electro harmonix polyphonic octave generator (pog)

by 44ofjuly

And so the Electro-Harmonix Polyphonic Octave Generator (POG) pedal finally arrived. I wasn't thinking too much whether this thing is the octave pedal to end all pedals. I was never really into octave pedals, whether they come clean or with fuzz.

And so what's the thing that make me wanna get one? It's just the organ sounding tone that I heard from the video clip a while back. That is enough for me and I gotta have it.

On the pedal itself, the sliders are as follow, from left to right:

1)Input
2)Dry output
3)Sub octave - 1 octave down
4)+1 octave
5)+1 octave detuned
6)+2 octave
7)+2 octave detuned
8)low pass filter
9)3 way switch for the 3 LPF mode,
a)Dry signal bypass LPF, Q of LPF set as 1
b)Dry signal goes thru LPF, Q of LPF set as 1
c)Dry signal goes thru LPF, Q of LPF set as 2

With the sliders, the dry tone, -1 octave down, +1, +2 octave/octave detuned can all be mixed and match accordingly and further shaped by using the LPF slider for a bassier tone or sharper tone.

First of all, there are some reviews of the POG over at the Harmony Central guitar effects forum and one of the most common complaints about it is the hissing noise. Once the POG is engaged, even with all the sliders at the minimum position and my amp volume at 3 (loud enough to be heard anywhere in my house even if I am playing in my room with the door and windows shut), it does have a hissing sound that is pretty obvious. But it is still within my tolerance range. Once I disengaged the effect, the hiss was gone. Personally, I wasn't too bothered with the hiss. If I struck a note, it'd be gone anyway.

In the manual itself, there're instructions to tweak your settings on the POG to make a 6 string guitar sounding like a 12, 18 strings guitar and a phat bass.

For 12 strings guitar: So-so only; not too impressed
For 18 strings guitar: Never heard a real one before but the sound of POG set to 18 strings guitar sounds too fake and digital to me
For phat bass: forget it, if I want a bass sound, I'd play a bass, not a guitar into a octave down pedal.

So what's left of the POG??

For the POG, the tracking of notes is not a problem. You can shred on the guitar and all the octave notes will come out nicely through the amp. Best of all, playing chords through the POG is possible and with the organ setting, the sound is really really beautiful!!!!

For my preference, the POG does have a wonderful B3 Hammond organ tone. It is what I have been after all this while - trying to find a pedal that can replicate that sweet sound. Before the arrival of the POG, only a Roland guitar synth is able to produce the organ sound. However, it requires a GK-2A pick-up and such which is pretty troublesome.

Besides the organ sound, I was able to get bell chimes sounds by playing open harmonics across the strings. That really sounds suitable for some new age kind of music. Again, the bell-like chime is similar to another patch that I can get from the guitar synth.

With the organ setting, some might say there's no control over the speed/ rate of the sound, thus lacking the ramp up or down sound of the real organ

My favourite combo with the POG is to connect the LAL input sensitive trem after it (just like the setting in the picture above). With different picking/ strumming strength, the rate of the POG can be controlled, thus getting an even more authentic organ tone. Connecting a tremolo pedal with an expression jack to control the rate through the POG will be even better.

If anyone is interested in the POG just for normal octave bending needs, it would definitely be good to try it out first before jumping into it.

In conclusion, I like the POG for its organ sounds. Other than that, the usual 1-octave down or 1/3-octave up doesn't really interest me that much.