DigiTech Whammy 4

I don't wanna use a review board as a an area for arguing with anybody, but I wanna clear some things up for reviewer "Robin at 09/01/2004 06:29" I know the pedal isn't the Wh-1 with some added features, I didn't write it meaning it's the exact same pedal but just updated, I knew the original was analog, but I didn't think I needed to add that in, I reviewed the WH-4, not the Wh-1, and most people should know that most of the older pedals are analog, including the Wh-1. I said it had added features meaning it has the same sounding effects with some new added effects as well, not the exact copy of the Wh-1 with the same circuit board and wiring with new added features. And about the pedal not going all the way back, you had no idea what I was talking about, I tried the "holding the button down and inserting power supply" to reset the pedal, but that wasn't the problem. The actual pedal wasn't going back far enough, the two rubber feet in the heel were too big, they needed to be sanded to be smaller so the heel would go down enough to stay in regular tuning! The two rubber feet in the back would push the heel up to far, sanding the two rubber feet down solved the problem, that was the only thing that would have fixed my problem too! Just reseting the pedal wouldn't and didn't do a thing for me. Sorry for taking up some space on this page, just needed to clear some things up.

There are too many idiots here who submit a ridiculously pointless and uninformed review on the day they get their new 'toy'.

I've owned the humble WH4 for at least 1 and a half years and haven't yet tried the WH1, but I have done my research and spoken to the guitarist from Skindred (who uses the WH1).

Point 1: The WH4 is not a new version with extra features, otherwise identical. It is an emulation of the original, with a couple of additions (MIDI, divebomb-down 3 octaves, LEDs etc).

Point 2: The original simply had better chips in it. The original wasn't analogue as some people have stated. It may however have a smoother, more analogue sound to it.

Point 3: Your favourite guitar heroes all used the original! Even Dimebag from Pantera used the original and last time I checked the fool was using solid-state amps! The only person I've seen actually use a WH4 is Matt Bellamy from Muse, and I think he's only taking advantage of the MIDI interface.

I wasn't aware of any differences between the original and the WH4 when I bought it. I simply thought it had been re-released, and if I had read some of these reviews then I wouldn't have known better anyway.

At the end of the day, I love my WH4 Whammy pedal for all its short-comings. I had loved the effects usage in KoRn's music for a long time and as I progressed at playing and experimenting I amassed most of their pedal setup. KoRn actually used the XP-100 rather than one of the true Whammys (this may have been an endorsement fiddle to boost the crap XP-100s popularity, I don't know).

Soon after I bought the whammy I started to develope my own style, rather than use the whammy to punctuate distorted parts with high-pitched stabs, as KoRn did. I play Metal but I have bizarre song intros (often as long as the songs themselves) using many pedals and plenty of delay. The whammy pedal really opens your mind to what a variety of sounds you are capable of with your guitar (+effects!). Rage Against The Machine's first album's credits state, "All noises made by Guitar, bass, drums and Voice" (to my memory) because the listener would be convinced that they are hearing a synthesiser

I know that the WH4 (as I said, haven't tried the WH1 so this may be the same) can create some odd noises under certain circumstances. For instance: 2 octaves up, let a chord ring out and the high-pitched mains hum eventually interferes with the decaying chord, creating some random notes. If you do this through the 'filter matrix' (the non-oscillating flange, on full colour) of an EH Deluxe Electric Mistress with delay then the sound created is amazing. Mixing the Whammy with many pedals in different orders can create unimaginable (and many useable) sounds.

My personal favourite is to play slow chord sequences, with stupid amounts of delay (huge decay time) and phaser and punctuate the ringing chords with 2octaves up patches being sent to the delay. This sounds like a string orchestra on acid if you get it right. This may make WH1 users physically ill but I sometimes even record quirky guitar parts played an octave lower, then whammy it up 1 octave. This is simply because I enjoy the nasty synthetic quality of the tone added. If my WH4 perfectly transposed everything I did then the magic wouldn't be there for me.

I rate the WH4 as being an incredibly valuable effect for my guitar playing, it has inspired a whole new musical style in me and developed my playing too. With the whammy pedal, my tastes have matured and I better appreciate how to manipulate my guitar with precision. However, as I am not a lead guitarist (I am a rhythm guitarist/songwriter and record a lot), my uses are more subtle than others. I punctuate my songs with eerie noises on separate guitar tracks, rather than play a squeeling 2octave solo.

I'd like to clarify something for 'STEVE' (review from 08/22/2004). You can reset the pedal movement by pushing and holding the button whilst plugging the unit into the mains. A flashing light will appear and you can set the start and end parameters without bloody sanding parts off your pedal off!

