DigiTech WH1 Whammy

Easy, but no LED's

Basically same as reissue. Only minor differences eccept for the huge ass price and with less features.

Less reliable than new gear, but well built.

Never dealt with them

Played origional and reissue. Both sounded very close. Reissue was $20 cheaper so I bought it. Origional is definetly worth $140, but with skyrocketing prices it's worth no more than $200. Dont buy into the hype started by people who paid way to much wan wish to justify their insane purchase. Buy the reissue, you wont be sorry. Dont believe me? Read a professional review here: http://guitargeek.com/gearview/22/

plug in a couple of cables, twist the setting knob, rock the pedal, hit the switch. this baby is DEAD simple. NO menu-diving.

it is rare that ANY piece of gear EXCEEDS my expectations. this is one of those. it sounds AMAZING!! i know everyone talks about those Rage Against The Dimebag Radiohead guys,...but i could really care less. i've heard how THOSE guys use the pedal and, well, OF COURSE it sounds "cool". i play atmospheric and ambient guitar. this pedal helps me create some VERY unique sounds. yeah the "octave-up" setting does that high-pitched squeal we've all heard,....but the DETUNE settings are just drop dead beautiful. the HARMONY settings require a bit of preparation and brain power to get them to fit into a melody/concept you are develoving,..but the ability to rock the pedal to SEAMLESSLY "bleed-in" the DETUNE or alternate HARMONY setting is absolutely GORGEOUS. you can pitch shift chords with this thing!! VERY IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!!

mine was glitchy when i got it. it has been fixed and now seems solid as a rock.

VERY IMPRESSED. i called to get an RA# to return my unit for repair. i spoke to a very friendly person. my repair was quite affordable. the repair department even called me with status/update. very nice experience (my FIRST with Digitech). Digitech is in Utah. how can anyone who lives in Utah be anything BUT relaxed and personable (i LOVE that state)??

i would buy another in a SECOND,..at ANY COST. this is VERY UNIQUE piece of gear. if you are buying it JUST BECAUSE "what's his name" uses one that is YOUR business. i am stating that this pedal is capable of MUCH MORE than that NASALLY, DISTORTED SQUEAL that "whatever their names are" ONLY USE IT FOR.

Very simple. Only pain is swithcing from setting to setting if you want to use two in one song.

ummmmmmmm excellent!

Yeah the pedal is huge and metal and there was no prb. The power supply fucking pissed me off. It broke after 3 days. the new one cost me 50$. Thats 300 dollars for 1 petal damn it!

10!!!! excellent! When my power supply broke it only took 12 hrs to reply to all of my questions. Digitech is very organized in my experience.

8 If the sound is what your looking for this is probably the best pedal for this sound. The adapter jack pisses me off and it makes me have to give it a 7. i couldnt use my power supply anyway because it was too big for the jack. Digitech made it so your only option is to use their power supply. Now i have to put a damned surge protector on my board! GAY!

This pedal is unbelievably easy to use. I am very confident that you could give it to someone who'd never touched a guitar before and they could work it out in about two minutes. Like everyone already knows... you have a twistable dial and key printed on the pedal. You twist the dial to the setting you want and rock the pedal; if you find that difficult ask yourself if you should have spent all that money! :^)
The only slightly complicated bits about it are:
You have to plug it in to the wall. You plug the guitar thru the 'input' and the amplifier into the 'wet added output'. There is a 'dry' output which allows complete bypass of the pedal. A stomp switch controls the bypassing of the pedal, it's status shown by an LED over the dial. Like shooting a barn door with a cruise missile. There is no way I can think they could make this simpler, genuinely.

Just to fuel those on here who have a major problem with buying things someone famous uses... I bought this pedal because I know Morello uses it for a lot of his stuff and because of the reviews of it I'd read.

All the reviews below should tell you the effects this will produce but basically it's a pitch shifter. You rock the tredle and it alters the frequency of the note going into it. It does this absolutely superbly! The sound quality is great!

I don't have the original power supply so I can really judge what your's may sound like. My reason for the 9 is that the person who sold me this gave me a non-Digitech US supply with it. This in turn goes thru a UK to US converter and it has a very, very slight background noise when I kick the pedal on. This may be due entirely to my adapters however.

