BOSS SY-1 Guitar/Bass Synthesizer Guitar Pedal (SY-1)

It has a couple effects that I probably won’t use much, but it’s a great pedal on my board. I have my SY-1 feeding into the Boss SL-2 Slicer feeding into a Boss PS-6 Harmonist into a Boss DD-8 Digital Delay into the Boss RV-6 Reverb. The sound is magical with tons of room for creating your own unique sounds. Since the pedals I listed above are all modulation pedals, they will sound best through the effects loop on your amplifier (if it is so equipped). The SY-1 also pairs well with other instruments, my violin sounds great through it and so does my Les Paul using a violin bow to play it. Keyboards sound great, ukulele’s, mandolins and bass guitar are all instruments the SY-1 can substantially enhance. In summary, fun pedal, built to Boss’s standards that can enhance your church playing or send you to freakyville. Very versatile pedal, highly recommended.

I bought this because my band doesn't have a keyboard player and there are key spots in some songs where some soft orchestra music would be very beneficial. This fits the bill beautifully. By adding an expression pedal I'm able to fade the effect in and out as needed. The sounds are very authentic and high quality. Realistically it only has about three sounds that I'll for the kind of music that I do, but I feel confident that there's something in there for everyone. I used it at our last jam session and it was the star of the show. At least one of the people who heard has ordered one and I'm sure there will be more. I'm very happy with this purchase.

I can play keys okayish, but I'm mainly a guitarist and bassist. I use synth and guitar on a lot of the music I do, and I've always wanted a simple solution to switch between synth tones and guitar. I've tried several types guitar synths, and none of them have had a good combination of versatility, tone, and easy of use. This pedal does close everything I'd need it to and it's small and compact. Sure, some of the sounds are more convincing/all around better than others, but in the mix, it barely matters. Additionally, the ability to use it inline with other effects so easily smooths over a lot of the minor deficiencies you might find. Also, I'd say it's better for bass than guitar, but great for both. You can get some great classic synth bass sounds out it with relative ease. The worst thing about it is it has so many sounds and so much versatility that you might need to develop some way to mark down what you're doing to get the tones and sounds you like the most! Definite give it a shot, especially if you're a bassist in a band that needs some occasional synth bass sounds!

