Has anybody had much luck with the Boss SYB5 Bass Synth pedal? The sounds I get out of mine are pretty gnarly, and I am thinking of selling it. Maybe I am doing something wrong.
I've played nearly every bass synth effect on the market. I kept searching for something that was comparable to the synth effect that is built into the SWR Mini Mo' preamp. No one makes a synth pedal that sounds as good, tracks as well, and is dirt simple to get good sounds out of.
I was not impressed by the Boss SYB5. I found it tracked poorly and overall the sounds left something to be desired.
I've got two synth pedals and I'm pleased with both of them:
Akai Deep Impact - Sadly no longer made this synth pedal is fabulous. Tracks very well and has a lot of useful tones at its disposal. The learning curve for programming/editting sounds isn't terribly steep. I was able to get the primary sounds I use out of it in an afternoon of playing around. The manual is pretty worthless but it doesn't really matter terribly. I'm sure some of you are probably familiar with Phish's cover of
Boogie On Reggae Woman - this is the pedal Mike Gordon uses to replicate Stevie's left hand. Funky. They currently go for ~$400USD on the ebays. There are two up there right now which is pretty amazing. I searched for over 6 months before I found mine.
Chunk Systems Octavius Squeezer - This thing is nothing short of amazing. It is also expensive at $600. It also requires a degree in electrical engineering to program. Maybe not that last bit - but it does have a steep ass learning curve. I have spent hours screwing around with it and still wouldn't consider myself good at programming it. From what I understand it's a lot like programming an old Moog synth. It's capable of a massive array of sounds. It tracks better than any other synth or octaver pedal I've ever heard/owned/used. It's insanely accurate and fast.
Back to the SWR Mini Mo'. I would wipe out a small country for a pedal version of the synth section of that preamp. It's impossible to get a bad sound out of it and the learning curve is non-existent. It's so simple to dial in a sound. SWR (Bryan Beller primarily) really did a bang up job when they designed this preamp. If only I liked the rest of the preamp as much as the synth section.
