[Harp-L] Octave pedal

[Richard Hunter]

coolblues64 wrote:
 Any recommendations for a decent octave pedal for harp?  I only use a Lone
Wolf Harp Delay in my set up at the moment.  Tried the Lone Wolf octave
pedal but not the sound I was after.  I would like a clean octave down or
octave up option.
***
There are many good choices for octave pedals.  If you want tons of bang
for the buck, the Digitech RP series pedals, all up and down the line,
include both an outstanding fixed-pitch shifter that will do any interval
from 2 octaves down to two octaves up and everything in between, and a
"whammy" effect that allows you to slide the pitch up and down in real time
under expression pedal control.  I use both extensively in just about
everything I record.  Check out "Make The Noise You Came to Make" from my
record "the Lucky One" at the URL below; the horn section on that song is
two harps, shifted an octave down and 2 octaves down respectively, courtesy
of my RP500.  The horn section on "50 Grand" includes an octave-up shift
too.  My work with the Italian band Lowlands includes pieces where I use
the pitch shifter to double the pitch a 4th below the original pitch; I
call it my "Ed Abbiatti Devil sound", and you can hear it as it sounded
live in a performance in Milan at
http://www.hunterharp.com/video-of-the-day-1-april-2015-lowlands-unplugged/
 .

The RP tracks beautifully all the way down and up the range of the
harmonica with both single notes and chords.  Finally, used RPs sell for
pocket change these days, and they come with a huge battery of additional
effects, including lots of excellent delays and reverbs, not to mention
very capable amp modeling.

The least-expensive RP I would recommend is a used RP255.  A better choice
in my opinion is a used RP355, and even better is a new or used RP360XP or
used RP500.  The RP360XP sells for under $200 new.  The RP500 sounds almost
exactly the same, and includes a lot of very useful performance features
(like dedicated footswitches for delay/reverb/etc.).  I strongly recommend
that you get an RP with an expression pedal, because it's amazing what you
can do with one of those (like. for example, fading your pitch shifted
tones in and out of the mix under foot control).

You can find out more at hunterharp.com/store.  Enjoy.  Every electric harp
player should have 1) a good delay pedal and 2) a good pitch shifter, in
that order.  (After that, reverb and autowah.)  You get all of those in an
RP for the same price or less as a dedicated pitch shifter.

Regards, Richard Hunter
-- 
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<https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/richardhunter>

Author, "Jazz Harp" (Oak Publications, NYC)
Latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
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