DigiTech WH1 Whammy

Just plug this slut in and boom you have at your feet one of the most innovative effects to ever be created, this thing is very self explanatory, up 1oct, up 2 oct, down, 1 oct, down 2 oct. My unit is the very original WH-1 no upgrades mods or anything.

This effect is the very first one in my chain, then my wah, overdrive then to the amp. This unit doesnt produce any hum or noise, i did notice though when the pedal is just on and not being used it imparts a little bit of fuzz to my sound but it isnt harsh its kind of organic actually, As far as it working on time every time it does in spades never had a problem it, i use this with vox amps, Can i get the sound of some of my favorite artists with it? you bet i can and only can i with this original unit not the reissue, but ya i can get tom morello, dimebag (RIP Dime), joe satriani sounds out of this, wanna know why? Because they used this exact same model pedal, again not the re-issues either. This best effect on this pedal? to me is the up 1 oct and up 2 oct effects to me it sounds like stepping on a kitty kats tail!

Ya this pedal has been around for about 17 years now and still works like i bought it yesterday, im sure it will outlive me lets put it that way, if it got lost or stolen, ya i would definitely get another one they are so much fun to play with, the re-issues just dont cut it, hell i think the ad for the re-issue even says "reminescent of the original" that says alot. you cant beat the original.

never had to deal with them though i've heard they are slow to respond.

What style of music do you play? i play mostly metal and everything in between.

Is this a good match? O yeah it can create some very wild sounds thats typical to harder styles of music, (R.A.T.M)

How long have you been playing? For just under 12 short years.

What other gear do you own? Crybaby Classic, Boss SD-1, Boss RC-2, Boss CE-5, Boss RV-3, And finally vox head with marshall 4x12 lead cab. oh and ibanez, schecter, gibson, dean, and fender guitars.

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else? if it were stolen or lost ya i would definitely hunt another one down, i would only get the original though, the re-issues just dont have "it" they tried but if you want true whammy wackiness then only the original will do, trust me im not making this up.

what do you love about it? The whole shebang man, while there is some things on this pedal i'll never use (3rd over 4), i just love the sound it creates, it does it without sounding shrill like the later versions do.

What do you hate? Nothing, well my only gripe is that you cant switch the settings without having to bend down and do it, but i dont hate it

What is your favorite feature? The up octave and down octaves, also the detune is pretty cool too, it sounds like a real lush chorus, actually it sounds more lush than my dedicated chorus LOL!

Did you compare it to other products? Ya, before i bought this i tried digitechs own immitation of this classic in the form of an effects pedalboard i think it was the RP-20 valve, man that one and the re-issue sucked mad sack, this is what they were trying to recreate but couldnt, like i said before the originals have something unique to them, they just sound right, i cant explain it.

Why did you choose this one? Because i tried the immitators and once i bought my own original WH-1, there was no turning back.

Anything you wish it had? a way to change the settings with your feet.

Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way? It helps me get creative most definitely, its just hard figuring out a way to do it tastefully.

Anything else you'd like to share? Ya, if your creative juices are flowing and aint afraid to try out something new, Then this pedal may be just what the doctor ordered, if not then dont bother, this pedal is definitely not for the timid, in other words there nothing subtle about this pedal, one of the boldest i've ever used. Also a note regarding the Original and Re-issues, Fellas i cant stress this enough, if your willing to go with a whammy in the first place make sure you do it right, the original has a nice warm tone and tracks just about perfectly, its real organic and can inspire some truly original sounds, the re-issues eh, they have a nasty shrillnes to them, they dont track good at all, and have this annoying time delay when the pedal is engaged. The original has none of these problems and is the reason they are highly sought after. enough said.

For reasons I won't go into I ended up just buying TWO of these. I have previously used a Boss PS-5 with an expression pedal, Boss GT-6 and a Digitech XP100. The good thing about this unit is that you select a mode and switch it on. No level settings so dead easy to use, plus it auto-calibrates.
That's the easy part. The difficult part is learning to use one tastefully. There are neat tricks like bending up an octave and at the end giving the guitar trem heavy vibrato at the end, only bending chords with a strong root note etc etc.

