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

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 !

This is a tricky, tricky pedal to get the hang of. But, considering how many things it can do and the small size of the unit, this is understandable. I prefer this tiny box with a few tiny knobs to a big clunky Whammy anyday. (Granted, this doesn't have a footpedal.)

My setup Ibanez>Dyna Comp>Big Muff>PS-5>Dano Delay>Fender Princeton 65. No noise that I can tell. Slight volume boost when you harmonize, but hey, you're essentially adding another guitar when you do this. Slight, slight loss of tone (warmth).

Ok now- this is an effect pedal- not an extra guitarist in the room with you, not a tremolo arm, not a detuning machine- it's an effect. It sounds like an effect. You should have no problem discerning a solo harmonized with this and harmonized with two actual guitars. If you can't, you have hearing problems. Given that, it sounds very good.Harmonizer-
It HARMONIZES IN TUNE. But you must play in tune, fairly cleanly, and select the right key. If you don't know how to do this, don't buy this pedal. Running it after my Big Muff produces suprisingly good results, with little tracking problems.
Pitch Shifter- Nice. I use it mainly for a simulated bass sound, which it does far better than the OC-3. Also use it for a few tunes where I need to go up to the 24th fret or so, but I only have a 22 fret guitar. Works well, sounds good. Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable.
Detune-
Don't know why this is even included. Sounds like a shimmery, fairly bland chorus. I hate chorus, don't use it.
Tremolo Arm-
Nifty novelty effect, though without the expression pedal it's hard to give a good analysis. Sounds pretty realistic, except for its unusual precision given that tremolo-type activity has a natural sloppiness to it . Probably will never use it.
Flutter-
Very cool. Again, because of it's precision, it sounds like an effect. But it is passable for surf-type trem action. Just be sure to hit the pedal right BEFORE you hit your note/chord. Otherwise you get a very unnatural shift into tremolo mode that ruins the effect, making it sound very fake.

It's a BOSS. Never owned one, but from what I hear they are built to last.

I play mostly classic rock. I use a looper as well, and like the PS-5 for it's bass-simulating features. I'd buy another if stolen or lost since it works well and there's nothing else quite like it, except maybe a Whammy, but I like its compact design.
I tried the OC-3 out as a bass simulator, and good god- that thing was junk. Not just for simulating bass, but for anything.
Overall this pedal had all the features I wanted, plus a few more, and performs as I'd hoped.

for a stompbox, it can be tricky. reason it gets a 4 is because i consider something with 3 knobs (volume, tone, and gain) to be a 10. this has numerous settings, and if you dont know what you're doing, it could very easily be used improperly.

id like to start by saying it is a pitch shifter. there is no reason that this should be getting a rating of 1. i can see if its a distortion and it all boils down to personal taste, then give it a 1 if its not your cup of tea. but a pitch shifter CANT sound bad unless you aren't using it right.

anyone giving this pedal a rating of 1
a)is out of tune
b)has it in the wrong spot in their chain
c)is sloppy and is playing more than 1 note at a time
d)is under the impression that harmonizers can track chords
e)got this pedal 10 minutes ago, and didnt take time to learn how it works
f)doesnt understand basic music theory of keys and intervals.
or
g)is a drummer

now lets get down to a review. firstly ive been playing for 8 years. ive owned oodles of pedals, mostly by boss. i have an Agile Hornet, and a Jackson Soloist SL-1 running through many other pedals to a Kustom II Lead.

the first option is just a regualar, straight up pitch shifter. nothing special here, fun to play with.

then we have the harmonize mode. here you can get a second voice from -2 to +2 octaves or anywhere in between. the harmonizer must be used with single notes only. if you play chords, all you will hear is scrambling. ALSO, YOU MUST MAKE SURE THAT YOU SELECT THE CORRECT KEY!!! if not, it will sound off, and you will come on here and give a crappy rating. WONT YOU!!

then we have the detuner mode. i rarely use this, but it sounds neat when i do

then theres the T-Arm. this is fun. it will shift up or down to the selected pitch when you depress the pedal. it even has speed control so you can make it shift fast or slow. think Tom Morello on Know YOur Enemy or Killing In The Name Of.

finally we have the flutter. like the detuner i rarely use this. ive never used a Boss vibrato pedal, but i imagine the flutter mode sounding a lot like a VB-2.

i should also mention that this pedal IS stereo! and really quite digital.

i dont think its true bypass but im not a tone junky on a magical quest to find the "perfect organic tone." try looking in your garden.

i now own 16 boss pedals, some new, some used. i have never had one die, spit, sputter, gurgle, gargle, deny, or disobey me...EVER. 100% quality.

ive never had to contact the company ...n/a

i bought this pretty much for harmonized metal solos a la Dragonforce and A7X too. it sounds perfect, but like i mentioned above, it is crucial that you take the time to make sure it is set up correctly. it is quite the hefty price tag for a single effect, but youll understand when you plug this beautiful sparkly, turqouise baby in. The manual has handy suggested settings that sound nice. it also has expression in option, although i have never used it. enjoy

It's pretty simple. My only qualm is that I'll have to start carrying a flashlight to gigs to change its settings between tunes. The knobs are small and there are a *lot* of settings. Then again I would expect that from a pedal with this much capability. Other than that, I am surprised how quickly I am able to switch between radically different settings with this thing. It's not brain surgery...