Musically the pedal does everything I want it to at the moment. I play through a Fender Strat Squire which I have loaded with an EMG 85 and 81. In turn, this goes out to a 1985 Marshall JCM 800 (Model 2210 100 watt) head and Marshall 1960b Cab via an attentuator [My ears don't like 100 watts at 6ft]. ;^) The transistions as the treadle is rocked are perfectly smooth sounding, it does not jump in nasty steps like old wah effects occasionally do.

This is definitly a pedal that requires some research to use it well since it so drastically effects the sound of your guitar. At first lots of the settings seem like they'd never fit into a tune. Just to give you some clues as to uses, my favourites are:

2 Octaves Up - This one is great for weird solos [RATM: Freedom by RATM]. And with a delay it creates a nice crying, echo type screech as it's rocked [RATM: Calm Like A Bomb Solo]. Now it's been released, some of you will have heard Shadow Of The Sun by Audioslave where a similar Whammy + Delay combination is used on this setting in the solo. Without any doubt this is my favourite guitar effect ever used in a tune and that includes those produced by Eventides, Lexicons and all the rest. I dislike this setting when the pedal is constantly forward (Note shifted 2 octaves up) because it makes a sort of high pitched electrical whistle that doesn't sound cool. This, again, is probably down to the adapters I have and the pedal shifting the noise from them up to a really easy to hear frequency.

Shallow Detune - As the name suggests, this will very slightly detune the guitar sounds. Maybe it's just me but this setting also adds a soft chorus effect to the sound when using the amplifier's clean channel. With it switched over to major gain mode another sound is made with the pedal all the way back that is hard to describe. I can only say it sounds as if the cabinet is in a large piece of sewage pipe! Kind of airy and like the amp is really groaning. I think Morello may actually leave his Whammy in this mode for some tunes with it all the way back. The pedal is almost passive in this state compared to when it's rocked forward but it adds something to the sound that a tube amp won't do even on 11 no matter what else happens!

Harmonise 1 Octave - Another tricky one to describe. It's used by Morello in Cochise by Audioslave during the verse. This one is very good for instantly dropping a note down an octave but it harmonises as well rather than just dropping the note. On the top E string this forms an evil heavy grunge sound.

This original model is supposed to sound a lot better than the re-issues of it but I've yet to try a re-issue to see how true it is. My friend has the re-issue so some day I might swap with him for a couple of nights and see what it's like. To the point... if you've heard what these pedals do on any CD's then you'll be able to reproduce these sounds just as easily with this.

Quality! Digitech have done well with this. It's good to see things being built to the same kind of standard I myself would make it to if I were designing it. The pedal is rock solid folded sheet steel. The stomp switch is not going anywhere. The dial turns with a definite click into the settings so it doesn't easily move off them. The tredle is smooth operating and also made of sheet steel. At a guess it must be around 2mm thick sheet. The input jacks are all secured well.

The guy who sold me mine swore it works perfectly but the LED has died on it. I will get this resoldered at some point. Most LED's are rated for decades so it's likely in his quest for a new power supply he's blown it. The original supplies are meant to be slightly lacking and prone to failing, so by all means replace it but get a nice high quality one for silence!

Get a screw diver and open it up. First of all, admire those two original WH-1 chips you just paid so much for! Now check out where the tredle comes into the case. On the end is an LED and photo receptor cell opposite it. This is excellent... why? Because it means that there is no mechanical contact of your foot's action with the electronics of the pedal, keeping the electrical and mechanic sections completely seperate. You don't have some dumb variable resistor to wear down and brake. This is also why the pedal has such a silky smooth transistion! The only resistance you feel rocking the pedal is from the bar supporting it. 10 out of 10 for this idea!

There are only two alterations I would have made. The sides are not joined, but due to the strength of the steel they stay tightly closed up. It would have been very easy to run a weld down each one though. Secondly I would have moved the stomp switch and dial slightly more to the right so my foot can reach them a bit easier. But anyway, these are pathetic changes. The pedal is exceptionally well made! Well done Digitech!

