Pearl OC-7 Octaver

As they said, 4 knobs, Original Guitar, 1 octave up, 1 down, 2 down
Easy!!

This is the most unique pedal i have or have ever had. (I have had a lot being a pawn shop junkie!!!) Using it with low setting adds a real thicknes to your sound. As you raise the mix of the different octaves you start getting some really awesome and usable sounds!!
Knock the original guitar out of the mix and you get some fantastic keyboard like sounds.
It is a bit noisey, but no worse than most old pedals!

Never had a problem with. I have had it from second hand for about 5 years, god knows how old it is!!

NA

I play anything and everything, i use this pedal mostly to add some thickness to my distorted tones. I would love to find another one, just in case this one ever dies. For a pawn shop bye it was brilliant and the envy of many friends!!

Four Knobs Mix, Octave up, Octave Down 1 and Octave Down 2. It?s very easy to use ? as any octave pedal is ? I say ?Octave? as opposed to Octave Fuzz ? that?s a whole different kettle of fish.

Two pedals in one!!!

Sounds brilliant ? tracking is ?off the hook? and both upper and lower octave sounds are really top banana. Better than the Boss OC2 and OC3 in my opinion. Certainly knocks spots off other non-fuzz octave units like the MXR and Rocktron ? yuck!!!

On/Off knob?s a bit puny, but I did my usual mod and stuck a rubber foot on it [ upside down in a sort of nipple style] to make it stick up more.

Well built too. However, why are Boss the best at making battery access easy and on the top of the unit? I say this not because I use batteries, but because the pathetic battery covers on Ibanez, Marshall and, to a certain degree the Pearl unit, make mounting them on a pedal board with Velcro a nightmare ? the battery cover always stays on the board when you lift off the pedal!. At least this one has a screw to undo it.

However, if you do use batteries the screw is also fiddly.

My unit is 20 years old - i'm the second owner - so it must be reliable.

N/A

I play Rock and Blues, use a Fender 75 amp, Leslie cab and various speakers. I have several effects of all types to reproduce classic Strat and SG sounds from the 60's and 70's. I've built my pedal board around controllable dependable effects units - this is one of them.
To summarise then - what lead me to buy this pedal after playing for 25 years - a pedal I could have bought brand new!?

I?d been looking at getting an octave up pedal for sometime, and ended up with a Danelectro French Toast. I understand that the French Toast is a very close copy to the Foxx Tone Machine from the ?70?s. It certainly has bags of character, and, apart from it?s cheap construction, is a pretty good fuzz box. The problem I had with it was that the Fuzz was difficult to EQ within my set up, and the octave up was a little too random too. This is the way octave fuzzes work, of course ? look at SRV?s efforts with the Diaz or Roger Mayer unit on Austin City Limits ? even his immaculate tone gets raggedy when he switches it on. The other problem with the Dano was that the switching on and off of the octave was by a toggle switch. Obviously, boutique units like the fulltone, have separate foot switches for the octave, but I wasn?t 100% sold on the octave fuzz idea, so decided to wait and see what else was available rather than fork out for a boutique octave fuzz unit. I was sure that there were units that did Octave Up as well as down ? without the added fuzz. That way I could get a more even balance ? using a boutique overdrive or distortion to drive the amp, then switch on the octave over the top ? same as the Boss OC2 but in reverse ? if you see what I mean. I found out about the Pearl pedal from e-bay, and discovered that Jesse Davey and Jon Amor used them in the Hoax. It took 3 auctions to get one ? they aren?t that plentiful ? but I?m cock a hoop. Because, as well as the octave up I wanted, I now have a replacement for my defunct Boss OC2 as well- two pedals in one!

balance, octave up, 1 and 2 octave down, and even with the balance maxed to 100% direct, the signal still comes thru a bit, but in a good way, but go 100% wet, and its wet...

the octave up is cool...sounds rad with fuzz effects (my roland beebaa loves it), i dont like it with my od's, but thats me. Anyway, you can get all the synth sounds, Hendrix tones, and you can mix all four sounds to taste, which makes this an awesome piece. ZVEX told me to remove some parts to make the oct up go way up, but I havent done this yet (hang out on the forums for more rad tips).

Its never been used, shiny new

hahahahahahahaha...er...probably not

Its a rad piece, oops, got to go to work, get this pedal...its cool like all the Pearl pedals...

Four knobs and a switch are really easy to use.
Selfexplanatory.

The best Octaver ever made as stompbox.I have checked several other
ones,but the Pearl never lost the race.
It really has an unique sound.eventhough an octaver like that should
be played only with single notes,this one produces nice and funny
"additions" if you play chords.eventhough with incorrect chordusage
it sounds musical and not sick like other devices.
It gets then an own "accompany" life.
The upper octave is not really an octave up,but it adds a great flavour to the sound.

I have this device now for nearly 20years and it still works.
Any further comment needed ?

How long is Pearl out of the stompbox market ?
Never needed.

Don't try other octavers at home.It will be only cheapness.

Very Easy to use on 4 knobs... Can't got wrong! Didn't have a manual.. In fact it would be a waste of paper any way.

My set up is a few pedals (2 Comps 2 dist 1 sansamp, wah volums this thing) and rack effects (Alesis,Zoom,marshall JME custom switchie thing). Not all noisy distortion and compressor pedals give me more of a noise head ache.

Had it years never and problems even when JME intergrated it into a rack. It'll out last me!!

No idea, no reason to ever get in contact with them!

Love it the best octave pedal I ever used Prefer it to the rack shifters on the Zoom and Alesis

i got it dirt cheap in a pawn shop, nestling among the washing machines. It's really simple to use, with a fantastic range and really funky sound.

i'm using it in a big chain of about 10 pedals into an old valve amplifier. It isn't my main noise culprit and anyway the noise is part of the fun right. A good effects pedal is one you have to ride like a wild mustang, dig?

no worries there, solid steel

i've tried other octavers and this is the funkiest thing i heard. I use it mostly for when i wanna go a bit mad, it works well for hendrixy shit and big wig -out tunes, it don't take chords, only single notes, but what single notes they are

Really great sounding pedal especially since it came with an upper octave control that produced a fuzz-like tone. I used this in conjunction with a chorus (actually, an old Ibanez Flanger set to chorus) and this gave me the most wicked bass tone I have EVER had!

I am one of those annoying "busy" bass players, and I use chords & effects to double-up guitar parts on my bass. This pedal was PERFECT for faking a rhythm guitar track on my bass. I played primarily in three-piece bands, and would very often get the question "where is the rhythm guitar coming from"? I would just point at the OC-7.

This unit worked very well for years until I started having problems with the main clean signal cutting out. I am trying to either find someone who can service my pedal OR but another, but I think that Pearl is no longer making these.

I never spoke with customer service regarding this unit.

I have been through MANY different amplifier set-ups over the almost 20 years I have been performing, and I can honestly say that I wish my OC-7 still worked because I really miss that tone! Even sound engineers that were a little put-off by a "busy" bass player would compliment me on my tone and ask "how do you get that sound"? If anyone reading has any info on obtaining one of these-let me know!