Harmonizers are those units that add some flavor to the tone, changing the whole atmosphere and the perception of your tunes.
In fact, harmonizers are so popular that most acoustic guitar players around the world see them as necessary units on their pedalboard.
Here’s more information about the best guitar harmonizer pedals.
At a Glance: Our Top Picks for Guitar Harmonizer Pedals
Comparison of the Best Guitar Harmonizer Pedals
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Our Top Pick  |
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Best Budget Option  |
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What is a Harmonizer Pedal?
A harmonizer pedal is a pedal that allows you to add harmonies to your guitar (sometimes automatically), and they may include reverb, pitch shifting, echo, and other effects. They often have a footswitch so you can turn it on and off during live performances.
They are a great asset and highly valued by guitar players all around the world. Have a look in the sections below for a more detailed insight into how a harmonizer works and what features a high-quality one should include.
How Does a Harmonizer Pedal Work?
The harmonizer effect for guitar is a subcategory of the pitch effect where the pitch of tone gets lower or higher. Harmonizers, unlike octave pedals, for instance, can transpose any number of intervals, not only octaves.
The pedal works by keeping the original sound and combining it with a duplicated version, which is pitch-shifted. The result is a harmony of tunes that play together perfectly synchronized with a thicker tone and soundscape, transporting your listeners into a sonic nirvana.
Are All Harmonizer Pedals the Same?
Just like all the other effect pedals, harmonizer pedals do suffer some variations from model to model. The section below will give you a more in-depth insight into the features of the best harmonizer pedals on the market.
The main difference is that there are vocal harmonizer pedals – which have features not directly affecting your instrument, and they can be a lot more expensive because of this. Some of them, most modern models, include key tracking abilities, which makes sure the performance is glitch-free.
Why Did These Pedals Make Our List?
Here are some of the main considerations we took into account when providing you with the top recommendations:
High-Quality
The prime consideration is, of course, the high-quality of the product regardless of its functions. Some are simpler, others more complex, but they all have to give a glitch-free performance, otherwise, your songs will be out of tune and not so pleasing to your audience. Thus, they are all thoroughly scanned for consistent sound quality.
TC Electronic Quintessence Harmonizer Pedal
Extra Features
Some extra features are a nice addition to your gear – meaning you can do more with less. Some models only offer harmonization, but we included other units that allow pitch correction, doubling, and others, which become really useful if you are a gigging musician. You can easily create layered professional-quality tunes.
Ease of Use
Lastly, there’s no bigger frustration than investing your money into a pedal you cannot use when you’re performing. For this reason, we did our best to scrutinize design imperfections and provide you with a genuine, objective review of these pedals. This comes as a primary consideration for professional use. Some budget-friendly options with minor flaws are also available for beginner use.
Quick Take:
Top 3 Picks
Here are the best guitar harmonizer pedals:
Review of the Best Guitar Harmonizer Pedals
Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the best harmonizer pedals available on the market to get you started with your search.
Best Overall
TC Electronic Quintessence Harmonizer Pedal
PROS
CONS
What Recent Buyers Report
This harmonizer processes beautiful sounds and effects and keeps them clean and clear no matter how complicated the harmonies are. You also have extra control over the nuances of your sound due to the dual input/output feature, which allows for mono or stereo sounds.
Why it Stands Out to Us
This harmonizer pedal is a top-notch intelligence unit that includes both MASH technology and TonePrint. MASH technology is specially created to allow greater pressure sensitivity of the footswitch, thus increasing ease of use. TonePrint editing features a wide range of choices and high flexibility.
Who Will Use This Most
This product is great for beginners, and it is highly flexible. It can be used with any music style and genre, ranging from country/southern rock harmonies to metal leads. Any harmonies you might need, this unit is the ideal companion of all guitarists.
Bottom Line
The Quintessence harmonizer offers state of the art technology, revolutionizing the industry. You can create any harmony you wish, whether simpler or more intricate, with ease. On the other hand, the design is quite small and hard to manipulate in a rush, although you will get there with a bit of practice.
Runner-up:
DigiTech Whammy
PROS
CONS
What Recent Buyers Report
This pedal is built like a rock, so it might take up quite a bit of space on your pedalboard. Despite this, the features on this pedal are amazing – the Whammy/Monetary footswitches are well placed, and you can let the drop tune footswitch turned on/off for the entire song, as it is placed higher on the pedal.
Why it Stands Out to Us
The Whammy pedal is a legendary unit that allows excellent pitch shifting. It is a real asset to any guitarist’s pedalboard, and it includes true bypass, chordal whammy pitch shifting, and, of course, the classic and deeply loved Whammy sound. It is also highly versatile.
Who Will Use This Most
Whether you want highly emotional, ambient chordal bends or a raging scream of your tone, this pedal can do both and a lot more. Highly recommended for guitarists of all levels, this pedal is great for electric guitarists on stage, during rehearsals or recording in the studio.
