DigiTech Whammy 4

pretty easy i would say , quite intuitive - i dont think i looked at the manual xD
with some pedals you gotta mess round with loads of settings to get it to sound right , but the whammy is plug in an play really.

I'm using the pedal with a Yamaha Pacifica an Archtop copy thing (which sounds really white stripsy with the pedal) and i also use a hudson hf1 dragonfly superfolk acousticint the same setup (sounds awsome with the detune chorus effect) the guitars go into the whammy then out the wet somtimes into a Crybaby wah then a marshall vs100r 2x12combo. I've only been playing seriously for about 6 years but i'd still say the tone is pretty good. The pedal is glitchy when you play multiple notes , which will probably not be to most peoples tastes , however , i like this - very jack white esque....

I've only gigged this pedal twice , but it holds up well , its very sturdy but paint chips easy. Its housing is totally solid (no sh*tty plastic here!) and TBH i wouldnt need a backup , it seems the only thing that can go wrong is the treadle coming a bit loose and also needing recalibrating which is simple and easy to carry out.

havnt dealt with them.

overall , this is a good pedal , if you have any doubts about buying one , dont , i ummed and arrrred for a while before making a decision to buy one , and i can honestly say i've had no regrets (be it a little expensive). This pedal has become a definate keeper and i dont know what i would do without it...

big red pedal lots of options in one knob so it deserves the idiot-proof award more so than other pedals, having first tried this pedal i thought it had way too much octave options and may be confusing but it wont take long to find what pleases you in it.

sounds like the kinda pedal to use when bored. after owning this pedal for awhile i hear alot of other bands that use it, radiohead, rage against the machine, before i didnt really care about the digitech whammy.

this pedal works well with other pedals, no noise problems, no change in sound, its all in how you use it. it works great as a filler in a bridge or in a whole song.

hmm i got it used so i think it may have some input trouble or maybe the rocker on it was off or something if I remember but right now it works fine

I use a telecaster and fender hotrod deville 212

this is a popular pedal that i heard about but never intended on buying but i got it on a trade so i got a good deal on it but it has become part of my pedal board now and is another ingredient in my electric guitar spice cabinet so yeah I love it.

This device produces a very specific sound for very specific people: "good" sound is in the ear of the beholder. Imagine stiling your guitar string with a plastic chopstick and letting the chopstick rebound rapidly for the length of a quarter note (kind of like a hammer dulcimer or rollinr your "r's" in spanish): that is the sound of each note you play on any of the interval settings. It is workable for all the intervals if you respect the intervalic values selected and never use more than two notes at a time---forget about chords. Also, mixing the wet and dry will help smooth the digital jaggeddddddness. The octave is awfull in the lower register: get yourself a dedicated octave pedal (boss oc-3 is good or the Electro-H multiplexor thingy). I find the pedal usefull for various functions: changing 2nds to 3rds, 4ths to 5ths,etc.: pedal steel slide emulation, a leslie type effect on the detune setting, finding pitch change on the fly in the drop tune/dive bomb settings...No need for a manual. Easy to get sounds. Good or bad is for you to decide.

Running thru two amps (fender and musicman): one gets the wet, the other dry. Quiet pedal. It will color your tone when it is on and has a slight latency (millisecond) on the attack giving a delay-ish sound effect (subtle:not quite a slap-back). Some tone difference when "by-passed" (clicked off)...no big deal. Will work with a distortion pedal if you set the distortion to accommodate your whammy effect. Tracks fine for medium to fast picking. The actual "quality" of the sound?: Brittle, digital and heavily artifact-y. If you want smooth pitch shifting and intervalic choices within a real guitar sound get a vg-88: costs three times more, sounds ten times better. The boss ps-5 might be a warmer, less artifact-laden device but I chose the Whammy over the ps-5 for some reason. Go try both of them and then try a real expensive pitch shifter and then go refinance yourself...

