BOSS PS-6 Harmonist

What we say:

The Harmonist has always been an impressive maverick of a pedal: it's capable of a wide range of sounds from practical to quite abstract. There is also some real-time control available along with the option of using an expression pedal for greater versatility. Let's have a look at what it does...

The control panel is understandably busy with lots of text explaining the multiple functions of the four control knobs. There are four basic modes to choose from: Harmoniser, Pitch Shifter, Detune and Super Bend. The harmoniser can have three voices with the user selecting the key and interval for each. The pitch shifter is more straightforward (and can be deliberately set to an unorthodox interval for strange 'wonky' sounds!) and the detune can be seen as a more natural kind of Chorusing. These modes all still give you three voices if you require them (your initial note plus one above and one below) giving a great degree of creative freedom.

The Super Bend mode is a real-time pitch shifter that uses the footswitch (in a pre-set momentary mode) or an additional expression pedal (sold separately as an optional extra) to let you shoot notes up several octaves into the stratosphere or indeed dive-bomb them octaves down to sonic sludge! Fans of Tom Morrello and Matt Bellamy will be very familiar with these sky-scraping sounds. All of this in one compact pedal? It's a lot of fun. Make sure you hook this one up to mains power (like your pedalboard power supply or a BOSS PSA adaptor) because it chews up batteries and spits them out in seconds!