Boss OC-5 Polyphonic Guitar/Bass Octave Pedal Reviews

This pedal is great. One of the best I have purchased recently. I mostly use it on bass, but it works well on guitar too. I cannot begin to describe how good it sounds on either the vintage or poly settings, depending on what you are going for.

After trying a couple of other octave devices and talking with my service person Aston, I decided to go with the OC-5.

I'm basically wanting to cover the Wes Montgomery octave licks on my guitar and this pedal allows me to custom tailor the effect.

Well worth the price.

I'm very pleased with this bass pedal on all fronts, the newest generation OC 5 gives you two formulas' to dial in. You have the taste of the original OC 2 vintage octave flavor combined with the new state of the art poly octave sound. I selected the OC 5 after seeing Guy Pratt talk about the vintage OC 2 octave pedal, his influences of Pino Palladino and other bassists that helped characterize his style performing with Pink Floyd, David Gilmore, Saucer Full of Secrets and his successful recording career with Madonna, Michael Jackson to mention a few. Of course I ordered through Sweetwater my go - to. I had an issue with the first pedal not working correctly so the Sweetwater staff replaced it quickly. I received the replacement pedal that works perfectly in less than three days, the staff was very accommodating and went out of their way to resolve the issue, the business is amazing. A big shout out to Sweetwater staff, Grant and Hector for their excellent customer service, I appreciate all that you did for me, couldn't be happier!

I used to have the OC2, and I got used to its limitations. The fact that they improved it AND kept the old quirks is genius. Worth every penny.

If you play a 4- string bass this pedal is a must! The -1 oct works as well as an Ashdown Sub-harmonics function adding presence and fullness to your sound. If you're playing a 5-string, start at the lowest setting, and gradually increase until you get the bottom end that you want. Don't ever use the -2 oct knob. Frequencies below 16 Hz can damage your amp head. It also lowers output from your fundamental notes. Higher end bass amps have a sub harmonic filter usually set at 20 Hz to protect the amp head. Ashdown and Darkglass filters are set at 17 Hz. Adding +1 oct works great for playing melody lines on your bass. The polyphonic function is awesome! It adds a whole other dimension to your sound!

Pedal does it job

This thing is great when used with some other pedals to make that bass synth sound. I use it for some modern covers and love it, even if it is not quite what the original was.

Shopped around a bit to find octave pedals that would help produce clean vocals at varying octaves (a niche need for sure; used for a cappella group)- this one was far and away the best one I found. Tracked well, volume adapted well, and settings were easily customized.

I really love my OC-5. Currently keeping the Direct Line and -1 Octave at 12:00 and the other controls all the way down. It sounds great on its own but running it into a fuzz is incredible.

AAAAA+++++

I love this pedal. I had a Chili Dog from Danelectro in my board but wanted poly tracking and a register up as well. This pedal delivers beautifully. Tracks great and is a nice clean and clear octave sound. Highly recommend!

Very Musical. Not chirpy or choppy at all. I easily dialed in the sound I desired on different guitars. My favorite thing is being able to record realistic bass that sounds like MY guitar. And when not mimicking bass the range control really sets this pedal apart from the competition. In poly mode (the best mode) You can set the bass to fade out the higher you play. This works great on electrified acoustics too. Not a toy or gimmick but a real word useful tool.

Excellent tracking and very usable tones. Vintage mode is excellent and the poly function is also great (although a TINY bit underwhelming compared to other polyphonic Pedals).

I use it for 5 string bass and it tracks REALLY well, even below the open A string. I've immediately found multiple uses and tones for it. Just a great pedal.

Haven't had this pedal for very long, but long enough to know it's really versatile. I have the OC-3, this is a real improvement. Sounds great with my fretless basses. Get one !!

Simply the best sounding, best tracking, most versatile octave pedal to date!! You can also use this pedal as a solo/volume boost.

These thoughts aren't expert…but merely a suggestion to get past what might initially sound terrible.

Try it if you plugged in your OC—5 and it sounded like crsp. :)

For ME… -The key to discovering this octave pedal's strength requires some restraint. I think a lot of people have come to expect the "middle" settings are a safe place to start with many things…and I'd wager that those who complain of terrible results with the OC-5 are very often misunderstanding how to really start with it.

