Choosing the Right Octave PedalBuying Guide

Whether playing scales or strumming chords, even beginner guitarists are constantly creating octaves—the same note shifted higher or lower in pitch. For decades, designers and builders have engineered and released effects that also create octaves. Such effects allow for new timbres, layered tones, and notes that couldn’t be created by a single guitar alone.

Bassists also value octave pedals to fill out the sonic spectrum or make their riffs more interesting. Jack White, Nick Zinner, Jimi Hendrix, and St. Vincent are all famous users of octave effects.

While pitch-shifters, such as the legendary Digitech Whammy, can often process octaves, they also create different intervals, harmonies, and pitch bends. For the purposes of this guide, we’re looking at analog and digital pedals that focus on octave effects. However, octaves pop up in other types of effects, too. Many newer reverb pedals feature trendy shimmer and similar effects. The Boss RV-6 and Walrus Audio Slo are two examples.

Some digital delay pedals, such as the EHX Canyon, can add an octave up or down to the echoes created by the effect. It’s also worth noting that several multi-effects and modeling pedals, such as the HX/Helix line and Eventide H9, offer multiple octave generators.

The earliest octave pedals were analog, using resistors and other simple parts to generate a single octave above or below the input signal, often accompanied by fuzz or with glitchy results.

In the late '60s and early '70s, other companies released octave-up fuzz pedals, which created iconic searing tones like those heard on The Stooges, The Who, and Smashing Pumpkins. These include the Univox Super-Fuzz, Ampeg Scrambler, Fender Blender, and the Foxx Tone Machine.

There are many current production versions of this effect, as well, such as the JHS Supreme and Beetronics OctaHive. The Caroline Shigeharu combines a classic Muff tone with an octave up.

The MXR Blue Box, first released in the mid-'70s, is probably the most famous octave-down (or sub octave) fuzz pedal.

In 1984, Boss released the OC-2, an analog octave-down pedal still sought after today for its warm, full tone, created by triggering a bass-like tone, rather than attempting to mimic the input tone.

Although harder to find, the Foxrox Octron (and its newer variations) is possibly the best analog octave pedal ever made. It creates a fat octave down, in the spirit of the OC-2, with plenty of gain for both the dry and affected signals. The tracking is excellent, and the build quality is second to none.

Other commonly available examples of analog octave pedals include the Aguilar Octamizer and MXR Bass Octave. The EarthQuaker Devices Bit Commander is also a great choice, iterating on these octave fuzz effects and expanding them with an additional octave down.

Advances in electronics engineering and digital sound production (DSP) opened the doors for more advanced octave pedals in the early 21st century.