Digitech Whammy?

[inquebass]

Have any of you successfully opened up a digitech whammy? I have the newest one(with the midi jack) and I cant seem to figure out a way to open without breaking anything.

It is quite frustrating...

[JasonG]

Yeah, I went through that a few monthes ago. I didnt want to have to pry the bottom to get the top off but that is what I had to do. I didnt have to pry much at all. What problems are you haveing with it? Did you get the screws around the MIDI Jack?

[Fuzzy-Train]

The second thing I did when I got mine a couple weeks ago (after playing it for a couple of hours) was open it up. It's very easy but you have to be gentle.

Take off all the top Allen screws, and the tiny screws holding the midi jack in place. Once those are off, place it on a table face down so the midi and in jacks are on your left hand side. Then, try and slide the back cover to the right, be very gentle, and use your fingers to gently move around the jacks if need be. Should open right up.

There's no real point to opening it up though.... not much to see. But if it's just for curiosity, go for it.

I have a question though:

Do any of you keep your whammy plugged in all the time? I noticed both the internal and external LED's stay on, can that be bad for the pedal?

[inquebass]

Well, its a broken hand me down, I didnt think of taking the MIDI screws off....

I have the actual pedal assembly halfway off, and putting that back on is going to be a b***H.

Thanks for the info...is it all digital on the insides, or is there some analog stuff?

[Processaurus]

I have the actual pedal assembly halfway off, and putting that back on is going to be a b***H.

I know! It is pretty much the worst thing.

There is an analog section in every digital pedal (usually opamp based), which is for getting the signal up to the level the analog to digital converter wants to see, and the same on the output.  The analog section in a lot of digital pedals I've looked at has a seperate ground plane from the processor section.  Included in the analog section is probably some electronic switching for the bypass signal.  A good first move is to check the different outputs of the power supply though.

[inquebass]

wait, from that last post I got that you were suggesting that I should check the power supply? By power supply i think you are talking about the "wall wart", are you not/?

I was just going to audio bug the whole thing, go over it that way, see if it is (hopefully) just one loose/bad/missing component.

Do you know how this pedal handles bass, and if there are any schematics of it(or at least the analog part). I haven't been able to find much if any DIY info..

Thanks a bunch guys, she opened up soooooooo easily after I unscrewed the midi jack...I have not been feeling teh smarts recently.. 

[Processaurus]

Hi, definitely check the wall wart, but what I meant is the section of the PCB where the DC jack comes in, that has the different voltage regulators, the big power transistor (three leg is the most common type, like 7805) looking things, maybe they have a heat sync of some type.

By the way, starting kinda late here, but what is actually wrong with it?