So… I suggest this basic starting point…if, like me, you seek to add a bit of base or low end to your solitary guitar playing.

-Clean guitar tone to start
-Of course Use the Output Out from the OC-5 to feed into the rest of your setup/amp or oedal effects
-Set "Direct" knob to 12 o'clock
-Set all other knobs to lowest setting…(counter-clockwise til they stop turning).
-Flip switch to Poly.
-Turn the "-Oct Level" knob to about 10 o'clock.
-Play your low E and keep plucking it….while you…
-Begin sLOWLY turning the far right knob "-2OctRange"clockwise from minimum.
-Listen carefully for the BASS to kick in while plucking yiur low E.
-Play lightly a bit…hitting your low E occasionally.
(if hard to hear, exaggerate bass volume by turning up the "-OctLevel" knob until you barely do hear it.

THIS by itself will begin to sound nice…with restraint.

BUT… Keep in mind that your modulation settings, chorus, and distortion could requure even lighter settings on the added bass.

-Now play your second lowest string open.
-*Slowly* turn "-OctRange" farther clockwise until you just begin to hear the added bass to your second lowest string.

If you start light as above as your base point…ratger than cranking things early—which WILL sound like poo…you will begin to see the potential here.

A light enhancement can be truly rich…especially if you play alone…and maybe some chords or etc only use your higher strings snd feel thin. By lightly adjusting upward to include only what you want to add a wee bit of bass to, this unit is pretty dang sweet.

Again… No expert here. Just a guy who initially though "YUCK!!"…until I did the above. YMMV.

-Mark

I tried OC2 BEFORE BUT THIS GUY SOUNDS EVEN BETTER.

I just received this today and I can't put my guitars down. It just opens up endless possibilities. I have to admit the pog sounds better on swells but …. That's not the only thing I play. Stick a rotary pedal and this sounds like an old raspy Hammond.The thing that blew my mind was the lowest note mode. This is a game changer. It only tracks the lowest note that you play. So basically my oc5 is my bassist. This is a must for acoustic players. Well done boss.

Just got my new Roland OC-5, and I am impressed! While the tracking is iffy in the vintage mode, it is stellar in the poly setting - plus I like how the -2 octave pot controls the bandwidth of the -1 octave. Super cool to get just the sound you're looking for. I was fooling around, and the +1 and -1 octaves turned up with no dry signal is a super cool sound - ran through my Rotosphere, it almost turns into a spaceship. I had the original OC-2 years ago, and there is no comparison - having the +1 octave allows for an excellent Octavia sound when paired with the right overdrive. Since I also play bass, it is especially cool that the guitar/bass switch allows for dual functionality. A gas on fretless! Gonna have a lot of fun making noises with this thing. A shout out to Cody for his always excellent product advice and service.

...and it does it REALLY well.

There are a couple pedals which bass players can really utilize well. Obviously compression is one. A good octave pedal is another. The OC-5 is a great octave pedal for a few simple reasons. So far, I have had zero issues with the tracking. Even when the dry signal is completely down, it matches and finds the note every time - it was hard to "fool" it. It follows it well while bending. The super low end feature sounds really deep, warm and modern. WAY thicker than the usual notes on a low B string. Just sounds dope. So this is really useful especially for times when you really need to it match those low notes - church, rap, metal, whatever. really inspiring at any setting. The hi+low octaves together sound very soulful when dialed in. But most of all, the pedal just sounds good. Amazing to think of what Roland (Boss is Roland btw) has done to shape recordings over the past few decades.

I'm not a big fan of Boss pedals but this one is special and priced to sell. I've had issues in the past with octave pedals due to unreliable tracking but this one nails it. The tracking is exceptionally good. I will have to experiment further with this pedal on its own as well as with other pedals, but with a fuzz it can go from Band of Gypsies to Dire Straits.

The most interesting feature is the far-right knob that when in POLY-mode can control how low the octave will track. This way a bass player can go down low and not get farty mud. Also, worth noting is the guitar/bass slider switch near the 9V input.

Worth giving a try.

It's peachy keen!

