Electro-Harmonix POG

The Electro-Harmonix POG, short for Polyphonic Octave Generator, is a pedal that adds one octave up, two octaves up, and one octave down from your original guitar signal and blends all of them together¹. What made it remarkable when it arrived was that it did this polyphonically: it tracks full chords, not just single notes, and Electro-Harmonix describes the tracking as glitch-free and fully polyphonic¹. The company positions it as a tool that can make a guitar sound like a 12-string or even an 18-string, generate the sound of a drawbar organ, or make a guitar sound like a bass guitar¹.

The original POG is discontinued, and has been since 2009¹, but it started a whole family of pedals that are still current, from the compact Micro POG and Nano POG to the Pico POG, the POG2 and the POG3.

What the POG does: polyphonic octaves up and down

An octave pedal in the POG's sense is not a fuzz-style octave-up like the vintage Octave Multiplexer; it is a pitch shifter that generates new notes at fixed intervals and mixes them with your untouched dry signal. The POG gives you three generated voices, one octave up, two octaves up and one octave down, each blendable against the original¹. Because the tracking is polyphonic, chords, arpeggios and single notes all work, which is what separates the POG from the monophonic octave pedals that came before it. MusicRadar's reviewers trace pitch-shifting pedals' evolution as "eventually culminating in polyphonic shifting, courtesy of Electro-Harmonix"⁶.

The practical results are the sounds Electro-Harmonix itself points to: a 12-string or 18-string impression, drawbar-organ-like textures, or a bass-guitar register under your normal playing¹. The later family extends the same idea: the Nano POG mixes the dry signal with one octave above and one octave below⁷, and the POG3 adds a fifth-above voice to the octave stack⁸.

The sliders and modes

The original POG put its controls on what MusicRadar's review team called "an octet of fiddly sliders"⁵: eight slide faders for balancing the dry signal and the octave voices. Vintage Guitar's 2005 review also documented a low-pass filter switch with two modes, one of which affects only the octave generator and leaves the dry signal untouched⁴.

Later versions reshaped this control set:

The POG2's Attack slider controls the fade-in speed of the generated voices, a feature Pedal of the Day's reviewer called "awesome"⁹, and its LP Filter slider works with a Q control⁹. The Pico POG's Filter button selects between three filter modes: Tone, Low Pass Filter and High Pass Filter¹¹. On the POG3, each of the ten sliders has an LED that glows a brighter red the further it is engaged².

Power and build: an 18-volt supply in a steel chassis

The original POG was a large pedal. Vintage Guitar measured its brushed steel chassis at 77/8" x 63/4" x 11/2" in 2005⁴, and it shipped with an 18-volt DC power supply⁴ at a list price of $690⁴. MusicRadar later described it as "a giant metal cuboid"¹².

The smaller versions moved away from both the size and the voltage. The Micro POG, released in 2007, came in a die-cast chassis with a 9.6VDC-200mA power adapter included¹³, and the Nano POG (2015) and Pico POG follow the same 9.6VDC-200mA pattern, with the Nano also able to run on a 9V battery⁷¹⁴. The POG3 runs on 9V at 500mA²⁸. One difference worth noting for pedalboard planning: the original POG is true bypass via a mechanical relay¹, while the Micro, Nano, Pico and Soul POG all use buffered bypass¹³⁷¹⁴.

History and versions: from POG to POG2, POG3 and the Micro, Nano and Pico

MusicRadar dates the POG line's launch to 2005², while a Guitar.com review published in November 2024 describes the original POG as launched "a full 20 years" earlier, which would be around 2004³. What is not in dispute is the family tree:

• Original POG (2005 by MusicRadar's dating¹²⁵⁴): the eight-slider steel-chassis original, discontinued 2009¹²⁵⁴.
• Micro POG (2007¹³): the same tracking and polyphony in a simplified three-knob design¹³.
• POG2 (2009¹⁵): added programmability¹⁵ plus Attack, LP Filter and Detune controls⁹.
• Nano POG (2015⁷): the streamlined design in a smaller box, with an optional 9V battery⁷.
• Pico POG (2023¹¹): the smallest POG yet, with a Tone knob and Filter button the Micro and Nano lack¹⁴¹⁶.
• POG3 (2024³): six voices including a fifth above, ten illuminated sliders, and features that take it toward multi-effects territory²¹⁷.

MusicRadar's POG3 review sums up the line's path: "we've seen many iterations arrive since then, from the scaled-down Nano POG to the more involved POG 2, right through to" the POG3²⁸. Guitar Pedal X's review of the POG III describes it as a pedal that "expands polyphonic octave generation into Multi-FX territory"¹⁷. There is also the Soul POG, a 2016 multi-effect that combines overdrive with Nano POG-style octave generation¹⁸¹⁹.

What reviewers said

Guitar World's Classic Gear retrospective on the POG is direct about its significance²⁰:

Reviewers have also weighed in on the original POG itself: with it, polyphonic pitch-shifting finally arrived for the average player, and its great tones and superior tracking have cemented its place in pedal history²⁰.

Reviews of the descendants have been positive too. Premier Guitar's Nano POG review found it "hits the sweet spot on range vs ease of use, fidelity vs funkiness, and price vs performance," calling it "compelling enough to excite experienced sound-sculptors, yet simple enough for beginners"²¹. MusicRadar's Nano POG verdict was "Compact. Excellent performer." with no reasons to avoid it¹². For the Pico POG, MusicRadar's reviewer noted it offers more features than the Micro and Nano versions thanks to its Filter button and Tone knob¹⁴, and Guitar World observed that there is not a lot of price difference between the Pico, Micro and Nano versions¹⁶. The POG3 earned a four-out-of-five usability rating from MusicRadar, easy enough to get started but with plenty of depth², while Guitar.com's review found it a powerful but niche and expensive evolution of the POG2².

Who uses it

Electro-Harmonix itself, in the POG3 announcement, named Joe Satriani and Jack White as players the original POG became a favorite of²². On Trey's Guitar Rig, an independent page documents Trey Anastasio's use of the POG2⁹.

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