Whammy in regular pedal size? oh no

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Mack_Again

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Apparently Digitech is releasing the whammy pedal in regular pedal size: here's the demo


I always thought that it's kinda waste to buy a gigantic Whammy pedal just for some effect that I can't seem to use; I want to experiment but buying 200 buck pedal just to do that is kinda wasteful, it seemed.

well, worry, no more. I know Edge wouldn't use this (i mean, he's got real deal AND Axe-Fx which can simulate Whammy effect in no time. he wouldn't need any of these), but I am sure some of you guys might want something like this.
 
A very cool re-imagining of a classic pedal. And as usual Andy does a stellar performance demoing this pedal. But its not like Digitech is breaking new ground in this regard as the Boss PS-6 could do whammy like sounds in a regular pedal size as well. And the EHX Pitch Fork and Slammi can also do similar sounds.

I'd like to have one for a small quick grab pedal board but I don't think I would use one on my main pedal board. What the original whammies had going for them was simplicity. A foot rocker and a single preset knob. In order to reduce size in my opinion the Ricochet sacrifices simplicity of control. It happened to me countless time that I forgot to change presets on my whammy between songs and I had to do a quick adjustment while playing. Which is hard enough with a single knob. Let alone 4 knobs and switches. So I guess it boils down to what is more important. Simplicity of control vs. pedal board real estate.

It would be cool though if this thing had MIDI capability. It would be perfect for use in a rack or with a Molten Voltage Whammy controller. As for a regular whammy costing $200, these days you can get a 2nd hand WH-4 probably for half that money.
 
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yeah, I am aware that this pedal is somewhat like "Digitech hopping onto bandwagon for small, potable and compact pitch shifters" rather than breaking new ground. It will be decently popular because it has that name "Whammy" on it.

it's true that this has very limited capability compared to something like EHX Pitchfork, which has exp. pedal jack and more harmonizing options. I know Digitech isn't really good at figuring out how to downsize pedals without sacrificing functionality; my multi-eff. has very wonky pedal function; because it double as expression/wah pedal and volume pedal, the unit can accidentally trigger wah when I don't intend to do so. That's why I mostly take wah off of my presets so that it wont activate.

But, even considering that, Digitech is surely up-ing the game within last 2 or 3 years when it comes to pedals.
 
Well, you make things smaller you will have to make compromises. Usually less controls then the bigger counterpart, in this case more controls because you're now missing that foot rocker. Interestingly, they've now created three separate pedals from the Whammy, the Drop, the Luxe and now the Ricochet, that combined now take up more pedal board real estate then the one unit that has them all, the Whammy DT.

That being said, they are doing a lot of other interesting releases too, like the Dirty Robot, or the Trio series. I really want one of the latter. My guess is that the big companies are focusing on DSP, reckoning this is where they have the edge over the boutique solder jockeys and their transparant overdrives and fuzz face mutations.
 
That being said, they are doing a lot of other interesting releases too, like the Dirty Robot, or the Trio series. I really want one of the latter. My guess is that the big companies are focusing on DSP, reckoning this is where they have the edge over the boutique solder jockeys and their transparant overdrives and fuzz face mutations.

I think guys from Wampler pedals mention that most distortion pedals (or guitar pedals, for that matter) uses pretty ancient technologies in terms of electronics. Probably Digitech or even Boss have some edge over these companies without too much background in digital technology because these companies have plenty of experiences doing pretty cutting edge things (Digitech is owned by Harmman and Boss is obviously the brand owned by Roland, the company so obsessed with technologies in general). It feels like if the Boss/Roland really puts in effort, they can make something that's better than Axe-fx or Kemper, I'm sure.


about the whammy, I feel like people at Digitech noticed that people using Whammy DT don't use all the functions at once; most people probably only use the whammy (like regular pitch-shifting) and one extra func. (like detune or down-tuning stuff). I've seen couple of metal bands using only down-tuning pedal. and most guy now has Whammy 5, essentially WH-DT without all the blings. so I guess it makes sense....? I come to love detune function a lot, it creates chorus esque sound that's not chorus, which is always good. keeps me away from cheesy 80s metal (clean) tone.
 
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Well, there's only so a finite number of ways in which you can distort a guitar signal the analog way, and you'd either have to use transistors or opamps to amplify and diodes or transistors or opamps to clip the signal. So they're basically all variations of the same thing with different transistors/opamps/diodes used for flavor. It doesn't help that many boutique pedal builders basically just take an existing circuit and tweak it a little (JHS is INFAMOUS for only doing that) and voila, a new overdrive flavor of the month. Really designing something new is not something you'll find a lot because many of them can't and its really really hard for small companies. In movies the super genius almost always works alone on a radical breakthrough but in real life innovation works best by being able to bounce ideas off each other with other engineers. And the big companies just have more of them.

As for the Whammy, the WH-5 also has detune. It only lacks the drop tuning section of the DT. Detune has been a standard feature of the Whammy since the first version. One that I have come to love as it allowed me to eliminate a chorus pedal off my board. Would you believe I only noticed that it didn't modulate like a real chorus until Digitech released the Luxe? :huh: But the biggest problem of the Whammy is that I don't think most people know how to use it to its fullest effect. They only use it for its most well known sound, the octave up shift. And if you only do that then the Ricochet is indeed a better more pedal board space friendly option. But it can do so much more if only you take the time to explore its sounds.
 
yeah, Whammy is surprisingly packed with functions, and it seems like each person mostly finds unique way of using one. it sounds annoying at times but as a player, it's pretty fun and addicting. I probably get to know about detune effect when Digitech released iStomp (remember that pedal?) and when I actually used that effect, I was pretty intrigued because it was somehow more pleasing than chorus. I know its making a comeback but that doesn't change the fact that it sounds campy as hell especially when it is used to spice up flat, boring sounds (*cough* Zakk Wylde *cough*).
 
Yay even TC is releasing octave pedal, didn't know people even wanted those pedals.


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It's basically a Micro/Nano POG, for half the price of the EHX version. Good value to be had. I might get one. It's not a Whammy though, but then again the Whammy is not really an octaver. Octavers give you octaves up, or octaves down. Whammies give you all the interesting fun that is to be had in between. :wink:
 
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