OC-7 Octaver

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.

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.

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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!

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 ?

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

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

Don´t try other octavers at home.It will be only cheapness.