Digitech Whammy Alternative

[dark_void86]

Hey there guys, the title is pretty explanatory! I have and am not too fond of the digitech whammy 4 because:

1. Does not come with nor can you mod it for true bypass
2. The pitch raising isn't as smooth to my ears as i would like
3. The harmoniser settings are dissonant to my ears
4. It causes a degree of latency in your signal

Like all pedals where everyone has done impersonations of the original in one form or another. Has anyone recreated and improved upon the whammy, or at least closer to the original one?

Ian

[rockguitar4ever]

i know where you coning from here great pedal but sometimes hmmmmmm..

[nickysplendid]

i too would like to know this...what else is out there?
the latency issue is my beef with the whammy!

[nato101010]

I find BOSS's GT-10 "Pitch Bender" does not have latency, it is very smooth, it has a Super Shifter built-in, but it isn't true bypass, of course.

[finstah]

I had one and I sold it in a week. Right now I use my AxeFX

But I also heard the Whammy I was a better version?

[dark_void86]

Originally Posted by finstah

I had one and I sold it in a week. Right now I use my AxeFX

But I also heard the Whammy I was a better version?

The Whammy 1 and 2 are highly collectable pedals because they had none of the problems that the whammy 4 exhibits these days. Modifying them for true bypass was also a very simple mod which for some reason digitech decided to fiddle and change the design over the years which just hasn't been for the better.

It really annoys as to how or why they would do this? Everytime i look closely at a professional musician's floorboard on a live DVD it is always the whammy 1 or 2 that i see there. Also as far as pedals go my whammy is pretty heavy, i am guessing it has quite alot of electronics inside there to do what it does. This may be a factor as to why no-one tries to recreate or build another pitch shifter?

[littlephil]

It can be modded for true bypass, and while its bypass is crappy, an all true bypass pedal chain is not a good thing if you have a fair few pedals.
dark_void86, the weight isnt anything to do with it being a pitch shifter. The whammy is heavy because its got a metal enclosure thats fairly big and the expression pedal is part of it too. There are other pitch shifters out there. The Boss PS5 is basically a compact whammy and i've heard it sounds better too, without the latency that plagues the WH4. I really only use my whammy for the shallow detune to get a bit of a chorus sound.

[dark_void86]

Originally Posted by littlephil

It can be modded for true bypass, and while its bypass is crappy, an all true bypass pedal chain is not a good thing if you have a fair few pedals.
dark_void86, the weight isnt anything to do with it being a pitch shifter. The whammy is heavy because its got a metal enclosure thats fairly big and the expression pedal is part of it too. There are other pitch shifters out there. The Boss PS5 is basically a compact whammy and i've heard it sounds better too, without the latency that plagues the WH4. I really only use my whammy for the shallow detune to get a bit of a chorus sound.

Aaaaah now i hadn't been on the Analogman website for a while, (a gent who specialises in modding and making custom pedals on the level of Robert Keeley), and when i last went on there i am pretty certain he said that the WH4 couldn't be modified for true bypass. HOWEVER i just looked and things have changed, Huzah! Thank you for that bit of news!

As for the weight hypothesis, i haven't looked inside the pedal, it was literally just guess work and clutching at straws as to why no-one has started supplying any custom made pitch shifters! I mean if you look at how many tubescreamer and wah clones there are out there it is insane!

I am aware of the dangers of an all true bypass pedal chain, i remember that there is a relatively infamous article written by pete cornish detailing the signal/tone loss with something due to capacitence. But all you need to do in order to avoid such problems is a non true bypass pedal in your chain to act as a buffer when either or or off to keep your signal consistent? For me in this case i have my bad horsie II which i believe particularly good for this?

[dark_void86]

hey there guys, i saw this video on youtube and thought these guys are pretty damn clever with the mods they devised for the whammy pedal. i hope you are as intrigued as much as i am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiO2l-ZWa3A

[shogun]

the tc electronics g system has a good one