Boss OC-2 Octave

Very easy to use. Just 3 knobs, 1 Octave down, 2 Octaves down, direct level.

I use this pedal with a Yamaha EG-303 through a Park 25 watt amp. This pedal is great if you play just single notes, sometimes when you sustain a note it makes some "crazy" sounds, so I use it to play just "funky" leads or heavy riffs. The 1 octave down works great but I don't like the 2 octaves down sound.

Well, I don't know if I should post it here, but the only thing I didn't like about it is that I just couldn't find (I've been searching for 6 years) the ACA-120 power supply. Other that that it's totally reliable.

Never had to deal with them

I use this pedal just to "fatten" a little bit the sound of my guitar in some solos. If it got lost or stolen I would buy another kind of pitch-shifter.

a clear ten -- three knobs that do exactly what the're supposed to...

ten again, but for different reasons than most of my co-users point out. i think you'll find much better units if you're looking for a really clean octave single-note doubling. what i personally like is the pedal going crazy. in this rspect, i achieve excellent results doing exactly what you shouldn't do (according to most of the other postings): try a (tube) booster in front, then the oc-2 and finally an overdriven fender amp -- a 4x10 bassman is my favourite choice, but any non-master tube amp will do, if cranked up. i do not claim that this is going to be healthy for your amp (or your neighbours), but if you enjoy neil-youngish feedback frenzy and/or a comletely sick tone, this is it - especially if you use the lower registers and deliberatly add open strings. controlled use of bendings and / or the guitar trem enforces this effect; you can virtually hear the oc-2 scream for rescue because it doesn't know what to do...

i got two oc-2 units. one of them has been working without any problems for about 10 years, the other one produces a slight hiss and also hums a bit. apart from this, a very reliable unit.

n/a. Never had to use it.

as i already said: i wouldn't want to live without it. from my experience, it is a very "individual" unit, sounding astonishingly different with different players, depending one whether you "use" or "misuse" it. for me, the second alternative is the interesting one, and provided that you're also into feedback/strange sound, check it out. if you like neil young/crazy horse stuff, this is a must anyway. of course there are alternatives like a colorsound, but probably not at the price the oc-2 will cost you.

The easiest pedal I ever played on, and I played on a lot. Settings are really easy and you don't need a week to find good sounds.
I just would like to warn new users of the pedal : don't abuse of low notes doubled at the lower octave, your guitar won't like that AT ALL. Experience's talking...

I'm only rating 7, not because the sounds are "just good", that's not the case, I'm really enthousiastic about them, but just to say that this pedal has a limitated use : don't try to do more then double notes with it, it's not made fot that and chords are just, well, awful ! But that's not the use of the pedal, and it's really great for doubling your solos at the octave.

Nothing to say

Never had to improve it.

Just read previous paragraphs !

Pretty easy to use for the most part. Everything works to its normal capabilities

I use this with A PRS Custom 24 through an assortment of other foot-pedals to a Marshall JTM60 amp. The only problem I have is that sometimes the octave will cut in and out if I hold a particular note. I am not sure if this is a common occurance for these pedals or if it a problem with just mine. But on a good note, this pedal will definatly fatten up your sound. Its excellent for playing nice distorted rock riffs and gives you a nice 311 sound. Also great clean with some reverb for some unique solo's. I tend to prefer the 1 octave down setting than the 2 octave setting. I really dont have much use for the 2 octave setting, but thats just my personal preference.

Very dependable, I just have a problem with the octave cutting in and out when Im holding a note like I said before. Other than that, its great.

havent needed them

I play in a rock band that blends many different styles into one. Funk, Hip-Hop, Blues, Jam, Reggae. This works the best using distortion. Gives a nice fat sound. Ive been playing for about 8 years, I use a Dunlop Crybaby Wah, A Boss EQ, Boss DD-3 Delay, Boss Super Overdrive, Zoom GFX-4, and a Line 6 DL4-Delay, and it seems to work well with all of it. Like I said before it FATTENS up your sound like Butter on Bread. I havent used any other Octave Pedal other than this one. It definatly help me make music and is very to use. I would recamend this to anyone.

Plug and play action. All you have to do....put instrument cable in input jack, and amp cable in output slot. Easy as pie. Of course it comes with a small manual, but you don't need it unless you're a child needing "parental guidance".

I currently don't own this anymore. But when I did I used it in front of a Boss DS-1 distortion and a Boss BF 2 Flanger....and all those before a Dunlop Crybaby Wah. I played it through a 20 Watt amp I use when recording and my Axl "Johnson" stratocaster. The main reason I got this pedal was because I heard the guitarist "Prince" used this in the opening solo of his song "when does cry". It nails the sound when used in conjunction with any distortion. I never used this pedal on a regular basis. I only used this when I tried to play someone else's song that I knew was using this type of pedal. The only thing that I don't like about this is that you can't do chorus with it. It will ring in your ears and it sounds very odd. You can set the controls to make your guitar sound like a jazz guitar ,but still the chords don't sound that good.

