Arion MOC-1

controlling wise, it's easy. Step on, step off. Control 3 octaves- the direct in octave, 1 octave lower, 2 octave lower.

But Harmony Central asks me for the ease of use,

"How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?"

it's hard.

So a 6.

I'm using a chain of

strat players deluxe -> Vox V847 wah -> Route 66 (by visual sound. copy of the original TS-808 with a compression. 2-in-1 pedal) -> DL4 (had it for 2 1/2 years and didn't break yet! yes!) -> Carvin sx200

I power everything with a 1 Spot by Visual Sound. It's a daisy chain power thing that powers pedals up in a series. I have a pretty basic set up and I'm upgrading constantly as the money comes... like everyone.

I decided to get an octave pedal from seeing Phil Keaggy. I loop often, and I thought it'd be great to have thumping base notes in my loop like he did.


The Arion MOC-1 does not sound good at all. I don't know why it got such positive reviews from many people. It sounds thin and brittle. Yes, it puts out the notes, but the notes are not full or musical. It's just thin, brittle notes. Gosh, if they were going to make the octaves so terrible sounding, make it loud at least, so I can use it like a base in my loops! Even with the octave knob turned all the way up, it's not a full sounding thump. It's just a note.

I was quite disappointed when I got the pedal. I heard that it produced great sounds although being cheap and plastic. It was cheap and plastic. But the sound was terrible as well.


I don't care that it was made in Japan. I don't care that it's cheap and plastic. I know that I'm not supposed to play chords with an octave pedal. Although some people say that I cannot produce lower sounds on the low E string with any pedal, Phil Keaggy did it with the OC-2 by BOSS- and he was playing in an alternate tuning, with detuned E string. So I think I'll just save up and go for BOSS.

I don't know about reliability, since I've only had it for a week. I'm a pretty careful guy, and although I carry my equipment 3 times a week, my stuff lasts.

So I'm guessing that although this is plastic, the MOC-1 will last in my hands.

One thing though. The battery cover is very loose. I can flick at it and it will come off.

And I NEED to play with the battery only, because when powered by my 1 Spot daisy chain power supply, it makes crackling sounds when I play even with the effect OFF. Maybe I should have mentioned this in the sound portion of this review, but it was getting too long. :)

I've been playing for 7 years now. Wow, that went by fast! Anyhow, I play mostly blues, jazz, rock and the likes. I don't much care for metal, thrash or whatever that is related to those kinds, since in my ears, it does not sound pleasant to hear or musical. Although I'm a younger guy, I do not much care for those kind of music.

But this pedal has nothing to do with the type of music I enjoy... unless what you want is a thin sounding octave pedal- with a loose battery compartment cover- which won't work with a daisy chain power supply.

I'm going to return this. Along with the thin sounding Arion SAD-3 I bought.

easy - no need for manual

i use it for bass guitar and i like it better than the boss. it has a much more distinctive sound on the 1st octave down - no use for the 2nd here anyway.

puh mine's broke already - i transferred the whole stuff into a steel box. so much about intense live use....

never had

i play rock and noise bass and use it in a setup with bigmuff, whammy pedal, dd5, bass synthesizer and daddyO. i play a fender jazz bass and an old peavy solid-state through hartke boxes (4x10, 1x15) and i really like the oktave to fatten up the sound on drumnbass parts. sometimes i cut the original signal totally off and play an octave higher with fuzz after the octaver to get a really strange synthetic electro sound. if they'd put it in a better box than this plastic crap it would deffo get a 10!

Three knobs, one switch. Doesn't get much simpler.

I play a variety of basses through this into a Peavey Mark 3 Bass Amp. The 1 octave down setting works great for single notes (this pedal hates chords) all the way down to the low A on a four string bass, but not much lower. And either the 2 octave down setting is poorly done, or every single note on my bass is too low for it to track. Playing something on the 24th fret should never be too low to track, so I'm guessing it's the pedal itself at fault here.

I don't know why people complain about this being plastic. Are they jumping on all their pedals with both feet or something? Seems sturdy enough to me. Really easy battery changes, too, if need be.

I play a lot of different music, mostly nu-metal, because that's what gets me the gigs around here (sigh). I've been playing about two years now, and this is by far the best octaver I've found...for $20. All in all, it's not a super pedal, but I'd definitely buy it again if it disappeared somehow. If you want a super great sound, this is NOT the box for you, but if you just want something cheap to play with, it's a great investment, as long as you don't pay more than $30 or so for it.

As octave pedals go, this pedal has the same controls they all have: level control for the guitar sound, level control for the first processed lower octave, and a level control for the second processed lower octave.
The manual comes with the unit but its really not worth printing a manual for it. Simply plug in a guitar on the input, set the controls for the desired sound, plug the output into your amp and stomp on it to get the octave going.

