Electro-Harmonix POG Polyphonic Octave Generator

I must say: It's just so easy to get good results with this piece of art! Just knowing what upper and lower octaves are, and just start by adjusting the knobs. In a -very short- manual there are 3 settings to get you started, but this pedal offers such variety of sounds that you just have to take your time to experiment with it. Every setting will soothe you. You're just limited by your imagination!

My signal runs through: guitar (Jackson Rhoads with DiMarzio Air Norton and a ESP/LTD F-400 with EMG's) -> Boss TU-2 -> Line 6 Modulation Modeler -> EHX POG -> Boss DD-6 -> Boss NS-2 -> Marshall TSL
So as you see, one straight signal from guitar to amp, with no fx-loops. So this setup is the most demanding to get a good signal.
Well, I can guarantee: there is no signal loss, there are noises, it's all about a good earthing...
But to me it's very important when you begin tweaking the POG, to get your input signal & dry output in good balance with your signal when de POG is de-activated.
When using clean settings on your amp, you can go from light settings to extreme settings... every little change in settings will result in a great effect.
When using distortion settings on you amp, you don't have to push up the sliders all the way: a little bit of octaving will result in great tone!
The best thing about this pedal is: it sure can handle chords! That was one of the reasons I've bought this pedal. None of the other octaving pedals I've had could do that: Boss Octaver, Boss Harmonist & Boss Pitch Shifter.

So far so good.

I haven't dealt with the company yet.

I play metal & hardcore. I love the gothenburg sound, and with this pedal I can add lost of dimension. To me, it's the right match!
It's a pedal I will keep 'till the end of my days!

I don't think the POG could be a great deal easier to use. It's just a simple case of plug in, change the setting as required on the front of the unit and that's it. That said, it's just as well because as usual the EHX 'manual' is pretty brief. Some better manuals from these guys (suggestions from where an effect may work well in your chain for example) would be great even if there isn't much to say on the use of the unit itself.

I have to say the sound quality is really exceptional. I took the advice of one the guys who already reviewed this product and ran it through the fx send and return on my Fender Twin. Amazing - I can't believe I've never done this before. Sure enough the only noise I get through my amp when I have this FX plugged in is the hum from the tubes.

In truth I have only just got this unit, so I don't feel I can respond on this.

Never spoken to EHX. That said I need to at some point because something pretty funky is going on with my Holiest Grail at the moment. But that's just a fact of life - if it's machinery or computer equipment you can be sure of one thing; at some point it will fail. All my other EHX pedals are fine and have never had any issue.

I play loop based guitar electronic music with vocals (http://www.myspace.com/silverpulsars) and ambient instrumental music. Iv'e been playing maybe 14 years on and off. I own a load of pedals including a dd20, dl4, re20, 2880, boss overdrive and a nice tremolo. This sounds amazing in that chain. This is my chain:

re20 > volume pedal > dl4 > dd20 > POG > Boss overdrive > Tremolo > 2880 looper (with the foot pedal). Again, remember to use the FX send and return for your pedals and plug your guitar direct into the amp. This is the best setup for your pedals, no doubt.

Finally, as a hint, try putting it before the overdrive/distortion, whack a reverse on it, loop over it and it's gonna sound great.

Don't just think of a pedal like this as a rock pedal - it's way more flexible than that. It just so happens most if not all movies online are rock demos. It's fantastic. If there was one thing I wish it had then that would be a second input so I could put vocals through it as well.

easy peasy

sounds great

this is the thing,its all good but in my case the pog turns on and alls well and good untill it starts humming and increases in volume untill the bloody thing cus out and i have to unplug it and start again it does this every time i use it!!!!.this makes it unsuitable for gigging (in my case)

id appreciate if anyone could shed some light on why this is happening?

nope

Pretty simple business. You move the sliders, find something you like and roll with it. Understanding how octaves work in conjunction with another and taking advantage of them is another story however.

When you find the honey, it sounds sick, absolutely wonderful. The tracking is spot on, chords run smooth, however, when you place you input and/or your dry output too high you run into some overdrive issues. Not the kind you enjoy either, just wrong and off.
I haven't been able to find any threads concerning this issue so perhaps it's just mine, or everyone putting up with it and not expecting miracles when dropping to so low and octave without any problems.

When this thing goes Church organ, it goes CHURCH ORGAN. I play in-a-gada-da-vida on it and sweet jeebus. Very nice, very full.. hilarious.

I got mine used, $245cdn. It had aesthetic scratches and it's made of tin, but it should last if I don't throw it around. Like anything else right?

I've heard stories of it crapping out here and there.. but what pedal hasn't at least once done that to you? No pedal is perfect.

Haven't used it yet, hoping not too.

I'd say it's one of my favorite pedals.. just too much fun. Throws you into another direction all together. Experiment with this thing. Ignore idiots like the EH POG youtube video guy. He's playing rock with this?!?!!? EH makes pedals to test your creative boundaries.. use it for that.
Play rock if you want, but come on.. you've got an organ at your fingertips. Run with that! Try something different.