Digitech answered my emails about the power supply and new LED in a couple of days, they're real good to deal with. I felt they could have gone in more detail in their answers but I'm sure they would have given me those details had I asked. I have expirenced some of the worst customer service ever but also unpresidented quality from other companies which is just a fraction of a percent better than Digitech's.

On the downside, repairs.... ack! I asked Digitech's dealers over here in the UK how much they'd need to repair the LED and was quoted around #50 or so for a 50p LED and two solder joints. I will instead find an amature radio guru with a #200 soldering iron to fix it over five minutes for a drink. If something major goes you WILL pay for it. The two control chips aren't made anymore so if they are statically shocked somehow (Touching them!!!) you may as well have bought a re-issue!

The best way to summarise my feelings about this pedal are to tell you how I got it. I am 18 and for a summer job I worked alongside an old guy making metal gates and railings. I realised after a few days that this was actually, I would make the gates and railings, I would then help fit them, and only get something like a 10th of the profit from them. Hours were around 12 or so a day, manual labour [I still have a groove down my thumb were a rack of metal fell on my hands and two small patches on my leg where I was burnt]. For what he describe as my 'normal days work' I was given #250 over every two weeks. So... to afford this pedal I suffered two weeks + of this crap and I would do it again if I had to for this pedal.

About the only downside to the pedal is it's hard to change the setting mid-playing. Some real careful foot work might do it but I've tried and it's difficult to say the least. If you really need to be able to change the setting with your foot I guess you could attach a short length of bent metal rod to the dial so you could turn it easier.

Everything about this pedal is a demonstration of someone's care and wish to create a highly usable guitar effect. If you're considering one, buy it, I promise you'll be pleased with what you get.

Well, for the whammy settings, you just set it, and its not heard until you lean on the rocker. For the harmonies its the same way, but the lowered position gives you one harmony, and the upper gives you another. For the harmonies, you could use theory knowledge or you could just trial and error. There's nothing "hard" about the pedal, however

Using it with a telecaster, into various effects, into a VHT combo. Sound quality is hard to judge in a pedal like this. I would much rather the catagory be something like "coolness." I think it sounds great. All those cool harmonies, and the cool octave effects. Plus a couple chorus settings. Does the 2 octave up effect sound pretty? No, but its not meant to.

As for shifting chords? It's doesn't want to do it. But its not supposed to do it. I mean, 2 note chords will work, but once you get passed that it gets garbled if you leave the pedal depressed. However, if you have a strong signal going into the pedal it helps. ALSO, if you keep the pedal moving, it helps a lot. Rock the rocker JUST as your strike the chord, and you get your chord. This isn't an eventide, or anything like that. Two completely different animals. trying to use harmonizing effects on a chord is a nasty proposition.

Again, I think it sounds great. Whether your doing Morrello stuff, or Trey Anastasio stuff, or John Scofield stuff, its a whole lotta fun. Not a very suble effect. It can be very pretty, or very bizzare, or very...."interesting." I like to use the harmonies for leads, especially, ones that don't totally interfere with the rhythm playing. I like to use the octaves at transition points in a song. To emphasize a resolution point, or right at the end. Again, the entire chord doesn't shine through, but you get the point. You can knock it up an octave in the middle of a solo to keep the audience on its toes.

As for the Chorus effects....ehh. I just don't like chorus in general. But they sound nice for what they are.

well, i bought broken, no signal. Sent it to Digitech, fixed it. I haven't heard of a lot of these breaking. The other model whammys imagine, but this is a heavy piece of metal. You can rock on it all day. Now, part of the reason i picked it up at a decent price is because it was broken. More on that in a bit.

Very friendly, informative. I called to check up, and the guy said. "Yep, its right here, going out tomarrow." It did.

Now, if you stop by 30th street guitars in The City, they'll have these going for like 500 dollars. THAT IS INSANE. I was about to buy the reissue, until i stumbled upon the broken original one for almost the same price. I figured if i got sick of it, I could make a killing on ebay. Of course, now I don't want to part with it. I only played the reissue briefly, and long before i got the original, so i can't compare at all. But, ebay prices are really high on these, and 30th street guitars are a rip off. SO YOU REALLY SHOULD TRY THE REISSUE. Or the Whammy 2. I know Trey Anastasio plays the 2, so it can't be bad. If possible, put them side by side. You can buy hella good guitars for the kinda money it takes to buy an original whammy on the collectors market. Don't get taken.

