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> I have to assume some people on this list use the Boss Octave pedal in >their > looping setups, to achieve "bass guitar" sounds. To those of you that >do....do > you like it? what do you think of the tracking? I use a Danelectro Chili Dog for bass sounds in my loop setup... <http://www.marksmart.net/gearhack/jazzpedalboard/jazzpedalboard.html> ..., but I've played the Boss OC-2 in stores a couple of times. My impression was that the tracking on both units (assuming you play only one note at a time and are careful about damping open strings) feels instantaneously fast, but they both have a tendency to bounce octaves sometimes on low notes on the low E string. With the Chili Dog I reduce this quite a bit by using the neck pickup (actually a special Copeland hexaphonic humbucker in the neck position), rolling the high end off a lot, using fingers to play the bass a lot of the time, and picking nearer to the neck. Tone-wise, the Chili Dog and OC-2 sound TOTALLY different. The OC-2 has the traditional square-wave type octave sound. I'm not sure what they are doing in the Chili Dog, but it doesn't sound like that. It's more like they took the square wave and multiplied it by the input signal or something...the timbre of the incoming signal affects the timbre of the output. It can kinda sound like an acoustic bass if you use your imagination a bit. One time in a music store I played with a reissue Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth. The bass sound on this thing sounded and felt so much like the Chili Dog, that I think Danelectro must have ripped off the Chili Dog's circuit from it. To further complicate matters, Boss has at least two other octave units, the OC-20 (twin pedal requiring GK-2a synth pickup) and the OC-3 (a stompbox like the OC-2 but which can supposedly handle chords). I haven't tried either of these and can't offer an opinion. I'm really happy with the Chili Dog. I also have a Roland VG-8, which is of course much fancier and more expensive, but can be used for bass sounds...the Chili Dog (and the OC-2 for that matter) tracks much more quickly because there is no harmonizer (record stuff into a delay and play it out at a different speed) effect involved. > I'd like to get the EH Pog, > but can't justify nearly $400 for an octave pedal (especially after just >buying > an EDP), so I was wondering if the Boss pedal is "good enough." I want >to use > it with my Taylor 814 and my Gibson Les Paul, (i.e.. with acoustic and >electric > instruments). I think I'm most curious as to how well it tracks with >acoustic > guitars to simulate a bass. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. > > Brian You can't beat the price of the Chili Dog...$30 from most mail order places. Definitely worth a try. And not only that...it's purple! Mark Smart http://www.marksmart.net