Bottom Line
Overall, the Whammy pedal allows you to create complex harmonies to all of your songs. The universe of possibilities is truly endless – this Whammy pedal is not only legendary but a true winner when it comes to harmonizer pedals. It is indeed one of the most fun pedals you can add to your pedal family!
Best for the Money:
Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork Guitar Pitch Effect Pedal
PROS
CONS
What Recent Buyers Report
The Pitch Fork is all about sound quality and top-notch performance. It is versatile, as you can tweak its controls to perfection to achieve a wide range of harmonies and shifting. The tonal purity and the tonal potential are what make this pedal the perfect choice.
Why it Stands Out to Us
The Pitch Fork is a rock-solid pedal that can shift the tones of your guitar 3 octaves up, down or both. You have a toggle switch located in the center of the pedal for ease of use, and it has two modes – momentary or latch, perfect for experimenting with and creating outstanding tunes.
Who Will Use This Most
This pedal is a great choice for beginners and professionals and all in between. It is a must-try due to its blend between versatility and simplicity, high-quality, and glitch-free performance. The controls will allow you to create perfect tones at home, during rehearsals, or in the studio.
Bottom Line
The Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork is an outstanding quality harmonizer pedal that screams quality, craftsmanship, and performance. It is incredibly versatile, yet simple to use with intuitive knobs and controls. You can choose anything from harp-like tones or a synth bass – what else can you wish for?
PROS
CONS
What Recent Buyers Report
This pedal does its job quite well – has high sound quality, performs well, and consistent. On the other hand, the design could be improved – the knobs for adjusting wet/dry signals are quite small and, paired with the large main knob, the pedal can get unstable when pressed on.
Why it Stands Out to Us
This harmonizer pedal is accurate, highly sensitive, and performs flawlessly. It is made from durable metal, and it has three control knobs and one switch that are highly precise and has a quick response time. You can adjust the dry/wet signal, choose the pitch shift range, and many more.
Who Will Use This Most
This product is great for beginners or anyone looking for a budget-friendly option. It offers all the basic controls for a harmonizer pedal and allows you to benefit from high-quality effects on a consistent basis. It is definitely a must-try for any musicians just starting this journey.
Bottom Line
Overall, this harmonizer is a budget option that allows you a great deal of flexibility. Despite its design issues, the performance is top-notch, and it is highly recommended for this feature alone. It is definitely a must-try if you are looking for a great pedal at an affordable price range.
PROS
CONS
What Recent Buyers Report
The pedal is masterfully designed, which is no surprise from a Boss pedal. It is accurate, durable, and can be used with no fear – it is highly likely this pedal will outlive you. The only flaw of this product is that the knobs are quite small, which makes it quite challenging to use, but they are easy to grip.
Why it Stands Out to Us
The Boss PS-6 pedal provides outstanding harmonies and voicing due to the enhanced DPS. Its features include harmony, detune, S-bend, and pitch shifter. It is also polyphonic, making it easy to shift between chords. Additionally, you can create whammy bar up effects.
Who Will Use This Most
Highly versatile and outstanding quality, this pedal is whole-heartedly recommended to all guitarists. Regardless of your skill level, you will definitely find some intriguing features to boost your performance. It is sturdy, long-lasting, and typically flawless Boss quality.
Bottom Line
Overall, beginner or not, you have definitely heard of Boss products. Simply because they set a new standard in terms of musical gear – and this pedal is no exception to their reputation. You should positively have a look at the PS-6 if you are into quality, durability, and versatility.
Benefits of Investing in a Quality Harmonizer Pedal
Here are the top benefits of investing in a high-quality harmonizer pedal:
Flawless Performances
The main advantage of choosing one of our recommended products is that we do our thorough research to provide you with units that perform flawlessly. There is no worse thing than to have an effect pedal that is not responsive to your controls or work inconsistently; this can definitely bring down your live playing.
Having Cool Extra Effects
A top-notch pedal will allow you a lot of versatility, whether you go for a simple, one-job pedal or a multi-effect one. This can be particularly interesting for anyone who enjoys experimenting with their musical gear. You never know what you might stumble upon when tweaking around with those knobs!
Glitch-Free Harmonies
Our selected pedals benefit from modern technologies which are able to accurately track your signals and offer you a glitch-free result. This allows you to thicken your tones, and create a pleasing stack of songs that are perfectly synchronized to play together at the perfect times. And all of this for an affordable, rock-solid casing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, harmonizer pedals are a great asset for any acoustic guitarist who wants to stand out from the crowd. These cool effects allow you to create a unique combination of tunes to awe your audience. Thus, we dedicated our time to introduce you to the endless universe of harmonizer pedals, the best of them, what they are capable of and how you can benefit.
