What's people's experience of these? I borrowed one of these off a mate for a try out thinking I might be able to use it to recreate harmony lines live. That turned out to be a bit ambitious on my part, but regardless of that I was somewhat dissapointed with the pedal in general.
In Harmony mode the tracking isn't great and goes wobbly every so often, particularly with low notes and and unison bends. It also sounds a bit poor when using it as a pitchshifter to tune down the guitar a 4th, 5th or octave. Again sound gets wobbly and lacks clarity and definition and with no dry signal mixed in it starts to modulate. It does sound a bit better/tighter with some dirt, clean seems to expose it.
I also ran it in pitchshift mode in comparison to my EHX Pitchfork (which doesn't do the harmony bit) and the Pitchfork sounds so much better, greater consistency in the tracking and still sounds good and solid even with no dry signal in the mix. The Pitchfork's effected signal sounds more guitar like whereas the Boss sounds really over digitized/processed and just wobbly. I can use the Picthfork to turn my standard tuned guitar into an A or B tuned baritone (clean sound with 100% FX mix). The Boss just doesn't sound right in this situation. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or something's faulty, although a google search seems to reveal a lot of similar experiences, what's yours?
Comments
I've only used the digital version of the Harmonist within the Boss GT units and found the same problems you've documented. Pitchfork is far superior.
Sounds like putting a compressor in front might help it.
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Have you moved it around in your chain? Some people find it works better after dirt, although mine is second in the chain after the compressor.
I would personally just use my pitchfork for 4th or 5ths (or octaves) and not bother with anything more complicated.
I've heard it's supposed to be the best, but a bit big for me.
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Going first it was iffy. But so long as it had a bit of oomph to drive it -- either clean from a compressor or after OD -- then it was fine. Really good I thought.
also harmonizers only seem to work (for classic sounds) with active pups or heavy humbuckers
As I posted further up, I'm think I'm expecting to much of it as a harmoniser anyway as I need it to go over key changes. Pitchfork definitely is a better tracking and sounding pitchshifter and doesn't need to go in FX loop and single coil friendly.