I believe this pedal is analog as it lacks that digital artifact and latency. I only use the poly mode myself as I have little use for the old burble glitch-out the prior versions had. The freq range adjust is a very cool feature. I have mine set to leave the upper three strings alone and just lower octave with a hint of upper on the bass strings only. Really fun to play and work out cool bass enhanced riffs while still having the higher strings rind true. Seems to handle chords reasonably well. A lot I have not tried to do w it as I like the sound I have so much with it. It was exactly what I wanted in a low octave, a real plus it also has the upper octave. I don't think you could get away with like a 12 string octave up mimic but haven't really tried it. It is not infallible error free tracking but it does do quite well considering the price and that it is not the typical digital platform. My fav octave pedal and for sure a keeper. The price is really nice for this pedal considering it does octave stuff so well.

Just received the OC-5 today and am very impressed. The tracking in poly mode is excellent and even works well when trem picking. On the clean channel, it does a great impression of an organ, and it also preforms well with dirt. The lowest frequencies are warm and nicely audible in the mix without causing breakup. Looking forward to using it in future and current writing.

I've played Micro and Nano POGS, Pitchfork, Digitech Whammy 5, and a Matthew's Effects Chemist, and this is by far the best of those in my opinion. The tracking is insanely good, better than the Micro/Nano POG which up until I tried this, I thought was the best, plus the added Range control in Poly mode is a super cool feature. I thought it might be gimmicky, but its actually really easy to dial in the range and only have the octave effect on your lower strings. Easy to dial in, 4 knobs, and thank God no presets or sub menus. Others have said it and I'll repeat it, its a Micro/Nano POG killer for sure.

I don't normally write reviews, but this pedal deserves one. The fact that it's new price is lower than what you can buy a lot of the others used for makes this one a no brainer.... Not going to lie, totally useless selling points, but helped me justify the purchase, my birthday is Oct 5 and my favorite color is brown. It was meant to be, and yes I'm that shallow.

I bought this the day it was released at sweetwater , it's definitely is more crisp sounding that the OC3, both are great pedals.
This is definitely not a POG killer , they both have unique sounds . I think it's worth buying if your into Octaves
Baritone Cult (youtube)
Erin Dorr MI

Finally, zero latency with high definition sound. Tried various other pedals, never thrilled. I need a pedal that makes me want to use it often. The Boss OC-5 finally delivers what I want to hear. It enhances the sound without getting in the way. Not a toy, it's a useful tool. It is useful, not gimmicky.

Unlike every other octave pedal I have owned or tried this puppy is an ANALOG platform circuit! That makes for truer sounding octave notes, more organic feel and tone. The ability to move the octave effect to just the lower string(s) perhaps makes up for no presets, but once you get your couple of settings mapped out it's an easy twist. I am pretty sure like all Boss pedals this is a buffered output platform which might or might not be OK for you. Some pedals hate buffers, most are OK. Boss buffers are modest at best and really don't provide a real high quality low (

We love this pedal and the clarity it has. Recently we shot a video of it -Baritone Cult (youtube) if you want to see and hear this pedal .
I bought this pedal immediately, already being a Octave fan . Played the OC-3 for years , so I was pumped when I got this. They are different both in good ways. This pedal has a clean clarity and sounds awesome with a 37 scale bass guitar . Go check out our video on it and hear for yourself.
Boss pedals are super affordable and Sweetwater had it to me in less than 2 days. Glad Boss is continuing on with this pedal
Great pedal , high quality. we bought it to use and did a demo because it's awesome
Baritone Cult (youtube)

I bought this pedal to test against my Micro POG and it has officially kicked it off my board. The tracking is very fast and smooth and the octaves are clear and defined even with heavy gain. Absolutely thrilled with this pedal!

I'm on an octave pedal binge as I now have four with this being the most recent. This tracks really well (keep it at/near the front of your chain like all octave pedals). I actually use Vintage mode more than Poly mode. Control layout is easy to use. Be sure to watch the Mitch Gallagher demo because he explains the Range knob (when in poly mode) really well.

You should take this review with a grain of salt, since I've never owned another octave pedal. However, I'm really loving this one. I especially like it in Poly mode. I'd heard that it could be hard to avoid glitches if you'd never played an octave pedal, but I'm not having any problems with that at all. I will say that I don't really like the sound of it below the B on the A string. But since I've never had an octave pedal before, I don't know if that's true of all of them. The tone just gets too muddy down there and it feels like I can hear the harmonics more than the fundamental. But as long as I stick to the middle and upper notes of the bass, it sounds fantastic.