It is only reliable when playing certain songs. If you try to play this through an entire song it gets agravating.

Never dealt with em. Thats a good thing. Never had a Boss pedal that didn't work.

Like I said its only good for playing certain solos. My style of music is R&B, and a little rock. and lots of soul. My style is a mix of Ernie Isley from Isley Brothers and Jimi Hendrix. If it were stolen I would not buy another. I hardly use it. I just use it on certain songs when I record songs on my computer.

The controls on this are very easy, but using this pedal without unwanted pitch changes on lower notes is very hard to accomplish.

I use a standard Les Paul into a solid state PA head. This pedal is after my Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal and before my Boss TW-1 T Wah and Boss MZ-2 Digital Metalizer. The OC-2 sounds ideal some of the time; a properly tracked octave is signature to my rhythm sound, however, more often than not there are noticable and undesirable pitch changes when a note is sustained. I would like this to have had a one octave down and one octave up design, as it would be more useful for guitar, vocals, keyboards and even bass. Tracking doesn't seem to be quite an issue with the first octave below, but the second octave below just creates noise, wanted or not...in my case, unwanted.

Despite its drawbacks, this pedal is likely to live longer than I will, unless I smash it.

I have never dealt with Boss. To their credit, I have owned 8 pedals and simply have never needed to.

I paid a fair amount as my pedal is an "OC-2 Octaver", not a later issue OC-2 Octave, note the extra r. This pedal was worth the money, if I were a collecter of Japanese Boss pedals, which to some degree I am (I only use Japanese Boss pedals in my setup), but I acutally use my pedals for gigs, and the OC-2 will probably just sit in a corner or be sold.

very simple, octave below knob, & a 2-octave below knob. Can mix these 2 signals via a mix knob. Nice sickly metallic brown colour!

well, you have to accept that if you want this pedal its a one-trick pony, and the octave below effect is only useful for single-note riffs higher up the neck to avoid the warbly open string problem. the 2nd octave below option is useless (for me), i just don't see why they could'nt have made that an octave above knob, that would've been much more useful. Mainly i think this pedal's good for jamming with my drummer when the bass player's not around, and recording (can sound awesome to accentuate the heavyness of a single-note riff to have 2 octaved guitars riding down each side). not bad for #50, but if like me you're a poor guitarist trying to make ends meet this pedal's far from essential, there's much more worthwhile stuff to spend your money on. 5 seems harsh but i doubt i'd give any octave pedal more than a 7, i just don't think its a particularly exciting effect.

Only had it for 3 months but it seems very solid and im actually very impressed that the battery they gave me with it hasnt run out. dont normally gig with it but i certainly wouldnt need a backup.

not dealt with them.

for heavy single-note groovin' rock riffs this thing can be cool. also it would be a nice little recording toy for anyone to have if it was just a bit cheaper. my musical style is kind of heavy ambient post-punk neo-psychedlia new-wave no-wave cerebral voodoo sex god rockNroll, i own a few other stompboxes, hughes & kettner stack and i wouldn't replace this pedal. time to do the funky dead butterfly and smile my lost-ass frown...

Very intuitive knobs, basically three volumes:
octave2 is 2 octaves under the signal,
octave1 is 1 octave under the signal,
level is the dry signal (a lightly active volume)
you can blend the three sounds, or keep the two octave at 0 and use it as a volume pedal.

First of all, if you don?t want this unit to get crazy, put it at the beginning of your chain.
It?s not true bypassed, but it doesn?t sucks your tone at all when connected. No hiss too.
Don?t use battery, if not very charge, the sound is very bad.

There are a lot of better octaves, but this one is very cheap, and I like it because of it?s synthetic sounding: the two octaves are absolutely unnatural. The more you turn off the dry level, the more your guitar looks like a stupid little toy-keyboard, and I love this, but if you use only the oct1 and oct2 the signal is to low, than sometimes it find it difficult to pich the right tone, and it produce na silly step detuning, especially with hard bending.
Obviously it become crazy with the chord, use it just for single notes.
If you blend the octaves the right way, you can reach a lot of led zeppeling sound (listen to Trampled under foot, physical graffiti n.5 disk 1).
If you want a not too stupid sound forget the oct2, and blend a few oct1 with dry level, it doesn?t really fat your sound, it colors it in some strange electronic way.

My bass player own a EBS Octabadss octave, much better for serious intents: it?s very intonate, the sound is very natural, and the level of the only octave it reproduce is very high, you can really get a good fat sound, but my guitar was fat enough, I just wanted some silly sound.
I also tried the MXR one, good tone, but too low level, absolutely.

