Now NPD! - Cheap but usable Down Tune pedal recommendations please?

Gorgon90

Gorgon90

Harmonic Dive Bomber
I have also seen these called Polyphonic Pitch Shifting Pedals in google searches as well.

I have a need to have play a few songs in my band's set down in Eb after the band decided this when I was away for a weekend. For the last couple of weeks this has meant carrying extra guitars around which is a PITA quite frankly but last weekend, we had the singer's friend come along to sit in as he will dep for me when I'm away on holiday and he brought a Digitech Drop pedal with him to shift his guitar down to Eb while remaining tuned to E.

I'd never twigged these were a thing and think this would make my life a lot easier, but new ones are £130 and working second hand ones are still at least a £100 generally as far as I can see.

Looking around for a cheaper option as this is going to be a one trick pony, I've seen the Mooer Pitch Box and the Hotone Skyline Harmony pedals which seem to have a mixture of reviews. Anyone got experience with these two, or seen something like this from any of the other cheaper brands out there like Rowin, Joyo, Donner, Nux etc?

Availability on Amazon Prime would be a good thing as I just received some Amazon vouchers for my birthday (not enough for a Digitech Drop unfortunately).
 
After doing some research on reviews and watching YouTube videos, I plumped for the Mooer PitchBox. I have only tried it to downtune a semi-tone at the moment as that's my primary reason for getting it and for that it works reasonably well. It changes pitch reliably but there is a definite tonality change. Given I'm then putting a load of dirt on it, I can live with that for the couple of songs I need it for as it saved taking two extra guitars to my band's gig last night.
IMG-20240606-WA0000.jpeg
 
Modern Saint said:
HNPD!!! Have you tried it an octave down? Does the pedal only go down in pitch?
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Only tried it down a semi tone so far as that's what I needed after someone in the band decided we should do Thin Lizzy in the original Eb but keep everything else in standard E. :facepalm:

It goes up and down however according to the blurb, up to two octaves below or above. If you look at the dial you can see that it does -12 semitones (i.e. an octave down).
 
Gorgon90 said:
Only tried it down a semi tone so far as that's what I needed after someone in the band decided we should do Thin Lizzy in the original Eb but keep everything else in standard E. :facepalm:

It goes up and down however according to the blurb, up to two octaves below or above. If you look at the dial you can see that it does -12 semitones (i.e. an octave down).
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I saw the -12 for down but wasn't sure about up. Curious to know the quality of up 12 (+12 - aka 12-string simulation).
 
Knox in Box said:
Seeing that they have a setting for "12" as well as "-12" I assume it does either.
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It does according to the blurb. To get the 12 string effect, I think you'd need to use the Harmony setting on the switch to blend the original source with the shifted sound. So far I've just been looking at the shift. I do need to try it out more this week as something was off on Saturday at my gig and we didn't have time to investigate what it was. If I get a chance I'll try out the octave up in harmony mode as well and report back.
 
Tried out the Pitch Box pedal a little more last night.

It doesn't do a good 12 string impression using the harmony setting on the switch and +12 on the dial. There's no blend control between the original sound and the generated harmony which probably doesn't help and I think it just struggles going that far up both on harmony and pitch shift modes. Setting it on the +5 setting did make some quite usable noises however, not played any further with the other options.

It did do a good octave down job in harmony mode though and I can see that being useful in certain settings. Again, not spent any real time on the other settings on the -ve side other than investigating what makes weird noises for my use case of tune down a semi-tone

Trying out the pitch shift down a semi-tone with my Boss Microcube practice amp and my Cube Baby modeller pedal I did discover a few things.

The pitch shifting itself is accurate confirmed by using a tuner pedal after the Pitch Box in the chain. but things didn't sound right at times. I did come across a comment when researching this that it didn't play nice with other digital units. I suspect this may be true based on the age/implementation of the other digital devices.

At my gig on Saturday, I was using the hastily assembled rack rig of early 90s gear I wrote about here. The Yamaha FX550 in that was made in 1992 and I was getting weird inaccurate sounds out of that when using the pedal in front.

Running into the front of my Boss Microcube last night which is 15 years old at least, I also got some odd tones.

Plugged into the Aux Input of the Microcube and bypassing the amp modelling and effects in it, and I had no weird problems and it drop tuned well.

I then plugged my Cub Baby modeller in between the Pitch Box and the Aux Input of the Microcube and also had no noticeable issues using the patches saved in that which include reverb and chorus.

This lunch time I just tried the Pitch Box again into the front of the Microcube but made sure all effects were off (I leave a bit of reverb on by default), and this time had no noticeable issues.

In summary, I think the Pitch Box can be used to drop tune a semi tone successfully but as the pitchshifting is a time based effect, if you have other time based effects in the chain afterwards, whatever it is doing to the signal can cause issues and conflicts depending on how they manipulate the sound on a technology level. My plan now is to set up a patch or two on the Yamaha FX550 with no time based effects and see what results I get.
 
I have a Virtual Jeff, digital whammy setup that does great with pitch shifting all the way up to one octave above or two octaves below. I bought it during a Black Friday sale. Still, it was not cheap. I mainly use it for whammy bar type effects.