Strong pedal. On/off switching seems like it will last a few thousand clicks. Scary-tight fit on ps adaptor plug-in.

I have dealt with them regarding a different pedal. You will get no spec/tech support: "send it in and we will look at it..."

I bought this before I knew what else was out there. I like the tactile ease of use. I settled for the weird sound because i thought the next step up was going to cost one thousand dollars. Try others, spend more. I am seeing alot of these pedals going for half what people paid new: i suspect because of the limited applications of pitch-shifting in most musics, but also the inferior artifacting of the Whammy and the uselessness of its lower-octave interval (think "gargling sea elephant"). It is o.k. as interjection but requires some manipulational working around for real-world live music applications. I would use a "real" pitch-shifting device in the studio

Just one knob that controls that controls. You make your selection based on witch LED light is next to the setting.

It is perfect for people for me who like digital effects. But for the people who like the organic sounding effects, this is probobaly not for you.

This thing is built like a ****** tank. I would definitely gig with it without a backup.

Never had to deal with them. Hope I never have to either.

This was the second pedal I ever got and it is by far my favorite. I am a big fan of Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Muse, and the White Stripes and this is the pedal you can recreate their sounds with. It does sound kind of digital but that does not matter to me. I think it is a lot better than the Boss PS-5 Super Shifter. It is also cool because in the Detune settings you can get a Chorus-like sound. So kudos to Digitech for making this pedal. I recommend it to everyone.

After you bought the WH4 you have to calibrate it. That means that you should set the starting positoin of the expression pedal so if the exp. pedal is fully heeled up the pinch and everything else of your tone should not change if you turn off/on the pedal. This process could be a little bit hard, but it takes only a few minutes. After the calibration it's very easy to use the pedal. You have to learn some heel/toe tricks with it, but not as much as you should with a wah pedal. The manual for the product is good, you can learn everything from it, check it to know how to calibrate the pedal. The rotating knob for setting the function is good too, but I would be more happy, if I could plug an extension pedal to the Whammy so I could change the functions with my leg even while I play.

I'm using a Hamer Californian with an EMG81 at the bridge position and a Line6 HD147 amp with the Line6 412S cabinet and the Line6 FBV Shortboard. It's a little bit noisy, but nothing serious, the noise gate of the HD147 solve the problem. If you want to buy this effect for Tom Morello Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave style music and you don't want to pay too much, this stuff is for you. It's digital, but I love digital guitar gears, of course only if they are good, but the WH4 is good. Some people say that it's manipulate your tone and it's losing, but I never experienced such this. Unfortunately I never had a chance to try the ultimate WH1 original Whammy pedal, which i analog and for sure it's better than this pedal, but it also 5 times more expensive than the WH4.

I used this pedal on rehersals gigs and only one bad thing happened: The cementation released the rubber leg of the pedal so the concrete scared off the paintwork badly. Fortunately this injury is on the back of the pedal so it doesn't shows normally, only if you check the back of it. I could replace the rubber leg with some tape and it didn't felt off after the repair. Anyway it's fully metal so usually you can only hurt the paintwork, you have to do some serious damage to cause worse problems than a scratched paintwork. You can even step on the exp. pedal with both legs and it won't collapse, this thing is really well built.

Never dealt with them.

It's good for anyone who like this typical Whammy effect, the harmonizer stuff and the detuning features, but can't afford to buy a WH1 Whammy. Digitech made a good job with this pedal for those who like good digital stuff, this is for you go buy it, you won't regret it.

Well its pretty easy to be fair.
One expression pedal, one rotory dial to pick the setting, one input, two outputs (wet and dry) and a on/off switch.

This pedal definately has its own sound. You can get the same sounds as Morello, Satriani and Vai etc very easily.

This pedal does suck tone in bypass though. I place it in a true bypass loop; problem solved.

It sounds great when on though in front of amp or in its effects loop.

Very reliable I would say, never had any issues.