I don't remember much about the PS-5 or GT-6 but I only just sold the XP-100 - which I thought was a well made unit and great fun and value for the current used prices.
Before getting into the effect sound quality I should point out some immediate benefits.
Firstly I can put the WH-1 into my high gain amp and hear virtually no background noise. This is a revelation. Second, when the unit is switched on there is far less of a delay between playing and hearing a note. I did find that very frustrating before getting these. In fact when I turn both WH-1 units on the delay is still respectable short. Thirdly I'm amazed at the sound of the unit when it is off. Because I connected 2 of these together I decided to put them in a switchable loop. I was surprised to hear very little difference in sound between both units together and the bypassed sound so for the time being I decided that I'm better off taking the switch and cabling out of the signal path.
So how do the effects sound? To my ears great! The sound is really full bodied whether shifting up or down. On really high notes you can hear how the pitch shifting is being achieved but I then don't expect miracles and in any case Dave Gilmour uses these artifacts to great effect with a Strat. There is something inherently right about this unit, you just enjoy the effect and forget about it. Even the gains are spot on whether the unit is off or on.
Bad points? Well if you turn the unit on in Whammy mode and leave the pedal up (no pitch shift) you can hear a loss of quality but you wouldn't normally do this, except.......I've had fun turning both units on with one set to octave up and one set to octave down and with both on you definitely lose tone. But hey that is asking a lot isn't it? And being able to go up and down an octave by just moving your feet is really cool.
The best guitar combination for me is with something like an Ibanez Jem where you can mix the effect with the trem of the guitar, but with something like a PRS Singlecut you can combine awesome tone with the ability to now emulate a tremolo.

It's built like a tank. Both of these units are over 15 years old and having looked inside the only thing I could possibly imagine going wrong is the optical sensor cable for the pedal but even that might go on forever and in any case would be easily fixed.

These units cost 250 and over in the UK but even when they were new they were 200. There are over 20 integrated circuits on the main board and I'm sure the component count has a lot to do with both the speed and quality of the sound. So I would say they are actually good value, given the rarity. Providing you like the effect then this is the unit to have. No regrets for me. Peace of mind is worth spending extra for.

12 years ago i was going to buy a Wahwah pedal, i couldnt find one so i bought this instead.
This is the original one, not one of the reissues, i havent compared this one to the reissues but this one sounds just great.
I mostly use it for its octaver function adding an octave below the original signal, it does this beautifully though it only tracks single notes, not chords.

I have never tried to play Rage against the Machine licks with it or used it for those horrible harmonized guitar solos you would hear on early 90s rock albums, mainly i use it to f##c things up with such as putting the whole mix through it to instantly make white boy blues sound like The Residents, its also cool to run a microphone through it and imitate Isaac Hayes or Darth Vader.
I sometimes run this thing into separate channels of a guitar amplifier using less volume on the effected channel and setting the pedal on a octave down, its an incredibly funky sound that i have used on countless songs with my band.

This is a really solid pedal, it hasnt ever broken down, i replaced the power supply unit a few years ago and thats it.
I wouldnt hesitate to use this on a gig without backup.

Never dealt with them. I think every other Digitech pedal i have tried was crap, this one isnt.

I play in a Progressive House band, we have released a bunch of songs on various labels, i have also been in a few rock/blues/alternative bands, i think this pedal would fit into most kinds of music except maybe country music.
I go from a Fender Stratocaster into a Boss compressor into the Whammy, from there either to an amplifier or into a Behringer V-amp, i have been playing guitar for more than 20 years.
This thing is great, i totally recommend you check it out.

EZ.

Roughly, the reissue of a true legend. It is interesting that in this case each and all of the original sonic nuances of the VH1 had been achieved, and is possible to own a ?time capsule? brand new effect. I learnt to consider reissues as a mere intention to push sells by manufacturers, as in most cases not even the original components are available anymore. Anyone checking the latest DS1 or Distortion + boxes should admit this.

Trying to cope with any reissue is a challenge, but when we?re talking about a classic, the challenge skyrockets. It has been decades since DigiTech introduced the original Whammy, and it has been in high demand ever since by top players as diverse as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dimebag Darrell and countless others. Every guitar God made sure to have one of these in their arsenals. Established players and rising starts alike depend (and did depend on the Whammy) for more than ten years! Tom Morello broke the neck of more than a few notes with it, and Vai redefined virtuosity with it as well. Smooth pitch bends; fat, spacious detuning; furious ?dive bombing? and radical harmony shifts are what you can expect from this baby. And it delivers.