This pedal is basically an OC2 with an added more modern "poly" feature and the direct signal. I like it because of its raw and classic sound, but honestly, that poly feature isn't all that useful, it's almost too synthy. I can't hate it at all though, it doesn't change the "vintage" preset. I'm actually gonna try the MXR mini octave that just came out.

I'd previously used the OC-3 and wasn't a fan because of how bad the polyphonic mode sounded, switched to an EXH Micro POG which did it way better. But I tried the OC-5 and was blown away. The ability to restrict the octave down mode to just the lowest note of the chord you're playing MASSIVELY cleans up the sound while still giving you the extra low-end fullness, and the octave up blends in seamlessly. Better tracking than the POG, at least to my ear, for like half the price. Only complaint is that it can get glitchy if you're just using the octave down to turn your guitar into a bass, but playing with the settings cleans that up pretty easily.

Works great, tracks really good. IF, you're using this to create a "bass" part with the range setting on the lowest , the bass note note will be the lowest note OF THE CHORD YOU'RE PLAYING, not the lowest range of the guitar per se. So if you stop playing low register chords for accompaniment, and play a single note fill you will get doubling on these notes even if they are high up on the guitar. If you play high chords like in jazz for example it will double the lowest note of your chord voicing (even if it's not in the bass register) which is not usually desirable.

I bought this pedal because as a lone player at home I wanted to emulate duel guitar Leads Like warren Hayes and Derrick Trucks do in"Jessica" Now I'm Still working on getting the timing to get the exact soundI want but this pedal gives a Whole lot of options. I also play a lot of acoustic finger pick stuff and the Bass line option in low Octave works well as a filler and Balance without overpowering melody lines. Ive only had this pedal for awhile but So far I really Like it and Look formard to Learning more and how better to use this versatile pedal. If you, like me are playing alone Whether at home or out busking, You won'tgo wrong with this one.

I use this primarily to thicken up my acoustic electric guitar, in a loop based live performance setting. When it's just one person with a guitar, adding a bit of lower octave really thickens up the sound. It tracks well, and you can dial in just how much of an octave down and up you want. You can, interestingly, select the frequency range that the octave activates at. I have it set to my low E and A strings, and it works wonderfully. I primarily use the polyphonic setting. The high octave has mixed use, and it primarily gets me an organ style sound. Typical I'll set the +1 at 9 o clock and the -1 at Noon. The frequency knob is set around 10. An Octave pedal is a useful pedal in your arsenal. It does take a bit to learn it and integrate it into your setup, and it will occasionally switch between which root it wants to play. This is the only downside ive seen to the pedal, and thus my 4 star rating.

The polyphonic mode is great. Playing one guitar and getting a lower octave on the low strings but not on the higher strings really fills out my sound. It tracks perfectly.

Yes, it works, but not perfectly. I'm using it on three style guitars: Guild Dreadnaught, Ibanez solidbody with humbuckers, and Loar archtop with floating humbucker. The 'up octave' throws in some really odd overtones that go in and out in volume. That feature doesnt work well on anything, including my basses. The "octave down" feature works fine on the low strings of all guitars, but just adds mud to my bass. The latency for the 'down octave' isn't an issue on this new model pedal. Earlier ones were problematic.

The best results I've had are with my Guild dreadnaught and a Fishman Rare Earth pickup, which I turn at a slant to get just the EAD strings. I run that signal out to a bass amp. The piezo pickup remains clean and goes to a guitar amp. For this application, give it five stars. See my video.

My Ibanez inexpensive solid body works well on all strings, but the EAD strings sound best. I suppose you could use the pedal and this style of guitar to fake a bass tone. I've seen it done well by the Bartron Tyler band.

The pedal does not do well with my Loar mini floating humbucker. Possibly because of low pick up output.

In summary, try each setting separately. I found the best results came from having the 'split knob' almost off. The 'up octave' off. The 'down octave' at medium. The other knobs at low setting. Less is more with this pedal.

This is a pretty cool pedal. I mainly use it with my electric but I really need to start using it more with the acoustic. My one star complaint is that it often sounds pretty digital. But other than that it's pretty cool.

