Boss XS100 Poly Shift Pedal

[Woodinblack]

56 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I've ended up with the XS-1, hopefully arriving in a couple of days. 

 

Excellent - can I have first dibs when you move it on?

[Al Krow]

49 minutes ago, pantherairsoft said:

I’ll dig a little deeper into the side by side specs. I have more expression pedals and expression splitters than I know what to do with, with I’ve always use pitching on its own pedal and typically, I’ve found great use for the built in extra of stuff like this.

 

I do think the presets will

be a game changer, but maybe I can live without them. Either way, I’m fairly certain one of them is getting added to the collection.

 

Yeah I think it's the same side by side spec for the XS-1 and XS-100; I think the key difference being the presets (very useful) and the built in expression pedal on the XS-100

 

[neepheid]

I am weakening towards the XS-1.  After finally hearing some bass usage, I think it does a better job of tone preservation than my Brainwaves.

[Al Krow]

5 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Excellent - can I have first dibs when you move it on?

 

Nah, get your own!

 

You didn't wait for me to move my recently purchased cheap-as-chips Ali XP floor floor light on, before getting one, did you? And what about those excellent KZ-ZARs eh, which you jumped on post Krow purchase and recommendation? You're definitely at risk of becoming a West Country Krow gear groupie...

 

But where were you when I eventually upgraded my Boss SY-1 for a Boss SY-200? Boss SY-1 - Effects - Basschat

[Al Krow]

5 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I am weakening towards the XS-1.  After finally hearing some bass usage, I think it does a better job of tone preservation than my Brainwaves.

 

Yeah - that Lasse Vuorsola did a great job with his first video, which was all the confirmation I needed given that from my OC5 and SY 200 experience I knew that Boss seemed to have nailed tracking algorithms better than most. Loved the fact he then asked for and dealt with specific queries with a second video. Hero.

[Al Krow]

@pantherairsoft - suspect this will be right up your street in relation to our recent chat about the XS-1 vs XS-100, from one of the TB'ers:

 

FUN FACTS about attaching a dual switch to the XS-1 !!
I connected a Boss FS-6 dual switch and tested the feature of storing settings on each of the two external switches, plus the built-in switch.
The XS-1 can store BALANCE amount, SHIFT interval/mode, and the TOGGLE/MOMENT option for the built-in footswitch, and each of the dual switches giving you instantaneous access to each (one at a time, though).
With instantaneous access to 3 different intervals, you could, for example, have a minor 3rd, major 3rd, and perfect 4th, for various harmonizing tasks. Similarly, m6, M6, and P5. You can have up to 4 different keys (counting bypass).
I tested this running a full mix through the pedal, the transitions are instantaneous but without any clicks or pops at the moment of change.

 

[Woodinblack]

29 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

You didn't wait for me to move my recently purchased cheap-as-chips Ali XP floor floor light on, before getting one, did you? And what about those excellent KZ-ZARs eh, which you jumped on post Krow purchase and recommendation?

 

Both of those were pretty cheap - this is too expesnive for what I need, but a bit cheaper would be ok!

 

29 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

But where were you when I eventually upgraded my Boss SY-1 for a Boss SY-200? Boss SY-1 - Effects - Basschat

 

I suspect I updated my SY-1 for an SY-200 before you did? But then I never really used it much anyway!

 

 

[Al Krow]

 

Just arrived!

Great excuse to uprate my little mini gigging pedal board, which has been unchanged for 5 months (must be a record) with something bigger and can provide a home to a few more noise boxes currently sitting on my pedal shelf...

 

PS I'll put a note on file that you want first dibs @Woodinblack if it ever gets upgraded - can give you a status update in a couple of years maybe?

[Woodinblack]

22 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

PS I'll put a note on file that you want first dibs @Woodinblack if it ever gets upgraded - can give you a status update in a couple of years maybe?

 

Sure, I will start making space on the pedalboard now

 

[Al Krow]

 

Useful side by side comparison of XS-1 vs Drop.

 

Comments enlightening:

- little in it on latency

- Boss have focussed on the attack and response as the processing catches and retunes your instrument => the feel is better preserved and the sound of that initial attack sounds right.

[Baloney Balderdash]

A couple of demos of the Boss XS-1, dialed in to seek to emulate an effect somewhat similar to an 8 string octave course bass -esque effect:

 

I feel the 1 octave up effect works best for this, since the dry signal will be dominating, as the bass strings would on a real 8 strings bass, compared to the octave strings, and so the fake octave can kind of hide behind the real bass signal.

 

In any case, a huge improvement over the TC Elextronic Sub'N'Up I used previously, even with a custom made Toneprint, with pre and post octave engine EQ filters to improve tracking, minimize digital artifacts and make the 1 octave up effect sound more natural.

 

 

Here we go:

 

Sound test of the new Boss XS-1 pitchshifter, testing octave down and octave up respectively blended with dry signal, on my 28.5" scale tenor bass (reverse orientation middle/bridge P pickup), tuned in A standard tuning, seeking to emulate a somewhat 8 string octave course bass -esque effect.

