Boss PS-5 Super Shifter

I'll be brief, as this sort of pedal is amply discussed previously.

Overall, it's a good pedal, but am completely underwhelmed by the pitchshifter function.

The Harmonist is very good. The Trem and whammy functions are also quite good, and approach realistic.

I bought this hoping it may do shifting better than the little cheapy Behringer I was using. Didn't really care about the whammy and other sounds.

As stated the harmonist is quite good, and seems to track well.

Sorry Boss, but the pitchshifter sounded no better than the cheapy. In fact, the little plastic fantastic has about a 10ms delay at the end of the notes. On 12 string/octave it provides a very passable 12 string false 'shimmer'. The Boss doesn't. It has an audible flutter, throughout reproducing the notes or chords (you can't use the harmoniser on chords, just individual notes. Pitchshift and Harmoniser are two different functions on this pedal for those that are not aquainted with it).

Another use intended was easy 1/2 step detune, with the pitch all the way wet and no dry signal. I realise it's a digital signal, and have been around for well long enough to know its a digitised sound trying to replicate an E-tuned guitar to E flat through computing power. But I didn't expect it to be quite this underwhelming! Oh well, the harmonist is very good; I can at least play a few of the lines in the abyssmal Hotel California, or lots of Thin Lizzy songs, using it once a year! This is an expensive pedal folks......so it won't be taxed much!

It is typically Boss tough. No doubt. I still have my 1982 flanger, and a few others.

Never used them.

Underwhelmed. I had hoped pitchshifting had come some way, but it hasn't. The plastic fantastic remains set on 12 string/octave in my rig, and the PS5 keeps it company to be used equally sparingly. The other functions seem quite good, and if you didn't wanna put a Bigsby on your Les Paul it would be quite good. The chorus/flutter thing in it is as good as any.

Overall....underwhelmed, especially the pitchshifter. I know it's no Eventide, but was quite disappointed that the cheapy sounded every bit as good.

I am told the Digitech kills it, but I didn't want a large stand-alone pedal, just one that fitted in my pedal rig.

It's fairly easy to use. The knob writing is a bit small and with the split knobs it can be tricky to make changes on the fly. I found it doesn't require much effort to get a decent sound out of it, but to get a really good sound from it does require a little tweaking with the pedals settings, as well as its order in your effects chain.

I use this mostly as a substitute for the Digitech whammy pedal to do octave up jumps. It performs pretty admirably in that regard even without any expression pedal attached. I've also used the harmony settings to some degree. That can give a pretty cool digital sound, good sometimes but not something you'd want on all the time. It tracks well even with fast passages and the key settings do a pretty fair job unless you use a lot of accidentals. I've also used the detune mode to get an interesting chorus effect and found that to be pretty good for generating some spacey clean sounds. Overall, the sound quality is alright, although it is very digital. Like I said, it's good in spurts and can be an interesting effect when used subtly but it isn't something you're going to have on all the time. It's quiet, even with an AC adapter.

I bought it used over 2 years ago and it's not let me down since. I don't really use it live too much so it hasn't seen a lot of gigging. That isn't because I think it's fragile, but rather it's tone is not necessary to most of the live playing I do. Still, it's solidly built and the knobs are firm. It does eat batteries so I would recommend having some 9v's on hand when playing out. I mostly just use it with the AC adapter.

I bought this pedal to have a harmony pedal and it was a cheaper alternative to the whammy pedal. I've found it to be a good buy and with some tweaking, the effects have pretty good tone. It does take a little bit of getting used to and you have to make sure you're in the right key for the harmonies. Overall it's a good tool to color your tone and add a little spice to your sound on melodies and solos.

I had to give a 5 in this category, as depending on what you're looking for out of this pedal and what your knowledge of music theory is limited to it can either be quite simple to use, or it can be a difficult nightmare.

The main reason I bought this pedal was for the harmony feature, and for this purpose it's very easy for me to get this pedal to do what I want - select the key of the song, select your harmony interval and you're all set. However, I have yet to gig with this pedal and can't for the life of me expect to kneel down on a darkened stage and adjust the knobs for different songs...yet this is what I bought this pedal for - live work. If I want harmonies in the studio, I'll just track a second guitar line, but to reproduce harmonies live I need to use this pedal. I'll probably wind up buying another pedal or two to set to different keys, but at $150+ a pop, that's an expensive way to go about it for a few short passages in select few songs.

