Behringer UO300 Ultra Octaver Pedal Reviews

For $ you can't beat this pedal. I like it better than anything boss makes!

I got this yesterday figuring so little to lose for $, assumed an immediate burn when I forwent installing a battery, and used a cheap 120vac-9vdc1kma plug in supply.....noisy as hell, just like many of the negative reviews.
Instead of being hasty, and knowing it was possibly the supply creating the noise, I tried a more expensive supply that I use with a drum machine and TA-DA, no noise, just clean, fat, nasty-in-the-best-way bass dope.
Maybe all the buyers with noise issues are reporting that they don't really understand what that dotted line symbol indicating dc output on thier power supply implies...

This is exactly what I needed for my live set. It gives my acoustic that depth to compliment the live percussions and layers of loops and drones.

Went on a binge, spent a Benjamin and got a small board-full of these Behringer pedals. All of them are solid and recommended, but I really like this Octaver. It tracks great monophonically and has a several octave range where it really excels. Great for Zappa-style leads or low djent/metal lines. Serious fun for the price. And Sweetwater is the best binge, cuz' ya got pedals on your porch the next day!

The pedal works as advertised. It synthesizes notes an octave or two below the ones played. I've found that the pedal tracks best for guitar when switched to the 'mid' setting. When used like this it has zero tracking issues from what I've encountered. Something I didn't expect for 25 bucks is an ability to synthesize chords! It doesn't do a great job with open chords, but what can you expect for a clone of ancient Boss tech? For power chords though, it works splendidly. You can easily be a bootleg Royal Blood with this pedal so it meets my needs.

If you want to be treated like a star, then buy this from Sweetwater. They have won me over with their super service, wicked-fast shipping, and good-to-great prices. As for the pedal, if you've read this far, buy it. A few days ago, that's all I would need to know, and now that I have the pedal, it's confirmed. For single-note lines this is so much fun, and can be really inspirational. It's not 'cheap' or a compromise, just a very affordable clone of a well-known design. I dig it, and the price is amaze-.

I see a lot of people complain about the tracking on this pedal in the reviews. This pedal is an accurate clone of the Boss OC2 octave pedal and as such has the same tracking problems. This is a monophonic octave pedal which means it only tracks one note at a time. Chords, double stops and fast runs will probably be glitchy. Placement in your pedal chain will give you different results, but it will work best after a boost or dirt pedal. Weak single coil pups can be a problem, as the signal gets weaker the pedal will not track well. I have an early black label Boss OC2 for over 30 years and it has all the same issues, it took me a long time to figure out how to use the Boss OC2 correctly without the benefit of the internet and as this is pretty much an exact clone it has the same issues. The Behringer UO300 works fine. Or you could spend 10 times the money on an old Boss OC2 and find the same tracking issues. Just keep in mind this is a reissue of a vintage pedal and not a modern digital modeler. I have a LOT of Behringer pedals and have never had a problem with any of them. As to all the people who complain about the battery replacement it is the same method as on my Digitech pedals. And seriously just buy a One Spot power supply and daisy chain them together. A good quality 9 volt battery cost about $5.00 and just ends up in the landfill causing more pollution.

You may want to customize you guitar(s) to make best use of the Octaver. I use a modified or added third pickup on my Strats and LPs through a stereo jack and cable. The additional "ring" contact on the TRS stereo jack is connected to the modified pickup; the output signal is split (tip contact) into a normal guitar output through a guitar effects/amp, and the added "ring" contact is sent to the Octaver. THE PICKUP IS MODIFIED BY REMOVING ALL POLES EXCEPT THE LOWER E AND A STRINGS. This allows the bass to be played "clean" without interference from higher strings or other guitar effects. I send the bass output to a separate bass amp, or mixer channel in the PA. With a little practice in playing the bass line on the lower strings, while otherwise playing normal guitar with or without effects, you can sound like you added a bass player; and it really works well. I also added a third pickup on a piezoelectric/acoustic; the added magnetic pickup is strangely mounted sideways in the hole beneath the E and A strings. I've also replaced the magnets to neodymium to raise the bass signal level without raising the hum. I've been playing like this for about 8 months, and I love it!

