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Average Price: $117
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Description
Unleash a world of sonic experimentation with the Boss PS-5 Super Shifter. This compact marvel is packed with a host of innovative features to supercharge your sound. Known for its three-voice harmony and detune capabilities, this pedal gives you unparalleled control over your sound. With a selectable key knob and four distinctive effect modes, including the standout Super Shifter mode offering four octaves of shifting, this pedal is a gem for musicians eager to explore new sounds without compromising on technology or quality.
Key Features:
- Three-voice harmony and detune for added depth and richness to your sound
- Selectable key knob for precise control over your tonal adjustments
- Four unique effect modes to expand your creative possibilities
- Super Shifter mode providing four octaves of shifting for a wide tonal range
- Compact design ideal for guitarists needing a portable yet powerful effects pedal.
Product specs
| Analog/Digital | digital |
| Power | 9V |
| Bypass | buffered bypass |
Videos
BOSSchannel
PS-5 SUPER Shifter [BOSS Sound Check]
PS-5 SUPER Shifter [BOSS Sound Check]
BOSSchannel
Boss PS-5 Pitch Shifter Pedal | Reverb Demo Video
Reverb
BOSS PS-5 Super Shifter
Galloway Music
Boss PS-5 Super Shifter
musictoyznetwork
Boss - PS-5 - Super Pitch Shifter PS5
Dennis Kayzer
BOSS PS 5 Super Shifter Demo
creepingnet
BOSS PS-5 Super Shifter
Cryptic Mask Guitar
Boss PS-5 Super Shifter - Review & Demo
Unholy Audio
Reviews
PROS
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More organic-sounding harmonies compared to similar pedals
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Versatile: useful for harmony, whammy effects, and pitch shifting
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Detune adds unique texture, albeit not organic
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Effective for solo guitarists to replicate complex tracks
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T. ARM and HARMONIZER standout features for distinct sounds
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Tracks better than many other pitch-related pedals
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Compatible with down-pitched vocals for guttural effects
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Compact size with "Flutter" feature, valuable for hardtail guitar players
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Can produce a wide range of sounds from subtle to bizarre
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Built-in expression pedal input for real-time control
CONS
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Detune feature may not be useful for everyone
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Requires knowledge of music theory to fully utilize harmonies
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Some users find the tracking less accurate for harmonies and pitch shifting
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Sound quality considered "cheesy" and inferior to analog brands by some
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Does not replace all functions of a Whammy pedal
4.0 out of 5
Based on 8 Reviews and 40 Ratings
384
A Whammy-wannabe, maybe, but it sports some cool features nonetheless!
I bought this stomp because I play hardtail guitars 99.9% of the time and therefore needed a Whammy-like device. Enter the BOSS PS-5, whose smaller size and [whammy bar] "Flutter" feature were the clinchers for me! It's one of but a handful of effects I still use now that I have my Kemper Powerhead, as the Kemper will do almost everything the PS-5 can EXCEPT the "Flutter". That saves me from having to use an expression controller with the Kemper, and frees up a space in the Kemper's Effect Module for a different effect if I so choose. While the PS-5 may not be as robust of a pitch-changing device as the Whammy is these days, I will contend that the PS-5's tracking seems much smoother than the original WH-1 Whammy pedal circa 1989.
Preferred Settings + Usage:
Fave settings? Depends on the band I'm playing with: For my main band, BLACK LABEL, I typically use it in "T. Arm" mode pitched up an octave or two with a the "Speed" [rise/fall] set around 2:00. In my 80's Metal outfit, RIVAL, I'd say that 99% of the time I use the "T. Arm" mode pitched down 2 octaves with the "Speed" set at 9:00 for a nice, slow whammy bar deep dive, however, I switch to "Flutter" mode with the "Speed" at 4:00 for the last notes of my Brad Gillis solo part in "Don't Tell Me You Love Me".
5821
Glorious madness.
Seems when people ask me about where I got sound "x" sound 50% of the time it always seems to include this pedal in some way-on tons of sources,
I do have the Boss Harmonist HR-2 pedal as well- but this one combines the Harmonist with more madness.. Now the Harmonist usually just sits on a shelf, I should quit that. This pedal can be sparkly, warped, twinkly, pitched down, & just plain absurd and bizarre. I can't think of a single source I wouldn't try using it on. You can use meathead settings and get wild fantastic results, or, you can learn how it works and exploit it's psychotic sound texture even more.
No review in text would serve this fella well so I will try to find a great representation in the video that I'll include . Gotta a bit of Thin Lizzie if ya like & tons of psycho other ways you can use this guy...You gotta gotta hear it & even better learn this guy. Desert island pedals? This would be in my top 5 no question. Get all crazy with psycho 3 part harmonies? Yep, I'm in.
**note the expression option in vids-
****note: weirdos who exploit these tools are rare so I apologize I couldn find many-but I use mine w/ Radial EXTC or a direct box on almost anything you can think of & loads of other sources. A truely killer pedal. Anything from sound design for crazy effects to subtle uses. Crazy is tons of fun always-
329
Why do you need a whammy for ?
