EBS OctaBass

this is just a responce to all you guy whining about "it doesnt work lower then my a string, waaaah..." there are two things you arent taking into acount. 1: your speakers probably cant handle it, even the best 4x10s and 15s cant get much lower then 35hz and your e string's fundamental is 32hz (lets not even talk about a low b). 2:your ears probably cant handle it either, the average person can hear down to about 20hz, but you as a gigging musician have hearing damage and would be lucky to hear yourself scream. an octive lower the your low e and we're talking like 16hz and as low as 11hz on the low b! well out of the human hearing spectrom.

After some minutes experimentig you will be able to generate an interesting range of sounds. Anyway, is a good idea to read the manual.

First of all, I'm using this box with an Ibanez RG guitar. I'm recording at my home studio and I can't buy a bass, so I play and record my bass parts with this pedal. The triggering and tracks is OK, but not perfect. In some instruments, some positions in the neck, will generate armonics that make mistakes in the octave generation. When it works, it can produce a nice and realistic bass sound.

It seems to be a resistent box, I can say anymore...

I have dealt with EBS in two times, the first I have my answer after some days, but not the second time. that's 50% :)

Remember, I'm talking about using it with a guitar. The sound is like a real bass, but the problem is the triggering. But I know the Boss octaver make mistakes too. Them, where's the technology? Today we can do effects for guitar or bass that make the breakfast for you, but we can't track an octave below with no mistakes? I can't understand... but well, after all, I think this is a nice box, but not perfect. I hope someone will release a perfect octave box soon. For now, I keep the Octabass.

Two controls. Thats all there is. Everybody can use this.

Tracking and Sound are very good. Only the E-String isn't tracked down to E but to G. It sound realy natural and warm in contrast to a Digitech Whammy e.g.. I give it a 9 cause there is allways something to ameliorate.

This is the crunchpoint! At first blush it seems to be undestroyable. I'm playing it for over 10 years now. Without it's controls!!! Cause they were the first who left! They have plastic(!) axles. Damn! Furthermore the switch is gone to hell. This pedal is real expensive. How can they integrate such crappy things?

don't know

Sounds great, works bad!

Extremely Easy to get a good sound. I bought it used so no manual. Although I don't think you will need it. very basic master vol and octave vol. Also it has a selector switch to choose from high Mid to low frequencies It has what it needs to have.

IT sounds pretty good to me, my girlfreind nailed it on the head when she called it a fat pedal, that is it makes your sound very fat all the way down to the G on the E String for my Jack Casady but only to the C on my A string on the G&L why????? who knows???
It is very easy to get the Massive Attack bass sound with this pedal.
Very good tracking, minor glitching when you start to get to the low end it begins to sound very mushy if you already use a fat bass sound and then kick this pedal on, I think that it should compensate for it, but it doesn't have AI so I will give it an8, only because it doesn't track all the notes on the bass and lacks AI.

Hmmm, it looks pretty solid but the battery jack didn't work when I bought mine, no big deal but I can see how the adapter jack will get wear&tear issues in the future, regardless of my being careful. We shall see. In the meantime it gets an 8 for the battery jack not working.

Never dealt with them, have no opiions for or against.

I play lots of stuff, rock bass like the Cure, Groove bass like Air, and Zero 7 and Groove Armada, (or at least try to emulate those styles). THis pedal is good for all the latter but not really good for the Cure sound. Didn't compare it to other products, bought it sound unheard, and was pleasantly surprised when I plugged in and started to play. It is limited in that it can not be used on all the time but if you have good imagination you can use this pedal with great effect, pardon the pun. An idea of the sound you can get is....I play Lou Reed's Walk on the Wildside bass intro,and it sounds thick like a stand up.

I would have to say that it is extremely easy to dial in a good octave sound on the OctaBass but until they develop a neural network adapter which can interpret brain activity and automatically make adjustments, this pedal gets an 8. But seriously... it couldn't get any easier. The manual is clear and offers some settings suggestions.

The overall sound quality is phenominal. Deadly quiet when the pedal is deactivated. I use it to to beefen up some upper neck fretless fills on a couple of tunes and it sounds incredible with EBS's unichorus. The tracking is very fast and accurate but I would hesitate to use it on anything more than fills as it wavers a bit on some lower register notes. Fantastic pedal!!!

Never had problems. Heavy/Substantial feeling pedal. Can't imagine it dying.

Never needed it.

i use fender jazz bass with j-retro preamp and yamaha bb-5000 (5-string mij 1986) connected to ebs octabass then ebs multicomp. i have found that compressed octaver is the way i want to go. i can play all the way till g on the 4th string until it freaks out. you just have to have light touch. i play with fingers, octabass isn`t that accurate with pick. when played with j-bass neck pup gives the best result - bridge pup makes it a lottery. octabass is very good octaver but it still misses few lowest notes of my scale. that`s why 9 instead of 10

have played many gigs with it and never let me down. in ebs we trust.

i`ve owned this box for a year and i have been very pleased with it. i suggest to try that compressor after octaver. it helped me.

Simple, 2 knobs, 3-way swicth.

The sub-octave not can be a little shady at times. But it sounds better than the MXR or Boss.

Sturdy, small. But watch that sub-octave note, it does'nt sustain.

Combine it with an overdrive. Wow. Unique sound clean or overdriven. It's cool to solo with, too. It lets you play high on the neck will still maintaning your lew end. That's cool.

I wonder why it was discontinued.

simply and true; nice and dynamic

better than the boss octaver, though can be inconsistent: bouncing out of octive at times.

pretty bad. the efx basically has sizzles and the 9volt wiring to the circuit board is weak and subquently fell apart. got take this to the shop to get it fixed just like the bassIQ.
another one bites the dust.

i don't know ...they weren't helpful with my malfunctioned bassIQ.

You would have to be a drummer (or guitar player) not to understand how these controls work.

I wasn't that impressed. I had a Boss octave for years and this one didn't track or sound much better. If you hold a long note, C on your A string is about as low as you can go for a couple of seconds. It (like most others) will track lower for very short notes. This is one of the early versions so EBS may have improved this. I also had the same problem with the C on the G string that other reviewers have mentioned. I have tried other modulation effects over the years that can track a bass accurately (Digitec "Bass Whammy", DOD "Bass Harmony Machine") even down to low B so I don't understand why that technology can't be aplied to a octave box.

No problems.

Price vs. Performance. If this was in the same price range as other octave boxes I could give a much higher rating.

Come on, boys. Just two knobs and a switch. The manual is a paper sheet with some inverted paragraphs. Pretty funny.

I use a Fender American Standard Jazz Bass V and a Marshall Bass State B65 combo. It rocks. You will never get anything below the 3rd string, 3rd fret C. Used in the high mode with a fuzz distortion and a flanger, you can get a very good "analog synth" sound. Used in the low mode, you can give your mom a heart attack. It works better after a good compressor.

Well, it's metal stuff. It fell on my foot once. Damn it hurts. Nothing to worry about. Use a regulated 9 V DC source, and forget batteries. It drains them. Don't use unregulated sources 'cause it simple won't work.

Ok. I just contact them to ask if it was an analog unit. Here's the answer:

"Yes it is.

ALL THE BASS!
EBS Sweden..."

I must confess I like the fanatical feeling of the answer.

It's the best octaver I've use, analog or digital. Clearest than the Boss OC-2. More natural than the DOD Meat Box. Not so "digital" like the Zoom 506 (Well, it's a digital multi-FX, anyway). I only wish it could reach at least G at the 4th string (Only the Zoom 506 did it, but...).