Meet the BOSS PS-6 Harmonist effects pedal, with four intelligent pitch-shift effects and three-voice harmony in one convenient unit. Among the effect modes are Harmony, Pitch Shifter, and Detune, plus the all-new Super Bend for authentic pedal-bending effects and wild 3- and 4-octave pitch sweeps. With the PS-6 Harmonist, you can even control pitch with an optional expression pedal.
The Harmony function is fast and simple to use, and supports a variety of interval patterns. It's easy to create rich, 3-voice harmonies: choose a major or minor key, and set the Shift to 3-VOICE-that's it! The PS-6 Harmonist is an unbeatable combination of superior sound quality, ease of use, and powerful pitch effects, all under one hood.
Higher Sound Quality
The BOSS PS-6 Harmonist is the new-generation pedal for harmony shifting. Sound quality has been improved dramatically thanks to its powerful DSP. With the PS-6, you can render complex harmony voicings beautifully, naturally, and easily.
3-Voice Harmony, Detune, and Pitch-Shift
The PS-6 Harmonist can generate 2 or 3 voices, such as direct/third/fifth, in each of the following modes: Pitch Shifter, Detune, and Harmony. This will add rich depth to your guitar sound. Detune broadens the sound in a natural way, as the PS-6 allows 3-voice detuning with slightly raised and lowered pitch added to the direct signal. Voices can also be pitch-shifted one octave up and a fifth below your note-great for arpeggio-style playing, for example.
Super Bend
This amazing effect bends pitch across a 7-octave span, from -3 to +4 octaves! Set the Rise and Fall time to your taste. You can control the bending effect in real time with the pedal's knob or from an external pedal such as Roland's EV-5 Expression Pedal (sold separately).
Easy Operation
Manipulate a wide variety of effects using simple operations. In Harmony mode, for example, all you have to do is select the key, specify whether it's major or minor, and use the SHIFT knob to select the voicing you want to use. The Shift knob switches between the different pitch settings available in each mode.
Road-Tough BOSS
BOSS compact pedals are world-famous for their great sound as well as their road-tough construction, consistency, and reliability. The PS-6 inherits this BOSS-proven design, offering guitarists a solidly constructed pedal that's built to withstand decades of demanding use.
Four effect modes in one stompbox: Harmony, Pitch Shifter, Detune, and S-BEND (Super Bend)
Easily create two- or three-voice harmonies with selectable key and voicing
High-quality pitch shifting
Three-voice Detune capability
Super Bend provides up to four octaves of extreme pitch bending
Superior pitch effects, easy to use, and built to road-proven BOSS standards. Order now!
Custom Guitar's Friend Gold Coverage
Gold Coverage goes above and beyond the manufacturer's warranty to protect your gear from unexpected breakdowns, accidental damage from handling
and failures. This plan covers your product for one, two, three or up to five years from your date of purchase, costs just pennies per day and gives you a
complete "no-worry" solution for protecting your investment.
Gold Coverage Includes:
Unexpected and unintentional spills, drops and cracks
Normal wear and tear
Power surges
Dust, internal heat and humidity
Other plan features include:
For products over $200, No Lemon Policy applies. If it fails for the same defect 3 times, it is replaced on the 4th breakdown. (Does not apply to failures due to drops, spills, and cracks)
For products under $200 experiencing the above failures, a Custom Guitar's Friend gift card will be issued for the full price of the product + tax.
Shipping fees covered if required for repair or replacement
Plans are transferable in the event merchandise is sold
Plans are renewable on new gear
*Limitations and exclusions apply. See terms and conditions for program details
Term for New Gear begins on date of purchase but does not replace the store return policy or manufacturer coverage.
