Have you been in the market for a solution to all your harmonizing needs? If only there was one pedal that did it all! Oh wait, there totally is. The good people at TC Electronic have recently announced the release of their newest pedal, the Quintessence Harmonizer! Trust us, it pretty much does it all.
In the video, our main host and Denmarkian beard model, Tore Mogensen, takes us through the many features of the Quintessence Harmonizer. Like other harmonizers, the Quintessence has settings for different keys and scales built right in it. However, there are a couple new features that set this pedal apart from any other harmonizer on the market today: MASH and TonePrint.
For starters, MASH is the Quintessence’s way of producing extremely organic-sounding bent harmonics with the push of a button. To engage, the user simply applies weight to the pressure-sensative footswitch. As more weight is given to the switch, the added harmony shifts up to the next scale degree. This basically functions as a built-in expression pedal, but without the extra work, making for some suprisingly natural bends that would fit right in to any rock or country tune.
And secondly, we have the TonePrint feature. As with most traditional harmonizers, the Quintessence lets the user choose from a variety of harmonies that come on the pedal. These options go from a 6th down to a 6th up, as well as 2 two-voice options (up a 3rd + 5th and 3rd + 6th). However, above these harmonies lie three options called TonePrint, which feature more diverse, creative, and customizeable sounds.
Each one of the three TonePrint settings has its own unique sound, such as a 3rd + 4th that bends the 3rd down while the 4th stays in place, and a 4th and 7th which are bent up an interval to create a powerchord sound. There’s a ton of room to experiment with these choices, but even crazier is that each TonePrint option can be customized within the TonePrint editing software (in app-form too!). That’s right, you can create your own custom harmonies that behave the way you want them to and import them into the Quintessence. In fact, Gear Gods’ very own Trey Xavier recently made a couple TonePrints for the Quintessence this week at Guitcon with Tore (more on that here). We don’t know how TC Electronic fit all these features into a single guitar pedal, but we have a sneaking suspicion that it’s witchcraft.
To read up more on the Quintessence Harmonizer, check out TC Electronics’ info page. To get your unharmonized mits on one, click here to find a dealer near you.
