The Glorious DigiTech Whammy Pitch Controller Pedal Review
While the DigiTech Whammy Pedal has been around for a long time, it certainly deserves some fresh coverage here. For those of you out there who have never played with a Whammy Pedal, I urge you to go check it out.
Technically speaking, DigiTech Whammy Pedal is a pitch controller. However, the way Digitech has set up this pedal makes it much more powerful than a simple pitch shifting stomp box. In modern music, listen to anything by former Rage guitarist Tom Morello for a glimpse into what this pedal can do.
First, select how many steps or octaves you want your original signal to raise or lower. Next, simply plug in, play some notes, and rock the foot pedal back and forth. Your solos will come to life as you jump octaves with ease. When you first turn it on you will probably spend 2 hours just testing out all the different octave settings...it's pretty fun!
One of the most interesting (yet least useful) feature of the DigiTech Whammy Pedal has to be the Dive Bomb effect. This will lower your original tone an incredible 4 octaves! Hello Van Halen! (Caution: this CAN and will blow your speaker without mercy!!!)
One complaint I have that is during a live setting, the Whammy tends to be on the noisy side if your amplifier is cranked up. For dealing with noise in my chain, I trust nothing else but the Boss NS-2. Also, there can be an audible "click" when activating the effect. Not much you can do about that, unless you’re running a muter.
If you are a lead guitarist in a band or are experimenting in the recording studio, the DigiTech Whammy Pedal's greatest quality is that it almost forces you into unchartered territory with each new lick. I found it brought an interesting quality to my playing and was great for adding variety to my live shows. Fans are generally intrigued and excited when you whip this thing out during a set. It certainly takes the listener by surprise.
For under $200, the DigiTech Whammy pedal provides an ultra-cool color palette to paint with for little strain on the wallet. It’s one of my personal favs and you should be toying around with one right now!
Features:
Original DigiTech Whammy presets
New! Dive Bomb preset
Rugged new industrial chassis design
LED indicates display preset selection
MIDI in for remote control
Wet/dry outputs
PS750 power supply included
Technical Info
Sample Rate: 46.875 kHz
Frequency Response Dry: 20 Hz to 20kHz
Frequency Response Wet: 20 Hz to 12kHz
Signal to Noise Ratio: Greater than -95dB (A weighted); ref = max level, 22 kHz bandwidth
THD: 0.006% (1kHz); ref = 1dBu w/ unity gain
A/D Conversion: 24-bit
D/A Conversion: 24-bit
Max Input: +8.8 dBu
Max Output: +8.8 dBu
Pitch Bend: +2/-3 Octaves
Detune: -4 to -30 cents
Dimensions (L x W x H): 8 x 6.3 x 2.5 in.
Weight: 3.5 lbs. (1.6 kg)