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I bought this pedal to do one thing, give me some harmony on my leads. I play in a progressive/death punk band called the Toilets. I've been a semi-pro musician for the past 10 years, and I think some of these cats that are reviewing this pedal don't know how to use it. I have found a use for EVERY effect that it has to offer. It's like a digi-tech wammy but with a sick harmony shifter. The Detune isn't amazing, but its like getting a free chorus pedal. I love the three part harmony sound too. The thing with trying to ape certain bands harmonies is that they aren't always playing perfect 3rds or 5ths, so the pedal can't reproduce that. That's probably why its not called the Queen or AlmanBrothers pedal. The price was a bit steep, 99 bucks should get ya ANY pedal...its a shame but oh well...its added depth to my three piece that was desperately needed. Tracking flawless, ask my fans. My sound engineer is stoked that i got it, my band loves the depth it gives my solos... Good stuff!
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.A great pedal!
After reading some of the dismal reviews on this pedal, I almost didn't get it. The 2 things that convinced me to give it a try are Marty Friedman's youtube demonstration, and the return policy. I'm glad I gave it a shot. I mainly got it for it's inteligent harmony features. Both 2 and 3 part. It also features pitch shift harmonies that will play whatever interval you select, but will not make it a major 3rd where it needs to be, or minor depending on the note and key. (The harmony feature will do this, you select the key, and interval, if figures the rest out). The S bend is a very cool feature. Now I know how Satriani does that! The detune basically is a chorus effect that sounds better than my boss chorus pedal.
It took some time to dial things in , but once I did I couldn't stop playing. One thing to be aware of is to tweak the balance knob until you like the result. if you set it too high, there is a definite delay before the harmony note sounds. With the knob at about the ten o'klock position, it's about perfect. No perceptable delay. I also found that to make it respond correctly with my amps distortion, I needed to run it in my amps effects loop. If you don't have an effects loop, you may want to stick with distortion pedals with the boss ps-6. The main reason I rated quality a bit lower is because when playing clean, at least with a single coil guitar, if you're picking attack is too soft it seems to get confused on at least one note I noticed. At first it did one note then corrected it. If I picked a bit harder, or used distortion or overdrive, no problem. And it was just the one note, not even the octaves of that note. Could be a fluke with my pedal, but that was the only complaint I have.
Worth every penny!!!
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.I was looking for a way to create harmonies without having to multi-track parts to save time and ordered the PS6 and figured I'd try it at home and if I didn't like it I could return it.Like all Boss, pedals (I have several) the casing quality and knob quality is exactly what I would expect and that didn't disappoint, which is why the Quality is 4 stars. They have crammed alot of capabilities into a standard Boss sized pedal and it really should be in a bigger casing. The settings because of the print on the display makes it hard to read. It should have also been made with a pedal(s) that allows for changing the settings on the fly, which would be a big plus. I wouldn't use this live unless you are working with one setting for a show or don't have any issues with constantly bending down to make changes to your settings (I try to limit that as much as possible and rely on foot controllers, my personal pet peeve).I was also a little put off by the tone. With some of the settings, I found that the tones got muddy and fuzzy or the harmony wasn't clear and present. It took a lot of tweaking to get the tone clearer and eventually I had to patch it through a BBE to get it right after some needed equilization. So the tracking time that I hoped to save, was a push. I does generate some cool tones and if you have the time to play with it, it will give you some creative ideas. I didn't run into any real tracking issues and after recording a few tracks with it, it did produce a pretty smooth tone after tweaking and so I wound up keeping it. There is no substitute to tracking guitar parts or two guitars live, but it does have its uses. This is a pedal that playing it in the store really won't help, you need to order it or bring one home from a store and try it in your home or studio with time and your own gear and decide for yourself. Try to keep an open mind and not get bowled over with the initiall WOW factor. For Boss, you guys can do better, this is okay, but some of your other pedals are really invaluable for guitarists, which is what I was hoping for.
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.This pedal is not a bad pedal, the only reason I rated it low is because the key has to be set manually by turning a knob and setting parameters. I sent it back and got a Digitech Harmony Man. The Digitech pedal is a little bigger and, more expensive but darned well worth it. You can set the key on the fly and with 4 presets there's no fiddling around with settings onstage. Set your key and go. Just compare the two and, you'll see what I mean.
