Hey there,

I've searched around but not found many answers to my questions... Maybe not the place to ask, but I figure somebody here may have some knowledge.

Although I'm more a flute player, I generally play guitar more these days, and have wanted to experiment with the idea of using an octave doubler. While there's many pedals out there, I've never had any real answers to if it might work well for an acoustic guitar, and my knowledge of electronics and all is pretty limited.

I've been told that Ian Stephenson of KAN uses some kind of octave pedal to create the effect of low bass notes along with the rest, as though there were an upright playing with him as well. While the things I've seen work more for individual notes, and chords sound real muddy, I'm curious to know if anyone knows what Ian uses, and how to do something similar?
Perhaps a way to single out the lower frequencies so it's just the lower strings that are dropped?... I'm not sure how possible it is, but it's a curiosity.

-J

Re an octave pedal:
I don't tell anyone this, but I use a Boss OC3 Super Octave pedal on my pedal board.
This newer development in Boss pedals has a Polyphonic control that allows you to select which strings you want to "Octavize".
Typically I use this to play bass on the low E and A strings with a hint of octave bass on the D (standard tuning).

When you're playing chords it's important that you don't hit both octavized strings together. For instance: an F#m chord played on the second fret would sound muddy, or a bm chord where you played the f# in the barre. You have to adjust your technique in playing these chords, or find other voices that you would prefer to use up the neck.

In order to effectively use this pedal you need a subwoofer in the system, otherwise you won't even hear the octaves. The pedal takes a bit of dialing in, but once you've gotten to the sound you want - it's amazing.

My pedal string is: guitar to-
Baggs Para EQ
Ernie Ball JR volume pedal split with planet waves stomp tuner
Super Octave Pedal http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=608
Flanger Pedal
Reverb Pedal
RC 20xl looper double pedal (so I can play guitar and flute at the same time)
to Radial JDI direct box
to board

I use this set-up live all the time. All of the components are Boss except for the power - Visual one spot, Ernie Ball volume pedal, Planet Waves tuner, and the Baggs para EQ. All my acoustic guitars use Baggs M1 Active pick-ups. They all have on board electronics, too, but they are inferior to the Baggs M1 Active, which is an outstanding acoustic guitar pick-up when used with the Baggs Para EQ - a DI equalizer.

I use a midi system , an old Roland, so I have a fretless bass doubling the guitar line. cheers

A lot of people use octave pedals. The ability to pick which strings get effected is key, since a whole chord will be a terrible mess. I have the older Boss, which doesn't do that & in order for it to work, I have to really separate the bass notes from the next higher notes.

They are fun, but you want to use it sparingly, IMHO. And if you turn it on in a set of tunes, it's kind of hard to turn it back off, so I always wait till I'm sure we're near the end!

Not to be too complicated, but I have one more element to add to the guitar/pedals/PA combination, and this is a very overlooked part of this scheme.

The DI box that interfaces between the pedal board and the PA board is critical.

Basically, plugging a pedal board into a mixing board requires you to insert a 1/4" output plug into the inserts section of the PA inputs - which means that your "power" is optimized by what are called 'op amps' - a surprisingly delicate part of the PA board. I've blown mine out by driving them with too much pedal board voltage.

The best way to deal with this difference in voltage - and the best way to control the way your guitar sounds past the pedal board is to use a DI box to transfer the 1/4" unbalanced, or high Z voltage to a balanced XLR plug. Now, there are many different makers of DI boxes and, believe me, they all sound differently. A bad one will take your guitar volume and squash it into a flatulent sounding distortion, and a good one will work like a tube amp and turn it into a nice round and full sound.

The best I've found is the Radial JDI single DI - retails for about 200USD - and well worth the money if you're using an octave pedal. (It allows you to play 2 octavized strings without distortion) - FWIW

Good luck with your octave box. I messed with them briefly back in the 70's when they first came on the market. Back then there was a movement by some of us guitar players away from gadgetry. Recently I saw one of my British guitar gods from way back when, playing some of the most fantastic electric guitar solo's I ever heard. I mentally erased all the boxes he had on the stage and he sounded no better or worse then me playing through a straight amp. If you really want to impress your audience keep it clean and keep it authentic. You will be a better guitar player for it... Bob.

Never tried one, but this looks interesting: http://porchboard.com/

It would be interesting to see the reaction walking into a session with:
Guitar
Wooden floor thingie with 1/4" plug coming out (that relies on you to tap your foot in time)
Subwoofer (with long extension cord)

It would probably be easier to go in with just a shirt and pants, like this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMJeaZtgwng

I've experimented with a few different acoustic foot-stomp devices - including an old wooden wine box that works pretty well, and putting a small microphone in my shoe, which doesn't work so well.

I love the mic in the shoe!

Stompboxes similar to the Porchboard are quite easy to make. All it takes is a small container (just about any material), a piezo disc and a 1/4" plug. There are plenty of DIY plans on the Internet if you want to give it a try. Or you might try sticking the disc on the sole of your shoe.

Feadoggie