full understanding of all of the features in about 5 minutes.

Very nice indeed. Near as I can tell, there's very little, if any, tonal or volume loss on the dry bass signal. I have it set up so that the dry bass signal goes out through the Mix output to my bass amp and the octave goes out through the Effect output to a separate guitar amp.

The amps I'm using are unimportant. Start with a nice, dry, balanced EQ on your guitar amp (or wherever you're routing the effect output) to get a good feel for how to use the Tone, Distortion, Output Level and Noisegate Filter controls. I very quickly found a set of dialings that will work well for me, though I will keep experimenting. As other reviewers, here and elsewhere, have said, the effect without any distortion sounds pretty synthesized and fake, but as soon as you add some distortion, either from the pedal or from another outboard pedal or your amp, you get a really nice growl or bite and it sounds quite realistic.

Bottom line is that when you get the right blend of dry bass and biting effect (especially with the 4th or 5th added), you have instant rhythm section, as advertised. I would never use this for recording, but it's perfect for live performance, in particular in my current band, where we've got a bassist (me) and just one guitarist. When he solos, I kick this thing on and the sound stays nice and fat. It's also great for those tight funky songs when you'd ideally like the guitar and bass to play the same line at times, but you'd also like the guitarist to be doing something else at the same time.

One other thing, in case you're wondering about range and tracking. I'm a reasonably fast player when appropriate and it tracks perfectly. I also play a six-string bass these days, so I was curious about the range on the octaver. Here's the scoop: It handles the low B no problem (as I would expect) and only starts to get a little confused as I near the 12 fret on the high C string. And anything above that, you can pretty much forget about, but for notes way up there, the octave doubling that this thing is made for is of questionable utility anyway, so no points off in my book.

It also handles bends and slides fine, as well as slaps and pops. The only other thing it doesn't like too much is harmonics. (And forget about chords, other than simple fifths. It was not made for that anyway, and if you're playing chords on a bass, you probably don't need an octaver to round out your sound...)

I haven't had it for that long yet, but it's made of good-ol' metal, the stomp switches feel substantial, it's got non-skid pads on the bottom, and it has an overall rugged feel to it - so far, so good. What I can't tell you is what it'll look like after a year or two of gigging, but I'm hoping for nothing more than some nicks and scratches, which I can live with.

Unlike lots of "standard" bass and guitar pedals, it has no battery - you have to use a 9V adapter. This is probably good and bad. Good in that you never have to worry about changing a battery at a gig, and you never have to open it and risk spilling your beer in it. The only bad is that you have to take care of your adapter, not lose it, and make sure you've got access to a power outlet or extension cord near where the pedal will live.

No experience, and I don't anticipate needing any support with this pedal unless everything I've said above is wrong.

Note that the pedal has been discontinued by Akai, so I don't know what sort of support is still even offered. Hope to never have to find out.

This thing is perfect for me. I'm currently in a four piece rock/funk band - bass, drums, guitar, singer - and as much as I like to think I'm a capable bassist and I can fill the holes when the guitarist solos, there were just times when I was wishing for a fuller sound. The UB-1 is exactly the solution.

While the market for this pedal is probably small, I was still really surprised to hear that Akai discontinued it - I had to do a bit of searching to find one, and near as I can tell, there's no other single-purpose pedal out there that adds an octave ABOVE. Fortunately, the UB-1 I found (on eBay), looks to be brand new or hardly used - still with the original box.

I don't know of anything else like it on the market - I'm sure there are other far more complicated and expensive effects rigs that will meet the same need, but for the price and ease of use, this thing is great. If it vanished, I'd definitely have to go out there into auction-land and find another.

Easy.

I wont bother telling you what bass amp I use cos I dont route it through that amp(which you can)I route the effected signal through a Digitech Tone Driver overdrive/Distortion, a Digitech Bad monkey, a Boss TR-2 Tremolo then into a Fender Hotrod set to crunch.
I might blend in a little of the units own Distortion too sometimes. I set the tone about 1/4 and the output maxed out. Obviously I dont use both od pedals at the same time, I just have two for different "Colours".
With this set up the sound is really good, piercing overdrive that sounds pretty genuine, it needs to be massaged by outboard od's though cos the built in dist kinda sucks on its own. I use the tremolo for added dynamics and it really adds a sence of realism to the whole illusion.
does not track brilliantly, btu if you keep your groove solid and simple it works pretty well.

6 months in, still going strong.

n/a

Its cool if you're a three piece like my band is and you need to fill some holes sometimes, I use it live, never in the studio, for studio we do several tracks of real guitar, but you cant do that live so this does a admirable job at decieving people!! We rely on it pretty heavily, so if it ever breaks we'll have to get another, infact I'm going to order one now to keep as a back up.

