Boss PS-5 Super Shifter

Not that difficult to figure out. However, you need to experiment a lot with it to get usable sounds. The manual is just "OK"...

Harmonizer sounds good and tracks well if you make sure your guitar is correctly tuned. Flutter sounds good, but honestly i didn't find a use for that yet... The Detune mode is interresting, but didn't find a use for that yet either. The pitchshifter mode does NOT sound good at all: you have to be very careful with the "mix" knob, because the shifted notes have a very irritating vibrato in them. I find the T-Arm mode useful: It sounds very good with chords, so i use it to reach for lower or higher notes when we practice... I even use it to simulate a guitare tuned to Eb for some songs, even if a have to let my foot on the pedal for that (It does NOT sound as good as a guitare tuned this way, but it's close enough and I don't have to bring extra guitars at practices). I tried the pedal in the loop (series and parallel), but finally with my amp it sounds better in front the amp. I use it with a H&K Tour reverb stack or H&K Edition Tube.

Usually BOSS pedals are very reliable, but i don't know yet for this one.

Never dealt with them

This is not a bad pedal, but I think it's over-priced, and the pitch-shifter mode is VERY disapointing. I would prefer a T-ARM mode that does not require leaving the foot on the pedal instead of the useless "flutter" mode. I initially bought it for the pitchshifter mode, and at the end i decided to keep it anyway because of the t-arm and the harmonizer.

easy!

I think this thing sounds great.
the pitch shifter and harmonizer here are excellent for a stomp box in my opinion.

the trem arm and whammy effect are great noise makers too... but be warned.. THERE IS A SLIGHT MILLI-SECOND DELAY WHEN THOSE MODES ARE SELECTED. EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT USING THE EFFECT, EVERYTHING YOU PLAY WITH BE SLIGHTLY DELAYED. In this situation, I just have to kneel down and throw it into pitch shift mode when i'm done using those effects in a song.

..and now the real jewel of this pedal.. THE Detuned mode. SOUNDS GREAT!!

good so far

Haven't dealt

For what i do (experimental rock stuff) it's a great pedal. For those who say the harmonizer doesn't compare to the real thing or something.. get real it's a pedal! get a second guitarist if you want real harmonies.

Well, its the biggest manual Ive seen come with a boss pedal. But after you read through it, its pretty straight forward as far as what sounds you want. Its good to know basic theory to get a full grasp of how to use the harmonizor. otherwise it will sound really off.

I bought this mainly for the pitch shifting and trem arm sounds. They sound decent in mono, but if you can, use the pedal in stereo. The harmonist and pitch shifting do what they are designed to do, and I havent had any tracking problems. I have tried running the direct signal through my peavey stack and the shifted signal (down one octave) through a fender bass amp, and it sounds pretty good. The trem arm effects is very cool. I like to use the flutter setting with chords, and you can get some pretty varied sounds from it. I havent used the detuned setting very much, but it sounded good for when I tested it. I dont know how often I will use it, but its there and sounds good. I got hardly any noise when in the effects loop of my amp, but outside of the loop, it does add some noticeable noise, nothing terrible though.

This is my 8th Boss pedal and so far theyve been totally reliable. I dont see this thing ever giving me any problems. Ive dropped other pedals down stairs, theyve fallen out of my bag onto concrete, and it might get a paint scratch, but it still works just the same. Its built very solid and, althought I bought mine used, has hardly any wear on the paint.

Never had to talk to them.

This pedal is very useful if you want that "twin guitar" sound or just like getting some different sounds. I play at my church as well as just jamming with friends. I wanted to try to expand my sound range, and this pedal does that very well. I use it only for certain parts of songs, but it could be used to get some really "out there" sounds. Which I guess is fun too. If it were lost or stolen, I would most likely buy another, my only hesitation being the price of a brand new one.

this is the most sophisticated effect i have ever owned, so it must be a little hard to use. but when checking the ratio between the intelligence and the simplicity, you find it fairly efficient.
i didn't need a manual.

