At one time or another, every bassist faces that moment when the guitarist or keyboard player takes a solo and, without their rhythm parts in the mix, the song suddenly feels a little thinner. Our gut instinct might be to turn the bass amp up to fill the space, but that’s not always the best move (and it can earn you a parade of angry looks from the sound person). You could switch to playing double stops or chords, but I want to offer another option that fills out the band’s sound without requiring you to reinvent your bass part: an octaver.
An octaver is one of those sneaky little effects that can beef up your low end without calling much attention to itself. When you kick it on, it adds a second note below (or sometimes above) the one you’re playing, doubling your line at a different pitch and making your bass feel bigger, wider, and more present in the mix. The real trick when using an octaver to support a soloist is subtlety. Over my many years of playing, I’ve ended up in several power trios. Power trios are possibly my favorite type of band to play with, and I’ve spent decades learning how to make the bass sound fuller without anyone realizing I’d stepped on a pedal. Look for octave pedals that have either a blend knob or independent level controls for your clean and octave signals. Then bring up the octave level slowly, just until your tone fills out without drifting into overly synthy territory.
If your octaver only provides an octave-down effect, try shifting your bass line up an octave on the neck and let the pedal supply the lower note you were originally playing. If you stay in the same position, the octave-down signal might sit too low to help fill the mix effectively. Some pedals, like the Aguilar Octamizer DLX, offer both an octave down and an octave up, which can really broaden your sound. This is especially handy if your part relies on open strings that don’t sit well when played higher on the neck. In those cases, I like to add just the upper octave so it feels like a guitar player is doubling my line.
When my bass line does allow me to play up an octave, I absolutely love blending in both an octave down and an octave up. I usually dial in just a little of the lower octave and a bit more of the higher octave. That combination fills the space the soloist leaves behind without making my bass overpower the mix.
One word of warning: there’s a good chance you’ll love the sound of your bass with the octaver on and feel tempted to leave it on all night. But if you do, you won’t have anything left to add when someone takes a solo. Save it for when it counts.
Truth be told, octavers have always been my favorite effect for bass, and I’m always interested in hearing how other players use theirs. Please feel free to share any tips or tricks you’ve found helpful when using an octave pedal in the comments below.
Story by Dale Titus
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Dale has been a professional bassist for 40 years and during that time was an instructor/counselor at the Bass Institute of Technology, a freelance writer for Bass Player magazine as well as the Editor of Bass Frontiers magazine. He also released The Ultimate Beginner Series for Bass videos and book for Alfred Publishing, as well as the Everything Bass YouTube channel.