If you have a brain that works and any guitar skill whatsoever, you'll be getting an abundance of amazing, unique, useable sounds out of this within 5 minutes.

Listen up, all numbskulls (most of the people who have posted reviews for this thus far). The big problem I see here is that most of you are getting your overdrive/distortion/fuzz from a pedal rather than a decent amp with something handy called an "effects loop." If you DO have a decent amp with an effects loop and you're not using your POG through it, unplug your mess, and run all your effects through it. You will find that, suddenly, there is ZERO noise. The guys at Guitar Center didn't even know. I said I wanted to check out the POG. They were like, "Cool, bro, we'll set it up for you!" I went over there and, sure enough, they had a guitar running straight into the POG, then from the POG to the input of the amp. I sighed... Here we go... I stomped it on, and what did I get? Heavy, low frequeny hiss/hum. So, I told them to get me another cable because you need one from your guitar to input of amp, one from effects loop send to input of effect, one from output of effect to return of effects loop. They were reluctant, but did as I asked. I kicked it back on, and it sounded like a dream.

This thing is so tight. Put the input 25% of the way up, dry signal @ 75%, Sub @ 60%, octave 1 @ 50%, octave 2 @ 35%, Zero out the detunes and crank the filter to the top. Crank your amp's gain, or kick on whatever little, crappy stompbox distortion gadget you have. Then do some sweet, funky lead runs and it sounds like a bass and two guitars rockin together.

Sorry if I sounded like a jerk above. It just irks me when people spend $$$$$$ on cool stuff and don't even know the basics.

I don't own one. I just play it all the time @ Guitar Center. I'm going to buy one with my tax return. Today, it was strange, it wasn't working, so we unplugged the power, plugged it back in and it started back up. It was like it needed reset. I'm not worried about it, I have other EHX stuff and they're build like tanks.

Never needed it before.

I play really edgy, riff driven, rock. This is the kinda effect that sets people apart. Put it in your arsenal and it'll further define your sount. If you just want to sound like everyone else, don't get it. It's expensive, but worth it.

The manual for this product was ok, I watched the video on a certain video site with Peter Stroud and that inspired me to buy it, so I paused at the correct time and used the settings I could see there for the 12 string, took me a minute to memorize the different sliders and then I was away, my unit is stock, No Mods or upgrades.

Heard Super Colossal? 10 minutes playing with this thing and you'll have that sound, the tracking is very fast, I play either heavy chording or lots of notes in a solo, and I found it tracked them very fast, the Low Pass Filter is great for tuning in to the sound you want. The "Input" Slider is helpful, but the higher you go, the muddier and more distorted the sound gets, but that's no problem, Just turn up the amp instead. My flow at the moment is: Guitar ~> POG ~> PodxtLive ~> Loop Station ~> Spider II. The POG worked ok in between effects, but for crystal clarity put it either first in your signal, or second (after tuner)

Sturdy metal casing and very firm input jacks, Your leads won't slip out as with some poss pedals, the plastic sliders could break, but I've had mine for a month, and as long as I don't stamp on the, they'll hold up fine. Nice rubber feet as well, for grip on carpet.

I cannot comment, Thing's so damn good I didn't need them.

I play classic rock, shred, progressive metal/rock, acoustic and so much more, this matches those styles well, I find it works best with clean tones, it's great for simulating acoustic 12's and similar, really great with clean sounds, With distortion It can be a little screechy, but only if you're using serious gain and distortion. I've been playing for 4 years, I'm grade 8 standard. If it were stolen I'd buy it again because I think it's a great effect, although hopefully by then the price will have dropped a little bit, because I'm a tad short on cash! I comapred it with the Digitech Whammy, but had to get the POG in the end because the tracking is just so much faster, although I wish the POG had an expression pedal like the whammy, but that would bump the cost up a fair bit. A Great pedal, not a necessity, but really fantastic sounding, definitely worth the cash and will last forever.

Very easy to use, but the manual should be read closely, first & foremost.

Here's why I'm writing this: this pedal works it's best magick going directly INTO a distortion or fuzz/OD pedal! I can't stress that enough! I'm using HBE Germania & Germacide, and I LOVE the results. When used sparingly it really does a great "Nine Inch Nails" type of guitar effect, very spatial, much like an octave/chorus effect. That where this thing shines. I can't wait to use it on some vocal remixes I'll be doing next week, but SPARINGLY. That's the trick. you wanna 12 string effect? BUY a 12 string gtr. You want to add depth & space to an OD?Fuzzed out gtr? This is yer $300 answer.

Had it 4 weeks, nothing failed yet.

No opinion here, either.