This is a great pedal with a bunch of great features : Harmonist, Pitch Shifter , T. Arm (whammy thing), Detune (more than a chorus) and flutter (the heck is this ?). Give it an expression pedal and you're ready to go ala Morello. The sound and build quality are phenomenal (yes, i'm a Boss fan). Just go for it !
321
Classic Unique Pedal
As a big fan of Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, I love the signature pitch bend sound made with this pedal. It's a lot of fun to use live, and ideal for some experimental pitch bending sounds.
1050
Tremolo Chorus and Wah??? wait a second...
is a great pedal for modulations and crazy noises... with delay pds 2000 is awesome, é tope meo
1050
Tremolo Chorus and Wah??? wait a second...
is a great pedal for modulations and crazy noises... with delay pds 2000 is awesome, é tope meo
88
Used for t-arm
Not the best pedal for harmonies and pitch shifting as the pog 2 is, I would use this to switch pitches with the t-arm.
39534
how's the detune handle chords?
320
Just Nice
The pedal features are really great but the sound it's really cheesy and a bit crapy compared with other analog brands i mean for the price if its were cheaper i would not complain at all
Artist usage
Add artist"I do have a loop of cables that come out just for this pedal. This is the only and actual pedal that signal is coming out to and back during the show. It's in one of the loops, so it only comes on when he's using it, and that's for the intro to 'Lonely Boy.' It's the Super Shifter and he uses the Tremolo arm. We took the analog appraoch because you have to step on the pedal itself to actuate it. There's no remote. It does have an expression pedal jack, but you'd have to have another expression pedal to make it work. And if you step on the pedal it just dips the signal an octave and it comes back up when you release it. It's so much easier to do it that way. That's the way it was designed in the first place. So for that riff I have a buffered signal that comes all the way out here to this pedal and all the way back to the rig. It just comes on when he plays that riff and then we move on to a cleaner signal path. I'm just trying to keep all the time available his straight-into-amplifier sound because anything that you put in the path of that is not through bypass or splitters. Splitters usually buffer, although the devices we're using don't. They just transform or isolate splitters. So it sounds exactly like if you had just plugged into the amp," explains Dan Auerbach's guitar tech about the Boss Super Shifter PS-5.
According to Gear Secrets of the Guitar Legends: How to Sound Like Your Favorite Players, Satriani used a PS-5.
This photo from an effects bay article, is the pedal board of Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine. It displays a Boss PS-5 SUPER Shifter Pedal
Nice Rack Canada custom builds this pedalboard for St. Vincent. This two part pedalboard also houses a Boss PS-5 SUPER Shifter Pedal. Source.
In this interview with Seymour Duncan, Ray says "I just have a Dunlop Crybaby wah, Boss EQ pedal, Boss Pitch Shifter to do harmonies, Boss Chorus Ensemble, and Electro-Harmonix POG Polyphonic Octave Generator"
This pedal is mentioned in this interview for Boss:
"What BOSS pedals get the most mileage onstage?"
"The delay [DD-3] is a favorite, the overdrive [OS-2], and more and more the pitch shifter [PS-5]. I prefer the DD-3 onstage, but for recording I use the DD-6."
can be seen at 1:15 in this post
Daniel Lopatin can be seen using this pedal as the first in his signal chain during the part where he explains his setup into more detail.
During an interview for RA (https://ra.co/features/1226) he also explains it with following words “ It's really straightforward. It's just a [Electro-Harmonix] Memory Man and some Boss pitch shifter that is 50% dry and 50% up a 5th. I love 5th intervals. Fifths equal Airwolf, but also Steve Reich. It's like a combo of Steve Reich and Airwolf. That really does it for me. ”
From an interview on roland.co.uk:
And what gear do you use in order to conjure up the Bloc Party sound?
My guitars are all Fender Telecasters, and Kele and I use Fender Deluxe amps both in the studio and on stage. Pedal-wise, it’s pretty much a Boss-fest. I’ve got a TR-2 Tremolo, DS-1 Distortion, a new PW-10 Wah, the DD-5 and DD-6 Delays and the PS-5 Supershifter.
(original interview here)
In this detailed gear diagram of Munky's Korn stage setup, you can see the guitarist used a Boss PS-5 Super Shifter pedal in his 2002 guitar rig.
A Boss PS-5 SUPER Shifter Pedal is shown on this Guitar Geek diagram of Herman Li's rig.
Genre Affinity
1
rock
91
2
alternative rock
34
3
indie rock
27
4
pop
22
5
metal
21
6
electronic
21
7
hard rock
20
8
indie pop
15
9
post-hardcore
14
10
blues
13
11
alternative metal
13
12
modern rock
13
Community setups
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Add recommendation$128.00
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The PS-5 is/was basically BOSS's answer to Digitech's Whammy pedal (and its market domination), but it never really "took off" like the Whammy's did.
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