Digitech Whammy Pedal

[Raz]

Ok I need your advice again...no the marriage and the kids are fine, its about this Whammy pedal...do I need this pedal, and what can I do with it. Also, I miss effects, so can someone recommend one of them pedal effects units, I'd be happy with a 200.00 dollar price range...thanks!

 

[OrangeChannel]

You won't be happy with any pedal effects units (multi fx ones that is) since they don't sound so great. For the most part if your putting together a pedal rig....you might want to consider what you're going to use most. I like phasers, delays (these are muy importante), univibe or rotary effects and flangers. Chorus is ok, but I'm not the biggest fan of, and as far as distortion effects go I'm not a big pedal fan there either tho some overdrives are cool to kick your amp into woooooo!

To your question. I personally use the whammy for 2 things....The octave up and down patch (where the dry sig is mixed and you play stuff on the up or down setting), and the detune chorus effect (that one is cool). If you have a vibrato bar on your guitar, you're not missing much. Also i never really found the interval harmonies useful since they're fixed. It's realy not necessary unles you're Tom Morello.

Also for the price range you're looking in you can score a great Boss delay, phaser and flanger for about the same price.

 

[PurpleSport]

Raz -
You can raise/lower the pitch of your guitar by an octave or two with this pedal, and/or add a harmony voice above/below your regular played notes.

The effect is good for leads, but not chords, and can be pretty bizarre. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave uses it a lot to raise the pitch of his notes when chording and soloing (the swooping solo in Audioslave's "Like A Stone" is a good example), and Satriani got into it several years ago too (his song "Raspberry Jam Delta 5" makes extensive use of this effect to raise pitches also).

It can also provide a downward "divebomb" effect, which is where the pedal gets it's name - good if you have a hardtail guitar and don't wanna trem it out.

The Boss GT-3, GT-5, and GT-6 multieffects units have a similar effect built into them (the GT-3 is the cheapest, and you can get them used for about $150-200 these days); I believe the Korg AX1500 unit has one too. Of course, many of the Digitech multieffect jobs also have it, but I think they may just be basic versions of the effect in this format (I've never owned a Digitech unit, but I believe the standalone pedal has some intelligent pitch shifting capability to it from what little I've seen of it up close).

Try one, and try to use it sparingly....the effect is very cool, but can get a bit cheesy and rather annoying if overused!

 

[Raz]

Yo OC, is that you in that Gunther Video, man oh friggin man!

Thanks guys, I am familiar with Tom, and I knew he was a user of this (if not the original one) pedal...heck that's probably its biggest selling point...my interest peaked cause I seen one new for like 175.00US and I thought that was pretty reasonable...but I'd still like more info on a multi-pedal setup...

 

[Daggo]

The Digitech RP units come with built in Whammy effects and should be in your price range.

I don't think the whammy effects sound as good in the multi-effects units as in the standalone whammy (I have a whammy II and an RP unit), but if you only use them occassionally, you might be happier with the broader options of the multi-effects.

I agree with the above reviews--I use the detune/chorus most often. It has a great thick sound and you can control the rate. Mixed with a phaser, you can get some great univibe-type sounds.

Daggo

 

[Raz]

OK boys, now I'm excited and lost...I just visited the BOSS web site and, first off I checked out the ME-50, and this seemed more than enough to get me excited (dang there was on for sale for like 50.00 US), but then I checked on the GT series (6 and 3) now I am lost...can someone fill in the blanks...I'm ok with the ME-50, that's basically what I used to have as a kid...a series of pedals, but the GT series...man ?

 

[OrangeChannel]

GT6....Koogie...elaborate?


Raz,


For a coule bucks more, just save and get this....

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_id/117780

Way better in terms of tones and effect imho. I swear by Pod XTs for their creative power lately.

Good luck.

Late!

JZ

 

[Raz]

GT6....Koogie...elaborate?


Raz,


For a coule bucks more, just save and get this....

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_id/117780

Way better in terms of tones and effect imho. I swear by Pod XTs for their creative power lately.

Good luck.

Late!

JZ

You always do that to me, its like a general sending troops onto the battlefield than adding that..."Good Luck" twist...man that thing looks complicated...I would love to sit and have a drink with you one day OC, I could just imagine our converstaion...

" Err...could you repeat that OC"...
"Which part Raz,"...
"How about right after you said hello!"


No but seriously, do you just program the individual pedals? Is it fairly simple...wait I take that question back...

I swear by the time I get through with this board I'm not only going to be able to rebuild and repair guitars, but I'll probably end up rewiring all kinds of stuff aswell...jeeesh I need a drink!!!

 

[OrangeChannel]

Its really simple actually

A-D are the presets w/in a bank (meaning you can have different amp setups per bank...)

Bank Up and Bank Down cycles thru all the banks....(32 banks of 4 presets = 128 different patches!)

Amp/ Stomp/ Mod/ Delay toggle different sounds with in a preset on and off

Tap sets the tempo of delay or tremelo

The treadle acts as a volume or wah or controller for different effects parameters.

Here's more info:

http://www.line6.com/podxtlive/

definitely well worth it for the $$$

 

[PurpleSport]

I have a GT-6 as well as a GT-3...pretty good stuff. I got the 6 as a Christmas present from my girlfriend last year, and just never got around to selling my 3, which has pretty much gathered dust since then - I plan to use it mainly as a realtime MIDI controller for the 6 and my Roger Linn Adrenalinn when I can find the time to figure out how to do it.

