DigiTech Whammy 4

Pedal is fairly simple to use. Stomp on it for a few hours and you'll be able to accomplish what the pedal was intended for.

Of course this sucker is a staple for RATM and some cool Satch sounds. However, be warned that Tom Morello and JS don't use the Whammy 4. They of course have the Original Whammy pedal which is quite different than the Whammy reissues. The circuitry is different, there is a slight delay time, some components are mounted differently. See Analogman.com for mor info on how this stacks up vs the Original Whammy.

My biggest gripe is that this pedal will suck the mojo right out of your tone. It is a bigger tone killer than your Boss Tuner. I am forced to use this pedal on 2 songs in a cover band and I keep it off my pedal board and quickly plug it in only for the 2 songs I need it on. The pedal is not true bypass and cannot be made true bypass by the way it is wired ( see analogman.com again!). The original whammy can be made true bypass. I wish I had dished out the bucks on e-bay for an expensive but better Original Whammy.

My setup is Gibson Les Paul Custom ( or PRS Singlecut, Peavey Wolfgang, Ernie Ball Axis SuperSport and Cort Neil Zaza signature model) into Vox Clyde Mcoy Wah> Boss Noise Suppressor ( With Analogman TS9, MXR Zakk Wylde overdrive and MXR EVH Phase in the loop of the Boss NS) > Analogman modified Boss TR2 tremolo pedal > Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. In the FX loop I have a Boss DD-20 Delay Pedal into a Analogman Mini Chorus pedal.

Bottom line : This thing sucks compared to the Original Whammy.

Constructed solidly. Don't see it breaking down too easily. Also a bit large and expensive for a backup.

Tried to have True Bypass installed but it is not possible. Albeit I have had no reason to contact the manufacturer.

This thing is a toy in my opinion. I love RATM, Vai, etc but in excess this thing is a real noise maker and not very musical in my lowly opinion. Of course to each his own and this pedal can be used creatively in some instances even though I do not care for it. My biggest gripe is how this pedal sucks the tone right out of your rig. I would never leave this item in my signal path for a whole evening.

I have been playing for over 20 years and play 3 to 4 weekends a month.

Just like tom morrello said, this thing doesn't have flashy lights that blink or huge thick manuals. It tells you what it does right on the front of the box. Plug it in and play.

This thing can do anything from Satriani to Rage. The whammy and harmony effects can't really handle chords so well but the Detune effects add thick and lush sound to any guitar.

If this thing breaks, shame on me. It's built as rugged as possible, the casing and treadle are all metal. The only thing I could possibly see being a problem are the LED's but they rarely burn out so I think this thing could probably be stomped on for years and I won't have a problem.

I wanted this pedal for two reasons. One, it will open my playing style to a whole new spectrum of sound possibilities. After Guitar World put out the DVD with Tom Morrello explaining his rig and how he creates those amazing sounds, I've looked at the guitar in a completely different light. Two, I'm in a RATM tribute band and there's no way I could play without using a Whammy.

manuals alright. its a little confusing at first but after 20 minutes, you know almost everything there is to need to know about it.

i would rate this a 10, but nothings perfect and this is no exception. first off, its monophonic and not polyphonic which means for the unit to be 100% (or close) you can only pluck one string (but in most cases, why would you want to pluck two?). Also,there is some debate about a time delay between string plucking and the noise from the amp. THERE IS A VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY SLIGHT DELAY. not that it matters to me, if you cant adapt to this minor technicallity, then you honestly shouldn't have forked out so much money for this because you probably just arent skilled enough to you one. other then that, its a gift from god (or mecca or satan or buhdda, who ever you worship...thank them for this wonderful unit)

even comes with a power supply! built like a tank (boss still are the most solid, but this is close). i bet you could drop it off a building, but if you threw it, it might blow up. i got mine today, but ive heard the paint can come off over time...whatever

never had to deal with them yet...hopefully never will

if there was an 11, id rate it that. i never had the honor of playing an original, but im honestly quite content with this baby. i even kissed it when i took it out of the box!

deadset easy, just select a setting, then wiggle ya foot.I havent got a MIDI switch yet because I dont want to rackmount it.Manual is good.