It gets five stars from because I had seen some bad reviews of this pedal and I don't understand why. For the price it is more than adequate. It tracks well it sounds thick and gritty if you put a fuzz or overdrive in front of it and I have no noise issues as others have reported. It's a great deal if you need an octave.

I don't play bass, but I do a little bit of home recording and wanted an easy way to add bass tracks. I definitely didn't want to buy a bass, and while I know there are fancier pedals out there, I didn't really want to spend much money on this experiment. This Behringer pedal exceeded my expectations and gets the job done. I use the neck pickup on my guitar, set the pedal's range to High and then max out the direct signal and octave 1. I only put Octave 2 at around 9 o'clock; beyond that, the pedal starts to lag and cut in and out a bit. That's the only reason I gave it 4.5 out of 5, but the one octave really does all I need. I don't play gigs, so the plastic enclosure doesn't bother me.
I've only had one other Behringer pedal, but I learned that you're better off just using a 9-volt barrel rather than installing a battery: it's too easy for the plastic parts to break, and the battery connector itself came loose on the other one I (all too briefly) used.
Nevertheless, this octave pedal does exactly what I needed it to. I don't use a lot of pedals, but there's no tone suck, so I could even imagine putting the direct signal at noon and using it for more than just my simple bass imitation.

The 'HI' mode tracks very well for guitars.
Not so much the 'mid' & 'low' modes, which
caters to & tracks better for bass or keys, imo. Initially, I wasn't impressed. But after more controlled experimentations, I was able to get the same results as seen in the video Demo easily. *Note: This pedal rocks with fuzz/distortion pedals following it (after),
not before. for example:
Wah-Compressor•Octaver•EQ•fuzz/dist•etc
I tried placing it in the fx loop: Chorus•Octaver•phaser•etc. However, I got better results by going direct, bypassing the fxloop on the guitar amp.
Word of advice: be prepared to experiment with placement and do not use the mid or low settings for guitars, or else you're going to be 1 'Unhappy-Camper' - More than worth the money!"

when you can get it to track, it's great. you're gonna want your pickup signal going through some kind of boost or before they hit this. you need as much clean signal going into it as possible. tried on two different ranged instruments. with guitar, it seems to track best on the A and D strings. it does turn my ukulele into a bass- but only for the 2 low wound strings i have on it. yes, you can play bass with it. but your range will be pretty limited.
tl;dr it's fun but hard to use

has a bit of tracking issues for me, but im sure if i was playing an electric or had a boost pedal running into it, it would work much better. still great! makes my ukulele sound like a bass with piezo pickups. doesnt track with high notes very well, for example guitar b and e string. still worth it. i plan to get a cl9 to run into it and im sure it will help. not for chords! monophonic.

It sounds dark on the 6 string but be careful how much you use with the bass guitar

I've wanted to mess around with octave pedals for years. It certainly is an octave pedal and it does what I want. Plastic enclosure blah blah blah.it's REAL noisy but when you're running it into fuzz it works. It's alright and worth the money.

Certainly noisy. Certainly not the smoothest. But it does well, and sounds great with overdrive. I found it works much better in an effects loop, if you've got one.

I concur with many of the other reviews here. After spending a bit of time with the pedal, I've found it to be greatly improved by adding a boost, distortion or fuzz to the front end. In doing so, the pedal has better tracking across all notes. I can play all over the neck with a boost in front, where I find tracking to be hit or miss without the extra signal strength. It might just be my pedal, but it works quite well with something with a little extra oomph before it in my pedal chain.

If your planning to use the octaver with some drive, distortion or fuzz tones, this is a cheap and fun way to do it.

It's nice but I was confused about the controls so I found realize there was no up octave stuff :/ also the extra octaves keep cutting in an out sometimes, so it may be broken. Would probably be a good first pedal but the knobs are very stiff too.

There's a learning curve with these. At first didn't anything I liked out of it. Moved it around different amps ,guitars bass AND effects. Once I understood it all is great.

I use it for Bass
Sounds great very flexible.
Build is Plastic but solid.
Wish it had a battery door instead of having to remove Pedal switch.

Spend more money on a nicer pedal. Could potentially be fun to play with but I don't recommend it even at the price point.