when tuning the pitch knob to higher levels, it might sound very digital. i find this option useless for me.
there are two harmonizing modes- the harmonizer (the "intelligent") and the pitch shifter (the "stupid"). the harmonizer will calculate the spaces between the notes, considering the chosen scale. for example- if you selected the harmonizer option, Am scale and 5th pitch- it would know to play G when you're playing C. if you selected the pitch shifter and 5 pitch- the H.R. key knob would turn off and it would play G# when you're playing C.(5 full tones). i prefer to use the "stupid" option- it sounds like another guitar is playing the same music in another scale, which is really great.
it has great "detune" effect- similar to chorus, but more "kicking" one.
the t. arm enables you to go from the played note to another note that you choose using the pitch knob with one touch on the pedal. the flutter is the same, but it would turn back to the original note afterward, and will enable you to vibrate it a little.

come on, it's boss.

this is great for progressive rock/metal, psychedelic and neo-classic.
if it were stolen i would but another one, or i might be looking for more "stupid" pedal, because i don't really need the t.arm or the harmonizer option...

This pedal gets a six simply because it is the only one which required me to look at the manual to get results. once the basics are figured out this thing becomes really simple: simply select key and interval and you're off!

Nothing is perfect, but this does come frighteningly close. People have slated this pedal for 'bad tracking' and 'muddiness', but they are either setting the pedal wrong or expecting this pedal to make them sound pros instead of the hacks that they probably are. this pedal provides great harmonies as well as a few extra bells and whistles, which although not the main feature of this product will surely be a useful and creative addition to any guitarists arsenal. The most important thing is to put this pedal on the effects loop. I
bought this pedal to try and emulate the sounds of great artists like Queen's Brian May, as well as the plethora of metal bands out there that use this effect, and this pedal copes without complaint. All it takes is knowing what key the song is ( if you dont know such basic theory, put down the guitar and back away slowly!), as well as a good ear for whats musical and whats not. This pedal is not designed to be used non- stop, just when creativity and musicality allows. I am using this pedal with a Line 6 Flextone III and an Ibanez RX40.

I own numerous boss products and not a single breakdown. (some of my pedals are 7yrs+ old and severely abused and still going strong!)

Never have, Hopefully never will...

I play anything from church music to Malmsteen to Gary Moore to Latin-Rock and everything in-between. This pedal is a must have if you are looking for a creativity enhancing as well as inspiring gadget. This pedal is perfect if stolen I would buy it again. Just learn to use the damn thing properly before you come up here and bad mouth a really awsome product. The only thing worse that ignorance is a guitarist who doesnt know music theory.

You have heard so many other people here complain. I think this pedal is brilliant. It's a digital pedal; i know that, it told me on the box. I wasn't expecting organic tones from the small box. It does a handful of other things and does them all very well.
The harmonizer- I think this is the best feature of them all and is so much fun to play with. But you have to be good to know how to use it, so here I say; GO AND LEARN SOME GODDAMN MUSIC THEORY! if you don't know what key you're in, then you're a useless guitarist, let alone musician. You think any famous players get where they are by not knowing what key they're in, and not knowing music theory? Think again. Get out of your ridiculous habits of using no more than pentatonics. Learn about majors, relative minors and the different modes. Learn what the notes are on the fretboard; music is not done by numbers. Get over it, and if you want to make the best use of this brilliant pedal, just go learn a little music theory and know your fretboard by notes. There are plenty of books on what I have said. Learning music theory improved my playing tenfold.

Pitch shifter is great.
Harmonizer is the most fun ever, and sounds so cool. Looking for that strange effect all your fave metal bands use but don't know what it is? This is it.
The detuning effects are also very handy. Divebombs away, for all guitars that have no floyd rose!.

SOLID piece of metal. its boss. Just dont smash the knobs or whatever.

Never spoken to them

Brilliant pedal.
Requires musical knowledge to get best use. Theory sorts this out.
Sounds great, good effects for Prog rock/Metal/Experimental/anything remotely creative. Good for guitarists who know how to use the instrument to express ideas with melody.
Doesn't work with chords. Not even power chords. It just sounds like a terrible mush and breaks up. Not a pedal for punk or classic rock, or black metal

This is an update to an earlier review. The harmonizer feature is quite limited, I've discovered, in that it doesn't harmonize notes in intervals, i.e. you're bending from the 7th fret to the 8th. It will harmonize along with the 7th, than quickly jump when you bend up to the 8th to note that harmonizes with the bent note. So, there's no in between sound, just one note, then BAM next note. This makes playing harmonized solos with bends (especially slow ones) impossible, unless you want them to sound like junk. I just convert them into slides and whatnot, and I still love this pedal overall, but it's definitly something prospective buyers should know.