Easy to use. The rotating knob is as simple as it gets with all the LEDs. It's kinda of a pain to reach down and rotate the knob if you want a different effect.

I used this effect with the Fuzz Factory and MXR Phase 90(non-dunlop) with a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue. The digitech sucked ALL the tone out of the guitar. I couldn't believe how much of a tone sucker it was. I tried all possible configurations. But with a pedal that does so much as far as harmonies and stuff you have to ready to accept the tone loss. I wasn't happy with the tone loss so I sold the pedal. I think the biggest disappointment was the disagreement it had with other pedals. Using it with other pedals really killed it for me.

It seems to be built really solid. I think I could drop it out of a window and it would still work. Didn't gig with so I can't really give a true judgement.

Didn't use the CS.

I play jazz, rock, blues, punk. I was experimenting and really wanted to like the pedal but the tone loss was such a turn off. I'm really into preserving tube tones and actual guitar tones so the tone loss in the processed effect really didn't cut it for me. I guess I was expecting too much from the pedal. If tone loss isn't a concern then this pedal is a 10. It does things that are seroiusly unthinkable minus preserving tone. Can you tell I'm a tone freak yet? The pedal gets a 7 because its a great pedal but it wasn't exactly what I expected compared to all the other reviews I have read.

This is a really cool pedal to have, you can really impress people if you know how to use this pedal correctly! This pedal is really not that hard to use, especially if you know how to you the harmonizer. For the people who don't know much about harmonizers, that part of the pedal will be very strange to you! It has three different things in it-harmonizer, detune, and whammy. The harmonizer is awesome, has a ton of different harmonies, for each preset there are two different harmonies that you can go from with the pedal. Detune takes your guitar signal, puts it alittle outa tune and goes back and forth from your regular signal to slighlty outa tune signal, sounds pretty cool. You can make it go as fast as you want by either moving the pedal up or down, where ever you want it. The whammy function is awesome! Exactly what it says, whammy! You can go up 1 or 2 octaves, down 1,2,or 3 octaves (3 octaves down is the dive bomb preset), or you can drop tune, drops whatever key you are in a whole step, so from E to D, yeah drop D!!! Even better, drop the low E string to D and then drop tune with the whammy, drop C, crazy! See what your amp can handle! Who needs a manual, this pedal is simple if you know what you want to do/what you can handle!

My setup is very tricky, so I won't list it. But, I do have the whammy pedal 1st in my effects I have that I run right after my guitar into my amp, not in my fx loop. I have two wahs that I run after my guitar into my head, I put the whammy after them, and it kinda weakened the wahs alittle bit, so stick it first. I have all my simulation pedals in my fx loop on my head that I can switch on by selectors. You can put the whammy in the fx loop, it sounds fine, but should go right after the guitar. The pedal isn't noisy at all, no hiss or huming out of it. OK, the question everyone likes to know, can you emulate your favorite guitarists?.......and the answer is....yes, I play a lot of RATM, you can get all of Tom Morello's wierd noises outa this pedal, and you don't need to dish out a huge load of $$$ for the original whammy! You can also get sounds that Joe Satriani and Vai have, I play their stuff too, they both use the WH-1, but the WH-4 works exactly the same and better! Most fx pedals work good together, this one does, but when you have it on the 2 octaves up preset, turn down your volume, especially if you have the distortion on, you will get loud pitched yells that will annoy everyone! The sound quality is insanely good, it doesn't sound too good when playing chords, mainly single note stuff/solos.

How old is the originaly whammy? Are there still a ton of those pedals around? A...duh!!! Yeah, so try and guess, this pedal will last for verrrryyyy loooooonnnnggg! Do I need backup? -No, I don't need backup for two reasons (1)I don't have another extra $200 and (2)I see the WH-1's are still going strong, so why buy two? Even the rotary knob seems like it'll never die on ya.

Very nice and helpful guys, I never needed repairs though, they are like Boss, make pedals like tanks.

If someone stole this pedal, I would be really mad! My favorite pedal gone and I would need to come up with another $200!?!?! Someone would get VERY hurt! The best thing about this pedal, you can be very origianl with this thing, this pedal has the insanest(?is that a word?) presets that sound awesome!!! I did compare it to the original whammy, the original was all beat up and old, and the WH-4 was all new and shiny and LESS $$$! The features were exactly the same and some added features which made this pedal wayyy better!!!