Very easy to use even without the manual. The layout is excellent which makes learning how to set the levels you want really intuitive. The manual is clear and concise if you really want to read it, but it's only a page. It comes with it's own 9v power supply but I guess any regular 9v supply will work. There is no battery back up power.

I use a Stringray, with a Musicman Audiophile head and Ashdown cabs.

The other reviews basically sum most of it up, though I did find the tracking on mine a little out and sometimes the harmonics get a little muddled. The sound quality apart from that is great. The distortion is the most useable rather than the dry signal, though I guess you could output the dry signal and use some other guitar effect to process it.

There are basically three options

1. Off. Clean bass signal. No idea if it is true bypass. I would suspect not but there is not a great deal of tone loss if it is not.

2. On. This plays the original bass signal, plus one octave higher. This higher octave can then be altered by adding more distortion or altering the tone, whichworks very well.

3. On + Modify. the 'On' is the same as above plus the addition of 4th below, a 5th above or the octave mentioned in point 2 above all on its own without the clean bass signal. This is a bit pointless because that is actually whay your guitarist should be doing!

the 5th above is my recommended 'modify' option. Switch between this, the standard octave above and the clean signal and you'll be fine.

Bonus points for being able to output just the effects signal to a separate amplifer. I did this for a laugh to my guitarists Vox AC30.

Well, built very solidly and quite heavy so looks as though it will last. Standard robust switches. My only concern would be that the swtiches are not mechanical latches, rather electronic, and the modify swtich can be toggles between latching and non latching. Just something to go wrong in my opinion.

Not tried or required so no opinion.

Excellent effect but still a one trick pony. To get the best out of it you as a bass player are best off sticking to root basslines rather than soloing or filling, to get the best sound out of it. This way it will do the work that it is designed to do.

It'll hack of your guitarist mind, so be nice to him. Tell him that you can do the power chords now so he can concentrate on playing properly for a change.

This is a very easy to use box. No patches.
Input / output volumes, tone, distortion, noise gate setting.
latch/unlatch and low4th/high5th/octave only switches for the 2nd stompy. Depending on your setup, getting the right input gain can be bitchy, even with the 3 input LEDs.
1 stomp to turn the effect on/off and the other one to modify it. Nice written manual.

Sound is great. More than an upper octaver, think of this as a guitar simulator because that's what it is. SOund is a little weak by itself but it delivers an incredibly thick sound when you add distortion to it. It has this Cream/King Crimson muddy yet warm feeling.
It's supposed to be a monophonic effect, but in fact it deals pretty well with simple chords and double stops. THe tone pot goes from a dry Tele neck pickup to a SG pickup, I'd say.

I'd surely gig without a backup. It looks and feels very solid.
Stomp switches are not noisy at all and knobs are not loose.

Never tried it, and I don't think I'll need to.
This heavy metal box seems built to last a few centuries.

It's a one trick poney, of the expensive kind.
I wouldn't have bought it new, but I had a good price on it and really don't regret.
Any power trio bassist needs this thing. What you've been waiting for so long.

Very easy to use. I'm the type that likes to play first and read manuals later. I was impressed by the ability to get it working properly right out of the box.

I run everything through a power conditioner plus a dbx DDP, so noise doesn't have the opportunity to be an issue here. My band was very skeptical about my crazy idea to get this "rhythm guitarist in a box" -- after all, it's cheaper than a fourth member and less of a pain in the ass than most guitarists (and it eats far less when everyone comes over for rehearsal, too). Needless to say, they were blown away at the quality of the sound. Running through my P.A., it sounds like an SG. The trick to this baby is being of good head about when to and when not to use it. The octave alone plays a reasonable supporting role on walking lines, and the fifth really holds down the fort when our guitarist solos. I have to be mindful of really keeping it straight during his solos, but I suppose it's probably a good thing that it keeps me under control a little bit. The distortion isn't bad -- it's actually thick and chunky -- but I'll probably run it dry and add a Tube Screamer.

Akai builds nothing but quality. I have an Intelliphase and a DPS-16, in addition to various other odds and ends. They have always made quality, they will always be my first choice.

I haven't had a problem with this, but had a challenge with my DPS-16 just over a year ago. They took care of it right away and I was happy. There's nothing I can't stand than the crappy service a lot of companies tend to hand out these days. Akai isn't one of 'em.

I play covers in a three-piece plus female vocalist act and covers/originals in a three piece band. Because most of the experience I have is in bands with a single guitarist, I've found myself developing ways to fill out the sounds. I play a lot of chordal arrangements, but try not to overdo it. The UB-1 allows me to further fill out the sound. After working with this pedal for just a short time, I've mastered switching off/on and octave/harmonize as many times as necessary to get the right sounds in tunes, even while sining backup. Easy to use, sounds good, far less of a challenge than having a second guitarist -- when many times, I've found, a rhythm guitarist will just walk all over me anyway. Now, you can control when you want it, what kind... what else can I say?