Dont know never needed them.

Well its a easy pedal to use and good fun as well.

If it was true bypass it would be perfect. But nothing is perfect I guess. Well as long as you put it in a loop so you can take it in and out its fine. And because of that I can not give it a 10.

Pretty simple really... Choose your setting and move the pedal/treadle to your hearts desire.

The manual pretty much explains how to use it, and what to do very well. This pedal does best what it's designed to do... pitch shift and harmonize.

I'm a wah whore, and you really don't want to be using this thing like a wah all the time, but I found it very easy to get used to it.

If your favorite guitarist uses the whammy, unless you have a messed up unit, you'll pretty much nail the sound.

Handles fuzz, dirt, and overdrive very well. The lack of perfect tracking adds a nice random break up here and here, which I really like.

I'm running this beast through a Srat and SG. Here's my set up:

GGG = General Guitar Gadgets TP = TonePad.

GGG wah > whammy > TP muff > TP TS9 > GGG octavia > GGG germanium fuzz > GGG silicon fuzz > TP phase 90 > TP CE2 > GGG EA tremolo > TP Rebote delay > modded Fender Blues Jr.

It sounds really good through any combination I put it through.

Haven't noticed any noise issues.

The only thing I can think of that people might not like is the tracking. Like I said it's not perfect, and sounds best with break up/dirt/fuzz/OD, but it can get a little annoying with the cleans.

Built like a tank.

Don't gig... but I would trust it without a back up.

I actually had problem with calibration. I couldn't dial it in properly with the method in the manual. It wouldn't change pitch for a full 3/4 of the sweep from the heel position. I e-mailed digitech, and on the same day got a reply telling me to "move the pedal almost all the way forward and almost all the way back, but leave a little bit of space in both directions." I tried that a few times, and ended with the pitch shifting only working on the first 1/4 of the sweep from the heel position. Then I tried the method from the manual again, and it was working perfect. To me, getting a helpful e-mail the SAME DAY, is perfect CS.

I don't really have a certain style of music, but it's mainly based around blues, funk, rock, psychedelic, spacey, and lots of 60's rock type stuff. Matches all those and more.

I've been playing for about 8yrs now.

If it were lost/stolen I MIGHT buy another one... MIGHT because I decided to buy an EHX HOG. I'm still keeping the whammy when I get the HOG though... I just don't know if I'd replace it if lost/stolen.

I love the crazy sounds I can get from it. I hate that I didn't buy it sooner. My favorite features are the +1 octave, and +2 octave.

I couldn't find any other pedals to compare it to.

Definitely adds a lot more variety to my tunes.

For the price it's well worth it, and I can't see anything in the price range that's better.

It takes some getting used to but after an hour or so you will get the hang out of it and it makes some really cool sounds

Because it is not true-bypass this pedal sucks a lot of your tone!
It sucks the life out of your tone worse than a CryBaby Wah pedal that is not true-bypass.
When it is on and you have it set so the signal is untouched it wrecks your tone completely. May not be noticeable on a solid state amp but on a good tube amp it removes all the warmth and punch and you are left with a thin stale sound.
When it is bypassed (turned off) it is better but still thins out your tone removing the low mids and adding a bit of highs.
This really pisses me off because it is a cool pedal but when it is turned off it should be true-bypassed or close to it so it does not mess with your tone that you spent so much money on by buying an expensive tube amp!

Also the cool sounds that you get out of this in regards to octaves and harmonies are very robotic and low-fi digital sounding. Similar but not the same as the sounds Tom Morello gets on RATM and Audioslave records. His octave and harmony sounds are more analog and real sounding so I don't know if the original whammy is better in this regard or he has done some wizardry in the studio to make it sound better.