I really struggled with my final rating for the BOSS SY-1 Synthesizer pedal because while it does have a few shortcomings that warrant the 4-star rating, it's also an incredibly advanced (and compact) piece of effects circuitry and a lot of fun! When it comes to the basic concept of the SY-1 and technical execution thereof, the SY-1 is a 5-star product. Pretty much since the birth of MIDI (or the development of analog synths prior to that), there have been efforts to translate guitar playing inputs into real-time synthesizer tones. Many of these early efforts were plagued by horrible tracking (meaning that the synth note sounded does not correspond to guitar note played), latency, and unwieldy or expensive setups. The BOSS SY-1 suffers from virtually none of these problems. It fits into the familiar compact BOSS pedal footprint, has only a few control parameters promising just over 100 different synth tones, and the note tracking is stunningly fast. Even more impressive (and setting it apart from recent synth pedals from EHX and others), the note tracking is polyphonic, meaning that you can sound pads and other synth tones using chords, as long as you don't get too complex. It's really quite amazing how the SY-1 will completely transform the sound of your guitar or bass into a completely different instrument. I've had hours of fun already messing around with a looper and layering different sounds and note combinations on top of each other. You can suddenly create soundscapes (or approximate them, at least) that previously might have led you to pull out a synthesizer and laptop DAW. Where the SY-1 starts to run into a little bit of trouble, however, is in the types of sounds offered and limited control over sound shaping. My knowledge of actual synthesizers is pretty limited, but ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release) is a critical aspect of sound design, and one completely lacking in the SY-1. You can pick lead, bass, etc. preset from the SY-1, but then the only option you have to modify that is to adjust the tone (basically a low-pass filter, but very useful), and then the Rate/Depth of the waveform. So you have no control over whether your notes are punchy/percussive versus slow-building/swelling. In fact, my primary complaint about the bass sounds and may of the lead sounds is that while the note-tracking technology seems almost instantaneous, the actual resulting sound has a built-in attack that cannot be modified. And many of those notes sustain and cannot be cut off abruptly, even when palm-muting. Perhaps part of this is user error, and there are playing techniques you can develop to get more out of the pedal. Also, I really wish we could have gotten 1/4 to 1/2 as many of the bell and sound FX pages in exchange for additional "banks" of lead, bass, or pad sounds. I'm not sure how many users set up a $200 FX pedal in their signal chain just to make an explosion sound or whatever, and do nothing else until you change the settings. An entire bank of the Lead sounds, and several of the Bass ones involve musical fifths - those are certainly useful in a lot of synth context, but completely unusable in others, and I would have liked a wider variety of sounds instead of a half-hearted harmonizer feature. Finally, it should be noted that the pedal does not have MIDI, and there are no presets, so if you do find a particular sound that you like and want to come back to, you'll need to bend over and twist the knobs until you have it. That's pretty limiting in a live context. I am not sure of my complaints are fair or realistic given the price point and form factor, but I think they need to be known by prospective buyers of this pedal. This effects pedal is NOT a full-on substitute for a standard synthesizer. But it's a TON of fun, and I like to give extra credit for effects pedals that offer sounds I simply can't get from anywhere else. I can imagine ambient or praise & worship having a field day with this one, especially the pads, which are quite good and can be used with the Sound Hold feature (holding down the switch locks in and sustains the sounds, similar to the feature on the BOSS Tera Echo). The SY-1 is an amazing piece of technology that I could see growing increasingly fond of the longer I have to work with and adapt to its quirks. UPDATE (03/24/21) - I've owned the SY-1 for just over a year following the review above. My impressions of it are largely unchanged. What I will say is that are something it does quite well, and some things I have not been able to get it to do. Polyphony is great, and the note tracking (even on accurately-played chords) is great for pads, strings, etc. It can do some leads. But the sounds are just presets, and very...BOSS. I'm looking at the Source Audio C4 Synth, which is a very different take on a synthesizer pedal. It uses monophonic tracking, but has a much better emphasis on bass notes and single-note leads. It also has a robust online/mobile editor with community presets. I can't actually say that one looks "better" than the other, but I think they could complement each other quite well.

I've had mine for a little over a month now and I'm still finding cool things to do with it. It does all the stuff I hoped it would do. Pairs well with reverb pedals. I wouldn't recommend it if you're new to pedals or don't have specific effects in mind. Great if you're into classic synth sounds. The Send and Receive adds another level to what you can do with it. I would recommend watching demos on YouTube before you buy so you know what you're getting into. Luckily there are dozens of videos to help with the learning curve.

This isn't a guitar synth but it has different tones of an guitar to blender with. Don't expect a realistc strings or organ sounds but for the price and size are very easy to use delivering much more than coast. You just need to plug and play to have hours of pleasure mixing these sounds with your pedalboard. With SY 1 you can create lots of new tones, add an expression pedal or an foot switch and this stuff will give wings to your imagination, just fly it...

The tracking on the SY-1 is simply amazing! Perfect even at high speed and with complex chords. It took hours of playing before I encountered a single inaccuracy. Equally good results with a Les Paul and an archtop. (Haven't tried a Strat yet.) I've managed to get a handful of sounds that I'm very happy with, including a Metheny-like GR-300 type tone. Be prepared, however, to put in a good deal of time tweaking to get to a great sound. My initial results were pretty underwhelming ("harsh" would be a fair description), but so far I've been successful when I've started with a particular sound in mind and allocated a block of time to get there. I've found that in addition to the SY-1 controls I've had to tweak amp settings, other effects on my pedalboard, and even the guitar volume. But it's been great fun.

What I mainly use this for is making 'keyboard lines' with a bass. One of the best features no one talks about is the switch on the back that changes the input from guitar to bass. I play bass way better than keyboard so this allows me to make all sorts of awesome lines. I never use the send and return. Different drives expand this unit's sound capabilities in my opinion. Boss pedals last forever. I have been using them for over 30 years.