Octave Down: 0:00 - 2:30
Octave Up: 2:30 - 4:21

 

 

 

Sound test of the new Boss XS-1 pitchshifter, testing octave down and octave up respectively blended with dry signal, on my 5 string 28.6" scale tenor bass (bridge J pickup), tuned in E standard tuning, seeking to emulate a somewhat 8 string octave course bass -esque effect.

Though I avoided playing the low E too much, as it is already pretty floppy sounding on the short scale as is, and E0 is insane, however I did hit it a few times, just for the sake of the demo.

Octave Down: 0:00 - 6:10
Octave Up: 6:10 - 9:44

 

[Al Krow]

Had a chance to try mine out properly this evening.

 

Really nice octave up and down, the momentary is neat! Like the fact that it has a chorus thrown in. The de-tuning both up and down is decent and tracking good.

 

Moment of minor panic when I thought I wasn't able to get a 100% wet signal, however another bassist suggested I might just be hearing the acoustic sound from my bass in addition to the output via my home monitors, as I was playing at pretty low late-night home volumes. When I double checked by recording the output, turns out he was right! And obviously the clean acoustic sound is going to have more of an impact on a pitch shift than with pretty much all other fx - so certainly a point for me to be aware of going forward!

 

Edited October 11 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

@paulmcnamara cheers for bringing this to the attention of the BC community (and maybe less for hitting my wallet, haha!). Would you be up for amending the title to "XS-1 and XS-100" for us, so the thread captures both pedals that are being discussed on here? If so, if you or one of the mods ( @Woodinblack?)  could put that through, that would be fab. 

[Al Krow]

Spent a few hours setting up a larger pedal board to accommodate the XS-1 and Boss EV-30 dual output expression pedal, in addition to the three pedals I previously had on my compact gigging board (and then, of course, filled up the rest of the board with a few other pedals that had been patiently sitting on my pedal-shelf itching to be used!)

 

 

The expression pedal puts it into full whammy mode and seems to work by over-riding the on-off when the XS-1 is "on" (obvs has no impact when the pedal is in by-pass).

It applies a range of mix & detune from 0 (fully dry / no detune) to 100 with the destination mix and interval being whatever is set on the XS-1.

Effectively allows both momentary to be engaged, plus also incremental tones to be set and held.

 

It is pretty cool/fun, particularly when combined with the SY-200!

 

Edited October 11 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

Completely concur with @Baloney Balderdash on how good this thing is for octave up and down! It wasn't my original use case (detuning) but this will open up a lot of 8 string bass possibilities for filling out the sound, which is ideal for a 4 piece outfit like ours with just one guitar and no keys. An unexpected bonus and, dare I say, worth the price of the pedal by itself?

[Baloney Balderdash]

I just made up and recoded this little hard rock boogie for another demonstration of how the 1 octave down sounds blended with dry signal, this time using a pick:

The way the octave down sounds blended with dry signal is starting to grow on me, and I think it sounds particularly great using a pick, and even the low A string (not demonstrated above) on my tenor bass (that would be the same A as the low A string on a 4 string bass in regular E standard tuning), that would be A0 (a full whole step below the low B string on a 5 or 6 string bass) when taken an octave down sounds pretty damn tight (though admittedly I do have a HPF engaged, so that might account for some of that credit).

 

Utilizing my 28.5" scale LTD B4JR tenor bass, equipped with an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, and tuned to A standard tuning.

 

Edited October 12 by Baloney Balderdash

[cetera]

Got my XS-1 yesterday. It's good, but not astounding, but then I think that's just the nature of these pitch shift pedals....

 

It does a reasonable job up to about a tone/tone and a half detuned then the artificial sound becomes too overbearing for my taste. I also have the Digitech Drop and that's as bad/worse. Under layers of distorted guitars it probably wouldn't be noticeable but solo'd it becomes a distraction imho.

 

Advantages of this pedal (beyond tuning down with a good sound to C#/D) are the extra ability to tune up/add higher notes, the octaver and the 'secret' chorus setting.

Edited October 16 by cetera

[Al Krow]

58 minutes ago, cetera said:

Got my XS-1 yesterday. It's good, but not astounding, but then I think that's just the nature of these pitch shift pedals....

 

It does a reasonable job up to about a tone/tone and a half detuned then the artificial sound becomes too overbearing for my taste. I also have the Digitech Drop and that's as bad/worse. Under layers of distorted guitars it probably wouldn't be noticeable but solo'd it becomes a distraction imho.

 

Advantages of this pedal (beyond tuning down with a good sound to C#/D) are the extra ability to tune up/add higher notes, the octaver and the 'secret' chorus setting.

 

100% ^^

 

Fortunately for detuning we only ever need 2 or 3 semis for our alto singer. If we have a male vox it may sometimes be 5 semis, but that's usually handled easily enough by playing on a different string.

 

You keeping yours?

[neepheid]

Hee hee, got a borrow of an expression pedal - guess who's having some whammy fun tonight with his XS-1...

 

[cetera]

28 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

You keeping yours?