My biggest gripe is that there's way too much stuff crammed into this pedal which makes adjusting your settings live difficult and probably adds to the overall cost of the unit as well. However, unless you're willing to shell out a few grand on an Eventide there's really not much of an option for a single guitarists wanting to add harmonies to their sound - aside from trying to rock a Digitech Whammy pedal back and forth to get the right harmony intervals, which does not appeal to me.

Newer guitarists looking for alternate sounds will probably have a tough time getting what they want out of this pedal, and it will probably take a lengthy sit down to experiment and find something they like.

Overall, I can't give this a higher rating due to all of these issues.

My setup with this pedal is as follows:

(Using two amplifiers)
Gibson Les Paul Standard -> Cry Baby Wah -> Marshall JCM-800
Line out from the Marshall -> Boss PS-5 -> Epiphone Valve Jr

I cannot stress this enough if you intend on using this for harmonies - PUT THIS PEDAL IN EITHER YOUR EFFECTS LOOP OR AFTER YOUR DISTORTION. The harmonies sound absolutely terrible if you try and run them before your distortion.

Moving on to the sound of the unit, I'll address each mode:

HARMONIST:
This is the reason I bought this unit, and I have to say that it's certainly usable, but not without flaws. I like to harmonize in 3rds (think Iron Maiden and Boston) but our luck with finding a second guitar player has never panned out well enough, so I've been struggling to adapt some of the parts live. Previously, I had tried an old Digitech Vocalist II rack unit, which while it worked somewhat wasn't very practical in it's tracking.

The PS-5 handles tracking a lot better selecting either a third interval above or below to an extent. Low notes (from an open E on the 6th string to approximately the open A string) lose their tracking quite easily, and for some reason it sounds worse when the PS-5 is set to octave intervals (if you're looking for just an octave effect, I'd suggest trying out a dedicated Octave pedal). The next problem is bending notes only track so far (about a 1/4 bend) before the PS-5 abruptly skips to the next note. The positive thing about the PS-5 is that it handles natural and harmonic minor quite well, where the Vocalist unit I had used freaked out trying to harmonize a sharped 7th.

Two big disappointments I must mention is that there is an audible lag and volume drop when clicking the pedal on, and also the harmonies sound too artificial when you try and use the stereo outs on the pedal itself. Blending the dry signal with the effect masks some of the minor inconsistencies not as noticeable, but this sort of limits your options trying to run a stereo rig.

However, there really isn't many other options out there to replicate harmonies outside of having a second guitarist or shelling out the big bucks for an Eventide, and for what it's worth, this pedal is certainly workable, but not perfect.

PITCH SHIFTER:
For some odd reason theres a strange warble effect added to the shifted tone that really limits the usability of this mode. Turning the speed knob all the way down did not remove the warble.

DETUNE:
Although I doubt I will personally use this mode much, it's still a cool effect. The Pitch knob detunes by 5 cents up clockwise and 5 cents down counter clockwise, and with the delay knob can make a very cool doubling sound in close settings, or all out spacey chaos at wider settings. I don't have an expression pedal, but this effect can use one to adjust the amount of shift between the original and shifted setting.

TREMOLO ARM:
Without an expression pedal, this effect is a little limited but with a little tinkering with the delay setting could be useful to some. Basically without the expression pedal you've got to step and hold the footswitch to keep the effect going, and releasing your foot stops the effect.

FLUTTER:
A nice tasteful little vibrato effect, activated much like the Tremolo arm, but personally I like to add vibrato to my notes with my fretting hand.

Boss is pretty well known for making sturdy pedals, so I doubt this pedal will die from road abuse. However, this pedal sucks the life out of 9volt batteries quickly, so I'd advise using an AC adapter on the road.

I've never had to deal with Boss as their pedals are pretty much indestructible. This is a new unit for me, so only time will tell, but I don't foresee any problems.

Again, for adding harmonies in a single guitar band there aren't many choices available, and the PS-5 does an adequate job at a semi-reasonable price. I think this pedal could probably be a bit less pricey if they didn't try and cram so much into it, as it seems like it's more geared towards competing with the Whammy pedal than being dedicated to one thing or the other.

It has it's flaws, but until something better hits the market it will stay in my rig for a while. It certainly suits me better than trying to fight with the Whammy Pedal to harmonize a few guitar lines.