Unlike some of the reviews, I have found this pedal REALLY easy to use. I mostly use the "harmonizer" function. All you have to do is select a key (CDEFGAB) and then tell it which interval you want as a harmony (3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th [my favorite], octave, 2 octave) it's that easy. The other functions are interesting. The only one that seems to be functional (something to be used more than never) is the detune function.

It sounds good, but sadly digital. I am actually using this on my saxophone primarily. Which is, of course, weird but I'm having fun experimenting with guitar effects on my horn and this one adds so much to my sound. (Effects set up--BD 2-->PS 5-->Dunlop Crybaby-->PH 3-->DD 3. All Boss pedals minus the Crybaby.) It takes my one horn and makes it two, which can be a lot of fun. However it does have a digital quality to it. The harmony tone usually sounds like a really good midi saxophone sound. When I play my guitar through it the sound is better but still has a digital quality to it. All things considered it sounds much, much better than the digitech whammy, not nearly as big, and you don't have to move a foot controller to make sure that the pitch stays on key.

I had no problems with this pedal for about four or five months. But recently it has started to "crackle and pop" from time to time. I don't know if it's just my pedal or if it is a problem across the board. The solution I found was to unplug the unit and let it sit for about five or six minutes and then power it back up. It seems to work after that. So I've been in the habit of unplugging it from my daisy chain every time I'm done playing. This seems to fix the problem. If it does give me trouble during a gig, I'll just remove it from the chain of pedals and let it sit for awhile, and then it seems to be fine.

Haven?t talked to them yet, but I may because of the reliability issue.

Considering I'm not using this pedal for a guitar this pedal meets my expectations. It tracks the notes really well and almost never plays a wrong note. If it does, it's because I'm out of tune. When I use the pedal with my guitar the results are even better. Definitely a good pedal at a relatively low price considering all that it does.

Says right on the unit what all the knobs do and it seems obvious what all the functions do. If anything on the unit itself isn't completely obvious at first, the manual describes well enough how to use the pedal.

This pedal sounds amazing. I love it. I bought it primarily for the harmony effect, but all of the modes sound very good. However, I was concerned when I first used the harmony mode. I plugged the PS-5 in between my guitar and my amp (Peavey XXX), and when using distortion the harmony would sound fine except for one note. There would always be one note in each scale, varying depending upon the interval selected, that would just create horrible, boomy, digital noise. I thought that I might just have to avoid the one note causing the problems. But then I put the PS-5 in the effects loop. Problem solved! I really can't believe how good it sounds. The harmonies are perfect. Of course, when using distortion the pitches shifted two octaves up sound "fake" or digital, but even those sounds are still useful and don't necessarily sound out of place.

Seems dependable so far. Never had a problem with any other Boss pedals.

It is perfect for metal lead harmonies. The harmonies also sound beautiful when used on a clean setting for jazz and classical type stuff. The detune mode sounds very thick and nice; sounds like a good chourus pedal. The tremolo arm and flutter effects sound very good and are useful. A Digitech Whammy pedal probably does a better job of taking the place of an actual whammy bar. Of course, an actual whammy bar generally does a better job than that.

It's a tweaky box.
I can get it to do all the stuff it's supposed to do.
I like it But apparently for different reasons than many.

It sounds ok.
You have to tweak the relative levels and mix to get each thing just so.
You can maybe get two or three effects in the course of a set if you are swift.
Having used HArmonizers of various kinds for years, one that sits iin a Boss box is
very great.
I really don't use the intelligent HArmony because I don't play like that annd am liable to do double stops and drones without thinking about it.
But getting a faux twelve string or bass or some oomph or some weird harmonies polyphonically sounds good.
The detune chorus sounds just like an old eventide.
And the pitch shift is "the shit".

I love it.
You can set it for nice melodic slides , up down whatever. Precise and toneful .
Or speed it up for synthy sounds.
Does the Tom Morello thing without having to get good wwitgh a rocker pedal (tho you can add one. You can set it do B-bender tricks and all sorts of fun.
Add delay after or even before or both. Put it after your distortion or before ....

Legendary Boss pedal construction takes a touchy technology and packages it like a tank.
Eats a battery in ;like 20 minutes tho'

We don't need no stinkin support !