I bought this pedal because of the price, I'm not gonna lie. I play bass so going and octave or two lower wasn't something I really needed. Putting a battery in this pedal is next to impossible with it's design. I first noticed that it has a noise while it is on. The output has to be turned all the way up to match your usual output so there is no boost. The only octave option I was happy with was set on mid with the first knob up half way. Everything else was muddy. Sweetwater however, was very good with me as far as returning this for a replacement or a full refund.

I bought this only because I didn't want to save up enough money to get one of the higher-end octave pedals. I figured at such a low price it was worth a shot. So, I bought it with low expectations of what it could do.

Summary:
For the money I spent I'm pleased with the pedal, it puts out a good tone. Unfortunately because of bad build quality and bad tracking I can only really use it in casual settings or with groups where I don't need to sustain any long tones.

Pros:
This pedal actually does sound good. It's a good sub-octave growl tone to it. I've messed around with the nobs and found that there's a fair amount of versatility in the sounds you can dial in.
It's really easy to get a good sound out of this pedal.

Cons:
Obviously it's plastic, and feels cheap, but this is expected from Behringer pedals.
The main problem I've had with this pedal is the tracking on it. It tracks really well on certain notes, but there are certain notes that it will not sustain. For instance if I'm playing a low G on my D string it tracks well, but if I play an F on the G string it'll start tracking and then the sub octave will disappear and reappear again until the note gets too quiet for the pedal to pick up. This same thing happens on various notes fairly inconsistently. I've also noticed with this problem that different basses have different problem notes. When I play my 1981 Ibanez Roadstar II the pedal struggles to track the notes coming from my passive pickups, whereas if I play my Prestige series Ibanez it tends to track a little better with active pickups but still is inconsistent.

They had this for $, so yeah, I had to get one. Even at $, I'm not sure it's worth it. It just doesn't work very well. I can only get it to track low notes only, so forget about anything on the higher three strings. It also gets noisy and overdriven (in a bad way) on the lowest octave. What can you do with it? You can get a sound that largely reproduces the opening riff of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." That's pretty cool, if you're covering "Jeremy." If you're not, what else can you do with it? I don't know. It's a novelty act.

Came to hop on the bandwagon of people noticing tracking issues. The octave tone will cut out on some notes seemingly randomly. Can't sustain notes. Works fine enough if I am playing quickly and changing notes often but if I try to hold a note I cannot rely that it wont start cutting in and out and sound like the octave pedal is being switched on and off randomly.

This unit produces a very noisy signal even when running on battery power which I am told should reduce the amount of noise/interference. when in bypass mode it sounds just fine. And also when using just the OCT 2 dial, the pedal does not sense the signal on occasion and will not "activate". And if you play a note too loud the unit will shut off (maybe it's some overload protection?) I am using this on an acoustic guitar with a piezo pickup so I don't know if that makes a difference or not. Maybe it's only suitable for electric guitars? The build quality is also craptastic, with the player having to literally take the pedal apart (with a ballpoint pen!) to replace the battery which exposes the spring inside, and is difficult to put back together. Why they couldn't design this thing with the battery cover on the back is beyond me. Are you kidding me?

This thing makes the most ungodly swishing sound. And its not the power supply. I used a pedal power MONDO and a Dunlop 9 volt adapter. Both supply up to 400ma so that's not the problem. Even in different places along my signal path, it didn't matter. Noisiest pedal I've ever heard. Does exactly what it's supposed to do, but just too noisy.

I bought this when the sweetwater/Behringer contract was announced and most of their pedals were going for about $19 and Didn't expect any of the stuff I got to be amazing but for the price who would really say no just to give it a shot

The build quality isn't amazing, but that's to be expected on a pedal that was only 20 bucks, so that's not being factored into my overall score but is still worth mentioning
its a nearly entirely plastic enclosure with the exception of the baseplate

The method to install a battery is honestly absolutely terrible, but that's pretty common across the board with any of the pedals they make(i bought 4 other pedals from them that im incredibly happy with outside of the plastic enclosures being really cheap feeling) so thats not really being factored into my review either

