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Behringer UO300 Ultra Octaver review – It’s just fun! Simple as that!
Introduction
I have another super affordable Behringer review for you! In this article, I will be looking at the Behringer UO300! A sub-£30 octave effect that has both good reviews and also bad reviews, but which ones are the correct reviews? I thought I would grab one and give it a go and see what I thought about it! Is this the perfect way to get into the octave sound? Or is it just a toy? Let us have a look!
As always, I will go through the pedal, then show you some sounds and tones, and then finally go through my thoughts on it! Talking about everything I love and everything I don’t love so much! So let us start with what this pedal is and what it is trying to be.
Behringer UO300 Octave Pedal
The Behringer UO300 is based on the Boss OC-2. A super popular and amazing-sounding octave pedal. Behringer has taken that and made it super affordable. As with every Behringer pedal in this line-up, it is housed in a simple plastic housing and comes in a very “Boss” form factor.
I think it is time that we take a look at the controls this pedal has. It doesn’t really have many, and the ones it does have are fairly simple!
- Range: This allows you to control what frequencies are affected by the pedal. The highs, mids, or lows.
- Direct: Allows you to blend the direct signal with the octave effect.
- Oct 1: Controls the volume of the first octave sound. This is one octave below the original signal.
- Oct 2: Controls the volume of the second octave sound. This is two octaves below the original signal.
More on the Behringer UO300 Octave
The Behringer UO300 has all its inputs and outputs on the side. With the power and the input on the right-hand side and the output being on the left-hand side. The power input is a 9v standard input; however, the pedal also runs on a 9v battery if you would like.
You can purchase the Behringer UO300 from most guitar and music retailers for around £30. However, you will be able to find them for cheaper by looking around online. I have put some affiliate links at the bottom of the page if you want to purchase one.
The Sounds
For the demo songs, I thought I would do a clean(ish) sound for the first demo song, then a more crunch sound for the second demo song so you can hear how it performs with each sound. Tones wise I just ran the UO300 into the front of my RD amp for the clean, and for the crush, I put an overdrive pedal in front (Review is incoming).
The sound samples, you are hearing the UO300 into the front of the Neural Nano Cortex. There is only a small amount of delay and reverb being added inside the Nano Cortex. What do you think of the sounds? Let me know your thoughts!
What are my thoughts?
The Design
Being a budget pedal, I wouldn’t expect much in the way of packaging either! A basic box with some over-enthusiastic printing, no stickers, no manual! The pedal isn’t even wrapped up inside! This is to be expected! Being a budget pedal, the packaging is normally the first thing to lose its budget!
I have to be honest, for a pedal that is made out of plastic and had to have almost all corners cut. It has a fair bit of weight to it! Again, I have said this several times that weight isn’t a good indicator of quality, but I was surprised at how much weight it did have for a plastic pedal. However, when I compared it to the Behringer EQ700 pedal (Review Here), the EQ pedal was heavier.
"If I had to sum up the sound of this pedal, I would describe it as okay”
The Sounds
The Behringer UO300 sounds fine! It is that simple! It is not anything spectacular! If you are listening to EHX POG and think you will get that sound for a lot less money, then you won’t! You are going to be disappointed!
I did notice a volume decrease when engaging the Behringer UO300 ultra octave pedal. I believe this is due to the mix control but still worth noting as it can be a sudden drop in volume depending on how you have the pedal set up.
Running the pedal after an overdrive pedal, I did find that it got a bit muddy and stuttery! It wasn’t the best sound (check out the second demo song in the YouTube video above). Clean and using a small amount of gain, it sounded fine but once you hit the front of it with a lot of gain, it falls to bits!
If I had to sum up the sound of this pedal, I would describe it as “okay”. It is not perfect and you can definitely hear that it isn’t a good quality pedal. It didn’t surprise me like the EQ700 did.
The Drawbacks
Of course, like any of these Behringer pedals, it is in a cheap plastic housing! Although this does keep the price down, it does make the pedal feel cheap and “toy-like”. Also, being plastic, you might struggle with its strength and integrity. You might find that if you are heavy-footed, it could end up breaking if you stamp on it too hard. I don’t think it is the highest grade plastic either!
Now, don’t get me wrong, the Behringer UO300 is fun to play with, but it is also a struggle to play with. It sometimes has some good sounds but also sounds almost broken! You had to mess around with the pedal and the controls a lot to find a sound that was usable! The second demo song in the YouTube video isn’t that great a sound; I used it to show what it can sound like! It just sounds bulky and fluffy! Like there is too much going on. A lot of octave pedals I have played, you can hear a separation between the different layers; with the Behringer UO300, they all just got smushed into one sound.
More Drawbacks
Want to change the battery? Best of luck! It can be done, but it isn’t easy or quick! You don’t just lift the footplate up like on a Boss pedal; you have to dismantle the bottom half of the pedal! Not a great design, but it does keep the cost down! My advice would be to run the pedal off a power supply and forget it can run on batteries!
"The sounds, tones, and build quality from the Behringer UO300 won’t floor you or leave you surprised at how good it is"
Final Thoughts
As the title says, it is fun! Like proper fun! I don’t really use an octave pedal; I never felt the need for one! But seriously, grab one of these! Super affordable and incredibly fun! The Behringer Ultra Octaver really adds some meat to your riffs and playing! If you were in a three-piece band, you could use this pedal to just thicken the sound a bit and give your overall tone a bit more girth!
The sounds, tones, and build quality from the Behringer UO300 won’t floor you or leave you surprised at how good it is, but what it will do is give you a taste of the octave effect at a very low entry point.
Conclusion
So that is my review of the Behringer UO300 octave pedal! A super affordable and budget-friendly octave pedal. I guess the biggest question is should you get one? If you want to try an octave pedal and it is your first one, then yes. However, if you have played other octave pedals and you think this will sound the same, then no! If you are serious about octave sounds, then this isn’t the pedal! I am interested in all your thoughts though! Let me know what you all thought about the UO300!
As mentioned at the start of the review, I did purchase this pedal, as well as a few others to check out. I have already reviewed the Behringer EQ700 pedal (Review Here). I don’t feel the Behringer UO300 was as good or surprised me as much as the EQ700 did. Let us see what the next one brings!
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Behringer UO300 Octave Links:
- Behringer UO300 (Thomann Affiliate)
- Behringer UO300 (Andertons Affiliate)
- Andertons Affiliate Link
- Thomann Affiliate Link
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