NPD-Boss SY-200 in the house!

[backalleyblues]

So, after sown horse trading I wound up with a few $$$ in cash I could spend on musical stuff, and I’ve been wanting to get an organ pedal like a B9 for awhile, then saw a demo of the Boss SY-1 and it’s organ tones-well you won’t mistake it for a B-3, but it will do for my purposes. It also had a lot of other sounds that can work with some of the tunes we play (adding strings to “Let’s Stay Together” amongst others) but it had no presets-ugh! Bad enough to switch my reverb pedal around, this would be much more difficult.

So after a bit of research, I found the SY-200-presets! Sounds! Lots of homework to do!! Played around with it and there’s a lot I can do with this pedal-organs and strings of course, and the occasional horn blast for a few songs that need it. Trying to create a pseudo-piano tone for “Walking In Memphis” and a synth pad for Gnarles Barkley’s “Crazy” so I still have my work cut out for me…

So does anyone else here have this pedal, and what tips/tricks/settings would you recommend? I hear it being a useful tool to help fill out the sound in a small band, so long as it’s used tastefully…

Franc Robert

 

[JustABluesGuy]

Sounds fun. A buddy of mine and I have been working on a gospel blues original, and I do a pedal lick on it to sort of evoke an organ pedal tone.

I wouldn’t buy a pedal just for that, but I would love to try one. It sounds fun though.

 

[blowtorch]

So does anyone else here have this pedal, and what tips/tricks/settings would you recommend?

I have the big brother

I picked it up some years back and I'm a bit ashamed to say I've not really delved into it much.
They keep me so busy just playing straight guitar that I've not seemed to really have the time to get beyond the gee whiz phase (which it brings in spades)

 

[bgmacaw]

I have a SY-1 so my "presets" are me taking a picture of the settings with my phone if I want to duplicate them later.

I prefer running it into a clean amp model instead of running it through a tube amp. However, it might be interesting to hear how well some of the organ sounds do with a tube amp.

 

[tomasz]

I'm using the SY-300 since a good few weeks and it actually became the heart of my wet/dry rig with all the connectivities it offers. I'm using an expression pedal to blend in the right amount of synth I want and use the sub output fort feeding the modulation effects. That makes it a very versatile rig for what I need. I didn't found much use for the pure synth sounds, hence I mix it always with the guitar signal.

I'm still learning how to use the synths correctly, but it has been great fun. One of the recent features I found is the ability to hold the oscillators, which creates great drones for playing on top of it.

 

[backalleyblues]

Well, here’s a small gig report-

This pedal ROCKS!!!!

Still having to get the wet-dry balance right (bedroom vs gig volume) but it definitely is worth it! First set we play Black Velvet (our singer nails this tune) I was able to add the organ layer on top of my clean guitar during the pre chorus and chorus-nails that sound! Popped some strings on a couple other tunes (Amy Winehouse and Etta James) sounded really cool, and filled out things in a way that a 3 piece band normally couldn’t do. Still some more tweaking to do, but yeah, this is worth the effort for me!

I will be getting the FS6 footswitch to handle patch switching, it’s pretty much required if you have Sasquatch feet like I do-those 2 switches are too close for me!

More tomorrow morning…

Franc Robert

 

[backalleyblues]

OK, now the extended gig report-

Still got some learning to do, but this pedal is a serious Swiss-army tone palette! It will not do the things that it's bigger and more expensive brothers will do (deep programming and routing) but there's plenty here for a guitarist who needs to add some keys tones in their rig.

I was using my '73 SR, an amp I know extremely well, and moving around between all 4 guitars I had on the bandstand last night (SG Special, LP Tribute, and 2 telecasters, one in open/lower tuning). The pedal tracked flawlessly with all the guitars, to the point of following any of the usual slurs and micro-bends that we normally don't hear with just the guitar-so clean technique becomes paramount! Had the same issue when I had a B-9 pedal, I do believe the Boss has the same concept for converting guitar tones to synth.

The organ tones alone are worth the price of entry-we play our own arrangement of the Gershwin tune "Summertime"-I layered organ over the arpeggios I play during the verses, played the first verse as a regular guitar verse, then for the second, switched to organ. I know MOL what voicings to use to sound halfway convincing, and it was really cool to play like that-the singer had a HUGE smile on her face when I did that! Going through the SR, it sounded at least as good as my old B-9 pedal, and more than good enough for a bar gig! Added a nice synth pad to Gnarles Barkely's "Crazy" and at least got more of the spirit of the song, if not the actual tones. Strings on the chorus and bridge to "Let's Stay Together" did wonders for that song...

Ordered the FS-6 footswitch this morning, that will help a lot with patch switching, both between and during songs-being able to go fast and slow on the organ vibrato is a really nice thing to have. Will also have to spend a bit more time tweaking the sounds, and the blend settings for a better balance-mercifully, saving the presets is fairly straightforward and painless. Overall though, definitely a keeper pedal!

Franc Robert