Look, I can see how operating this can be overwhelming for some. What you have to understand is that the "mode" control basically gives you 5 different pedals in one. Once you understand how the controls work for ea "mode", it's really pretty easy.

I mainly got this for the stereo chorus "detune" function. It is the best chorus I have ever heard in a pedal. There is no wobbly pitch modulation (except in extreme pitch shift settings) and no perception of "speed". Instead it is just a very wide, deep, and lush stereo-expanded chorus sound that works well for clean or dirty tones. The delay and balance controls are effective at adjusting the depth and "wetness" of the effect. The pitch shift can go from subtle expansion through "police-like" sounds to exaggerated queasy "plastic" chorus sounds. For me, it was worth the $150 for the detune function alone.

I have been playing with the harmonizer and starting to love it too. It was startling the first time I fired it up in stereo- one guitar on one side and one on the other. The timbre of the synthesized guitar is less than perfect. But the balance control is effective for mixing the dry sound in the foreground and the harmony in the background. Used this way, it sounds very natural. The tracking is flawless and it works well with distortion pedals in front of it - nice clear harmonies with 2 distinct voices. Dialing up major/minor modes with the "H.R. Key" control is a breeze. Set it where you want, pick your interval and go. To harmonize in other modes (mixolydian e.g.) you will need to understand how mode/key relationships work. A little basic music theory goes a long way here. Yes, your guitar needs to be in tune for the harmonizer to work correctly, blah, blah, does anyone really need to say that? Other fun things to do with the harmonizer are to dial up octaves, balance it 100% wet and there are "guitar synth lead" sounds galore.

The pitch shifter is a blast too. In addition to the typical octave-dividing and fixed interval fun, you can dial up a nice 12-string sound or bell like overtones using 4ths or 5ths and use it all with chords. Again, prudent use of the balance control will allow you to dial up "natural" vs. "alien" type tones, depending on what you want.

I don't really use the 2 whammy bar functions on it although I have played with them and they work well.

I have some Boss pedals that are nearly 25 years old and they still work well. I expect this one will last at least as long.

Like I mentioned before, for the chorus alone this was well worth the price. Everything else is icing as far as I'm concerned. What I love about this pedal the most is that every day I discover something new to do with it. There is a lot of depth to it and I'm sure I'll be learning new things to do with it for a long time.

Look, I don't really know what people mean when they say something "sounds digital" other than there are a lot of misconceptions about sound and how it relates to technology. Bottom line is if you want "natural" or "normal" sounds out of it use the balance control prudently and judiciously. If you like making noise and funny sounds, it can certainly do that too. Take your time, learn how to use the tool. There is a lot to learn with this guy.

I'm glad I got this and would easily buy it again.

Oh dear, how do I put this. Boss couldn't have made this thing anymore complicated. You should be able to tell how it works just looking at it. Fail

If you want a pitch shifted hamony than this is the pedal for you. However if you want it in tune then look else where. It sounds like a cat being drowned (not that I've heard a cat drown I'm just guessing). Fail Hardcore

No, unless you are reallying on it to sound bad.

Awful sound, extremly over priced and overcomplicated. I have never sen a worse pedal.

Simple. Point the knobs in the right directions and its away. If you are like me and don't really know one scale from another when you're playing, just fiddle with each different scale setting and you will soon find the right one. Each of the other effects are straight forward.

Like many, i have found this box to alter the tone ever so slightly but c'mon what do you expect when the poor little thing especially when its got to put up with the likes of fuzz boxes and distortion galore. (put this unit first in line for your effects if the trackin is a little off.)

One thing, when this unit loses its power it will let you know about it. It causes alot of extra noise!. I have it powered with the DC brick now and no probs.

You could lob this thing into a herd of oncoming wilderbeast and it'll survive. The army should make their tanks out of boss pedals!

Took it to shop once cos i thought it was faulty. turns out just wanted a new battery. (Dumb i know)

Very nice addition to the effects collection. Not something i would use regularly but can certainly add an extra something to those solos!