Pretty easy to use, and VERY useful! There is a manual that's about a page long, but it's pretty intuitive on its own.

Knobs are output level, distortion, tone, input level(With level LED's),and noise threshold.

It has DC, input, mix output, and effect output jacks. When using the mix output jack, the output knob acts as a wet/dry level. when using the effect output jack you get independent level controls for the original and effected signal. This is useful if you want to send the bass to your amp and the effect to a mixing board or spare guitar amp.

There are two stomp switches "on/off" and "modify". The modify switch can be made to act momentary while you hold it down or "latched" where it stays "modified" until you click it off again. The choices of "modifications" to the signal are 4th below the octave, the octave soloed with no direct sound or a 5th above the octave.

How it works:
Think of this as a rhythm guitar player in a box that follows everything you do. When you turn the effect on, it produces an octave tone above the bass input that can be processed. The original bass input signal is NOT altered.

Distortion:
The upper octave sound can have a level of distortion added to it, and the threshold will determine how much sustain it will have vs. the amount of noise that will bleed in once the input signal starts to fade. There is a compromise here, but you get to choose which is acceptable for you.

Modify:
Modify gives you the ability to add a 2nd tone to the octave to make chords above the bass. This is where it gets fun. You can add a 5th above the octave for standard power chords, or a 4th below the octave for a reverse power chord that is a little meatier. This feature essentially turns your bass into an entire rhythm section on its own.
This works GREAT when your guitar player goes to lead and there isn't another guitar or keyboard player in your band to fill the gap. There is also a mode called "Solo" which only plays the octave tone and mutes the bass input signal. It's an OK effect, but personally the only thing I don't find useful. However, for it's intended purpose it does quite a bit for a simple stomp box, and does a great job at it.

For what it is, this thing sounds pretty darn good.
I'm playing a Mike Lull modern 5 through an Ashdown magnifier into an SWR 8x8 cab.

The tracking is EXTREMELY good, it held up with my fastest licks, and also tracked slides well. For slaps and pops it does a pretty good job of tracking, but sometimes gets confused when there are stray harmonics in the notes. It works best with picking or finger style which I believe was the intention. For giggles I tried a guitar style pinch harmonic with a pick and it caught it! Cool! LOL.

When the Octave tone is by itself with no distortion added as a clean sound, it's OK but kinda typical of pitch shifted sounds and is a touch cheesy on its own. BUT when you add the distortion, it starts to sound VERY real. (I just used it on our last gig, and the guitar player got quite a few more compliments than usual...wonder why? ;)) I use the distortion about 3/4 the way up, as there are diminishing returns after that. The related Noise threshold is tastefully done. There is a fairly wide range of threshold available and it makes it a touch tricky to get the right mix between sustain and no noise. It's not very noisy so it's really a matter of taste. If you do music with quick stops, you'll want it a touch higher and the notes will fade away nicely before the bass does. If you don't do a lot of stops, set it lower it will sustain longer than the bass will!

The modify stomp switch is what makes this thing come alive. I get MUCH more use out of the pedal from this feature. I usually set the modify to a 5th above the octave for standard guitar chords, and latched so it stays on until I kick it off. So check it out: Say I want to double up the sound of the band. During moving lines I just have the normal sound with the octave double and no chords, that way is doesn't sound weird when we do a bunch of runs. Ever hear a guitar player do fast moving lines all in 5ths without an Eventide? I didn't think so! Now, when we get to a part of the song with chords and the bass follows the root, kick in the modify and it sounds completely natural. Very cool indeed.

This thing is built out of metal and looks like it can take a beating. I like that, TOO many boxes made out of plastic these days!The switches and jacks seem sturdy. I wouldn't bother with a backup, if it fails oh well, it's not integral to the band sounding good, but it helps!

Never dealt with Akai.

I've been playing music for over 15 years and I'm very critical of my gear. I must say I am very impressed with this unit. It is an EXCELLENT live tool. I wouldn't use it for studio though, get a real guitar player! Record a real guitar! It's pretty easy to use, and does what it's supposed to do very well. The guitar "Tone" isn't all that bad either! If you play in a band as a bassist and only have one guitar player, you owe it to yourself to check this thing out. BTW, in case you're wondering, this is TOTALLY unsolicited. I really happen to like the pedal. What kills me is I was thinking of buying three or four pedals to accomplish the same thing, when I saw this pedal I was psyched! Bravo Akai.