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.This pedal does many things well. It's a small-enclosure Whammy clone. Its greatest strength is its versatility. I've been using mine for years now as a hobbyist, and in the past year, it was one of my go-to pedals for my gigs. I use it with a fixed bridge on my guitar. This pedal works best when you deviate from the advertised uses.
Tips for the S-Bend Mode:
-Set the S-Bend to one octave below. Set the rise time very slow, and the fall time relatively quick. This works great for Fender-style whammy dives. Excellent for shoegaze-style floating trem simulations.
-At the maximum interval setting, the pitch-bend range is exactly one whole step, which is good for pedal steel simulations.
-Rage Against the Machine-style Whammy riffs.
-Simulating Dive Bombs
Tips for the Pitch Shifter Mode:
-The polyphonic tracking is great for the perfect 4th, perfect 5th, and octave-up intervals. The pedal is slightly shrill, so there should be at least a 55% dry signal when using such settings to improve the euphony.
-The perfect 5th setting is fabulous for indie rock applications. Arpeggios sound great if you're going for a Deerhunter-type sound. If you're using chords, you can rhythmically stomp on the pedal to imitate groups like Minus the Bear or Battles. If you're running a fuzz pedal on your rig, you can play full barre chords, and the voicings channel 90's-style shoegaze music a la My Bloody Valentine.
-Dial in a very quiet octave-up effect to fatten leads (octavia style)
Tips for Detune Mode:
-You get a slight treble boost when engaging this mode, which means that it's best used for 80's-style/New Wave applications. The Detune mode's "sweet spot" depends greatly on your rig. It's very usable and easy to dial in.
The Harmony modes track well monophonically if you play with a strong pick attack (best for metal and power rock styles). Softer dynamics pose a problem. I use a lot of double stops, so it's not useful for me. Low-latency. Takes distortion pedals well. Best used live.
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.I bought this pedal primarily for the hamony function, hoping that it would provide good sounding harmonies with electric and particularly acoustic electric guitars. It took all of 5 minutes out of the box to decide to return this one. This is not my first pitch shifter. While it does offer some advances in function over previous versions, the signal quality has not improved. The tone is warbly and digital sounding, not at all like a second instrument playing harmony. Yes, you can turn the blend down and bury the harmony in the mix, but for my money this pedal just doesn't do the job.
My other criticism of this pedal is its size. Usually more compact is better. Not so here. The controls are not suitably labelled due to space constraints, and even if they were you would need a desk lamp and magnifying glass to use them onstage. This is simply not practical. But thanks to MF for a user friendly return policy.
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.I sent this back, it is not what I thought it would be. Although it is built very well and has great response, it sounded artificial, not really a good pitch shifter.
It does a great job of getting that "owner of a lonely heart" ("Yes",Trevor Rabin Lead sound), but that's about it.
The reviews on you tube are misleading, since they are running it through all kinds of high end equipment to make it sound good. Most of the videos can get a real nice "Boston or Thin Lizzy" twin lead, which what I was looking for, but it did not deliver.
The simulated dive bomb effect is nice and you can get some really off the wall synth sounds with the harmonizer.
The detune effect is mediocre at best. I got a better sound with a cheap Danelectro chorus pedal. This may be good for some people but not for me. I think that Boss is the best pedal manufacturer out there, since I have a bunch of their pedals. But regrettably, this one fell short.
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.Overall, I give the Boss Harmonist PS-6 an 8. You get a huge selection of quality sounds (most of which are awesome) in a small and very durable package. However, it's kind of expensive and some of what you get can only be used by itself.
I am going to break this review down into the different modes of the PS-6. Sorry about the length but this pedal has a lot of effects to review:
S-bend (single notes and chords): This mode brings some pretty sweet sounds to the table. It is only activated when the pedal is compressed and primarily contains octave sweeps that range from -3 to +4 octaves. It is practically impossible to hear the -3 octave sweep over half of the fret board and the +4 sweep is painfully high if your amp is turned up even slightly. There are also rising and falling vibrato sounds that are pretty cool to play with, and there is an octave split effect that splits your input frequency + & - 2 octaves and if you play with the balance knob you can output 3 different frequencies simultaneously (which is cool).
