The Whammy pedal is a digital effects pedal designed for guitar and manufactured by DigiTech. The Whammy was the first widely known effects pedal that could do foot controlled pitch shifting effects. The pedal emulates sounds that a guitarist normally makes using the vibrato (AKA whammy) bar on the guitar, but with a greatly enhanced pitch range and without tuning hassles associated with traditional vibrato bars. The pedal has minor issues in certain situations that produce audible digital artifacts in the audio signal. Notable users include Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Joe Perry, Dimebag Darrell, Tom Morello and The Edge.
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The WH-1 Whammy pedal, the original whammy, first engineered and manufactured in 1989 by IVL Technologies and discontinued in 1993, remains the most sought-after.[1]
It is controlled by a pedal for the pitch, and a single rotary knob that selects from 16 presets—five Whammy effects, nine Harmony effects, and two Detune effects.
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Notable musicians who have made use of the WH-1 Whammy include:
The DigiTech Whammy II featured a black chassis (in contrast with the series' now famous 'Ferrari red' colour).
It is controlled by an expression pedal and a button which selects the settings, which are nearly the same as the WH-1. Its effects are as follows:
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also has the ability to store one preset setting, which allows the user to choose any two modes and toggle between them using the setting select button
Notable musicians who have used the DigiTech Whammy include:
The XP-100 Whammy/Wah was more complex, incorporating both whammy and wah-wah possibilities.
It is controlled by a rocker, and a button which selects the 29 different presets; "Volume" effect, five "Wah-Wah" effects, six "Auto Wah" effects, eight "Whammy" effects, and nine "Harmony" effects.
List in categories (with modulation action of the pedal):
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Notable musicians who have used the XP-100 include:
The Bass Whammy was a Whammy pedal built for bass guitar. It featured same chassis as the DigiTech Whammy II, but blue. It features different harmony options than the other Whammy models.
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Notable musicians who have used the Bass Whammy include:
The Whammy IV; the fourth edition, is closer to the WH-1 in terms of design but with several additional features, such as MIDI control and a 'Dive bomb' feature.
The controls are identical to the WH-1 controls, along with two new presets, "Divebomb" and "Droptune".
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Harmony effects
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Notable musicians who have used the Whammy IV include:
In late 2008, effect manufacturer Molten Voltage devised a number of modifications for the Whammy IV pedal including Upper and Lower Pitch Limiter Controls which allow the player to set the limits of the expression pedal rather than using the octave presets.
In early 2010, Molten Voltage released Molten MIDI 2, which is cheaper than the original and has more features. Molten MIDI 2 is a programmable MIDI stompbox designed to control the Whammy IV, and gives users 5 new ways to control the Whammy. They can make looping arpeggios, with or without portamento, step through intervals not normally available on the Whammy (also with or without portamento), and step through the Whammy's presets settings. The new model is capable of being programmed manually or with a computer-based interface available on their website.[2]
The Whammy IV requires a 9V AC supply.
The Whammy DT; the fifth edition (Released in 2010), is the first Whammy model to use Polyphonic pitch shifting as well as a host of new features including true-bypass.
The controls are similar to the controls on the previous model, but one additional knob and two additional footswitches, one of which is momentary, have been added for the new "Drop Tune" section of the pedal.
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Harmony effects
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The Whammy DT is the first Whammy model to use a 9V DC power adaptor, all of the previous being AC.