Best octave pedals: fast track your way to fat guitar tone with these powerful pedalboard additions

TC Electronic Sub 'N' Up octave pedal on a flight case
(Image credit: Future)

It’s the secret sauce of so many great guitar players, a staple of ‘boards worldwide, and a must-have in your armory. Whether you want to add some low-end girth to that heavy riff, or a sparkly high-end to your solos, the best octave pedals are guaranteed to spice up your guitar playing.

The sound of an octave pedal has been all over modern guitar for some time now, with everyone from classic heroes like Hendrix and Page, right through to sonic pioneers like Johnny Greenwood and Matt Bellamy utilizing them. It’s core to the sound of Royal Blood, The White Stripes, and Rage Against The Machine to name just a few, capable of delivering super heavy guitar sounds, as well as some out-of-this-world tones.

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Matt McCracken
Junior Deals Writer

Matt is a Junior Deals Writer here at Guitar World. He regularly tests and reviews music gear with a focus on guitars, amps, pedals, modelers, and pretty much anything else guitar-related. Matt worked in music retail for 5 years at Dawsons Music and Northwest Guitars and has written for various music sites including MusicRadar, Guitar Player, Guitar.com, Ultimate Guitar, and Thomann’s t.blog. A regularly gigging guitarist with over 20 years of experience playing live and writing and recording in bands, he's performed everything from jazz to djent, gigging all over the country in more dingy venues than you can shake a drop-tuned guitar at.