This unit isn't too hard to use, if you use the Harmonist function you'll have to dial in the key of the song. That's about as hard as it gets.

The sound quality is a mixed blessing, in that it fulfills the main function I bought it for (providing a harmony to a lead line) very well. But it does have a bit of warbling with lower pitches, and more significantly there is a volume drop when the unit is activated (the main problem I have with it). Other than that it seems to work well. As is mentioned in the manual an in other reviews, you have to keep your guitar well tuned so the unit can generate the proper notes in the scale. I'm vary particular about tuning so it hasn't been a problem for me at all.

The pedal doesn't do the harmony addition well with a clean signal, and it sounds BAD if you run the combined dry and harmony signal to a distorted amp. But if you run your guitar into a distortion box, then into the PS-5, and then into a clean amp, it works very well.

Boss stuff is very reliable; the PS-5 is currently sitting on my pedalboard beside a Boss CS-2 chorus I bought in 1982 or thereabouts. The chorus has worked flawlessly along with all the other Boss stuff I've had in the last 29 years of playing. I see no reason to expect the same from the PS-5.

Never dealt with them (Boss), but Roland is very responsive.

I play mostly R+B, old R+R, and Southern rock (have been playing for 29 years). I am the only guitarist in our band, and some songs need harmony leads, in particular our cover of Still the One by Orleans. I bought the PS-5 to add a harmony to lead lines, and it does this pretty well. Not as good as a second guitarist of course, but good enough for live work. My band was really surprised at how well it fattened up the leads. The other thing it does well is to mix in a octave up signal to the tone; with a clean tone you can do those great Allan Holdsworth chords and muted arpeggios like he did on his Metal Fatigue album. I tried out the whammy bar features of the pedal, and they work, but are utterly useless to me.

I would buy one again, but would probably opt for a used one. I might even buy a second used one to prevent having to switch the harmonies or keys during a live performance. I'm not aware of anything that has close to it's capabilities from any other manufacturer (the Digitech Whammy pedal won't do scale correct harmonization AFAIK).

Good points: it does the harmony lead thing very well in a small form factor, and it can make a nice octave up sound like Allan Holdsworth did in some of his albums.

Bad points: it's a little expensive, there is warbling in lower tones below the guitar range, there is a volume drop when the effect is engaged, it's hard to switch keys during a performance (very small hard to read lettering on the panel)

like mentioned before, this thing has a decent amount of controls but nothing too complicated. the only thing is the harmonizer which, if you dont know theory then you will not get much of a usuable sound using this preset.. i got mine used without a manual but they can be found online if needed. i found 3 or 4 sound settings i use often in a matter of minutes.. also have to note that this thing will suck the life out of a 9v in an hour or so worth of playing so use an adapter

i use this things in a few different ways.. i really like getting a 12 string sound out of it.. not as good as the eh pog or anything but still pretty good.. and the whammy like trem arm preset is pretty fun to use infront of a delay pedal. i just sit around and make noise with this for hours and enjoy myself, or use an octave up to add shimmer to a clean sound.. also sounds pretty crazy after a big muff.. this thing actually nails digital chorus and vibrato sounds pretty well using the detune and flutter settings. if used mostly wet you will get horrible tracking with this pedal but that can be avoided

boss pedals are built pretty damn well, so im sure this one will last just as long as my older boss pedals if not longer

never dealt with them but have heard boss/roland are easy to deal with

fun pedal, i got it used pretty cheap and probably wouldnt have paid $150+ for it but it can defiantly add something to whatever style of music you are trying to create.. add its fun for noise making.

Quite complicated initially. You will eventually get the hang of it after playing around with it for a while.

Epi Les Paul or Ibanez GAX into Dunlop Crybaby > boss PS5 > danelectro octave > Tech 21 Overdrive > Boss BF3 Flanger > Ibanez DE 7 delay > Fender Hot Rod Deville 410. This effect should placed as close to the front as possible, before distortion for sure, maybe only after wah.

The biggest thing that bothered me with this pedal was that in the tremolo arm (whammy) setting, there is a slight delay between when you play and when the sound comes out. about the same amount of time as a fast slapback delay. this happens even when the pedal is not depressed. You get used to it, but initially it'll bug the crap outta you. If you are just going up a few steps, it'll track well, at one octave it'll track decently for 1 or 2 strings (chords are out).


Detune gives you a decent chorus sound, but if you have the effect on full, there'll be a delay again. best to keep it about half where you can't notice it.