Not sure only owned it for a couple of weeks

Not sure

I have been playing guitar for over 25 years and have had many different types of pedals, guitars, amps in my search for the holy grail of tone.
This is a cool pedal for the sounds and possibilities it gives you. I especially like the step down so that you can drop your tuning down a whole step or even a half step to jam along with artists who tune to Eflat.
But the low-fi digital robotic sounds are not so pleasing, they should be made better to sound more realistic and analog sounding.
And Digitech should really work on the tone sucking problem that this pedal has, it is terrible!

A very straight forward pedal. The effects are changed by turning just one knob, which is easy, however not if you intend to change effects during a show - however i have seen a wheel which can be placed over the knob making it easy to change with yor foot. The manual is easy, you don't really need it to be honest.

The sound quality is excellent, however it kills your tone. If you are tone freak then i suggest you get a bypass between it. It is digital so only a few notes can be played at once, this has made no difference to me. Harmonies are ok, a few sound good, i dont really go there though.
The midi input thing on this is awesome. I connect to it my laptop and write midi scores on cubase, allowing me to play songs like map of the problematique by muse. Not alot of people use this option, however i think it is one of the best features of the pedal.

The pedal has screwed up a few times. Once it exploded during a practice with my band, and smoke came out of it! weird thing is i came back to it an hour later and it worked perfectly. The treadle has messed up a few times but this can be fixed by a certain way of recalibrating the pedal.
I do gig with this pedal without a backup, purely cos i cant afford two! I keep it on my pedalboard towards my guitar with an Ibanez SM7 before it as a boost with a Boss-OS2, Behringer NR100, Boss-DD3 and Danelectro Octave fuzz on the other side of it.

Great. Emailed them and got a reply within the hour.

It is a good pedal, if you wanna make new sounds and show off then this the pedal to buy. It's pretty much one of a kind - well worth the cash.

I've only used the thing for an hour or two tops, but I know for a fact that i knew what I had to do as soon as I opened the box- simple as anything. No use for the manual, unless you need to recalibrate.

Let me start by saying

1.) I play an American Fender Strat with non-humbucking single-coils
2.) I do have a soild state amp (Fender Frontman DSP or whatever), but it sounds amazing. And I know tone
3.) The only way I can describe this awesome sound is if a computer was attacked by a cat that was in the process of killing a guitar- and I just love it.
With that out of the way, I'm a huge White Stripes fan, so this think is like a god to my tastes. It is obviously digital sounding, reminicent of a snythesizer, but in the best possible way. The 1 Octive down setting does sound almost exactly like a bass, though. Natuarlly, because I use a vintage distortion pedal my dad found in a dumptser (Still nice though) and single-coils, there is some noise, but much less than my Snarling Dog wah (from the same dumpster). It isn't to distracting though, and I've heard no tone loss whatsoever. my complete setup usually is Custom Strat (Single Coils)>Whammy>Cheap tuner in dry output>Vintage DOD Overdrive>Fender Frontman SS amp. Overall, sounds great and sounds wicked.

I've got no reason not to depend on it, but I wouldn't know since I dont gig. Its solid steel, but the LEDs do worry me for some reason. My only beef with the thing is once it switched from 2 Octives Up to Deep Detune on me once with no help from me.

I don't think I've ever called anyone for customer support for anything, and I dont think I need to. This thig could beat up Shwartzenegger.

Since only Jesus and my Stat are perfect, I'll have to give it a 9, just due to the once occurence where it switched on me. I've been playing seriously since around November 2006, but messed just for kicks since I was 7 (I'm 15 now). I have my Strat that I call Lou, my dad's Les Paul Classic, My sister's bass, My Ibanez acoustic, My dad's Washburn acoustic, and an old Vester that I need to fix up at home, so I could probably get any sound I want out of the Whammy. Because I dont have a job, or any money, I'd have to say I wouldn't buy another if something happened unless I had the money. But, I wouldn't ever go with anything else. This beutiful peice of equiptment has opened doors for me that I thought were locked. But if it had a built in microwave and came with a free Hooters Waitress, it would be perfect.