Every feature of the original WH-1 has been included in the ?new? Whammy, with all the exact same interval selections, components and design. However, the new Whammy has added an interesting and quite welcomed feature: MIDI control, which is vital to integrate this classic within a more contemporary environment, such as complex rigs and home studios. Together with this, a new "Dive Bomb" preset has been introduced (a handy effect for hard tail guitars, giving the effect of a whammy bar pushed all the way to the body of the guitar). Aside from these additional features, the rest is 100% pure old Whammy.

This red wonder earned a place in where is difficult to be present these days: the menu of classic guitar effects. Why I?m so sure about this? Because of the path that followed its introduction. Different manufacturers (such as the all mighty Boss) offered alternatives to a similar effect (to be found on their PS2 and PS3 stomp pedals), Zoom did so and DigiTech itself (after offering some incarnations of the effect, such as the Whammy II) offers this effect in their more contemporary pedal boards (GNX 3000, GNX 1, GNX 2, GNX 3, GNX 4, RP 80, RP 100A, RP 200A, RP 300A and RPx 400). Many other effects tried that with no significant success (Yamaha?s Symphonic, Ibanez? Lo-Fi, Electro Harmonix? modulators and filters and even Digitech?s YAVA and AutoYA, inter alia). Guitar players are conservative and, in general terms, refuse innovation. If you want to see it in a simpler way, you?ve got to deliver the goods to survive. The Whammy did and seems to be here to stay.

Two general problems are identified with the Whammy. The first one regards its ?ability? to ?suck? tone. Just a simple check at Internet forums or reviews from actual (or alleged) users demonstrate that?s there are more than a few guitar players that think that this pedal destroys the original tone of your instrument. I?ve got two comments in that connection: First of all, we should not forget that guitar players adore posing as elitist tone connoisseurs, capable of capturing any minimal nuance in the variation of tone. If you ever met any guitarist (together with his/her tone) that is obviously not true with the vast majority of cases, and I might not be an exception.

Having said that is true the bypassed Whammy did color your original signal a bit. Nothing that could not be sacrificed in the name of one of the most radical effects ever, or that could not be fixed with one or two tricks: first of all, place the Whammy as your first pedal (only second to your compressor if you have one, otherwise the very first one) and second, if possible, use the Whammy on the effects loop. This second option will render the effect milder, but will maintain your tone intact. The second detrimental comment is commonly associated to erratic behavior, nothing that could not be fixed with a simple calibration procedure. I almost see no cons with this, aside from the fact that you cannot run it on batteries.

You can depend on it, no question about that.
If you really use this one, you WILL need a backup, not because it might broke, because you could not be able to mimmick this sound with nothing else. Having said that, I'll say again that you can put this red thing under a great deal of stress with no fear.

Just a brief question to them which remained unanswered for 90 days. When they finally did reply, their answer was cordial.

I become in love with DigiTech (a bittersweet relationship in the end, I?ve got to admit since quality of their products are plummeting in quality as years goes by) by the cause of this pedal. It is useful, is inspiring, is virtually indestructible and looks dope. What could you ask for more in a guitar pedal?

pretty simple if youd listened to enough rage against the machine songs...i have, and i knew the presets before i even saw the pedal in person!

i tracked one down on ebay and bought it. i had it come in on the same day my friend was going to bring his. i compared the two...AND THE REISSUE BLOWS! why are people wasting over 175 for a piece of tin that makes the creator of the original whammy shit red? this is byfar the coolest pedal ive ever owned. ive had it for a few months now, and i see this thing as being my main part of my rig. i always figured it was good for two things

1. octave up
2. doubled 5th down and up

but I JUST figured that theres A CHORUS setting on it? it doesnt say chorus, but i swear to god it sounds better than my MXR MICRO CHORUS...and that sucker is top notch! every setting is usable if you know a thing or two about experimentation. im actually going to build a replicate tom morello board. ive got this, the original DFL, eq, and over 20 wahs to pick from...gonna git myself a dd2, and im in tone heaven!!! i LOVE tom morello, but im not a 13 year old with an attitude and 4 rage albums...im a serious musician, as well as collector. but im not old and burnt out...quite young actually...SO THERES PLENTY O POTENTIAL! and thats what important...innovation, right? i love the chorus type effect this thing can produce...the pitch shifting is far above par. outstanding so long as its in your effects loop, or after distortion units...otherwise it will be worthy of an 8 or 9...and the whole power supply thing? kiss my ass, digitech can supply you with a power supply that is made for driving these things...so get off your high horse about power meaning more than beans!

