Electro-Harmonix has released the third generation of its groundbreaking POG pedal, a polyphonic octave generator first released in 2005.
By EHX’s own words, the original POG “revolutionized the world of octave pedals,” and quickly became a favorite of Joe Satriani, Jack White, and Jason Isbell, among others.
It was even listed in Guitar Player's Greatest Guitar Pedals of All Time list, where it was called a “bonkers box.”
The pedal impressed with its ability to track single notes and chords with clarity and a lightning-quick response. The second generation, which came in 2009, added features including programmable presets and an attack filter.
Its successor promises to be the “most powerful polyphonic octave generator ever.”
A +5th voice adds a brand-new tonal flavor, joining an arsenal that already includes -2 OCT, -1 OCT, +5TH, +1 OCT, and +2OCT voices.
An expanded preset capacity, rising from eight to 100 – a 1,150% increase – massively boosts the pedal’s practicality, especially in live environments.
Indeed, user-friendly operation has driven many of its updates, with two preset footswitches for up and down – as opposed to a singular footswitch on its predecessor – serving as an especially neat touch, while a 128x32 graphic OLED display, and illuminated side pots and buttons, help navigation on dark stages.
Catering to the increasing number of guitar and bass players who use their POG to split their signal and stretch it into octaves outside their regular range – Royal Blood have been big trendsetters here – a wider array of outputs have been integrated.
The POG3 now offers three 1/4" outputs (left, right, direct out), alongside pan controls to customize the octave voices of both sides of the split signal.
A new Warp mode allows users to either drop or raise their pitch to any note over a two-octave range, and a Freeze mode means players can play over a chord or single-note pad.
EHX has also lifted features from its HOG pedal, a harmonic octave generator. Those include a Gliss mode – presumably named after glissando – for slick, synth-like transitions between chords.
A slight overhaul of the control panel has also been undertaken, with an additional Input Gain control and a Master Volume chief among them.
A Focus control for +1 and +2 OCT modes, and a Multimode Filter with Q and Envelope sweep, round out other smart additions to the pedal some 15 years after it last received some TLC from its creators.
Notably, the pedal now takes the industry-standard 9V power supply, making it even easier to implement onto pedalboards, replacing the 30V requirements of the POG2.
Jason Isbell, who has this year been bestowed with signature Telecaster pickups and a recreation of his beloved “Red Eye” Les Paul, says it's a pedal that everyone should own.
“You have to have a POG if you're gonna play guitar nowadays, cause you can't play guitar unless you have at least one song that has a POG on it,” he joked in a 2019 interview. “It's called the ‘Jack White law’.”
The POG3 is available now and retails at $645.
Head to EHX to learn more.
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