Behringer UO300 Ultra Octaver Stompbox Pedal for Guitar & Bass, 3-Mode Octave Shifter with Direct, OCT 1 & OCT 2 Volume Controls for Synth-Like Bass Tones (Black)

Just thought I'd put this here for anyone who doesn't yet know what this pedal is for, what it does, and what it doesn't do. First it's a MONOPHONIC pedal, not a POLYPHONIC pedal meaning it will change the octave of single notes played on guitar strings, but it won't handle chords (you'll hear interference and distortion if you try to play chords with it). This is normal and there is nothing wrong with your pedal. What this pedal is very useful for is for guitar players who want to play bass guitar lines as part of their music using an ordinary guitar, not a bass guitar. That means you can incorporate bass lines into your music WITHOUT having to put your ordinary guitar down and pick up a bass guitar or have another person playing the bass notes to your music. You can just do them both on the same guitar. The photo I have enclosed shows you how to set the knobs to get a bass guitar sound from a normal guitar. The "Lo/Mid/Hi" RANGE switch on the left of the unit controls which strings (frequencies) the pedal kicks in at or reacts to, so set it to low as per my photo for bass guitar sounds and it will then kick in on bass notes leaving your treble strings to sound like an ordinary guitar (a tenor, which is a normal guitar). You can then play melodies using the three treble strings of your guitar and bass lines using the three bass strings of your instrument. You can also experiment with the different settings, of course, and get some pretty weird sounds. For example by adjusting the Octave 1 and Octave 2 knobs and the RANGE switch on the left you can also simulate the sound of a baritone guitar (for playing things like "Dear Prudence" by Siouxie and the Banshees, "Your Own Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode, etc,) or go to a higher pitch to simulate the sound of, for example, a sound evocative of an Oriental instrument (although the sound used in Siouxie and the Banshees "Hong Kong Garden" was actually played on a Pixophone (a child's toy Xylophone on the original recording and then later on an actual Xylophone, the point being you can also get that sound with this pedal) all without switching to either a bass guitar or other instrument by just hitting the foot switch at whatever setting you're on with the guitar you're already holding in your hands, and then with another tap of your foot on the pedal to switch the sound off again go fluidly back to an ordinary tenor guitar sound, very convenient and versatile. I wrote this review and updated it to explain how the pedal works because a lot of people who have never used an octave pedal before don't set them up right and consequently think there's something wrong with the unit, but there isn't. If you want to alter the octaves of whole CHORDS don't get this pedal, get a POLYPHONIC OCTAVER pedal (they're significantly more expensive) but if like me you just want the convenience of having a bass guitar or higher pitched instrument in your hands just by pressing a pedal on and off with your foot, this is your baby.

I wonder if some of the negative reviews are confusion around what this pedal is and what it is and isn't capable of. Nowadays for a bit more than the cost of this pedal, you can get a digital octave pedal or a harmoniser that makes a good copy of your signal at various pitches that is good for doubling or harmonizing what you play. This is archaic technology, an attempt in the second half of the last centuryto create copies of a signal one and two octaves below and it largely fails. high on the neck, tone rolled off, neck pickup you might get cleanish below octave copies of single notes that you are playing but deviate from that and you get glitches from a pedal that gets confused and dumps out random sonic information. Straight out of the box it sounds terrible and if you like high gain but defined distortion this is likely to be too unruly for you. But if you put it through fuzz or high gain overdrive so you lose some of the definition of those glitches and you spend time with what to feed it into, you can create a crazed unpredictable dinosaur. Neil Young uses an analogue octave divider to help him get to that Weld Era monster (along with a lot of abused amplifiers). Is his mutron better than this? Haven't played one but thus gets you in that ballpark. You just need to find the right distortion to make the noise.

Was highly disappointed with this product. Arrived only working with batteries and didn’t work when plugged into a power supply. The effect itself sounded awful with ridiculously high levels of buzz. This was very disappointing as I have heard good things about this brand and the design is very intuitive and really great quality for the price. It’s just such a shame that it doesn’t work properly. I hope this is just a one off so I will order a replacement and update this review applicable.

Excellent budget pedal. Outstanding value for money, great quality, everything you need.

Not fantastic, but usable is the review headline and that sums the pedal up for me. All my guitars and basses are low output, and this seems to play a big part in the success or otherwise of the pedal in use. Blend out the original signal as much as possible and wind octave1 up and still the original is there. No problem. Full output from the original and blend octave1 in to get a reasonable sound, but, it really can't track unless I either select both pups on the guitar(s) or really dig in on the bass(es). Octave2 stays wound off. Hippofarts aplenty otherwise. Put the pedal behind the compressor or overdrive to get some boost and it tracks somewhat better. The pedal introduces noise when activated, seems to attenuate the signal slightly when merely in the chain and is about as bypass as a banana. Introduce too much zizzle+fizz from the compressor and/or overdrive and some very weird harmonics get 'octaved' better than the original signal. This is not a good sound. Careful level setting required then! Battery life was marginal. It ate a Duracell in 30 minutes ( pedal PSU not around :-/ ) If an octaver were to form a larger part of our sound as opposed to being used for effect rarely, I'd not have bought this. I know some Behringer pedals are very good and some not so and knew this was one that teetered on the cusp of crapola. Teeter it does. Want a good octaver?, this isn't it. Want an octaver to donk about with without spending a lot?, it'll pass muster. Barely. I've yet to actually break a Behringer pedal, I do use some live without issue, but this one is not good.

I've bought a few of these pedals and have been quite pleased with them obviously they won't last long if you want to stomp on them at gigs but they are sturdy enough if you look after them. I've tried this with bass only so far and have got a pretty good sound out of it, i put the octave 2 knob to zero as having it up any amount sounded odd with the octave 1 knob on or on it's own, but i am pretty pleased with it, i did find on bass it doesn't handle anything from open E to about 7th fret on E very well but anything higher is good, i imagine its because it's already a low note on bass so it might struggle to match it at an octave lower. I still give it 5 stars it isn't perfect but the right settings it is quite effective its easy to see if you just put everything up on the controls it does sound bad, just try some tweeking

For the money - and to test the effect - this is an decent enough pedal. Pros: Cheap, durable, does the job, 9v battery or power cable Cons: Limited functionality, can't handle chords It's easy to knock Behringer pedals, but you need to be realistic about what you're paying for. If I'm curious about an effect, I'll usually pay £15-25 for a cheaper pedal to test if it's something worth shelling out for a more professional one. In this case bought the UO300, used for a couple of jams, and upgraded to the Boss OC-3 which is a far superior unit, but around six times the price!! Don't expect a £14 pedal to be all singing and dancing. Notes about the poor quality of Behringer pedals really annoy me. Unless you're jumping up and down on them they're decent pedals. I've got 5 and they all still work perfectly - the oldest one is +13 years old.

Robust although in plastic. Works really well and at a fifth of the price of the supposed market leaders.

This product did not sound good. It just sounded like noise. I could not gauge the tone of anything while using this. I returned it.

tres bien

Not the best among the others, but for this price the result is Very Very good. In an affordable pedalboard, you must have this one. I'm having so much fun. Join this pedal+fuzz and find by yourself :) I'm Very happy with it.

bon materiel

The effect more than expected. I appreciate the tonal effects. You need American cables to filter interference. Even fans need to be switched off if normal cables are used. Then this is warned about and so helpful. I love this product. Excellent like all Bheringer products I own either from Amazon or outside.