The XS-1 is an amazing pitch shifter pedal from Boss. Boss is a Japanese company that produces high-quality guitar pedals. The XS-1 is definitely one of those. The pedal is even suitable for basses as Boss made the system with the lower frequencies in mind.

Transposition

The XS-1 makes use of Boss’ new Polyphonic Pitch-Shifting Technology. This technology takes the tones of your guitar and beautifully transposes them to whatever key you want. They even make sure that small deviations won’t get bigger with the transposition. This is unfortunately something that can happen with transposition, but Boss made sure that this won’t happen with the XS-1. Furthermore, you can partially transpose your bass/guitar. A lot of alternative musicians like to play in Drop-D or even Drop C, while also still playing songs in the regular tuning. Retuning your guitar after every song is a hassle, and with the XS-1 it won’t be necessary anymore! With just one push of the button you can change your tuning without even having to stop playing. Do keep in mind that only the amplified sound will be transposed, not the actual strings on your guitar.

Sound

But won’t the sound quality get all messed up? Fortunately, it won’t! It’s true that sound can be a little distorted when you transpose it, ruining the quality and making other effects sound less good. However, Boss made sure that the transposed sound is the same depth and quality as the non-transposed sound. Consequently, you can also add other effects to your setup without diminishing the sound quality.