This pedal is really great, but the poly mode bass lines are dependent on strumming--in other words, you strum a chord, the OC-5 picks out the lowest tone, and adds an octave down, simulating a bass. The problem is, if you fingerpick, it has trouble doing that and the bass note bounces around--sounds fun in practice, but sounds sloppy on stage, almost random. I'm not sure how you'd do that, other than the OC-3 didn't have any trouble with it, since the note range was fixed. Other than that, though, it's awesome. I did end up returning it, though, because I'm a fingerstyle player.

I tend to play jazz and mid-century popular songs, and lean heavily on a medium bit of reverb from a Keeley Caverns pedal. This octave pedal does not play nicely with any reverb. Things get muddy really really fast. It's OK by itself, but I have to say that I'm pretty underwhelmed: the much-vaunted response rate can be easily fooled by playing softly. I have not systematically explored all the various options and settings, so there may yet be a pleasant surprise here. But unless I find a surprise sweet spot where both pedals play nicely together, this will have a much more restricted role in my sound than I had hoped.

Yes the OC5 is better than the other glitch out early versions, clearly, just no argument. This unit is also analog not digital and tracks very well using the the poly or low note features. But, what I don't like, the sound, listen to the just the octaves, it does not sound like a "bass" guitar in any way. The tonality is just not good and I have never been a fan of Boss's buffer circuits, there are two per pedal so if you chain a bunch of Boss you have a ton of cascading buffers that are at best B grade. Not sure the Waza improved on it but sound wise Waza here did not make it sound better, the tones are terrible and no matter how I try to use it that awful bass timber sound is just bad. I expected more from Waza but not so much from Boss, they are great pedals to get the ball rolling for younger players but I cannot for the life of me understand outside of easy to replace and find why any pro player would continue messing with them. I hated the upper octave sound on the POG sounds terrible but the bass tone are actually better than the OC5 so the hunt for a quality sonic tracking octave goes on, maybe another look at the Walrus Audio Luminary? The T Rex Quint would have been the pedal of pedals IF the 5th was down and not up, grave disappointment there as well. So digital artifact tracking and bad tones dominate the octave pedal choices. I loved the Digitech Whammy 5 improvement but it does sound rather digital. I am going to give Walrus Audio another look on the V2 Luminary.

This pedal works fine except for two issues.
1. If you leave the pedal connected even if the light is off, it will totally drain your 9volt battery. I thought after all the years of producing these pedals, that Boss would have their act together and fix this problem.
2. I bought this to be able to quickly change octaves, but all this pedal does is allow you to play louder. Not what I wanted.

Trying my best to find the best guitar 8va pedal, I tried this one, despite I usually only mess w WAZA Boss as they are better. Typical Boss B grade buffers (2) in this one. What I began to notice was the bane of all octave pedals, the tone they manifest when the dry is not covering it up. Many octave pedals just sound terrible when not being washed over with dry signal or gain. I ended up sending this one back. The lower octave was just not good tone and the upper typically dreadful sort of like a POG upper. If you have never used an octaver they all sound amazing at first. But if you listen to the actual tone it is producing many are just terrible. This was not a good sounding pedal for me. The better octave voices for me are the T-Rex Quint, the lower octave on the POG units and the Whammy 5 in general which has no control over the dry mix or blend. I remain not a Boss fan. These pedals are novel in ones early stages but as time progresses and you get better as a player the demand for better quality pedals becomes apparent. So listen to the octave signals with no dry or gain and tell me if you think that is a viable musical note. Could be it works for you being covered over but I still hear it and it is not good.

Solid construction as expected from Boss, but I tweaked and tweaked this pedal for two days and still had an audible delay and significant artifacts playing a James Goodall CJ with a K & K under saddle transducer set up. Perhaps a piezo would behave differently, I don't know. I had my hopes up, but was disappointed. Thank you Sweetwater for the return policy.

Waited 5 months for this turd. This does not separate the low frequency as it claims, at least not the way i wanted it to do. I was hoping for a bass line when strumming chords on the acoustic and it failed miserably. Great concept for solo gigs but does not work at all.

Very disappointing. Where do I start. Tracking slow, very noticable. When in poly mode with the range set to lowest, it cannot settle on the chord base notes for E, Eb and D, ie., it hops between the root and 5th no matter where you make those cords (open or up the fretboard. When using it in single output mode, it would not operated the effects at all. I waited three weeks for this item. Great concept, awful execution.