To be frank the pedal just doesnt track even remotely well
no matter what instrument i use through it, the tuning, and the setting of the switch between the 3 options
the octave will seemingly randomly cut out for no reason, even when playing incredibly slow single note stuff
ive tried 7 different guitars and 4 basses through it all with a variety of tunings and on every pickup selector setting and it just cannot consistently deliver the pitch-shifted sound i want or need from it

I was hoping i could get away with using this and not have to drop a ton of cash to get a decent octaver but unfortunately it seems like i will just have to bite the bullet and spend a lot more on something else

even for it being 20 bucks i still wouldnt recommend getting it personally

I bought one few months ago, cos of the price.. All I can get out of it is an annoying, irritating

Never functioned from day I bought it

This thing is not worth $5. Stay away. It is a super noisy pedal, iv tried battery, single power supply, fancy power supply, all of it is noisy. It can't seem to figure out what notes I'm playing, even when I try different types of pickups, playing styles, etc.

If you are looking for a pedal to throw at a wall or to throw in a sacrificial rock n roll fire, this is the pedal for you.

If you are looking to use this pedal for octaves, it doesn't do it well.

It's cheap so I thought I'd give it a shot for my small room setup... Doesn't track low notes for more than a second or two (on guitar, didn't even attempt bass) and then the signal starts cutting in and out - also kills tone. If you want to make flat glitchy fart noises this is your jam. Just don't fall victim to the YouTube hype around "boss clones" like me. Just spend the money.

I know what can you expect for $....However I have two other Behringer pedals that are great...This one however is complete garbage...It hums so loud that you can barely hear the guitar, even when the pedal isn't on..Wouldn't recommend this at all

All I wanted this pedal to do was follow me either one octave above or below while I played a single note at time on a guitar very slowly. The tracking was horrible and the sound was even worse. In a word... Unusable. I thought I was stuck with a paperweight since shipping it back to Sweetwater would cost as much as the pedal - but much to my surprise - Sweetwater gave me a full refund and paid the freight on the return. So... I am a fan of Sweetwater but NOT of this horrible pedal.

fades in and out, terrible effect only works on the low E. Steer clear from this pedal and invest in a better brand that isn't a chinese company trying to corner the pedal market and have guitar enthusiasts addicted to cheap chinese garbage

Shouldn't expect much for the price but was still disappointed. I didn't have any problem with power noise as some have stated but it tracks horribly.

I was looking for a 12 string sound on my 6 strung for stage work. No matter how many settings you try, it is mismanaged and doesn't sound any good. Also, it's noisy and hums when using. Bottom line, you get what you pay for.

Noisy. Have no idea what the controls are intended to do. My intention was to just get a 12 strings sound from my 6. Crude attempt, but not acceptable by any standard. I've been playing for 40+ years so I've had my share of numerous stomp boxes. Others in my band tried it also. They gave up. Bottom line; you get what you pay for.

Well at least it was cheap! It tracks in and out of the octave... kinda like flipping a switch off and on in the middle of a note. Ugly for sure. Useless unfortunately. Interesting that the demo videos seem fine. I haven't found an octaver at any price really that works to create bass lines from guitar, so save your money!

As much as I would like to say something positive about this pedal, I can't. I wasn't expecting much for the price, but it is totally useless for bass. Perhaps, it works better for guitar. I tried using it thru an amp, and when playing lower register notes, it rumbles terribly. I also tried playing thru a large PA system, and with the same results. The soundman was telling me to disconnect it. Not worth the aggravation, shipping charge, etc. to send it back.

I purchased the demo from Sweetwater. Should have saved my cash for something else. I've chosen to not return it for fear of it being sold to someone else. Your welcome. I'm guessing it was a return and I bought it. The pedal seems to require a certain input level to function. Once the note has decayed passed the level required for the effect to work, it makes a very weird "burping" sound as the effect stops then only the original signal is heard. Extraordinarily annoying. It could very well be a defective unit but for the price I'm not willing to find out. It will make it to the local recycling facility. I have a couple of other Behringer pedals that work ok. Even a couple of mixers that have been stellar performers for years. This effect is NOT recommended. Zero stars if available.