Overall, if yer into the whole Ministry/Nine Inch Nails gtr/synth vibe, get one of these NOW. Be forewarned; ya gotta put it thru a decent Dist/OD/Fuzz pedal (Zvex/HBE/etc), NOT some cruddy DOD/$39 special. Putting it thru a Dist/Fuzz first seems to take the best this pedal has to offer & reduce it to just an octave pedal, and not a very good one at that. Dist/OD set up after the POG, then slowly add the octave effects of the POG to induce that 3D gtr effect heard all over the first 4 NIN CDs and the "Land of Rape and Honey & Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste" Ministry CDs. I thought I might only keep this for 30 days & then get my money back, but the depth this is capable of adding to simple gtr/synth lines makes this thing a keeper in my floor pedal collection. However, it's $330 price tag makes this just a "7" when it comes to value. These should be priced closer to $200 to be a REAL value. Cheers!

Once you understand what each slider does, it's very easy to use. A little understanding of music theory helps, though it is not essential to using this pedal. The manual is minimal. A few examples of settings and the sound it will produce. You can spend a lot of time messing with the POG, but that's ok. It's fun!

The octave effect was the main reason I bought the POG. I don't use it for guitar, I play harmonica through it! My rig consist of a ElecroVoice RE 8 or 10 mic, a inline compressor/volumn control into a Boss DM-2, Boss OC-2 with the octaves all the way off and the tone at about 3, a Boss DD-3 set at 800 ms., the POG, Hughes and Kettner MKI rotosphere into a 59 Bandmaster. I set the POG with the dry at 50%, the sub at about 80%, the 1 and 2 octaves at around 30% and the detuned octaves at about 25%. I set the LPF in the middle position. Depending on where I'm playing - outside, large room, small room, etc., I'll make slight adjustments to fit the space. Incredible sound! I'm a professional blues musician and have been playing the harp for over 40 years. This is the best sound I've ever gotten for amped harp. It sounds as if I'm playing a B3. The POG gives me hugh sounding notes and tracks perfectly. When I'm tongue blocking chords it really has a organ like vibe. The rotosphere and POG together sound like no harmonica you've ever heard. I can play the classic style harp of LW, Sonny Boy, etc., but I've chosen to take the harp into new territory and the POG is a big part of the sound I get now. When other harp players discover the POG, they are going to flip!!
GREAT SOUND!!!!!

So far so good. Never use a Electro-Harmonix product before. We'll see, I play over 225 shows a year.

No contact yet.

I love this pedal. I'm trying to cut new ground with the harmonica and so far the POG has really given me the sound I'm after.

This is the category that I most wanted to make a comment about. I keep my POG in a pedal board/flight case. So, yea, it gets knocked around a little, but not any more than my other gear. Within 4 months of buying this thing, EVERY screw that holds the circuit board in place had rattled out, AND the switch in the back had basically lost its mounting screws too.

OK, granted, I am fully capable of tightening screws on my own. But let's be honest. How many of us pack up from a show and think, "Oh, I had better check all the screws on all my gear, just in case"?

In addition, while the sliders are a great visual representation of the sound, THEY BREAK VERY EASILY. And then, your sound is set wherever it wound up last.

When I bought this pedal I had such high hopes. And I used it all the time. But after the screws fell out and the sliders broke, I stuffed it in the closet of misspent $$ (READ ALSO: The Danelectro Closet).

The pedal sounds great, but you gotta treat it like GOLD.

GUITARS:
FENDER STRATS (HIGHWAY 1, American Std, MIM)
LES PAULS (Epiphone Black Beauty, Gibson LP Standard)
VARIOUS OTHERS

AMPS:
VOX Valvetronix 2x12
VOX AC30CC2

EFFECTS:
TS-9
TS-808
PEDAL POWER 2
VISUAL SOUND HIGHWAY 1
POG (ehem)
DIGITECH DIGIDELAY
MISC

The POG is very easy to use, once you know what everything does. There are no presets, so you have to manually change between patches. The little manual is of modest use- it tells you what the sliders do and offers a few sample patches, and that's it.

I think this box is useful, but you have to work to get good tone out of it. The various octives have a great deal of digital aliasing and distortion. We're not talking warm distortion here- we're talking bizarre irritating noise. So, you have to pull the tone control way down when using it. This limits the usefullness of it considerably.

It injects a noticeable amount of noise into the signal. Also, it sucks tone from the original guitar signal when used. If you do an a/b comparison between the bypassed tone and the dry output when used, you will notice a distinct difference.

You can get about 4 very good sounds. It produces a great bass sound, an acceptable 12 string sound (if blended with other instruments), good organ tones, and can add subtle shimmer to regular guitar similar to a chorus.

Very well built.

I play multiple styles of music. The coolest use of this box is running my Rickenbacker 330-12 string through it. Since it is already a 12 string, when all those octives fire off you get a shimmering wall of sound. I also like it for thickening a regular guitar similar to a chorus, and the organ tones are pretty cool.

It is noisy, though, both digital distortion and hiss. Because of these problems, it is not a regular in my effects loop. Instead, I use it for special purposes. If it were lost, I'm not sure if I would replace it or not.