For the price I was expecting a little more flexibility, but instead I got this "you can only play one note at a time guitar effect",and if you dont,it sounds like its having a stroke in its arse.That said, most FX require a certain amount of adjutment to, and this has some nice quirks to it.It may not be a virtual whammy bar compared to a cheap zoom 5052, but it has a HUGE punch to its volume.Users include: Sunk Loto, White Stripes, Deftones, Yeh Yeh Yehs, Ed O'Brien(RADIOHEAD)....and LOTS of other SUCCESSFUL modern musicians.
I use it with a crybaby and a Pro Amp GA106 for overdrive. I have some other effects, but I wont brag.

I bought a good one, but Ive heard the misfortunes of other guitarists.

Not Yet

I play Steve Vai sort of stuff, anything really, so its a close match.
I bouhgt it for a hi-fi transparent whammy bar sound, but I keep it cause its lovably quirky, makes people jealous, looks red hot and is now part of my tone.
I give it a 5 only for its high price and lack of true bypass, up/down footswitches.sorry bub

Its pretty simple.Like a wah pedal, just move it up and down.Led lights let you know what preset your on, so there goes anything that could have confused you.

I was disapointed at first because my range on the "gas pedal" was very limited, it onyl started shifting when near the top.I read the manual and low and behold theres a way to fix it, and now I have a steady pitch shift throughout the pedals sweep.excellent.
Most of the harmonys are very digital, a few sound better then others, but its a step above a regular pitch shifter.they come out sounding very clean compared to other shifters I have used.
The whammy setting is amazingly fun to mess with.The divebomb, however, sounds very fake to me.Its neat to use as a slow down effect, like an old tape about to completly eat it.Other then that I think that setting is worthless.
The problem is that when its before your distortion, the whammy setting dont kill your tone when switched on, but at the same time your harmonys now sound like junk.If you put it after distortion your harmony parts are awesome but switching to the whammy kills your tone as soon as you switch.aarrgh.Its like you have to choose what your using it for before a gig.

This is honestly the most fun pedal you could buy.I use it more as a toy then an actual pedal, allthough it does some things that im probably going to use down the line in a few songs. there really is nothing like it on the market, if you want this pedal you pretty much have to buy it.Allthough 199 is a lot for any pedal, Im not gonna yell about it.Go try one and see if you like it.

Simple, plug in the included power supply, turn the knob to desired setting, and play!

I use a Cort G290 (EMG SA and 89 pickups) with a variety of effects through a Marshall MG100DFX amp. There is no tone loss at all, if the Whammy is placed before your distortion effects. Great noises, although annoyingly the harmonies sound much better after the distortion.

Built like a brick. After nearly two years of gigging, all that's happened is a few chips of paint have come off. Although once, the pitch was being raised when the treadle was fully down, I solved this by recalibrating the pedal. READ THE MANUAL! The power supply seems pretty sturdy too.

N/A

I love this pedal. I use it in a lot of my own compositions as well as when covering Rage Against The Machine or Muse, and sometimes for emulating keyboards and synthesisors! Overall, great pedal.

Yep, it's pretty simple. I don't know squat about theory, but I can still have tons of fun with the harmonisor. The whammy feature is the best, if you want the crazy sounds then this is the way to go. I bought it because Jonny Greenwood and Kevin Shields use the WH-1, I've never used the orginal, but if you're a radiohead or shoegaze fan, this is the pedal for you. This pedal was everything I expected it to be. I run it at the very start of my effects chain, sometimes I switch it up and put some distortion before it. The MIDI capability is cool too, I hooked up my ART X-11 foot controller to it, works great, I can flip through the 17 different settings just by selecting the channel on my controller. There's a bit of a click when doing this, so don't expect to do it in the middle of a chord, it's more for transitions in a song.

Let's see, it's definitely a digital sound, but when you hit it just right (that's where the music theory comes in) it sounds like pure gold. If you like artists who use one of these things, you will love this pedal. I give it a ten, it's seriously everything I wanted.