There are many kids out there that hear Tom Morello, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and others use this pedal, they say, wow that sounds cool, I wanna play like that, they think getting the pedal will make them sound just like them. They are WRONG!!! You have to be an experienced musician who knows what you are doing, you scales, theory, and all that other boring stuff nobody wants to learn, but you need to know it all for if you wanna sound good using this pedal. I've been studying music for 10, almost 11 years, luckily I know all my theory and stuff, harmonies, and all that, because this pedal will be pretty strange to you if you don't know what you are doing. It is simple to do if you know all your stuff. About the manual, you really don't need it. It has, I think, 16 presets, a bunch of harmonies, 2 detunes, and a bunch of whammy effects. This pedal is really, really good, its tracking is perfect, it doesn't skip or not go up or down fully, I couldn't believe how flawless this pedal is with the tracking! Even on fast arpeggios or tapping solos, if you got a quick foot action, you can sound insanely good!!! The only annoying thing is bending down to change the presets when you need to, but that's why it has the MIDI, so that'll take care of that problem!

My setup--Either Les Pauls, Strats, or Ibanez Jem or JS models--into my custom pedalboard with---Boss V-wah, Dunlop wah-Digitech whammy-Boss Metal Zone-Boss DS-1-Boss AC-2 acoustic simulator-Boss EQ-Ibanez delay-talk box----through a huge, loud Peavey stack! This pedal is great, it doesn't weaken my wahs or anything, it sounds great infront of my distortions, even after them it sounds pretty good! The pedal isn't noisy at all, no hiss or anything outa it. I heard the original whammy had a level control, I think that woulda been a good idea for this pedal also, to tweak the volume of the effects, that coulda been a nice add in. You can get the same sounds that the pro's are using (if you know what to do). Most of the pro's use the WH-1, but the Whammy 4 can recreate the exact sounds and more!!! Why waste $500+ on an old beat up pedal when you can buy a new, more modern and updated version of the old one?!! Every effect on this pedal is perfect!

Very reliable, if the Wh-1's are lasting all these years, this one will last even longer!!! I have a ton of pedals and never need backups, if you don't buy crap you won't need backup equipment!!!

They are very fast, I asked them questions about pedals and stuff before, they respond quickly. I even gave them an idea for a new pedal for them to make, but that was at the time they were manufacturing their newer distorion pedals, so they said they will get back to me.

I'm not gonna repeat the things I said, overall, one awesome pedal to have!!! I have been wanting to buy it, always bought other equipment, and finally bought it!!! It was the last one left, they weren't ordering any more where I bought it, so I was lucky! The only problem I had was that the pedal wasn't going fully back, the two rubber pieces under the pedal in the back needed to be smaller, so I sanded them down and the problem was solved! It works flawlessy! One pedal that most of the experienced guitarists should buy!

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?

-It only has presets on it, so when you figure out wich one does what, you'll get the hang of it.

How about Editing patches?

- Again, only presets on tis baby


How is the manual for it (if there is one)?

- It's great but hey you don't really need one because it's to easy to use

What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with?

- I'm using it with an ibanez 7-string trough a Randall Amp gives me great stuff, but I actually use it more clean then distorted

Is it noisy? On what settings?

- No not at all, actually it kinda filters out the noise in my sound weirdley enough

Are the effects weak or do they always sound great?

- They are good if you know what to use them for, when you start playing weird chords, slash chords & so forth it will be sounding weird, especially when using distortion it's kinda clipping at that point there for i only give it an 8


What amp are you using it with?

- Randall RH200SC

Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? Who are they?

- Aye i can, favo's: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani

Can you depend on it?

- Very much even, i used it the way Vai does in the attitude song on the Astoria DVD, wich is standing on it while standing on your wah with you other foot, I weigh 125 kilograms so this thing is build as a rock

Would you use it on a gig without a backup?

- I don't back anything up while gigging, i just run my entire board trough a black switch so i can bypass them when a pedal dies

Never dealt with them

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?

- I shred, so i can really use it to harmonize

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?

If somebody stole it i would hunt him down and bring him to a slow painfull death, i love this pedal

what do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature?

The harmonizing is GREAT my favorite setting is the 4th & 5th up position

this review is for "Anonymous at 01/22/2004 11:10"
(it should be the third review on this page)

1: you shouldn't place whammy in effects loop, specially with amp's distortion on. in that case you use the distorted signal through the effect resulting a very different effect than expected
but this is a device in effects chain, so if you want that specific wierd sound from your whammy, you may do it. but it's not the traditional way to do it
2: after you put it in front of the amp, of course it will sound more propriate to you. but again the has to be some coloration in sound. pitch shifting is a highly synthetic effect.
another thing is I do think you used XXX's normal input not effects loop in the store

SO just don't blame the effect if you don't really understand it and have no knowledge about it.

bytheway peavey amps have normal quality effects loops. the only thing you need is knowing how to use them!

have a brilliant day, dude

Its fairly simple, but use the instruction manual, otherwise you will struggle. YOu need to use common sense in terms of only playing highish notes when playing two octaves down and only playing lowish notes when playing two octaves up! But having said this experiment as this can sometimes make some immense sound unlike many other pedals.

