based upper octave. These
octave-up pedals made a
prospective guitarist dink
around with his or her
guitar controls—pesky at
best. Never was there a
clean analog octave-up, and
these transformer-based
types were never mixed
with the octave-down
technology.
Pearl’s OC-07 Octaver
does just that: it gives
players four mix controls
for +1, -1, -2 and
“Normal” which is a dry
mix control. The “+1”
sounds like a soothing
organ tone, where the
two lower octaves sound
like a punchy bass or
organ foot pedal. It
actually tracks pretty
well, too! Though the
general public at large
has caught onto this
pedal by now, they can
still be found in local
shops that have by and
large dismissed these
Far-East pedals as junk.
Vestax MDX Digital
Delay with Modulation
Though most folks know
Vestax from its four-track
and turntable offerings,
Vestax actually started out
as a guitar manufacturer,
so its leap from guitars
to pedals isn’t super
uncommon. Well, actually,
Vestax started as Shiino
Musical Instrument
Corporation, changed its
name to Vesta Fire, then
settled on Vestax. As such,
many pedals were branded
as Vesta Fire, and the
company’s “New Series”
bled over into Vestax, but
the pedals were the exact
same. Got all that?
Most of the Vesta Fire
and Vestax pedals
were actually very well
designed, and sound just
as great. I’ve played a
good number of them,
but my favorite by far is
the MDX Digital Delay
with Modulation. The
modulation circuit isn’t
what makes the unit—it’s
actually the time range.
Most digital delay units
of the day feature a delay
range that bottoms out
at slapback speeds—the
venerable Boss DD3 goes
as low as 50 milliseconds.
“Vestax pedals
were actually
very well
designed and
sound just as
great.”
allows you to craft the
most horrific and unique
soundscapes you’ve
likely ever heard—with
modulation.
The MDX goes as low as
one. One millisecond. As
you might imagine, this
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