TC Electronic Sub n' Up Octaver

I am going to take a look at this brand new polyphonic octave pedal from the FX geniuses at TC Electronic. This pedal is a modern octave pedal which features individual blend controls for dry, octave up, octave down and the super low growly two octaves. This pedal can transform your single note riffs into crushing, funky resonant groove monsters. It can take your solo lines and give them an almost organ like spread and the pedal will follow your every note (providing you are playing them accurately!) - yes, this pedal's polyphonic tracking is flawless.

This Sub 'n' Up  features a three way toggle switch that selects between the modern poly mode and a classic mode which is monophonic. This creates small glitch imperfections like older generation octave pedals would exhibit, almost like a hiccup style sound and it has a retro charm. Also present is TC's superb TonePrint feature, which allows you to ‘beam-in' unique artist-made or TC-made pre-sets (or even make your own with their editor software) from your phone through the guitar's pickup and into the pedal itself. You do need to download the correct free firmware and app, but once this is done it's easy. The Sub’n’Up tone print mode features some crazy modulation sounds, vibrato and much more.

The pedal is well built, like all TC pedals, offering a rugged road-ready design with high quality components inside that will keep this pedal going on your pedal board for endless gigging. It features a compact design that won't take up all your pedal board, it's powered by an adaptor or a battery, and it's true bypass, so it won’t affect your tone when it’s switched off.

There's a limit to how much you can do to describe the effect of a pedal as wild as this using just words so please watch the video and hear the great sounds this latest pedal from the Danish wizards at work. It says more about itself than I ever could!

What I can tell you is that it is very well made, very well priced and is, I suspect, going to find a home on a lot of pedal boards over the coming years. To sum up, if you are looking for some new sounds and some roller-coaster dynamic shift to your riffs and solos, the Sub ‘n’ Up is a breath of fresh air for guitarists and bass players alike. Go check one out and see if you can shake some venues down.