I have a guitar skill level of Intermediate, but a superb inate sense of pitch and musicality. Having said that, I have several issues with this pedal. At times the octave effect is unstable, "warbling" in and out which makes recording solo tracks quite tedious. I have had this experience with several different guitars and amps-- it isn't my other gear, it's the pedal. On the plus side it is DIRT cheap (I emphasize the word DIRT) and I've found that when I put it in a vocal loop versus a guitar one, the low-to-high shifting stops. If you like uncertainty in your effects and are looking to toss out a few bucks and see what you get, give it a shot; if you want a stable octave effect, look elsewhere.

I'm an indie artist who also does covers during gigs. I love the way you can use this unit for great intros to songs like "Already Gone" or "Browneyed girl", etc. This device lets you play single notes and be accompanied by a lively bass line at the same time. I'm not the best musician so this helps me a lot. I'm going to experiment with it with vocals also.

GREAT FOR MANDOLIN! I have owned this pedal for over a year. This pedal really shines when used with mandolin or violin. I play these instruments as well as guitar and bass and it is far superior when soloing with these intruments. It gives my electric violin more of a cello sound and with both octaves turned up, it can sound like a small string section. My mandolin can easily cut through the mix during live solos, so it is definitely worth the money! As a lark, my brother played his alto sax through it and instanly became a tenor with some very cool overtones. Thus, it may not be the best for guitar, but it definitely is useful for other band applications. Makes my tenor guitar sound amazing. It is fun to color your sound in a different way and definitely gets the audience's attention. A definite must for electric violin and mandolin. At this price, buy two.

I think this is a cool pedal. Yeah Arion pedals are cheap but some of them are INCREDIBLY GOOD sounding!!!!!! This one is what it is, a little below average tracking, (2 octaves down is seldom functional, depending on the signal you are feeding it) but a nice, cheap, and suprisingly rugged octave down pedal. What it really cool is if you do a little circuit bending you can add a switch for an insane octavia fuzz sound. Then it is a really FUN & USEFUL pedal.

I picked this up on sale, so I wasn't too concerned about the sound quality. I was actually pleasantly surprised.

Compared to an EBS Octabass (the only other octave pedal I used), the sound quality of the Arion was considerably less focused and natural sounding. However, blended with the original signal from my guitar, it sounded alright. The additional low octave creates a nice synth-esque sound with some distortion.

Tracking was average for a pedal like this. A clear, consitent attack using the neck pickup of my Strat yielded the best results. The lowest octave got quite wobbly below the lowest A on my guitar, but I'd noticed that on the Octabass as well (it seems to be a general problem with these sorts of pedals). On bass, the tracking was absolutely atrocious: I couldn't get a consistent sound below an open D.

I had an Arion distortion pedal several years ago, and the thing fell apart with consistent use. To its credit it still works, though several knobs have fallen off and one of the alternate distortion modes no longer functions. The build on this pedal seems the same, so I don't expect much better out of it.

Overall, this isn't a terrible pedal if you know what your getting into. Build quality is pretty poor, so if you use it, use it in the studio or at home. Tracking is decent on guitar, provided you use the right touch; chords are completely out. For a guitar pedal, it sounds pretty decent; I can get some monster synth tones with a little distortion. As a bass pedal, it's pretty much a total disaster because of the tracking.