Any recommendations for octave pedals?

[Indoor Fireworks]

I'd like to have a couple of octave pedals-one for octave up and one for octave down. I'd really like to have one pedal that can do both, but I wont be greedy 

Here's the catch: I don't want them to sound distorted and I'd want to be able to control the dry/wet signal so I can precisely control the amount of the effect mixed with the clean signal.

Does anyone have any recommendations for and octave up, octave down, or a pedal that can do both (not simultaneously)?

[zyxwyvu]

It's really difficult to do clean octaves without going digital, putting it outside the reach of most of us DIYers. Some commercial pedals to check out are the digitech whammy, and the electro-harmonix HOG. Both are digital and will give you clean octaves (though not perfect), along with a lot of other stuff. You can also look into the Green Ringer, which is DIY-able, and I hear is close to a clean octave-up (or at least it's not an octave-fuzz). The Boss OC-2/3 do 1 or 2 octaves down pretty cleanly - it will give you octaves and a few fifths in between.

You can always build a simple mixer to blend the wet/dry signals with any pedals.

[tcobretti]

For a clean octave up, as z. said, the green ringer is probly the way to go.  Note that it will not sound perfectly clean; there are always some weird artifacts from analog stompbox pitch-shifting.

For an octave down, the only pedal I have seen is the Shocktave, which I have not built.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/analogalchemy/sch/shocktave.html

[petemoore]

  Tall order really...not a quickie or even a build-goal I would undergo, clean takes the 'easy' out of octave.
  GR / Bobtavia is great choice also, Bob is wire up'n fire up, can be put together pretty easily, will give you an idea...well there's soundclips of both, at Runoff Groove/Homewrecker.
  Gained up, Fuzzy, clipped signal inputs produce the more pronounced octave tones available with these octaves, theyr'e either 'weak without fuzz' like GR, or have heavy fuzz 'pre-octave-circuit' like FTM and Tycho. Also LP pre-filtering may provide a bit more 'clean' or better tracking octave.
 

[Indoor Fireworks]

Wow, I didn't know it'd be so tough. Maybe I'll reconsider this and just buy a digital pedal. Thanks for the input, everyone!

[sfr]

I'd try a few digital pedals out, or play with pitch shifting on a computer, or even playing a tape twice as fast - the thing I've found is that even if when I can get an almost perfect clean pitch shift up, the first thing I do is add distortion; it's just not that pleasing a sound on it's own.   That said, I have a HOG and I love it; but mostly for the crazy multitude of options in it.
The best octave up is still a 12 string guitar.

[MartyMart]

+1 on the Bobtavia, never liked the "Blue box" - jeez what an awful noise !!
I recently sold a Pearl OC-07, which would do 1&2 octaves down and an octave up !!
It was a monster and clean, tracked quite well too, they are commanding a LOT of money
so I sold it :-(  ... well I used it once in 6 months .... so .....
Boss OC-3 is my suggestion for "non DIY"

MM

[brett]

Hi
by using your signal as both the signal and modulator in any ring-modulator you can get octave up.
cheers

[oldrocker]

Neoctavia.  home-wrecker.com
An easy build and the audio transformer you can get at Radio Shack.

[Mark Hammer]

In terms of the most dependably tracking octave down, I recommend the PAiA Rocktave.  In terms of the most robust sounding octave up, I recommend the Foxx Tone Machine.

Note that while the majority of octave-up units will allow you to play 2 or more notes and have it sound like those notes (more or less), octave down is quinetessentially monophonic, one note at a time.

[Indoor Fireworks]

Where can I find information on the PAiA Rocktave such as wiring diagrams or circuit board layouts? I tried looking on the PAiA website but I couldnt find anything on the Rocktave.

[Mark Hammer]

Well, PAiA won't post anything because although it was a magazine article first, it is still a product in their stable.  There should be something on the GGG (generalguitargadgets site), but there is also a scan of the original article on my site: http://hammer.ampage.org/files/rocktave.pdf 

A significantly simpler octave-down unit is Joe Davisson's Shocktave.  This uses no chips, just transistors, and many people have found it to be a rather pleasing effect.  My sense is that it provides a somewhat rawer-sounding output, though.  That may or may not be what you want.  I do believe there are samples posted around, which maybe somebody here can point you to to help you make up your mind.

Joe comes up with smart and elegant designs, but I cannot speak highly enough of the quality of product and level of service and documentation available from PAiA.  Given how cheap the kit is, you may find it a more satisfying experience with greater likelihood of rapid success (e.g., you will know the board is certified and the parts are all the right values) if you buy the kit.  Note that the Rocktave uses a CD4013 flip-flop, which is a CMOS chip, hence somewhat open to static-related damage, at least moreso than regular bipolar transistors.