I do not use the harmonizer much, but if you are looking to use this to add a sub octave to your signal, get something else. My Danelectro Chili Dog ($25 piece of junk) gives a better octave down than this pedal does. get a boss OC 2 for that.

I would recommend spending the extra $50 if you got it to buy a digitech whammy. The delay experienced with the whammy is much shorter (barely noticeable) and there is a bypass switch, plus the expression pedal is built in on it.

boss pedals are generally pretty reliable, but for some reason, the thumbscrew that keeps the battery cover / pedal part down got bent on mine so I have to unscrew it on the sides to replace the battery. not sure how that happened, someone really fat must've stepped on it.

I got mine used, so no warranty. I've never had to deal with boss, so I have no idea how good they are.

I play experimental rock type music. I don't use this effect as much as I used to, it just got too complex and the delay between playing and processing was annoying, so I usually don't gig with it.

First warning; like so many other reviewers have said, if you don't understand scales and harmony, don't buy a Pitch Shifter/Harmonizer. Get an Octaver, it's hard to go wrong with those.

Good sound? The Detune isn't bad, and the Pitch Shift/Harmonist effects aren't any worse than you'd expect in a unit this small (not great), while the Trem Arm & Flutter effects are a waste of processing power.

There's no real editing, just some knobs. The manual isn't bad, and it will get you started, at least.

Forget about the 'favorite artist" thing; most professional players aren't using pedals for serious pitch shift/harmony effects.

The PS-5 sounds about like the notorious Hamonist pedal; not great. Flutter gives you a weird sort of Vibrato effect, while Trem Arm is sort of like the Dive Bomb setting on a Whammy pedal. It doesn't really matter what your set-up is, this is a cheesy sounding pedal.

I'm sure it will last forever, especially if you put back in the box and forget about it. I might use this thing on a gig, if I didn't have anything else.

Boss/Roland customer support varies; some folks are knowledgable and helpful, some of them are clearly out of their depth. Mostly, though, I've had good luck.

I play strange music, so I like strange pedals, but I also like effects that expand my musical range. A good Pitch Shifter is a real musical tool, but the PS-5 is just a pedal. Some of the choices for Harmony tones seemed worthless. Major & Minor 2nds? The Manual suggest you use those two settings when you need to tune up or down a whole or half-step, but the sound is so artificial, I can't imagine anyone really using it. It's hard to screw up Octaves, and 5ths are pretty easy to get along with, but it's still a lame set of tones.

I have to admit, I didn't buy the PS-5; a friend asked me to check his out, because he couldn't get the sound he wanted. I told him to look for a used PS-3.

The Trem Arm & Flutter effects are interesting, but limited, not worth $170. The Pitch Shift/Harmonist modes offer very limited options, and they don't sound that great. You can get a full sweep of pitches, using an Expression pedal, but you'll have to spend another $70 for an EV-5, bringing your total cost up to around $240. Ouch! Considering that you can buy a $100 multi-effects pedal that will have some kind of Pitch Shifter, it's really hard to justify the price of a PS-5.

I really wanted to like this thing; I love Boss pedals, and I liked the two previous models the PS-2 & the PS-3. No one would ever mistake either of those pedals for an Eventide, but they were more useful than the PS-5. The PS-2 gave you one Pitch-Shifted note, and the PS-3 gave you two; both the PS-2 and the PS-3 had Delay effects built in, with up to 2 seconds of delay time.

I read the manual cover to cover for almost every product I buy, so 'having to read the manual' is kinda a non-issue for me. this manual was fairly clear, but very involved. The only tricky part is that a couple of the knobs (the nested ones) change functions depending on the mode, and it can be tricky to remember which is which.

It's a pretty involved pedal, but it does a lot in small space, so it's gonna be a little tricky to use. Also, a requisite knowledge of keys and modes and all that garbage is required if you want to use the intelligent harmonies correctly. I guess if someone didn't know that stuff before, there would be a pretty stiff learning curve for this pedal.

The effects you can get out of this box are used on plenty of popular recordings. Whammy effects a la Radiohead, Muse, Rage against the Machine, though it can't get all of those sounds without the expression, it can do many of them sufficiently as is. Intelligent and fixed harmonies that have been used in all kinds of recordings... recently in popular music, My Chemical Romance has some cool use of intelligent harmonies in the bridge of their song 'The Black Parade'. Dragon Force also uses this effect a little bit, though they use two real guitar lines just as often. Maybe you could cop some Queen type stuff like this, but Brian May normally just records like a million guitar parts all going in different directions, and this pedal ain't magic.

