Boss PS-6 Harmonist

This pedal has some great features such as the S-bend, with which there is lots of fun to be had! The S- Bend function gives you the sort of sounds you would expect from Tom Morello. The controllable parameters are rise and fall time, and then the nature and extent of the pitch shift (basically up or down, and the by how much). The De-tune function gives you several different chorus effects, with you being able to choose the percentage that the detuned signal is altered by (e.g. +5% or -10%) and then blended with your direct signal. When combined with delay, there are some massive sounds to be created, a great way for a single guitarist band to fill out space in a mix. The Harmoniser for me is where this pedal slightly lets itself down. There are a good selection of harmonies, the usual suspects such as octaves, 3rds and 5ths, along with some more interesting harmonies such as 6ths and some 3 part harmonies. The pedal lets you choose your key, you select Major or Minor and the the type of harmony you want, and you're done. This pedal is not an intelligent harmoniser, and so any mid song key changes involve manually changing the key on the pedal. This pedal also contains a pitch shifter, which shifts the pitch of your sound up or down depending on the parameters set, e.g. by a 3rd, octave etc. The pitch shifted sound can be blended with your direct sound using the balance dial. The sound of the pitch shifter function is decent, but there is some slightly noticeable latency. The sound of the harmonies in my opinion could be better, and occasionally sound very simulated, regardless of it being in a direct chain of pedals or in the effects loop. The main switch on the pedal turns the effect the pedal is set to on and off, and like all Boss pedals works well and is built to last. It can be combined with a boss expression pedal (separate purchase) in order to give greater control over the pitch (using the expression pedal). This is a great pedal, however I found its features I did not buy it for (Detune, S bend) better than the actual harmony section of the pedal. It is by no stretch bad, and in my opinion is still one of the better harmony providing pedals, however I would advise watching Youtube demos of this pedal and maybe even try it yourself before purchasing, as its not the cheapest pedal ever.

The Whammy 1 or 2-octave mode is thoroughly used in all albums I did with OUTLOUD and its SO good I dont know why more guitarists are using it!

The chorus mode is so-so, and the actual harmonizer is difficult to make it work properly, given that you know about harmony etc, but the truth is that im using it only for the Whammy so perhaps someone can utilize it better than me.

still, my favorite pedal!

I bought this pedal to use with my bass and I am blown away by it. The sound quality is excellent, the sensitivity of the pedal is perfect and its all in one regular Boss sized pedal. Theres room for so much effects on this pedal and so many different combinations of tone and sound.

I have several different Boss pedals but the pitch shift on this is so cool. It adds a different dimension to what your playing. Even if you're playing major or minor chords it has a selection to change the octave notes to suit what you are playing.

I love and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to experiment with cool sounds. Its very impressive and it still sounds natural to your guitar or bass sound unlike some of the other more digital pedals that you can buy.

First of all let me say that I use boss pedals exclusively. The reason that I use them exclusively is that they are very reliable because most professional musicians know. I never liked harmony pedals in the past because he sounded artificial. Boss claims to have a new chip in this one that makes it sound much more realistic. There's no doubt my mind that them writing this in their website was not mere publicity stunt. This pedal really sounds realistic. Of course you hear your original note if you like and then up to two other notes along with it in harmony. The harmonizer produces notes that sounds so realistic that you can hardly tell the difference in an actual recording of three different guitars and this pedals harmonized notes.