their customer support is awesome...and theyll completely fix this thing practically free!

this thing should pretty much last forever!!!

awesome

too fucking cool...quite honestly, a dream come true. after seeing tom play at the free tibet concert in san francisco, i knew i had to play guitar and have whatever it is he used for the solo of killing in the name and whatever waaah sound he used for bulls on parade. it took me roughly 8 years to buy my first wah! i was one of those "i dont get shit until i deserve it!" this whammy is just toooooooooooooooo good for words compared to the piece of shit can they call the whammy 4. it almost as if theyre two completely different companies, and the whammy reissue is the brand-x version...

Easy like sunday morning.

The best pitch shifting pedal out there.

Just to add another 2 cents to the previous reviews.I also got a WH-1 for a good (well,as good as it gets) price and I thought I can spare a couple of euros for a digitech PS0913B-230 (the three last digits are for voltage of course,I live in Europe).With this adaptor the unit works as it should,no glitches.Besides,as Scott was told from Digitech,and as an electrical engineer I agree,the unit will JUST utilize 750mA from the 1300mA the new digitech adaptor provides,so stop looking for old ps750's which will probably not give 750mA due to old age,misuse,or anything else and can damage your precious whammy.And by the way,the VAC output of the old ps750's, 9.6 Volts, is NOT what the pedal internally utilizes!One more thing is that I got the whammy while changing my cables (ALL of them) to George L's.I tried it with my old cables,and my new ones.With the old cables I was getting a bit of a "warbling" sound when the pitch decayed.The unit worked perfectly with the George L's! I e-mailed AnalogMike for that reason (I will be sending him my WH-1 for the true bypass mod) and he said that the pedal requires a strong signal to lock on to the note,which makes perfect sense to me,considering the nature of the effect.The point is,if you are having problems with your adapter or your whammy,change them both to new ones,don't blame the whammy first.These things where built to last.

Digitech does NOT make great stuff,but this pedal IS an exception! (Oh IVL,where art thou?)

Other reviews cover this enough.

I'm going to add my 2 cents to help squash this whole power supply thing. The last review sums it up perfectly. There is no difference in sound with the PS750. I bought a whammy with a different power supply - 10vac, etc. The whole concept of power supply changing the sound of a regulated unit seemed absurd. However, I found a ps750 at a local music store for $8 so I figured I'd give it a whirl. No difference. End result: I've got a spare power supply for the WH-1. Now, I'm going to rant a bit: I'm sick and tired of all these people on HC trying to beef up the value of their pedals with stupid claims. This Whammy power supply thing is just one example - the whole BOSS Japan vs. Taiwan thing is another issue - don't even get me started on that. A given circuit is going to produce a given sound, no matter what country it was built in. Bottom line is you should make your call based on sound or at the least, electrical/acoustic physics. Don't believe everything you read - hell, you should think twice before believing my review.

Works great - 15 years old and still kickin'

Never dealt with them.

Hopefully this will clear up some controversy about the power supply issue for the original WH-1 DigiTech Whammy. Another reviewer somewhere below wrote that he called Digitech, who told him that only the original PS750 power supply will correct power the unit. You can't believe everything you read, so I checked this myself yesterday with DigiTech after I bought an original WH-1 without a ps.

Below I will quote Dean (with his permission) who is a leader in DigiTech's technical support group. What he wrote makes perfect sense to me. This is submitted not with the intent to criticize the other reviewer, but to set the record straight and help the many who appreciate DigiTech's wonderful musical tools which aid our creative self-expression.