This is the third Behringer pedal I've purchased and the third that didn't work. I'm waiting on the Boss OC-5 to become available and decided to give this one a try. After all, what did I have to lose except $? Well I lost that $. It would be more of a waste of time to return this thing, so into the trash with the other two Behringer's. That's it for me experimenting with this subpar junk!

Engineering is not the best. Extremely bad sensitivity. It's very funny acting. In order to get it to work you have to play softly* with a low level threshold setting. If you drive the input beyond its threshold, it gates the sound, sounding like rubbish. The behavior is very delicate, & will sound like mud. Tracking SENSITIVITY is also delicate. You have to REALLY play with this to find The Sweet Spot, if there is one.

I just got mines two days ago. Tried it in
the fxloop & out just to guage the sensitivity.
So far to me, it works best being out of the fxloop.
I doubt if I would use it 'live' bc you have
to go through too much tweaking to get it to
track accurately. And the artifacts (gating),
chokes the octave effect like it's The Boston Strangler.

This pedal could use an upgrade.

I hate giving bad reviews because you can always get a cool sound out of most pedals, but this one is just too iffy. I first heard about this one from JHS where he claimed it was a clone of a Boss octave pedal. And that may be so, but the quality is just not good.

I ordered one pedal, got it, plugged it in and it had a horrible hiss (engaged or not). Sweetwater's was great, and sent me a warranty replacement. In the meantime, I opened up my first pedal and a metal clip just fell out. The hiss went away.

The second pedal? No hiss, but the signal just stinks. You play a note and the signal will just cut in and out somewhat randomly. Apparently this is a common problem with octave pedals, so I had my friend try with 3 of his guitars. He had good success with his bass but equal trouble on his 2 guitars. Same deal, signal cuts in and out.

I haven't tried submitting another warranty claim because I'm basically fed up with this one. I wanted to love it, but the quality just stinks. I think for octave pedals, you need something more robust (maybe with digital processing) that can even out the signal and provide something that sustain.

Pretty much a useless muddy thing. I have no need for it.

Out if all the plastic pedals that Behringer has had out that are so much better than this. Why even release this. The pedal it is cloning wasn't all that great but this one I'm gonna have to side with the bad reviews. So far it's the only pedal by behringer that I'm gonna say. Ehhhhh. Nah. Believe the bad reviews.

Doesn"t pick up on over half the notes I played, 3 different guitars and 2 different amps and absolutely sucks tone and volume. And has a terrible hiss if engaged...

First off I have nothing against Behringer...
I own and love the Behringer SX2442FX Eurodesk for our weekly open mic
& i have tried the TO800 and it rocked...

That being said, I'm far from an amateur player. I run a nice live open mic and I have 15+ years running a hi-end studio. I plugged this pedal in for 5 mins and was done. NOISE NOISE GARBLE GARBLE & Noise. Its extremely un responsive and when it does produces an octave note it quickly cuts in a few seconds as if it were strongly gated.

Low setting did not respond to hardly anything (sounded more like the Low End eq on the amp was cranked "no octave" just Mud), Mid was a cutting in and out mess and High hummmmm.

With the Direct knob full on the clean output on my guitar was less than when the pedal was bypassed.
When i took the pedal out of the chain my volume raised a good 20% (Kills Tone and dynamics even when bypassed)

After watching the demo video on this pedal i thought wow that sounds nice and id love to have it conveniently at my feet to fatten my finger style arrangements . Guess its back to inserting the T.C. M3000 :)

Maybe some of these are bad??? I want the one the guy is using in the demo video LOL


Billy...

I was looking for a less expensive alternative for the Boss Octaver. A couple guitar player friends of mine have warned me of Behringer pedals being noisy, but as I just needed something to practice with, I thought I could deal with a little noise. Noisy it is, but not just any noise. It comes in When you play. Not only is this pedal noisy, but the octave effect only lasts a couple seconds. Then you hear a fuzz and the octave is gone. It won't hold the note. I have to say this pedal is not even worth the $25 they ask for it. Also on the low setting the octave only works on the low E string of my guitar. The mid setting only works on my middle two strings. If you play any other strings, you get a fuzzy sound and no octave. piece of garbage.
I can't even use this to practice. If this is any indication of their pedals, I won't be buying Behringer again.