The GT-6 is the best of all three Boss units in that it has a few more effects, amp models, improved analog/digital conversion specs, and a bunch more dedicated knobs on top of the unit to get you directly to individual effects and tone parameters as opposed to using a lot of button presses and scroll wheel turns (the few knobs on that new Line6 unit OC points out seems to lead me to believe it would operate the same way, otherwise, that looks like it'll be a pretty neat piece too - I'm surprised it took them this long to come up with something like this).

With the GT-6 and GT-5 you can also mix up cabinet sims with the different amp models, a flexible feature which you don't get on the GT-3, which models the entire amp and cabinet only. You can get around this somewhat by putting the EQ pedal sim at the end of the FX chain (all 3 units let you re-route the order of all the virtual components, which many low-cost multieffects won't let you do, which I believe includes the ME-50) and tweaking as needed. And you will be tweaking a bit, as the Roland presets are usually kinda flaccid and not a very good representation of the full power of their gear.

One other dislike that I have with all these units is that they have two blocks of effects to choose from, and some FX combinations you dream up might be impossible if two are both in the same DSP block. Kinda aggravating if you wanna simultaneously run a chorus and a Univibe, for instance, but I've seen this with stuff from other manufacturers too - that's the engineering tradeoff that's made to keep the price of these units down.

Aside from the few small limitations above, the GT-3 is still pretty respectable sounding for the money, especially if you like to keep things simple tone-wise, and still has a lot of flexibility and is built like a tank. I got lots of great sounds out of it before the 6 fell in my lap (the standout, oddly enough, is a dead-on Richie Blackmore tone that I crafted completely by accident one day).

Lastly, if you find yourself coming into some more money and you like the Roland/Boss sound, I'd suggest also checking out their GS-10 tabletop unit if you're more of a computer type vs. a live performer, as it doesn't have pedals. Even more effects and models, and has a neat USB jack which lets you manipulate everything with a cool editing/librarian PC software program (which I wish they'd backport for use with the GT line...<grrrr> ). It's $500 new, tho...\

I'd suggest starting with a used GT-3 and working your way up if money's tight. I got mine used online for $150 and never regretted it, and you can always turn off the amp sims and use it as an FX-only unit on the side if you find you wanna upgrade to a real amp in the future.

 

[OrangeChannel]

I think while personally I dig the rack stuff, that the Pod XT Live is going to end up having a lot of used Boss units on the market. The efx are routable either pre or post preamp and makes for a lot more usable tone. pLus it's basically a Vetta in a box now w/ all the efx models and amp models they pack in.

 

[Raz]

You do know that if I get one of these, I will never leave the house...

 

[OrangeChannel]

Hence my current problem

 

[PurpleSport]

I think while personally I dig the rack stuff, that the Pod XT Live is going to end up having a lot of used Boss units on the market. The efx are routable either pre or post preamp and makes for a lot more usable tone. pLus it's basically a Vetta in a box now w/ all the efx models and amp models they pack in.

All the GTs let you reroute FX pre/post preamp as well...a pretty cool feature and one of the main reasons I went with them over the Line6 stuff at the time. That said, I find that I keep gravitating to nearly the same order of things whenever I work up a new preset from scratch (oh, how boring)!

Now that two-amps-at-once thing the Vetta does is pretty cool...I'm currently sorta doing that with my GT-6 and the Adrenalinn, routing a signal out from the 6 to the Adrenalinn and running both outs thru a small mixer. Sicker still, I'm toying with how to best handle getting the audio in/outs of the GT-3 into the mix as well, and then MIDI-ing the whole lot together for a compact but potent triple-guitar army on demand...

 

[OrangeChannel]

I run an Xt Pro thru a Carvin TS-100 (the new EL34 job) into 2 Mesa Recto 2x12s....Awesome.

 

[Raz]

OK I'm hard at work comparing and stuff...what about the Digitech RP 300A?
Remember now, I'm no pro...I get off easily!

 

[beej]

Hey Raz,

Have to agree with OC here ... the Pod XT absolutely rocks. I play it through a poweramp / cab live or through a keybd amp at home and the sounds are phenomenal. Haven't tried all the modelers, but of the ones I have, the XT is well out front.

- Beej.

 

[Raz]

Yeah I know, I listened to the samples and I think I creamed myself...now I found a few on Ebay, but they were the funny lookin red ones that sit on a stand...now are they the same and do they require a foot switch?

 

[SteveB]

pedalboard gripe

One thing that I suggest for cosideration if you're going to buy a pedalboard unit like the ones we're all discussing here. Pedal spacing.

I've got a Digitech RP-2000 which was top jimmy back when I bought it. I really like the unit but I have one gripe:

Often, when I attempt to use a pedal on the board, my wide shoe contacts two pedals instead of one. The result is that I end up either bypassing the pedalboard, or jumping into the tuner function. Either result sucks when you're playing live with a band.

The Vox pedalboard has the old fashioned metal footswitches (like those found in MXR or old Electro-Harmonix pedals) and they appear to be spaced nicely.

The PodXT Live and the Roland units seem to have spacing similar to my Digi. Now, I'm not exactly bigfoot here.. I wear a men's size 12 shoe (as wide as I can find), and this is a real problem when using these units.

 

[beej]

Yeah, I hear you. I've actually got the PodXT (bean) with the "shortboard", and it has the round metal footswitches that you're talking about. It's pretty durable and I don't have any problems with the spacing. But with the PodXT Live pedalboard thing, who knows?

Raz- are you talking about the bean shaped thing? That's what I've got. I don't use it with a stand, I just place it on a table, cabinet, wherever I happen to be. With the shortboard, all of the controls (including the tuner) are accessible from the board so you don't need access to the bean to change programs, effects, etc. But it also comes in a rack-mount flavour as well if you like to rack your gear.