I pulled it apart for the first time yesterday as I thought it was broke, turned out to be my power supply had come unsoldered. It's built like a light weight tank, it's not indestructable but it's pretty damn tough. I've not gigged with it but I will be doing so soon and without a backup, I don't have another $150 to drop for a back up.

lol, customer support, I would rather shoot myself than sit on hold so I could have someone who knows nothing about what I'm doing read some pre-selected text to me

I play post-shoegaze, in the vein of Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Bardo Pond, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. This pedal helps me achieve a multi-layered sound quite easy. It seems everyone else uses the harmonisor for single notes, but it can do some decent things to chords as well. I've been playing for a couple years, my gear is nothing impressive, but I've got this setup with 3 different distortions, a phaser, a tremolo, and a Boss RV-3 reverb/delay. This pedal is one of my absolute favorites, it is an integral part of my playing. I'm a very needy person so there's tons of things I think that could be added to it, but it does everything I expected it to and at a decent price.

Pretty Easy on the up and down shifting, just step on the ferrari gas pedal and go. I Would suggest learning your scales on the harmonic modes.

This is it, for at least the next couple of years it won't get any better... use a slide for clean chords :)

I have to say the box is a brick indeed, nothing wrong there!
But this thing does have some sloppy enginering on board!.
The Expression pedal works like a charm in the beginning.
The pedals' hinge mechanism however nearly broke on my whammy and i've seen the same happening with at least two others.
I think its no use to continue whining about it so here's the solution if you come across the same issue:
- replace the metal rings for nylon ones (the metal ones eat the nylon ones allready installed)
- grease them properly
- recalibrate the pedal

(only do this when you know what you're doing and when you have the right tools to do it!!!)

never dealt with them.. getting the pedal repared the regular way would leave me without the whammy too long

Currently I play in an altenative rock / new wave band, I've been playing for about ten years now. I use a Les Paul and Telecaster on a JCM200 TSL. DD6 delay, PH3 phaser, 535Q wah, CS3 Compression Sustainer.
If my whammy were stolen or lost, I would definately buy it again!
Along with The TC Gmajor this is the best pitch shifter I heard sound wise, certainly better than the boss PS5. What functionality is concearned this definately is the most versatile one!

Its very easy to use. Just find your setting adjust the pedal if needed then enjoy.

I use a Line 6 210 spider 2 amp with a samick avion guitar. No lag, no distruption of any sort, no bad involved. Create famous tones from tom morello from audioslave/rage against the machines or jonny greenwood from radiohead.

Im pretty sure this thing could survive a tank dropping on it. No back up required. you may need a ney paintjob though.

They were friendly and immediatly knew what i was talking about. They told me how to fix it myself.

200$ retail was kinda steep for me but despite the price I would still buy for that much. This is a great product and if you can find it with a good price on it take it.

About fifteen minutes of playing this for the first time I was producing sounds that I have often wished of producing. Beautiful digital harmonies that can be swept with the pedal.
There are no patches to 'edit', it's just a pedal and what you see is what you get, settings for about 10 harmonies, and various divebombs, detunes and of course, the soaring and scary 2 octave pitch shifting effect.

I'm using a Washburn BT6 with seymour duncan invaders, and it sounds lush - but that's my opinion. People say it sounds scratchy, it sounds digital, and ruins your sound, but that's what it's for, that's part of the charm. A computer processor will always be behind slightly; I think it sounds awesome - what is your loss through misadventure, is my gain.
There is more to guitar sound than million pound production and Steve Vai.

It's made from 16 grade steel and is very very tough.
However, the pedal does have slight problems with settling due to the rubbers under it. It's best to switch off when not in use.

I think it would survive being thrown off a house.

Never used.

I love this pedal, I have been looking for a nice pitch shifter for a while, but found they're too narrow in their abilities, and it's a case of bending down to mess with the knobs. With this, the pedal controls the parameters, and there is one knob which can be swivelled with the foot (after a bit of practice - or put a CD over it, and you can swivel it properly).