The good folks at Denmark pedal manufacturer T-Rex Effects have released a new Octaver called the Quint Machine. Presumably taking the name from the fact that in addition to having optionality for “octave up” and “octave down,” the Quint Machine also has a “fifth up” option, which adds more harmonic complexity relative to straightforward octave layering.
Interestingly, each of the three options has a volume control of its own, so the pedal gives flexibility and functionality for each of the settings, independently, as well as for mix settings.
Harmonic-enhancing pedals like the Quint Machine are finding their way into more and more new music as they can do quite a lot for the guitar tone, like providing serious beef to a power chord, adding fatness to mid range riffs, creating a spacey synth feel to a jam, or even serving as an organ replication.
The Quint seems to handle all of these roles quite well, and it does so without asking much from the user. The various knobs give some control, but basically all you need to know how to do is turn it on and off to get some cool new tones. – Ryan Dembinsky