Harmony (single note use only): This mode adds effect-processed sound (a maximum of two sounds) to the input sound, thus creating three-voice harmonies. This is pretty fun to play around with because if you want to play a two-guitar harmony over a melody riff and you only have two guitarists, you can add in a harmony with 11 different pitches to choose from in 13 different keys (major & minor).
Pitch Shifter (single notes and chords): This mode outputs a sound that has been pitch shifted up or down by up to 2 octaves. This is a useful mode because it allows the pedal to be used as an octaver, but the +2 octave sounds weird and the -2 octave is barely noticeable.
Detune (single notes and chords): This mode adds a sound that has been shifted only slightly to the input sound. This creates a sound that is comparable to a chorus. In fact, one of the pitch shifts is practically indistinguishable from the stereotypical chorus sound created by MXR s Black Label Chorus pedal. This is the setting that I primarily use.
I rated this an 8 for features because the possible output sounds from this pedal are almost infinite and most of them are awesome, but some of them are simply unapplicable to any music style (personal opinion). Plus the stereo output and expression pedal capability allow you to fill the room with some pretty amazing sounds.
I have had this pedal for about 8 months now and I usually play 6 days per week (approximate). So if I estimate that I step on the pedal 4 times per session (under estimation), it adds up to about 770 times that I have stepped on this pedal, and it still works like new. I have had no issues with this pedal, however, I use a One Spot to power my pedals so individual results may vary with the hinge mechanism if you use batteries. This is a perfect 10 in quality as far as I m concerned.
I ranked this an 8 for value because it is fairly pricey, but for the amount of sounds you can produce with this pedal in the small space it takes up on your pedal board it is totally worth it for those willing to part with the cash.
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.One thing that has not been mentioned is that this pedal can allow you to play a lead or phrase to match, say, horns or strings playing a rock song arranged for those instruments. In other words, if you are the kind of player that likes to be ready to jump in any situation -- for fun or profit -- you need to have this pedal. The chordal tracking is not studio perfect to my ear, but it might suffice mixed down in a live setting. The single-note sounds spot-on -- so long as it is not gained up to such an extent that the unit cannot "find" the note. A warm, compressed tone seems to function best. And EQ on the backend is also very important. If your default tone is mud, this pedal is just gonna harmonize your mud, not clean it up.
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
.Picked up this and a PS5 at a pawn shop 2 months ago and I'm still noodling with 'em. Sure, its big fun to shred with wild abandon & throw down some complex chord voicings just to hear the synthetic notes fight each other, but when it came to some serious business, these boxes really took me back to school. As stated in other reviews, you gotta have a good grasp of music theory. Not only scales, but knowing your modes & the cicle of 5ths will open bigger doors to these pedals' capabilities. Just knowing "Miserlou" is in E minor is not enough, 'cos if you set the pedal to E minor w/ a 3rd or 5th you're gonna get some funny looks! Considering the amount of info, the control layout isn't too confusing, even tho the key & pitch controls are switched between the two boxes, and legends are impossible to read in live situations. My solution was a cue card with settings for certain songs, memorizing the controls and counting clicks on the knob, and keeping a bright flashlight in your pedal case. And after comparing the two, instead of keeping just one, I kept 'em both! The PS6 handles harmonies, while the PS5 w/ an expression pedal acts as a whammy pedal (which it does nicely). I don't know if I would buy these new (kinda pricey) but considering I bought both of these boxes for $50 more then the price of one box new, I think I got a deal. And although harmonizers and pitch shifters aren't at the top of my FX priority list, these babies add a great color to my live sound. And they're Boss - need I say more?
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pitch Shifter Guitar Effects Pedal
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