Boss MS-3 Pitch Shifter

[n1ck-a]

Looking for help ... the band I play in downtunes 2 semitones (Drop D) for half a set. Rather than mess about changing or tuning guitars, I thought I’d try the pitch shifter on my MS-3. 

Tried it (following instructions) and it appears to overlay the pitch shifted note with the original note. 

Anyone know how to use this effect and am I either expecting too much or not doing it right 🙂 

[NoirBass]

By the sounds of it, I think you need to turn the direct signal off. Then you’ll get just the pitch shifted sound.

That said, my experience with Boss pitch shifting have been fairly underwhelming. It’s always pretty glitchy. I’m using the GT-1b which I assume is the same DSP as the MS-3. My L6 HX Stomp on the other hand performs just the function you mention so flawlessly that I use it all the time for drop tunings.

[n1ck-a]

Worked this out for myself yesterday, before I saw your reply. Fairly new to programming effects, used to a stomp box that just works. Took a bit of fiddling about, it seems to track quite well but with headphones on it sounds a little artificial. Will test it with the full rig next rehearsal, my feeling is that in the band mix, it will do for a few songs. The true test will be to see how the low notes hold out...

Thanks for the tip though, you were right.

[dannybuoy]

The Digitech Whammy sounds great for dropping a couple of semitones. Barely any latency and sounds realistic. Weirdly though, it has 2 modes, and for this purpose at least, the classic mode sounds better that the new polyphonic mode. They also have a pedal named The Drop dedicated to this task, I’ve not tried it but I imagine it would use their fancy new polyphonic algorithm from the newer Whammy.

If you just need drop D for a few tunes though, I’d either retune or get a Hipshot Xtender key.

Edited July 8, 2019 by dannybuoy