All user reviews for the DigiTech Whammy WH-4

DigiTech is now on their fourth revision of the original Whammy pedal. This model features full MIDI implementation, which is a HUGE plus. Aside from MIDI, the other new features that the Whammy WH-4 brings to the table are the "divebomb" and "droptune" presets. This allows you to simulate a floyd rose or a downtuning effect, respectively.

UTILIZATION

DigiTech did a great job with this pedal. Its footprint is small enough to where it's not bulky but big enough to where it feels just right. The manual does a wonderful job at explaining the new features and showing you how to wire everything up. Setting this pedal up for MIDI in a rack is a piece of cake. The rotary knob is sturdy and feels great when spinning it, and these things are pretty reliable. I just wish it had an on/off LED indicator.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound of the Whammy WH-4 is pretty good. It's not the same as the WH-1, but it's closer than the XP-100 was. There's actually a cool comparison between the two on Youtube if you search. The sweep feels nice, but the divebombs aren't that realistic. If you're expecting it to be the same as a floyd rose, it won't be. It also doesn't track good enough to be a real pitch shifter. What I mean is, you're not going to be able to sound like you're in D when you're in E. That said, the chorusing effects on this are actually pretty good. Keep in mind that this pedal sucks a little bit of tone, so it might be worth looking into putting it into a true bypass loop or modding it for true bypass.

OVERALL OPINION

If you're looking for a Whammy pedal, your choices are fairly limited. The Whammy WH-4 has been out for awhile, but given its price, it's still a strong contender. The new Eventide Timefactor is awesome, but it's quite a bit of money. There are some budget knock offs, but this pedal still remains a whammy pedal worth considering if you're looking for that kind of effect.

Everything has been said and explained well by my colleagues below.

UTILIZATION

Very simple configuration, no need for manual, easy to use but actually, if we could change effect with a footswitch would be delighted.
This is the only pedal my pedalboard for my PSU which is inconsistent because in AC, why make it simple when it can be different from others

SOUND QUALITY

- The Harmonizer is nice, its a chouille imperfect and I love it.
- The effect whammy worked wonders, however, I agree with other reviews. Once you lose the pedal triggered the attack, as if a compressor was built.
- The Dive Bomb effect and Drop Tune are a little "gadget" but hey it could always be useful, Tune Drop me a lot already used to mimic the effect of the floyd rose I did not: p

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for one month only, but fairly intensive. There is no real competitor for the whammy effect, on the other hand at harmonizer find even better known.
I am very satisfied with my purchase, but when you put € 180 into a pedal they hope to change presets without having to stoop and a by-pass quality.

The Digitech Whammy WH-4 Reissue is a digital effects pedal designed for use with electric guitar.  It has 1/4 inch connections and is powered by the power supply that comes with it.  It isn't a rackable piece of gear as it is a foot pedal and controller.



UTILIZATION

The configuration of the Digitech Whammy WH-4 Reissue is fairly easy to follow as it didn't take me long at all to understand everything that was going on with this pedal.  It has a slightly different make up when compared to the original WH-1 whammy and the WH-2.  The pedal has a knob for choosing between either harmony mode or whammy mode and also has a detune mode which is like a chorus effect.  That is pretty much all there is to this pedal and after playing around with it for a few minutes I'm sure you'd be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly.  The manual for the Digitech Whammy WH-4 Reissue is thorough and complete but isn't needed if you don't already have it.



SOUND QUALITY

While the sound quality of the Digitech Whammy WH-4 Reissue isn't as great as the original WH-1, it still has a great sound and is probably a little bit cleaner - it just lacks the vibe that the original has.  This being said I would bet that most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless they had both pedal next to each other and were comparing them.  I like using the octave up and octave down modes the best, but it is definitely cool to mess around with the harmony effects and the detune modes are surprisingly pretty great as well.  If you don't know about the great effects you can get with this whammy pedal, its time to treat yourself!


OVERALL OPINION

I've been using the Digitech Whammy WH-4 Reissue for about five or six years and it is definitely one of the most unique pedals out there.  This has become pretty popular over the last few years as it has been used by a lot of famous players.  While this is an effect I used sparingly as I find that if you use it too much it can become overplayed, when used in the right situation and with taste can produce some incredible effects.  If you are looking for a great pedal at a reasonable price that will give you endless hours of fun, I would definitely recommend the Digitech Whammy WH-4 Reissue.

The Digitech Whammy pedal is a pretty interesting piece of gear. It certainly has a unique sound that many players have found to be inimitable. Tom Morello, Wes Borland, Dimebag Darrel, and many others were fond of this in the late 90's, and much of that music has its stamp all over it. While that music may have fallen out of fashion, there are still plenty of uses for this pedal in other genres that haven't been tried.
Unlike most octave pedals, this one lets you take the signal up or down two octaves instead of just one (for the somewhat old-fashioned, the one octave feature is still there). If you're having trouble finding an electric bass, the one octave down setting can sometimes be a decent replacement for practice sessions.
It has some other effects too, like a series of harmonizers that sound pretty decent, and the sweet "dive bomb effect" that basically simulates the Floyd Rose Whammy Bar, without taking forever to set up and potentially ruining your tuning. The newest model has a midi controller that was absent on the first.