Almost excellent as long as its played with a good boss distortion pedal and a good wah. I used a Boss Mega Distortion and a Boss PW-10 with this and it plays like a dream! It can sound bad if it goes into unexperienced hands however so please don't buy this and straight away expect to be able to master it!

Only had it a few weeks but it looks as solid as a rock!

Emailed them asking about details and specs and a reply was made within an hour! Excellent Service!

Excellent for any rocking or metal wannabe guitarist. It impresses once you get the hang of it. Please play it quietly in your room when you get it for at least a cuple of hours so that you don't annoy everyone with some of the high pitched tones!

Very easy to get sounds out of it. One knob, and an expression pedal. The manual is good, but you really don't need it.

If you read the reviews for this Whammy, they are sort of all over the place. In my experience, this device is both great and horrible. When I demo'd it at the store, I tried it thru a Peavey XXX in the effects loop. It sounded great...hardly any tonal coloring, and even though the effect is not true bypass, it bypassed just fine. In front of the amp, it was pure garbage. I bring it home, and try it in the Peavey 5150 combo's effects loop. New levels of horrible. Constant tracking noise, inability to get correct pitch. Put it in front of the amp, and much better, only it distorts a little too much. This device depends a great deal on your amp. Ideally, you should run it in the loop if you have one....if not, take your chances running straight into the amp. I tried 2 Peavey amps, and got 2 different results. I did notice on the 5150 some tone coloration also....it accentuates the highs and mids, and makes the tone sound a little too metallic. Would you notice it on a gig? No way. Recording...I think probably. It completely depends on how much tone coloration you will tolerate. Comparison wise, I used to own a Boss PS5 Super Shifter. I returned it because it caused volume drop in the effects loop. I'm beginning to think that the 5150 series has a crap effects loop. Overall though, I think the Super Shifter had better harmonies and tone than the Whammy. The whammy effect on the Super Shifter was getter too....but the Super Shifter includes way too many features. Try it with your amp...you may like the Whammy....personally, if you have a 5150, avoid it.

Rugged all metal chassis, but I have an RP200, and the expression pedal makes me a bit nervous....i don't see it lasting a long time...read many complaints about the expression pedal crapping out.....also, the on/off footswitch is already making a popping noise...cheap pots. Buyer beware

I bought this primarily as an octaver, with benefits..such as harmonies....the detune is cool also...basically a chorus with delay. The octave tones are really good, and this thing actually tracks very well. However, it sounds like crap thru the front of a tube amp, and in the loop of the 5150, it is total garbage. You would think Digitech would test this stuff with the more popular amps on the market, and make adjustments as necessary. Honestly, try the Boss PS5. I liked that better, inspite of its problems. In the end, I believe I"m going to try the TC Electronics G Major. It will do away with my chorus and delay pedals, and give me the octave I want....or maybe I'll try the Boss OC2 Octaver. We'll see. All I know is this...if the Whammy WH1 sounded like this, which I doubt, they can keep it, and all of the reissues. Is it really that hard to make a quality "whammy" type effect that sounds good, for under $200? Or does Digitech just figure that every idiot kid with no ear for good tone will "follow" the leader and do as Mr. Vai et al does? If the WH1 is that good, which from the reviews is seems to be, WHY IN THE HELL, can't Digitech make a BETTER VERSION, FOR CHEAPER, WITH TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY?????????? Answer: Because they think we are idiots, and are proven right every day by people like me who by this garbage.

Same as any other whammy pedal with added MIDI/LED's.

This is where people usually lie. Many people wish to justify wasting up to $600 on a origonal whammy when the reissue has only minor differences. I have tried both and could have purchased the origonal whammy for $20 more, but declined because they are so similar you cant tell the difference unless you really mess with it. I might just go back and buy the origonal so i can sell it on ebay to one of the dumb people that are willing to spend a lot of money for it. This sounds great. Actually i'd give it about an 8 but i'm going to compensate for all the die hard origional retards and give it a 10.

Way more reliable than a 20 year old one.

Cant tell you. I've never had to deal with issues that people with the origonal have had to.

More features then the origonal. Same sound. What more could you want. Dont believe me? Read an actual professional review here: http://guitargeek.com/gearview/22/