It?s very in
teresting to use it before a big muff, you can find real distructive and abnormal sounds, but be carefull, your cabinet could blow up.
It?s difficult to obtain a clear double sound (guitar + bass), but with the right blend you can reach strange keyboard-like sounds. A good fat guitar can actually looks like a bass if you keep high only oct1 or oct2, and no dry level.

Here it?is some good sounds I found:

OCT2 9 o?clock;
OCT1 2 o?clok;
LEVEL 2 o?clock;
+ a good wha wha
great sweet tones

OCT2 min;
OCT1 max;
LEVEL min
+ big muff as follow:
TONE min
SUSTAIN max
You get a flat fat deaf sounding with the lower notes, and farting high notes, something like the bass in last muse single (if you keep OCT2 max and OCT1 min, an underground growling sound will grind your belly)




OCT2 10 o?clock;
OCT1 3 o?clock;
LEVEL 11 0?clock;
+ a Boss PH-3 with
RATE 4 o?c.;
DEPHT 2o?c.;
RES 2 o?c.;
STAGE 8,
or a vibrato,
I get something like an Hammond sound (may be not a very good Hammond, anyway something interesting)


My setup is:

?97 Gibson Les Paul Special DC TV Yellow (P90 pick ups, 0.13-0.56 strings, CGCFAD tuned)
Boss OC-2 Octave
Dunlop Cry Baby GCB95 wha wha
Ibanez TK999 Tube King overdrive
Electro Harmonix Big Muff PI fuzz (the N.Y.C. one, NOT THE RUSSIAN!)
Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter
Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man analogic delay
Sovtek MIG 50 head
Home made bass cabinet with two 12? cones

I don?t use battery, anything is connected to a strong enough ac 9v adapter.

It has a good hard metal box, the only critical point is the rubber ring around the hole where the little screw keep the battery case closed. My used Boss PH-3 was broken, and the switch had a too wide excursion. This one seems ok.

I never dealt with them, but the site bossus.com is very good, and gives you any information and semples.

It?s a 10 for what I buy it for, that?s strange and silly sounds.
It?s a 4 if you?re looking for a good octave.
It?s a 6 because it?s not so good, but even new it?s so cheap.
I found on musik-produktiv.de an electro-harmonix octave very cheap too, I?d like to try that one too; there in a newer Boss one too, with some extra function too, but I don?t know anything about it.

its pretty easy to get something useful out of this.

I use a gibson LP,fender 1x12 deluxe and a few other boss pedals. This thing DOES give you a fatter sound and if you dont have a bass player (like i dont most of the time) this baby will fill in nicely during some parts of a tune. any type O or black sabbath or slow evil sounding shit sounds great with this and solos...well...if used sparingly it can help you break the old box pattern/played out licks...kick this on and harmonize some notes...pretty cool too if you wanna get that neil young sound on "my my hey hey" or any 70's jeff beck sounds.

I trust boss

great for mimicing old synth sounds, great for no solo ideas and great for heavy sludge riffs or filling in for missing bass players.I should have got one sooner.

Amazing. A

Amazing. A mainstay in my rig. I can't believe the lukewarm reviews. This does exactly what it should do. It Fattens up single note lines and gives the heaviest tone I've ever heard from a octave stompbox. I tend to think it tracks pretty well, just don't sit on a note in the lower register or it will glitch. I use this thing all the time to get unbelievable fat single note riffs with my distortion Post using a MESA Tremoverb. If you are running an overdrive or distortion unit on your board, remember to put it after the OC-2 in the signal or it will track horribly. I think this might be the problem for other reviewers and their bad results. If some of them experiment with it's placement instead of jumping online to bash the thing they'd probably find a pedal that is very useful when applied right. Unlike some I didn't just get this thing and Have had time to get to know it before Posting this review. I find it to be pretty consistant. OF course I'd rather it never glitched down low so I could hold a killer low octave but nothing is perfect especially in this price range. I'll tell you right now, Boss makes great pedals but they have never made one yet that I know of that is perfect. You have to work with them and pay attention to there placement in your chain.I give this pedal a nine because it would be a ten if it didn't warble with a low note held. This never really bothers me however because I play riffs through it that don't hold low notes for an extended period of time and it works great for that. Also try ripping some leads with this thing because it is a very inspiring sound.

Never had a Boss break and I have been using them since I started playing around 11 yrs ago. I still have one or two from that long ago. For the money you pay and the sound quality plus reliability, Boss has no rival.

Why would you call them?

The best Octave I've ever played. Try setting OCT 2 completely off, Octave 1 at about 2 o'clock and set the direct level at around 3 o'clock. The best way to set the direct level is to first set the octave setting then crank the direct up completely. Slowly turn the direct back untill you hear the bass become best defined. Don't go to far however because you will lose some of the bite from your original signal so learn to balance it. I set it and forget it. I don't even care about other settings that might be useful because the one I just described is so perfect. I woud definetly recommend this to any one who would love to have the fattest single note sounds possible.