Stats: DigiTech Whammy WH-1, made in the early or late 80s (I've heard many diff. years mentioned and I don't honestly know which year)
Features: 5 whammy FX (pitch shift), 12 harmony FX, 2 detune FX, wet and dry outputs
Misc.: Serial no. 260772 (my pedal), made in Canada, AC Adaptor 9V AC Output 750 mA <--THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!

How easy is this to use? EXTREMELY EASY! Expression pedal and a knob. Would probably be difficult to read on a dimly lit stage, but you'd probably use this pedal so much that you'd memorize the settings in a day. Just plug in your guitar (make sure to plug into the wet output) and plug your ears.

Setup: Epiphone G-300 -> Boss TU-2 Tuner -> Dunlop 535Q Wah -> DigiTech Whammy WH-1 -> Boss BF-3 Flanger -> Boss DD-5 Digital Delay -> Peavey Renown 400

I've used the XP-100 and WH-4 from DigiTech, and the WH-1 blows them right out of the water. Smooth as hell pitch bend, completely flawless harmony, nice detune sound (like a chorus pedal as aforementioned many times on this page), a TINY (maybe 5-10 ms) lag between picking the string and the sound, but not nearly as lagging as the newer versions or the XP-100 (about 100 ms). I'm a skeptic and want to believe that it's actually analog pitch shifting at work inside, but I've also heard that it's digital. Anyway my biggest influence to guitar is Tom Morello, who is probably the most famous for using that trademark 2 octave sound which I absolutely love. It DOES make a huge difference where you place this thing in your set up, I set it after my wah, and it sounds a hell of a lot better than setting it before. Combined with a delay and flanger, it's sonic mayhem. It's also EXTREMELY quiet when on bypass, unlike the newer WH-4. Don't be fooled by the reissues, they are NOTHING!!! compared to this.

1) This is extremely reliable, it's lasted 10 years and built like a tank -- ALL METAL!

2)...one thing though---YOU MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST (can't stress it enough) have the right power supply!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got the wrong supply from the guy who sold it to me on eBay, and I was worried I messed up the internal structure. Luck had it the same day I got it that I had my power supply from my XP-100 (piece of deuce-poop) handy and I just plugged in and ta-da!!! The power supply MUST HAVE THESE FEATURES:

9V AC output 750 mA

If you don't understand, just ask Radio Shack or your local music shop and they will know what you are talking about.


3) One person mentioned that sometimes the settings screw up with the knob -- I've also had that happen to me a couple times -- easily fixed, just unplug and plug it back in and it'll get it's mind straight.

I cover a LOT of RATM, and I never was able to appreciate the Whammy pedal until I received the WH-1. This is definitely a god-send, forget the reissues -- you must find the original. You already know it's discontinued, it took me a year of searching to find one in a reasonable price range, they are now going for a ridiculous $400-500, and mine is in almost mint condition and got it for $80.

A switch, a pedal and a knob...nothing much easier than that.

I use this with my Jackson KV-2 (U.S. King V with Seymour Duncan Distorion pickups and a floyd rose), dunlop CB-535Q wah, a VHT pittbull ultra lead head and Celestion loaded Marshall 4x12. This pedal kills, it has a bunch of cool sounds in it like Dimebag's sound in becoming or suicide note part II. Great for crazy ass pitch bends that will make the front row's ears bleed.

Never fucked up on me...ever.

never had to use it.

if you want a cool pedal that will open up new ideas in both rhythm and lead guitar playing this is your pedal. if I ever lost it I'd find another one.

This thing is insanely easy to use, all the modes are just presets and they are toggled through via one selector knob. It has a stomp bypass switch to turn the effect on also. Thats it, easy stuff I say now on to the next part...