"Thanks for your interest. The [new replacement] PS0913B-120 will power any Whammy pedal Digitech has ever made, and it will do this without any sound quality or performance degradation. It is not true that only the PS750 will make the WH-1 function right. No one at Digitech would make such a statement. Honestly, there is no performance or sound difference when using the PS0913B-120 with a WH-1. Please consider the fact that most famous guitarists who use the WH-1 (Morello, Vai, etc.) use pedal boards or custom power supplies that are not PS750s.
I should note that a PS750 does say 9.6 v on it, and a PS0913B-120 says 9v on it, but the Whammy pedals are internally regulated so they all utilize the same voltage. As far as the higher milliamp rating of the PS0913B-120, a product will use only what it needs and discard the rest.
It is thoughtful and kind of you to ask permission before publicizing our response. People who disagree will reason that a Digitech employee has to say what I did to support our product. In fact, honesty and personal integrity are the primary virtues I use to evaluate my tech support staff. They can aquire product knowledge, but the core values have to be there." [end of quotation]

The best pitch shifting pedal. Look at who else uses this. They would also only use the best.

Several years old-- works perfectly-- strong metal casing.

Answered my e-mail within a few hours completely and honestly with very helpful information.

DigiTech makes great stuff, and this pedal is no exception.

Built like a volume pedal with a rotor nob for selection of the pitches and a stomp bypass. It would have been nice had they implemented a stomp to cycle threw the pitches.

SETUP:The setup i am using this in is in the studio.
SOUND QUALITY: the sound quality of this original WH-1 is what i would call dirty digital, where the reissue is 'too clean'. it leaves wonderful dirty digital artifacts in multipule strings being played. This gives it it's original and unique sound.
AMP: i use a Line 6 Pod Pro
ARTISTS WHOM USE IT: Audioslave is the band that really got me on the sound. if you seek to find whom else uses it check out www.guitargeek.com
SPECIFIC SOUNDS: i don't find i use a lot of the assigned pitchs like 2nd and 4th but it is a taste thing and unique to the situation i am sure. The Chours on it is controllable in depth by the footpedal. Again the sound is unique to itself and desirable because of its tone.

The unit is old that i bought and has already had the power supply jack fixed on it. In the research that i have been doing for this unit, i found that these original WH-1 whammys input jack if used on the road tend to fail and/or the power supply craps out. But it is replacable though i don't know if digitech would do that. if you look online i am sure someone can tell you what you need for it.

i don't know that i would not have a backup for this pedal of mine on stage. it is old and has seen better days. the footpedal powersupply is what worrys me.

N/A

Overall this product rocks. If you are looking to see what the difference between the reissue (whammy4) and this orignal that is why i am writting this.

DIFFERENCE IN REISSUE AND ORIGINAL:
the reissue has lights to show you what pitch is being used which is a nice feature because the original your not quite sure in the dark what you picked. the reissues physical wah is cheaper made and the metal seems quite lighter in quality then the original. on the reissue the wah itself the soft pads they use to stop the wah at full use is soft that doesn't allow for a solid pitch if you 'waver' in your wahing.

if you want the orignal 'dirty artifacty' WH-1 Whammy sound then get the original, but if you like the feature of the Wah and don't really care about specific tone, the features of the new reissue rock and does the job just as good as the WH-1 original besides the tone. the new feature on the reissue is the MIDI jack. i suspect if you are a midi user or sequencer kinda player, this would be adventagous. i have not setup for it. if i get a chance to review the reissue i will be sure to talk about it in my review of it.

It is very easy to use, especially if you have a foot.
The manual is very easy to read because it is written in English.

The setup I am using is the Pedal setup. This means that I am lining the pedal up with the rack and the carpet.

Is it very noisy, especially when you turn your amp up to maximum level.

The effects are weak because I have beaten this unit in an arm wrestle.

I am using a guitar amp with it.
The sound of my favorite artist is very hard to get because he produces a sound that does not go very well with a person with two ears. FYI.. My favorite artist is the TRASHMEN.

The effects are good and bad but more good than bad. I especially like the RED COLOR, which goes very nicely with the fact that I am using an amp with a guitar.

I can certainly depend on it. When I need it to walk the dog, it never disappoints me.

I would certainly use it on a gig if I knew what a gig was.

I play a style of music called LOUD MUSIC.
I have been playing for 75 years and I don't own any other gear.
If it was stolen, I would be very sad. I would definitely buy it again
I love the RED COLOR and what I hate about it is that there is NO LETTER H in its name
I compare it to many products I own like the maximizer and optomizer.
I wish it had a bit of purple in it.
It helps me make real cool music by way of Treight Froklam.

I would like to share with you that I am being silly but seriously, I really do like this unit and recommend it highly