Digitech Whammy 5 Reviews

Amazing pedal, why'd I wait this long?!

I've wanted a Digitech Whammy since I was 16 and finally got one 12 years later. I wish I hadn't waited, this thing is awesome! I also own a POG 2 and find this is a lot more useful. The POG is more of a fun toy that can do some really interesting things but is hard to fit into a track. The Whammy is just great fun to throw in to lead riffs and solos. The harmonizing functions and such are brilliant and highly usable.

I was worried I'd struggle finding uses for it and it would gather dust unless I was mucking around but honestly, it does many things, it's easy to write with.

The tracking on Chords mode is all I use. Classic does have tracking issues and leads to some 'interesting' artifacts but isn't great.

Built like a tank, great sound, highly versatile; an all-round fantastic pedal. Highly recommend it!

Legandary

This pedal is a must have. The digitech whammy provides many different music inspirations. I use it all the time.

One of awesome things is MIDI. I use a MIDI connection betwen TC electronic Nova System and Digitech Whammy 5. Its a great way, when changing presets you can instantaneously get from octave harmony to pitchshifting 2 octaves up.

Mostly I use the Whammy for heavy riffs, with 5th up or down harmony and you get a real fat heavy sound which is great on clean or dirty channel.

Only bad thing is you can`t mix the amont of wet signal to dry. The mix is always about 50%.

When mine whammy will be lost, stolen or broken, I will instantaneously buy a new one.

Pretty flawless tracking. I never found a use for it in my rig but that's my fault. Doesn't sound as 'fake' as other similar pedals - it's a lot truer to your original guitar signal. Has tons of options for pitch shifting up and down, as well as harmonies. The detune function also makes a lovely sounding chorus effect. For the price I highly recommend it, assuming pitch-shifting pedals are your thing. It's also built like a tank - I was never worried about damaging it, even with its treadle.

Great new take on the original Whammy

I have owned several whammy pedals over the years so decided to try the Whammy 5. Reproduces all the magic of the original and the addition of the chord setting knob is a useful addition and works well. I integrated it into my pedalboard with a Molten Midi 5 which opens up a world of possibilities for the whammy.

Love the new features!

I've been a longtime Whammy user. Have had the original WH-1, couple of the WH4 and now the WH5.

Came badly calibrated, but once I got it right (and it took time and emails to the Digitech customer support - and the support was quick and good) it is very good!

The new polyphonic ("chords") mode is really useful, tracks quite well. The "classic" mode does not sound the same as WH4, so you need to get used to it all over again. Also it seems that the "chords-mode" messes with your signal when activated. I have a Zvex Fuzz Factory before the WH5 and when I activate it heels-down in the octave up/down mode the Fuzz sounds changes a lot, like when you insert a bad buffer in your chain!

Looks like it's built like a tank but I hope the mode-selector knob has been made more sturdy than on the WH4. I managed to brake it off two of my old WH4 units... Be careful.

In short; a classic effect with new features and new harmonic intervals, but with room to improve!

Updated Classic

Having been a Digitech Whammy IV user for years, I wasn't sure whether I could justify replacing that with the five, but I'm very glad I did. The upgrades on this latest version are subtle, but definite improvements.

The first thing to note is that the footprint is considerably smaller than that of the four, and more of a nod to the first generation, which was satisfyingly compact. The aesthetic in general is far closer, with th return of the rubber surround and large logo on the expression pedal.

There is also the addition of a new switching mode that effects the tracking of the whammy, especially on chords. Traditionally, the whammy would break up and distort on chords, but when set to the new "chord mode", the tracking is immaculate. Pleasingly, you can still elect to keep the 8-bit craziness of previous Whammys with the "classic mode".

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for me, the Whammy 5 is the first in the series that is easy to power on pedal boards / with daisy chains. Whilst it still has a relatively high ma draw, you no longer NEED a designated individual PSU for it (though one is included). This version is now compatible with GigRig and other popular industry standard means of power. Previous incarnations were noisy affairs, this is also a thing of the past.

In short, a worthwhile upgrade to one of the most iconic and creative pedals of all time.

Mental sounds!

I got this because I wanted to play Jack White -influenced solos. It´s just crazy good. Lots of options. You can go soo deep and on the upper end get so squieky sounds that only dogs can hear them.

It also adds a little extra distortion to the sound, which I think gives just the right edge to solos. Not to be used in every solo, but if you listen to White Stripes and Rage against the machine, you get the idea of its versatility. Whammy!

Digitech Whammy 5

Absolutely brilliant pedal! The sounds you can get out of this are astounding. I mainly use the pitch shifting for odd solo effects like those of Tom Morello or for detuning my guitar without tuning it. Many times I've used the Dropped 2nd setting to perfectly emulate a guitar tuned to D Standard. The pitch shift is absolutely perfect in Classic mode and Chord mode. The harmony settings work very well in chord mode too. The build quality is second to none. After playing many gigs with this pedal the only problem (and I use that term loosely) is the dust on the actual footpedal. Amazing pedal that everyone should have!

Great update.

This pedal is great upgrade from Whammy 4. Finally the pedal is true bypass and when it's on, it doesn't suck your tone. There are also now two modes for single notes (classic) and other for chords. In chord mode the pitch shifted chords are relatively well in tune as where as on Whammy 4 you got weird wobbly effect. In single mode (classic) you have the Whammy 4 wobbles and single note tracking should be faster. The difference is quite small. Another improvement is that finally this pedal works with typical 9V adapter.

In addition to most used octave up and down pitch shift this pedal many interesting interval combination for you to try.

The option to control the pitch interval and amount by MIDI is really great in recording process as you can program the movement of the expression pedal in your DAW and send it to Whammy. It will save you from many takes as you need to only concentrate on your playing.

I think this is the best version yet, in future I would like to see even more thoughtout MIDI possibilites with thru and out options.

Great for expanding your horizons

A very specific dynamic pedal with great sound. The options for harmony are plentiful, the detuning feature sounds ok (not fantastic) and the option to swtich between Classic (patchy) and Chords (Clean) makes it hipster friendly!

Slight volume raise but not a massive issue

Digitech raise the Whammy bar!

Finally, the whammy we've all been waiting for! yes it runs on 9v centre negative DC, so you can power it from your pedal board power supply. I run my one from the T-rex Chameleon which I would recommend as this pedal has a relatively high power consumption (over 200ma) so your average power supply might not have enough juice to do the job. The other new feature is the classic/chord switch which is situated just above the selector knob. This now allows for the pitchshifting of entire chords! The tracking is absolutely flawless and the sound quality is top of the class. There's midi control as well, though I have to admit I've never met anyone who's used this feature on there whammy pedal, but its nice to have incase your having a mad scientist round for tea! Oh and lets not forget that very sexy ferrari red finish, garanteed to turn heads down the local pub. Come on, you know you want one!

Classic in new coat

This pedal is just amazing part for my pedalboard. You can make such a lot of funny sounds which can give you completly new ways of you guitar sound. Much better then 4th gen. I can highly recomend this product!