wh-1 whammy issue...sort of...

jonathan perez · February 08, 2007, 12:21:32 PM

on the octave up settings, with distortion before, i notice that a hell of a lot of tone goes byebye. highs, in particular. also, when bending notes while the octave is up, i get a slight "yahyahyahyah" in the background.

is this normal? does anyone else encounter this? i havent heard it on recordings of my favorite artists, so im wondering if something is wrong?

thanx in advance!

Voxin · February 08, 2007, 02:28:25 PM

Just tried it and it makes for some interesting noises. It's probably why Digitech recommends putting the Whammy at the beginning of your chain. Hope that helps.

jonathan perez · February 08, 2007, 02:50:49 PM

i figured as much, based on the manual. but my question now is:
why doesnt Tom Morello's or Joe Satriani's whammy make such odd yaaahyaah noises?

it doesnt REALLY matter that much, since i like the "crunch" of the 2 octaves up while toggle gating when its before my amps distortion...i dont NEED it in the loop.

yeah, im a big morello freak...maybe it has to do with the 2205's effect loop...

oh well, thanx anyways!

Voxin · February 08, 2007, 02:58:56 PM

I was just going to say, it's all about the effects loop. The Whammy could also be routed to it's own signal too. I also think Tom solves this problem inherently because he's a big fan of the JCM800's distortion. I also encountered a similar problem with my rackmount Digitech 2120. When I put the Whammy at the end of the effects chain, I got a wierd distortion at the end of each note. I also noticed that the whammy signal itself wasn't very smooth, but the pitch went up in steps (if that makes sense). That's why I bought a stand-alone whammy.

Voxin · February 08, 2007, 03:00:28 PM

Off topic, but any idea on how Tom gets those wah sounds? Like on that Crystal Method album he plays on?

That wah sound is great!

jonathan perez · February 08, 2007, 03:21:00 PM

old crybaby through the loop, of course, before the whammy. with the harmonized octave down setting mixed with the old wah and toggle gating, it makes for a REALLY cool sound...i use it alot. :-D

his crybaby is one of the early 80's dunlops with the small round blue inductor. im not sure at what they measure at...hopefully ill find out tonight.

Voxin · February 08, 2007, 03:34:26 PM

Hmm, I can't wait to get home now, gotta try that out. I always thought it was studio sorcery or that he had some sort of magical wah...and then I saw him live, I couldn't believe it. So the octave down mixed low makes sense!

jonathan perez · February 08, 2007, 03:37:12 PM

with the wah before, the harmonics in the wah are very present...gives it that really cool "tornado" swirly sound. with the same octave setting, but the rocker up, and a slapback delay, you get "Testify."

Voxin · February 08, 2007, 03:48:14 PM

Amen to that, now testify! Now I'm really excited to get home. I did some wah mods yesterday and that's a good enough reason to want to be at home. I also placed my OD-9 before the wah on the boost setting and my BMP after the wah and it sounds killer.

zerohero · February 08, 2007, 09:04:27 PM

i dont know for sure. but my whammy says that it cant handle frequencies above 12K this is most probably because of the sample rate of the DSP chip, and im guessing that because you have your distortion before it (distortion adds harmonic content) the fact that the whammy doesnt output above 12K could be why you are hearing the tone loss.. then again i dont even know how much above 12K guitar amps can even output so i may be full of crap here. but yea i think thats the reason they want it first in the chain.

John Lyons · February 08, 2007, 11:50:49 PM

Zero

That's a good point I think. Even though you may not hear the frequency it's still there in the effect chain and may modulate the signal causing harmonics to bounce or shift and give the sound he's describing. Similar to the sound of ring modulators or the other octave up effects with in between ghost notes and pitch shifting artifacts...Maybe?

jonathan perez · February 09, 2007, 12:05:58 AM

hmm...very interesting, fellas...

now, to cure it...

rogeryu_ph · May 10, 2007, 04:59:08 AM

Guys, may I ask what's the difference between digitech whammy and a pitch shifter with pedals? Sorry for asking co'z I still never used or heard whammy itself only. But I have Zoom 505 built in pitch shifter on it and i'm using an expression pedal when using it. Does it sound the same? It has an octave up and down also. Sorry for my ignorance, anyone....Thanks

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wh-1 whammy issue...sort of...