Alternatives to the Whammy?

hexa-db · #1 08-04-2003, 08:42 AM

Hi,

I'd really like to get a Whammy pedal, but £170 for one is a bit more than I want to pay at the moment. Second hand ones don't seem to appear very often, and when they do they cost almost as much.

Has anyone used the whammy effects in the old RP6/RP7, RP200, Korg AX100G or any others?

The AX100G sounds promising but in one review it said that the pedal only had about an inch of travel so it wasn't much good for much other than all-or-nothing pitch shifts.

So, basically I'm after a cheap alternative to a Whammy pedal. Any ideas?

(Note: I use a Pod2 for distortion so the quality of the distortions/amp sims aren't too much of an issue)

Two hands31 · #2 08-04-2003, 10:13 AM

I have a Korg AX-1G, and if the AX100G is anything like it, the pedal doesn't have much travel to it at all, and the whammy won't track very well at all.

hexa-db · #3 08-04-2003, 10:18 AM

Thanks for that

Hrmm... I guess I can discount the Korg then.

I'm quite curious about the older digitechs (RP6/RP7), I thought seeing as they're made by Digitech they might use the same chip or something.

track7 · #4 08-04-2003, 12:15 PM

sorry to be a pessimist heza but i wouldn't get your hopes up.

I had digitechs flagship rack 2120 processor and the whammy on that was TERRIBLE! really laggy bad tone and poor tracking.

I sold that and got stomp boxes along with the new whammy reissue and that is TONS better. Hardly any lag much more tone and impressive tracking.

Good luck with the other units but if the top of the line digitech processor had a bad whammy software i cant imagine the lower ranges would be any better.

track7

hexa-db · #5 08-04-2003, 12:35 PM

Damn I was hoping they'd all just use the same chip and sound exactly the same. I guess that explains why the proper whammy pedals are so expensive.

What's the cheapest you've seen Whammys for in the UK? The best I can find is £159 + £10 P&P ( from http://www.gak.co.uk )

LennyNero · #6 08-04-2003, 06:39 PM

Hi,

well, I do not remember the correct name, but Digitech made this rack unit called IPS... Rps??? Wait... it it IPS33...

There is an IPS33 and an IPS33B versionen one of them using the same hard- and software the original Whammy did. They go quite cheap on eBay (I heard).

For more information go to http://groups.yahoo.com/U2_Recording/ and do a search for the unit. You'll get quiet a lot of infos there.

Good luck,
Lenny

LennyNero · #7 08-04-2003, 06:41 PM

Okay, I just continued my search in the Yahoo-group. Might bhave been the TRS from Digitech...

Sorry for confusing you. Just do a search on Digitech there and you get the information which unit is usefull as a (cheap) Whammy substitute.

rlintz · #8 08-04-2003, 08:29 PM

I agree that the whammy on my old RP-7 stunk - terrible latency. The pitch shift effect in my Boss GT-6 tracked very well. I was actually able to measure it with my Fishman-equipped strat so that I could measure the time differential between the right (piezo) channel and the left (magnetic through whammy) channel.

I'll look for the files tonight...

Randy

gkelm · #9 08-04-2003, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LennyNero

Hi,

well, I do not remember the correct name, but Digitech made this rack unit called IPS... Rps??? Wait... it it IPS33...

There is an IPS33 and an IPS33B versionen one of them using the same hard- and software the original Whammy did. They go quite cheap on eBay (I heard).

For more information go to http://groups.yahoo.com/U2_Recording/ and do a search for the unit. You'll get quiet a lot of infos there.

Good luck,
Lenny

I had one of those, nice unit for the money, but I could never get the whammy function to work right with a pedal. It was IVL Technologies (Canada)...BTW, the Whammy II (black version) used IVL also.
Greg

hexa-db · #10 08-05-2003, 08:29 AM

Hmm I haven't seen the IPS33(B) anywhere in the UK (ebay etc)

So.. I think it's between the Whammy and maybe the Boss PS-5 with an expression pedal (which I've read some good things about).

LGMT · #11 08-05-2003, 03:08 PM

Save youself some troubles, buy the Whammy.

I catch one and a Q Tron about 3 months and can't back no more.

New Toy !!!!!!!!!!!!!

hexa-db · #12 08-06-2003, 10:13 AM

I've given in to temptation and ordered a Whammy reissue

Now where did I put that Touching Tongues tab...

Mick90 · #13 09-04-2003, 04:28 AM

Maybe that you can have a look for a Digitech XP100 pedal...

It's more easy to find on Ebay than the original Whammy.

I had this pedal, and the whammy is as cool as the on the original (maybe that you have less preset, but the most important are present: 2 oct down, 1 down, 5th up, 1oct up, 2 oct up). The latency is perfect, and you have also cool Wah, Auto Wah, harmonisers and detuners.

A very good pedal that I've sold after having bought a RP2000 (also very cool !)

You have to avoid the old Digitech multi effects (RP7 for exemple), because on those the latency is very very bad, and that sound more like an organ than a Whammy...