I use the WH-1 mainly with a 72' Fender Tele Thinline RI a Flextone II HD amp and a myriad of other noise making pedals such as the DOD Gonkulator,535Q wah,Boss PS-3 & DD-5 and a finally a MXR Phase 90. I find that this pedal is not very noisy when on or off. Most of the modes are really good, but some I dont use as much as others, they are still cool to have regardless. This thing tracks like butter, IVL Technologies the company who helped Digitech make this version really knew what they we're doing. You can shift chords and even do pedal flutters and it still holds track like a champ. Aside from the killer pitchshifting the chorus is really good on this pedal, it sounds lush and organic. The harmony settings are cool and are a plus to have but some of the lower octave settings aren't to useable, although I was able to mimic a bass quite convincingly and that was fun. I took my Boss OC-2 off my board right when I got this because the normal octave setting on my WH-1 does something the Boss could never do accurately TRACK NOTES!!! I don't really use it to mimic other artists but all the sounds are there if you wanted to do so ..Edge,Greenwood,Morello,Gilmour,APC etc its all there. Overall its a great sounding pedal that is really versatile, even though its not something you'd expect to be, the pedal sounds natural and organic ...at least to me anyway heh.

I would totally depend on it, the thing is a tank ..it's all metal and it really looks like it was made to last, & judging from the people still using them I guess it was. I would use it at a gig without a backup because I don't have another and I trust it. I bought this off E-bay a month ago for $280.00 shipped which I think was a steal considering what some beat up ones go for nowadays, it is in mint condition it functions & looks like its brand new so im not worried about it breaking down anytime soon. The only thing that makes me wonder is the wall wart pedal supply ...I haven't had any problems myself but I hear they aren't the most reliable things. So they lose a couple of points for the adapter..

This is my first Digitech product {DOD excluded} and probably my last ...not because they are bad, but just because nothing else they make really appeals to me. I've never dealt with them so I dont really have a rating for them ...from what I hear they are decent though.

I play all kinds of music ranging from but not limited to alternative,jazz,reggae,funk to metal and I think you can find a applications for this pedal in virtually any genre. I have been playing roughly 7 years and if it was stolen or lost I would definitely try to replace it if I could find another one for a semi reasonable price again. I tried the Whammy Wah XP100 and I did not like it very much, I have never tried the Whammy II or the WH-1 reissue so I dont know how they compare soundwise. I do like the setup of the WH-1 versus the other models, its a smaller unit and it looks sturdier plus it just looks cooler. It helps me think and play differently when approching the guitar ... and any time that happens I think its a good thing.

This things was easy to use as soon as I turned it on. I bought mine used and the pedal is a little loose so I will need to do an adjustment. Right now it is a little difficult to get the pedal in the "down" position because of the looseness. This can be easily fixed.

This thing is not noisy at all. Very transparent. A few of the settings are not usuable but 80% of them rock. I use it through 2 Vox AC-30's. What I am really impressed by the original Whammy is how smooth it tracks the notes. You can even pitch shift entire chords! Unlike the Whammy reissue the original is very exciting to play. Other owners of the original can tell you that this pedal is like crack or something. You just can't get enough of it. The reissue Whammy is Ok but really no comparison to the original.

I have only had it a few weeks so time will tell if it is relaible or not. I have had no dealings with Digitech but other products I have owned by them in the past have stood the test of time.

Fantastic idea and design. Too bad Digitech did not put the original software in the reissue like they did in the original. I guess it is all about the $$$. I would replace it. Hell my wife almost divorced me for buying it haha.

Very easy, put the knob where you want it, press the button and move the pedal. The footpedal is very small though and if you're getting too excited with it you can sometimes move the knob to a different setting.

On whammy settings up an octave or two it's great and the sound comes out straight away (most whammys and pitch shifters 'think' for a short time). On the lower octave settings if you play high up the neck there's a short gap. It does quite a nice chorus thing, I know everyone else has said that, but it's true, it's a chorus pedal. You can also have it turned on with the pedal back and the sound is EXACTLY the same as it is when it's turned off. When you have it set two octaves up it does very little of that annoying ring modulatory sounding thing that I've heard on a lot of other whammy type units.

Don't know, I've only had it for a week. But my 2120 is fine and I've had that for years.

Don't know.

I play really loud music and I like to use effects as instruments in their own right and this is by far the easiest to use in that manner. If I broke it or forgot it at a gig I'd sell a guitar for it...I sold a Fender Jaguar to get this. I just wish it had the lights like the reissue does.....Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I love it because it's bright red!