UTILIZATION

The pedal is pretty self explanatory. Anyone who knows what octaves and intervals are should not have a problem with it. The manual is probably unnecessary for all but the newest players.

SOUND QUALITY

Ever wonder how Tom Morello plays that nuts solo in "Killing in the Name"? He uses this pedal on almost everything Rage did. If wild, crazy noises are the kind of thing you are into, then I suggest you buy this pedal. You will have some of the funkiest noises imaginable coming out of your amp. If used sparingly it can change up the sound during a live show and really turn heads! The best effects are the dive bomb and the octave jumps. The harmonizers are cool but I really have no use for them.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, this pedal is pretty great. I've had it for about six years and it's served me well when I needed it. The only thing I can say is, handle with care. I dropped mine once and the knob that changes the settings broke off. It's become almost impossible to use without a makeshift knob replacement, and even then, it's a pain. Also, stay away if you are looking for more traditional sounds, because this pedal is supposed to be pretty wacky. If you don't want other players to know exactly what you're using, find something else, because this might be one of the most obvious pedals on the market. It also can be quite grating on the ears if not EQ'd properly, so be careful. One bad experience with it was enough for me to put it down for awhile. It's also pricey so make sure you're gonna get your money's worth.
Personally, I tend to play more classic-style rock and R&B, and when I freak out I tend to stick more to feedback and echoes. Two octave leaps usually aren't what I'm looking for. If you are looking for something to really make people notice you, this might be it, but use it sparingly and don't rely on it or you'll risk sounding more novelty than innovative.

(Originally written by charlou la fouine/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
Everything has been already said: three effect categories, wheel, expression pedal, switch, 1 x in and 2 x out (one for a tuner), Midi out and PSU socket (not universal...).

UTILIZATION

Very easy to use: select, switch on and rock'n'roll!

SOUND QUALITY

When it comes to this point it's another story: the effect is fun, strange, etc.

But you can feel some latency when the switch is on and the pedal is not used: less attack, short delay... And it's impossible to play more than two notes simultaneously without getting a muddy sound.

As a summary, it's still a good effect and you'll find applications for it (specially the customizable octaver)...

OVERALL OPINION

I've been using it for three years and I still haven't made my mind up about this effect... It's not a bad pedal. i mean, it's great if you want to experiment, but it's not easy to use it properly within a song, and you tend to overuse it (like Tom Morello and Jack White do, IMO).

And this unit is expensive!!! A very expensive effect pedal...

Nevertheless I think I would buy it again because I'm beginning to use it more. However if you consider how difficult it is to control I'd probably have second thoughts...

The Digitech Whammy is a pitch-shifting pedal that allows a variety of octave shifts and interval harmonizing. For instance, you can set the Whammy to harmonize 5ths and use the pedal to shift to 4ths. It also has a detune function, both shallow and deep, and a divebomb function which is essentially just a 3-octave drop.

UTILIZATION

Everything is spelled out on the face of the unit. It's not very hard to figure out, though it can take a little while to get used to. In order to change the pedal's function, you use the rotary knob which can be a bit touchy. I used my foot to change settings, and it's pretty easy to skip a function or two. Obviously, using your hand isn't really a problem, but for fast switching on the fly, using your foot is the easiest way. It's very easy to do, but the problem is that the control is touchy, so to change between settings with precision can be a little difficult. Not really the pedal's fault, I guess.

SOUND QUALITY

Alright, a lot of people seem to think that the original pedal is some kind of godsend while this newer version is crap. I disagree. Sure, there's probably some sonic differences between the two, but as far as artifacting is concerned (that "digitalness" that the sound has), you can hear the artifacts of the original WH-1 on some Rage Against the Machine songs, and they sound extremely similar to this pedal. The artifacts themselves aren't a bad thing, in my opinion. They create a dimension to the sound that either you can use to effect (like Tom Morello does) or you can't. The nature of the pedal is that it won't sound absolutely realistic, but I realize this and I don't knock the pedal for it.

The problem is that it sucks the sound out. Even when you're not changing the sound, you can hear a difference with the pedal on, and I really didn't like that aspect. It's not a true bypass pedal, none of the Whammy pedals are, but if you want a true bypass Whammy, you're only option is to by an original WH-1 and modify it, because that is the only Whammy that can be modified for true bypass.

The tracking is less than perfect. Artifacting aside, chords sound like crap and there is a perceptible delay between playing notes and hearing them. These qualities, along with the sound degradation, ultimately led me to returning the pedal. It's just not as great as it is often made out to be, and if you don't need to bend the pitch between octaves, you can get a much better octave effect with an EHX POG.

On the plus side, the detune function actually makes a great chorus, so it's not all bad. And the pedal can definitely be used to good effect, but it's got some downsides. Too many for me.

OVERALL OPINION

I returned it. There's some good stuff here, but if Digitech could make it true bypass, ditch the AC adapter and make it 9V DC, and rid the delay between playing and hearing notes, it would be much better. Maybe the original WH-1 is better, but from what I can hear of the big name artists that use the WH-1, it sounds almost exactly like the current pedal. I just didn't feel like dealing with the shortcomings at the end of the day, and I feel the POG gives a better alternative for someone who doesn't need the expression pedal function of it.