The Pitch shift mode (fixed interval harmonies) tracks in a very unusual way. It's kinda fluttery or something, and therefor it's kinda useless for making your guitar sound like it's tuned down. The octave down in the harmonist mode does a decent bass sound though. The good thing about the weird tracking is that it gives this great sparkling sound which is awesome for chords, and that's one of the main things for which I wanted it. The detune mode is pretty cool, but I haven't found a use for it yet (I don't really use chorus either). Same with flutter mode, though I have some crazy ideas. I got this pedal specifically to help me imitate an organ sound that I saw a guy do live using a Whammy pedal, a really long delay, volume swells, and phaser turned up to imitate a rotating speaker. I got this instead of the whammy because it seemed like it could do more for less money. I'm happy with my decision.

This pedal might give you a little 'digital' sound, but it's not ugly. I'm not the kind of guy who tries to make music that sounds like it's from the seventies, so modern sounds are just fine with me, given that they are good.

Boss. Good.

I actually broke a Boss pedal once, but that's because I was trying to wire it into my guitar. Use it like it's supposed to be used, and it will last forever.

Roland has great email and phone support. dealt with them a few times.

I mostly play guitar in church settings, but musically open minded churches. Mostly pop-ish rock stuff, and I tend to but a little alt rock spin on my playing. Very positive feedback on it so far. The bass player is jealous that guitarists get all the cool toys.

I've been playing six years. I own a Peavey Classic 30, THD Univalve, PODxt, Yamaha MagicStomp, Boss DD-3 and TU-2, some overdrive (Much love for the Bad Monkey) and distortion pedals. For guitars I use a Mexican Strat with Lace Sensors, and a Hwy 1 Tele with a Tone Zone T in the bridge (and some crazy switching options). It's a pretty good collection of 'The best of budget gear.' Nothing more or less.

If this pedal were lost or stolen, I would try to get the cash together to get a new one ASAP. Capable of producing a lot of signature sounds that set you apart from the pack. highly recomended. Uses batteries really fast.

If you know what scales are then this is super simple to use, as in g major = e minor once you can work that out the harmonys are easy to dial in the steps are controlledby 1 knob with the intervils marked on it. the invervils vari though between fuctions.
Fairly simple

only 3 of the functions I use regularly the, harmoniser, t-arm and detune, harmoniser speaks for it self as long as ur in tune and add distorion BEFORE the pedal it sounds great. T-arm divebombs are realistic and you can even bend 2 octaves up, because of this i prefer it to a floyd rose, the detune simply add a slightly detuned note so it sounds like chorus. here are the intervals for harmoniser and t-arm up or down -3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, octave or 2 octaves (pitch shifer is similar but youl never use it)

Its a stomp box i droped it down the stairs by accident and it stayed unscathed so Its very strong

dealt with boss/roland in the past, they replied to my email within a few days so with a good solution (to other pedal NOT PS-5)

its a great pedal and i could not play live without it its essential so my setup, there are probbaly newer pedals out now but this is still well worth it. I bough it new for a large price GRRRRR but ive seen it on ebay for ??30 or so, its definity worth that!!!

not that easy to use unless you are a pro at 1) music theory and 2) having your guitar exactly in tune.

BE WARNED : the pitch shifted tone on the pitch shifter has a vibrato effect in it, that gets faster as the tone setting is higher. so your mix has to be like 40% effect for it to sound half-way decent (and only on distortion at that)

HArmonizer : really hard to use, it keeps skipping around tones. ive heard you need to be in tune then it works fine, but i can never get my axe in exact tune...

Detune : just sounds like chorus but is cool i guess

Tremolo and flutter: they do what they say basically. seem ok.

all in all i bought this because i have money laying around and i love tool so i just like buying as many cool effects as possible. if you want a neat effect to fool around with then this is a decent pedal. not worth 180 or whatever they charge in the store. you cant do much with it but it can make cool detuned sounds and temolo stuff so its kinda fun. definitely not an essential in any kit. i wouldnt pay more than 120 for one.

its boss. even pedals that suck at least dont break. hte PS5 i got is like 5years old still works ok.

only half-way useful. i bought one because i had money to blow. fun to fool around with but you cant be serious with it