For sound quality, all octave pedals fall short because they cannot react to low frequency content. Without getting into the technical details, octave pedals reproduce the sound of your guitar one or two octaves lower than you played. Most often this is limited to single notes in the upper registers, like guitar solos. If you play a lot of chords or even bass guitar, this pedal isn't going to give you a more full bottom end. Really, not even the Boss octave pedal can (even though people SAY that it can). At those lower registers the circuit fuzzes up and distorts and gives the impression of a lower octave when in fact its just unacceptable noise.

The arion pedal is good for accentuating solos and some interval work but not for players who are into full chords. I have yet to use it with my Crybaby wah-wah pedal but I think that if I use it in conjunction with the wah it might actually track really well because of the higher frequency content coming from the wah.

It comes in a plastic case. Don't stomp too hard.
As always, be nice to your gear and it will be nice to you.

I paid $20 for my pedal brand new from a Musicians Friend sale.
If it breaks, I won't miss it. It's just a toy for me to play with.

I like it for what it is. Unfortunately I think I had some larger visions for what it could do (like surpass the Boss octave) but just like any thing else that actually processes your guitar sound, its only to be used sparingly. Distortion, Chorus, and Delay are the only effects which I use all the time and the rest are there to use to change the taste of a particular passage. For what it is, I certainly didn't pay too much for it.

I guess it would be easier with an instruction book i bought it used and didn't get one, but for the most part i was happy with the controls.

It for the most part soungs good, but the effect kind of diminishes during a sustained note.

It's a plastic petal in a world of metal.

I never had to deal with them.

well i'm a little upset at the price i payed for it i bought it used and found out you can get it cheaper new, but over all its ok for a plastic petal.

Real basic .. 3 knobs .. original signal .. one octave down .. two octaves down. There is a one page manual, but why?

I used it through both tube and solid state amp with a couple different guitars with the same results. The unit sounded great until you let a note sustain a bit, then the lower octave sounds dropped off quickly leaving you with the original not only. Not cool.

Plastic case .. for practice, ok .. for playing out, I don't know if it would be sturdy enought.

Didn't use the company customer support. Just phoned Musicians Friend to get a return authorization. This pedal is on it's way back, the way the lower octave notes dropped off during a sustained note was totally unnacceptable.

Plastic case, no sustain, easy to use though. Shipped it back, won't try another one.

Three pots, all controlling volume. You can probably get the sound you're looking for first time.

Great as long as you ain't gonna try playing chords, at which point the sond gets extremely fuzzy and muddy...which actually sounds good sometimes! :]

The second octave is also a little bit too quiet for my liking, but back up the first octave rather nicely.

Eeek, well it's plastic ya know. Never a good thing, but get yourself an effects rack (or do as I do and build yourself one!) and there should be no concern.

Never had to deal with such things.

It's a nice bit of gear that does the job well enough for the price. Some might prefer to pay a little more for something else, but for such a narrow-minded effect this will do nicely.

Toss the manual out the window, it's a piece of cake!

Not bad, octave 2 gives that cool rumble effect from weird metal tunes.

It seems well built, but I wouldn't try tossing it off a building.

At first I thought, "Hmm, this sounds cool, but it doesn't sound like a bass." Since I have a good amp, I decided to look up what the octave effect is really supposed to be.

It's not meant to simulate a bass, but it is actully a simple vocoder (well guitarcoder) type circut that runs an octave controller (which is out of old synths like a TB-303) thus the effect is a (albeit clunky) synth bass!

The pedal has only 3 knobs to play with (direct, OCT-1, and OCT-2). It was easy to get the type of sound I was looking for in only 5 or so minutes. The pedal is highly respondant, though, to the slightest depression, which may spel disaster if you bing this to a gig.

I was using a 4 string Stinger bass with a Crate amp when I use this pedal. The sound is decent for a bass, but I found that when the levels exceed more than half way, you get a fuzzy, shaky sound that sounds awful. This pedal really kicks ass when you plug a mic into it, because it gives your voice that evil tone.

Although the casin looks cheap, it is rather durable except that the batter plug with break if you stomp on this pedal one too many times. It's battery life is also excellent. I would definetly use this at a gig without a backup.

I play a myraid of music styles, from regge to rapcore, and I have to admit that this pedal does come in handywhen you really need to change up the rythum at a gig. I have only owned this pedal for about 6 months, but the pedal has convinced me to buy and Arion distortion pedal. If it broke, I would probably get a Boss Octave, but this pedal does just fine. I love the pedal because it's a no brainer to use, but I hate how you can't crank the levels the way you like. This pedal is ideal for when you're jamming with your friends, or freestylin' at a gig and you need to change up the rythum.