PS-6 Harmonist Review

This pedal is useful for all the styles and genres; I play Metal and the Harmonist is always on with melodic songs.

Ease of Use:	7
Sound:	8
Reliability:	7
Impression:	8
Overall rating:	7.7
Reviewer rating:	7.5
Users rating:	7.9
Votes:	10

overall: 7.5

Reviewed by: Etsed Jayel, on february 11, 2011

Price paid: € 150

Purchased from: Small music shop

Ease of Use: This is a new Boss harmonizer, after the PS-5, and it's quite similar to it, but there are some things that make the difference. The controls are pretty easier and very intuitive, you can quickly learn how to use the four knobs for all the different functions. You cannot customize most of the effects, but they sound pretty good. // 7

Sound: With this pedal you can have different effects: pitch shifter and harmonizer, detuner, super bend. The pitch shifter works well, it's reliable and easy to use, but it can slightly change the sound of your distortion, if you use a pedal.

The harmonizer is good and accurate, it's a bit better than the PS-5, the only problem is that if you use the distortion of your amp, the two (or three in some ways) notes of the Harmony make a lot of noise, but using a distortion pedal before the Harmonist it sounds perfectly. The selection of the key is easier than before, you can separately choose the key and Major/minor.

The detuner is like a little chorus, it's quite useful for some arpeggios, though for the rest is not so important to improve the sund of a solo or something like that.

The super shifer is simply a Whammy effect, it's a bit uncomfortable to use it because of the "rise time" and "fall time" settings of the knobs, that can take some time, but you can add an expression pedal and with it the super shifter is the perfect alternative of buying a Whammy pedal. // 8

Reliability & Durability: I would not label it as a "must", but it's very helpful to have it, especially if you want to harmonize to make a very melodic solo; you can also exploit the pitch shifter if you don't want to change the tuning of your guitar, like you're in a gig and you don't want to waste time or change the instument so many times. // 7

Impression: This pedal is useful for all the styles and genres; I play Metal and the Harmonist is always on with melodic songs. Between all the harmonizers that have been produced, I think this is the better now, and if someone really needed one, I would recommend this. An only great defect: pay attention to the tuning of your guitar: the Harmonist is very sensible and precise, with the guitar not tuned perfectly it will sound bad. // 8

Comments

[krvolok]

Cool,but does it work outside major and minor?

[Etsed Jayel]

If you play in a modal scale you can choose the key with the same flats or sharps, but if you want to play in a melodic or harmonic minor scale it doesn't work so well.

[?Loki?]

dude i wanted to get this but would you recomend that it would sound good if you want to cover other twin axe groups like A7X Judas Priest or Iron Maiden

[Etsed Jayel]

Yes man, I think it would sound pretty good

[djsdabest]

?Loki? wrote:

dude i wanted to get this but would you recomend that it would sound good if you want to cover other twin axe groups like A7X Judas Priest or Iron Maiden

if you are going to use it for A7X bear in mind they use a lot of chromatics in their solo's/melodies so you won't be able to use the harmonist for that without it sounding odd.

[krvolok]

Etsed Jayel wrote:

If you play in a modal scale you can choose the key with the same flats or sharps, but if you want to play in a melodic or harmonic minor scale it doesn't work so well.

That rules out the major phrygian mode as well.And yeah for some modals you can just transpose in to the corresponding major or minor.Anyway good review,since it's not 10/10/10/10 I'd say it's helpful.

[jon.peebles]

The harmonizer is good and accurate, it's a bit better than the PS-5, the only problem is that if you use the distortion of your amp, the two (or three in some ways) notes of the Harmony make a lot of noise, but using a distortion pedal before the Harmonist it sounds perfectly.

Distortion before pitch shifting makes it MORE difficult for the pitch shifter to track what you play. You might like the sound of it, which is fine, but you aren't using the pedal the way it is generally meant to be used. Just to be clear. Also...what do you mean by "the notes of the harmony make a lot of noise" before distortion?

[Etsed Jayel]

jon.peebles wrote:

Distortion before pitch shifting makes it MORE difficult for the pitch shifter to track what you play. You might like the sound of it, which is fine, but you aren't using the pedal the way it is generally meant to be used. Just to be clear. Also...what do you mean by "the notes of the harmony make a lot of noise" before distortion?

When I said that "the notes make noise", I meant that they don't sound clear, you hardly hear the different notes, like if you played both them with the guitar distorted.
However, ok, you're right, I don't use the pedal the way is meant to be used, but I play a lot with the distortion, and to have a clear sound of the notes with the distortion after the Harmonist, I should have two amps and use both A/B outputs of the pedal.

[Gen.Braddock]

I am actually curious if this would work on a bass, or is there a bass version made by anotehr company. I wonder what it would sound like.

[CapnKickass]

^ It'd sound like a blown speaker. No i dunno, probably weird unless its in octaves.

[?Loki?]

djsdabest wrote:

?Loki? wrote:

dude i wanted to get this but would you recomend that it would sound good if you want to cover other twin axe groups like A7X Judas Priest or Iron Maiden

if you are going to use it for A7X bear in mind they use a lot of chromatics in their solo's/melodies so you won't be able to use the harmonist for that without it sounding odd.

thanks for the intel still sounds cool though im gonna get one

[daadambomb]

CapnKickass wrote:

^ It'd sound like a blown speaker. No i dunno, probably weird unless its in octaves.

Yeah, I have a feeling it's sound like complete crap. xD

[Mikii13]

Hi Etsed Jayel and thanks for the review. I'm choosing between a whammy 4 and this. I'm really not in particular of the harmonizing application but really into the pitch shift, detune and bending.

I leaning more forward to this one because its cheaper, smaller footprint on the pedalboard and its 1-spot-able. Also I'm just gonna use it in just 2 RATM songs (Maria and Wake UP) my band's about to cover. would it be an obvious choice against the whammy? thanks

[Etsed Jayel]

Sure man, this is a perfect choice for Rage Against The Machine's songs, and if you don't want to spend for a Whammy.
And if you like pitch shifting too, this pedal will be very useful for you, with all of these effects together.
Hope I've been helpful, thanks for the question!