Some of my guitars are tuned to standard and others a half step down. So, I sometimes use the Virtual Jeff for a semitone up or down when I’m trying to learn a song from a track. It also does a cool chorus effect by blending the guitar pitch with pitch shifted sound.

The down side is that the size of the foot pedal part is big. For the whammy bar stuff it tracks great and fast. But, extreme pitch shifts can introduce noticeable latency. Certainly, not worth the investment for one song.

I have my VJ whammy mounted on a Gibson Studio LP which is equipped with an Evertune bridge. So, I can bend and whammy all night without having to tune the guitar.
 
Gorgon90 said:
Tried out the Pitch Box pedal a little more last night.

It doesn't do a good 12 string impression using the harmony setting on the switch and +12 on the dial. There's no blend control between the original sound and the generated harmony which probably doesn't help and I think it just struggles going that far up both on harmony and pitch shift modes. Setting it on the +5 setting did make some quite usable noises however, not played any further with the other options.

It did do a good octave down job in harmony mode though and I can see that being useful in certain settings. Again, not spent any real time on the other settings on the -ve side other than investigating what makes weird noises for my use case of tune down a semi-tone
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Thanks for trying those settings out!!!

jrockbridge said:
I have a Virtual Jeff, digital whammy setup that does great with pitch shifting all the way up to one octave above or two octaves below. I bought it during a Black Friday sale. Still, it was not cheap. I mainly use it for whammy bar type effects.

Some of my guitars are tuned to standard and others a half step down. So, I sometimes use the Virtual Jeff for a semitone up or down when I’m trying to learn a song from a track. It also does a cool chorus effect by blending the guitar pitch with pitch shifted sound.

The down side is that the size of the foot pedal part is big. For the whammy bar stuff it tracks great and fast. But, extreme pitch shifts can introduce noticeable latency. Certainly, not worth the investment for one song.

I have my VJ whammy mounted on a Gibson Studio LP which is equipped with an Evertune bridge. So, I can bend and whammy all night without having to tune the guitar.
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I use a Whammy V but it takes up so much real estate. I mostly use it for octave up (12 String simulation) and octave down for some solos.

I have been considering a Pog or Micro Pog but need to sell the Whammy first.
 
@Modern Saint - you're welcome.

@jrockbridge - not heard of the Virtual Jeff before but just looked and saw it's £515 on Thomann at the moment, well out of my price range! £130 for the Digitech Drop was too rich for me, hence going for the Mooer Pitch Box at £60.

I have also realised that I didn't get to try out the Digitech Drop myself and on recall I'm not convinced it was doing that much better of a job than the Mooer as I didn't feel convinced at all times by the sounds he was getting. More experimentation with the Mooer needed I think.
 
Modern Saint said:
I use a Whammy V but it takes up so much real estate. I mostly use it for octave up (12 String simulation) and octave down for some solos.

I have been considering a Pog or Micro Pog but need to sell the Whammy first.
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I have a Behringer US600 Ultra Shifter Harmonist that I bought cheap. It does some Digitech Whammy-type sounds in a Boss size box. I think it must be a clone of a Boss pedal. I’m not sure if it would do what you want. They seem to be listed used for a wide range from $60 to $200.

 
jrockbridge said:
I have a Behringer US600 Ultra Shifter Harmonist that I bought cheap. It does some Digitech Whammy-type sounds in a Boss size box. I think it must be a clone of a Boss pedal. I’m not sure if it would do what you want. They seem to be listed used for a wide range from $60 to $200.

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Close but not quite....

Here is more what I am after.



Smaller sized - RIP Sam Ash



Probably going for this!!!

 
The US600 can get pretty close....



But, if the Pog is what you want, plenty of new and used ones out there. Or, the Tender Octaver is the Mooer clone of Pog. EHX famously won a lawsuit against Mooer for riping them off with the Tender Octaver....

 
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jrockbridge said:
The US600 can get pretty close....



But, if the Pog is what you want, plenty of new and used ones out there. Or, the Tender Octaver is the Mooer clone of Pog. EHX famously won a lawsuit against Mooer for riping them off with the Tender Octaver....

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Behringer housing wouldn't take my lead foot. The Mooer would be interesting because of the compact size. Sadly on the V2 is out unless you buy used. Use price is just a hair lower than a Pico Pog which has a more control. I have a Mooer Ensemble King which is a clone of the Boss CE2 that I love but in regards to the Octave, the Pico Pog is still winning. Not making a quick leap at this time but always great to explore options.
 
Modern Saint said:
Behringer housing wouldn't take my lead foot. The Mooer would be interesting because of the compact size. Sadly on the V2 is out unless you buy used. Use price is just a hair lower than a Pico Pog which has a more control. I have a Mooer Ensemble King which is a clone of the Boss CE2 that I love but in regards to the Octave, the Pico Pog is still winning. Not making a quick leap at this time but always great to explore options.
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I noticed that about the price. I'd rather pay a bit more to get the Pico Pog if I was in the market for a Pog.
 
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