Digital Synth Pedals

Digital synthesis drove several breakthroughs in guitar processing: polyphony, better tracking, and sounds sampled from other instruments. However, this came with mammoth price tags, and usually, the need for a dedicated hex pickup. Such cost and complexity drove most to instead switch to real keyboards when needed. Today, there are not only better high-end, hex-requiring options, but also a range of excellent synth pedals that require neither dedicated hardware nor megabucks budget.

TG Recommends

EHX MONO SYNTH

The EHX Mono Synth is a digital recreation of a monosynth, as the name implies. Even without any dedicated hardware, it nails the sweep and rumble of those synths. It’s limited in the sense that it has little control over parameters and only a handful of presets. However, if you only need monosynth sounds a few times in your set, it’s convincing enough to leave the keyboard at home.

Bestfor Keeping it simple

BOSS SY-1000 GUITAR SYNTHESISER

The Boss SY-1000 is Roland’s current flagship guitar synth. While it can be run without its Gk-series hex pickup, that limits it to the feature set of the smaller SY-300. To access all the sophisticated processing unlocked by individual string inputs and full MIDI control over parameters, you’ll need that hex pickup.

Bestfor When you just have to have the daddy of all guitar synths!

Also Try

Meris Enzo

An intuitive dual oscillator synth, with more functions than you can shake a stick at.

BOSS SY-1 Synthesiser

A straightforward and decent-sounding unit for simple synth tones.

Empress Zoia

More of a programmable everything engine than a synth. For adventurous players, there’s nothing else like it.