Hey guys!

What I'm looking for may sound a little crazy, but do they make a pedal that can change the pitch you're playing? For instance, what you actually play on your bass is an open E, but what comes out of the pedal and thus, out your amp is a low B?

Let me explain:

I have a 2008 American Standard Jazz Bass (Oly White/Tortoise/Maple). It is your standard American model, 4-string, passive, etc. I love it just as it is, and I don't want to mod it in any way (even if all I were doing was going from EADG to BEAD stringing). I also don't want to go out and buy another bass for a whole host of reasons. I do, however, plan on buying an external active preamp with EQ so I can toggle between active or passive without modifying the bass (any suggestions on what I should get and what the price would be?)

But what I'd also like to be able to do in addition to that, if anyone makes such a thing, is have a pedal with, say, two stomp switches, if I stomp the one, it takes my EADG bass and changes the tone on the output to make it sound as if my bass were strung BEAD even though it's not, and if I stomp it again, it switches it back, or, if I stomp the other one, regardless of whether I'm in EADG or BEAD mode, it'll output as if my bass were strung ADGC. And then, of course, I could stomp that again to go back to EADG, or stomp the other to go straight from ADGC to BEAD.

Do they make such a thing? Whether it just comes like that, or whether I'd have to configure it first doesn't matter to me, only that I find something that can perform that function.

I do not know much about Octave pedals, but I do not believe they have that sort of flexibility, and I know that you could sorta pull off something like that with a bass whammy, but certainly not with any sort of precision.

In one sentence, essentially what I'm trying to do is get my 4-string passive bass to effectively emulate a 6-string active.

Now I know it wouldn't be a -perfect- solution because a low B note wont sound quite as huge and thunderous coming out of a 100 gauge string as it would a 130 gauge string, and the dazzling upper fret action on a 6-string's high C-string would not be as crisp and dazzling on a 45 gauge string as it would be on a 32. Also, if I'm trying to do a run that would require, say the low B-string, and the G-string in the same riff (like, let's say a 3-octave slap pattern in D), then it'd require some really fancy footwork to pull that off. Lastly, IMO, the best sounding active basses use soapbar pickups because they're thicker and meatier than single coils, but not all "jangly" and "seinfeld" sounding like Musicman style humbuckers, and so, even with the best of active preamps, the single coil J pickups are just never going to be quite the same as a soapbar pickup, they're always, inescapably going to be somewhat thinner.

But all that said, I am confident that if I could find a pedal that would do the stuff I just described, and put it alongside an outboard active preamp, that it would still be a reasonable emulation that wouldn't involve doing major mods to an axe that's too sweet to mess with, and wouldn't involve me going out and buying a whole new axe to lug around.

So...does anybody make such a thing?

Lemme know!

Thanks!

I used to have a BOSS Octave pedal. This effect allows you to output the source tone along with a second tone equaling one or two octaves below. If I remember. I know the newer Super Octave pedal has a special input for bass guitar.

If you are looking to change the output of your guitar electronically, then you might want to look into something called a "pitch shifter" or "hormonizer". Here are a few of those:

http://www.guitarpedalstore.com/default ... ave-Pedals

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Digitech Whammy. I think that's the name. Red Expression pedal. I think they run for about $200. The Boss Octave pedal is pretty awesome too.

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Live guitars: 2009 LTD Truckster, 1989 Strat Plus, 2001 Am Standard Strat, 1996 MIJ Jaguar, 2007 Gibson Explorer 76 reissue, 1999 Ibanez RG7621, LTD MH-301, LTD FM400, 1999 Jackson Kelly, Mystery Les Paul, Hamer Chaparel, Fender FM 62SCE A/E Mandolin

Thanks guys!

Warpfield: that Morpheus Pedal on the link you gave me is almost exactly what I'm looking for! It does exactly what I want it to do going down. The only weakness is that it doesn't appear that it can go up. In other words: going from EADG to BEAD with the mash of a button would be possible, but it doesn't seem like going from EADG to ADGC would be. However, this might be as good as I can do for now, and while being able to go up to high-C would be very nice, it is nowhere near as important as being able to go down to low-B, which this pedal would do quite nicely!

In other words: this helps a lot!

Thanks!

Jay

You need a eventide harmonizer. A very expensive but very adaptable bit of kit.

http://www.eventide.com/AudioDivision/Products/Harmonizers/H8000FW.aspx

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No no and no

Some of Korg's effects include a pitchshifter that you can set the pitch at.


AX30G
AX1000G
AX3000G
PX5D

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Hi JCW: the Digitech Whammy previously mentioned goes both ways (er, if you see what I mean...):

http://www.digitech.com/products/pedals/whammy.php

That has become a very classic pedal. Personally I have no serious use for one - but they are heaps of fun to fool around with. And of course it'll handle what you want.

Cheers - C

I just re-read your original post and to be able to change the pitch of all four strings on the fly and also make it sound real, might be a tricky task.

I think it could be done with the Eventide Harmonizer, as Nick mentioned, but not sure what it would sound like even with 'intelligent harmonizing' on the bass strings?

Not sure what this "made for bass" model does, but maybe worth checking out?

http://www.korg.com/Product.aspx?pd=242

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Probably the most accurate method would be to mount a MIDI pickup and then you can literally do anything you want.

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Calling an illegal alien an undocumented immigrant is like calling a drug dealer an undocumented pharmicist.

That's all good advice.

And just to throw in some more options, if JCW wants to go the big box route there is also the Boss GT-10B, bass version of the GT-10. I just looked through the manual (PDF) and like the guitar version it has a bass synth, octave, pitch shifter and harmonist. That covers pretty much the lot!

Even my old GT-3 does all of that, and any of those parameters can be patched through the expression pedal for real-time interactivity.

If it's of use here are Boss's pages about it:

http://www.roland.co.uk/products/produc ... p=942&c=46

And here is the user manual in PDF form:

http://www.roland.co.uk/assets/media/pdf/GT-10B_OM.pdf

That's a shedload more for only a moderately higher price than the Digitech Whammy.

Some more choices...

Cheers - C

+1

I have a digitech whammy, and it will go up and down in pitch, how ever it is not super accurate, i dont want to try and use it as a transposer. It does some great pitch shiffting, but not to play a phrase, or chords or anything like that.

Even though i am not a fan of them, i think warp has it correct with the midi pu idea