Lowering The Tone

I’ll quite possibly get thrown out of the Acoustic Guitar Magic Circle for telling everyone this, but sometimes you see something on another player’s pedalboard that doesn’t really make sense… until you see the way in which they use it. Let’s set the scene: you’re a solo acoustic player, up there all alone endeavouring to put across the fullest possible sound without a band to help out. In my case, the thing I thought was lacking was bass. Sure, I could tune my Fylde Falstaff down for a little more bottom-end – and I’ve tuned the bass string down to a B before now – but there’s only so far you can go on any acoustic before both tuning and intonation become a little wayward, to say the least.

A chance conversation with a colleague revealed the information that the Boss OC-3 Super Octave pedal might be an answer for me. On this pedal you have the facility to dial in where the octave effect sits in the musical range. This means that, with a little experience, you can turn just the low E string into a bass and leave the rest of the guitar’s range unaffected. Used as occasional subtle low-end reinforcement, it’s almost unnoticeable musically, but it strengthens up the bass response of your acoustic a treat!