DigiTech Whammy Pedal with MIDI Control  

The Whammy V4 in theory is a great effects pedal. The features however don't all work as they should. (or at least don't live up to their potential.)

It does offer harmony, pitch bend/change, and de-tuneing effects with some options for octaves both up and down.

Pros The housing's build quality is fairly heavy and rugged. Aside from scratches and cosmetic wear I don't think you could throw enough body weight on it to have anything snap.  I've never had a problem getting a good connection with either the power supply jack or 1/4" ins and outs.  Cons Though the treadle (foot pad) seems to have a large range of motion the effect is only manipulated in a very small portion of its travel- attained when you are nearly toe-down. This makes the pedal incredibly difficult to use for slow, even pitch changes. Rather than using an internal potentiometer to adjust the effect the Whammy V4 uses an optical sensor. Inside is a 3mm red LED which shines through a very small and fragile looking piece of plastic which has a clear to black fade printed on it. When the light passes through the level of light not blocked by the ink is picked up via a sensor opposite the LED. I've found this to be the root of the problem above.   Batteries are not an option for powering this pedal

From my experience, this is a pedal I would wait to buy until you find a decent one used for around 100 or so dollars. I don't feel it's worth paying full MSRP for.

Prior to owning the Whammy V4  I had a Boss PS-5 in my setup. It had some short comings as well but if you're just looking to coax some fun sounds out of your guitar you may want to take a look at one. It's a little cheaper and has a much smaller footprint on your board.

Please feel comfort in this review. I've tried to accurately share the real problems and concerns I've had with this pedal.

I'll try to save you a few hundred dollars and leave you with a "Think twice before you buy."

The features are somewhat interesting being some MIDI abilities. Other features include Octive and Harmony uses. Then there is the dry output that is supposed to be for a straight signal such as a Tuner. So why the 1 star rating? Well...none of this matters if the Harmonies sound super terrible. First of all, if I wanted a Harmonizer I wouldn't turn to this thing! Second I don't even want an Octive effect. I mainly wanted this thing for pitch shifting. But it always goes off pitch. Then according to the last page of the owners manual, there is a description of how to Calibrate the thing for when this happens. So I Calibrate it and within minuets it is doing it again!  If I try to blow up a note or squeal for some fun high pitch crazy action it sounds terrible because it turns into two tones and sort of crashes into itself sounding like cheap garbage. So all I wanted it for doesn't work well so what good would any features do? What am I really going to connect this to via MIDI that would matter if it is always going out of pitch when you step on it?

Yeah... if I keep it in there then it sounds it's best. Unplugged and not in line with my system!

Come on Digitech!! Why do you always make something and then quit making it and then make something different or sometimes less desireable?!

Well..so much for wanting a wammy. I hear Joe Satriani and plenty of big named guitarists use it and theirs seems to sound ok. Did they have their's modified or something?  I see Digitech has made even another one that is even bigger! Wow... more features...

I wonder if you can do pitch with it worth a beans!? For the price we can find out maybe huh?

Im a pretty reasonable guy who has played guitar a long time. But this has really made me want to take it outside and light it on fire. Honestly ,.. that would probably sound better than my guitar running through it.