For sure. May sell my Digitech Drop now though...

[Woodinblack]

I am kind of interested in this now, its probably more than I wanted to spend on a pedal but I do have a specific issue at the moment - I have joined a metal group and where the main group can all be played with a standard tuned 5 string, quite a few of the metal ones require a variety of drop tunes, so I have to use more than one bass (because it is a pain constantly tuning your E on a 5 string!). However, then there are a few songs that are other wierd tunings like drop B. Most you can just rework out for a 5 string, but some would be easier of I could use a drop D b string tuned down to B - so if you dropped a low D down 3 semitones to a B, does it sound reasonably natural, or at least workable?

 

I am currently just using my Boss ME90B but the drop tuning on that is pretty poor.

 

 

On 11/10/2025 at 11:50, Al Krow said:

Would you be up for amending the title to "XS-1 and XS-100" for us, so the thread captures both pedals that are being discussed on here? If so, if you or one of the mods ( @Woodinblack?)  could put that through, that would be fab. 

 

Sorry, I had missed that, I certainly can if the OP doesn't want to / cant.

[Al Krow]

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I am kind of interested in this now, its probably more than I wanted to spend on a pedal but I do have a specific issue at the moment - I have joined a metal group and where the main group can all be played with a standard tuned 5 string, quite a few of the metal ones require a variety of drop tunes, so I have to use more than one bass (because it is a pain constantly tuning your E on a 5 string!). However, then there are a few songs that are other wierd tunings like drop B. Most you can just rework out for a 5 string, but some would be easier of I could use a drop D b string tuned down to B - so if you dropped a low D down 3 semitones to a B, does it sound reasonably natural, or at least workable?

 

I am currently just using my Boss ME90B but the drop tuning on that is pretty poor.

 

 

 

Sorry, I had missed that, I certainly can if the OP doesn't want to / cant.

 

3 semis down/up is passable (and a lot better than on any multifx I've used)

 

[neepheid]

I used my XS-1 live in anger for the first time at the weekend, I used -3 semitones and it was very passable - best pitch shifting performance I've had.  I still wouldn't record with it, but live it's eminently doable.

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, neepheid said:

I used my XS-1 live in anger for the first time at the weekend, I used -3 semitones and it was very passable - best pitch shifting performance I've had.  I still wouldn't record with it, but live it's eminently doable.

 

^^ this 100%

 

Have to 'fess I'm actually really enjoying the octave up and bringing it in with an expression pedal (same one as Neepheid is using above, as it happens). Having it set 40:60 wet / dry for octave up and 60:40 for octave down, to make allowance for the higher frequencies cutting through more easily, seems to be a decent mix. Obviously when de-tuning you'll want it 100% wet. Making me think I probably don't actually need my OC-5 anymore!

 

The issue I've now got, is that I'm seriously thinking about upgrading the XS-1 to the XS-100, as I want to be able to quickly switch between songs from:

• 100% wet, detuned to -2semis or -3semis (depending on the song)
• 40% wet for octave up
• 60% wet for octave down 

And as the XS-100 has it's own expression pedal, possibly either taking the expression pedal off board to free up space or use the dual output with a couple of other pedals.

 

So @Woodinblack if someone wants to sell me their XS-100 used, you may well (finally!) actually end up getting first dibs on mine, haha! But I'll be holding onto my XS-1 until then, for sure - great little pedal and as @neepheid has said, best pitch shift performance either of us have had from a pedal.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Al Krow

[neepheid]

8 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

^^ this 100%

 

Have to 'fess I'm actually really enjoying the octave up and bringing it in with an expression pedal (same one as Neepheid is using above, as it happens). Having it set 40:60 wet / dry for octave up and 60:40 for octave down, to make allowance for the higher frequencies cutting through more easily, seems to be a decent mix. Obviously when de-tuning you'll want it 100% wet. Making me think I probably don't actually need my OC-5 anymore!

 

The issue I've now got, is that I'm seriously thinking about upgrading the XS-1 to the XS-100, as I want to be able to quickly switch between songs from:

• 100% wet, detuned to -2semis or -3semis (depending on the song)
• 40% wet for octave up
• 60% wet for octave down 

And as the XS-100 has it's own expression pedal, possibly either taking the expression pedal off board to free up space or use the dual output with a couple of other pedals.

 

So @Woodinblack if someone wants to sell me their XS-100 used, you may well (finally!) actually end up getting first dibs on mine, haha! But I'll be holding onto my XS-1 until then, for sure - great little pedal and as @neepheid has said, best pitch shift performance either of us have had from a pedal.

 

 

That's a good point, I made the mistake of going 50:50 blend on an octave up and it was a bit to piercing for my liking.  It's seasoning, not the main flavour.  My previous pitch shifter (TC Electronic Brainwaves) had two voices, so for the "fake guitar" thing I did +7 and +12 combined 50:50 wet dry which worked well, as I guess the combination of the two higher pitches perhaps mellowed each other out?  With the octave alone, it's a bit too shrill at 50:50.  Lesson learned.