Conference napalm::guitar

     I called Daddys in Nashua and they told me they have some on
     order for 179.oo, and that they are pitch transposers. They
     are red and look like the old Morley pedals
                                   Jon

I've got the equivelent with my Roland GP16. I don't use it and I don't
recommend it. Pitch transpositiion is very complex and I have yet to hear one
that sounds good on it's own. Problems I see with it:

1) Unwanted delay: There is a noticable delay between when you hit the string
	and sound comes out.
2) Stepped sweep: There is a noticable granularity when you sweep frequencies.
	It doesn't sound smooth, rather like a series of sharp steps.
3) Unwanted harmonics: You can get some really shrill harmonics out of it. If
	you distortion cranked, it's less noticable.

In summary:
Clean sounds, forget it.
Crunch sounds, maybe, but only for slow songs.

Practice, perhaps:

The only advantage I can see to it is for fine tuning a guitar to match what
ever is playing on the radio. Nowadays, with CD's, very few songs are out of
standard A-440 tuning. Those that are are recorded that way.


							John.

    
    
    Has anyone seen, tried, have and opinion of the Digitech Whammy Pedal?
    My son (plays heavy metal stuff) is interrested.
    
    Thanks
    Frank
    
    

    There is a short review of this unit in the Feb. issue of Guitar Player
    magazine (p.134) and they gave it glowing reviews.  The reviewer said
    tracking delays were "almost imperceptable".
    
    He also used phrases like "not a toy" and "sonically insidious enough
    to captivate high-end gearheads".
    
    I want to try one, it sounds pretty interesting!
    
    Greg

    SO WHAT DOES IT DO?!?!?!?

    
    
    	You're gonna love it.. Daddy's in Portland wanted 179 for one.. it
    actually whammy's with a pedal... it harmonizes (it that something like
    simonizing? Will it keep my axe cleaner?  I lover playing clean..) 3rds
    4ths 5ths whatever you pick.. anf it does this variable pitch shift..
    it's kind of like a variable chorus.. sounded kind of sick to me and I
    probably wouldn't have any use for it.. but the whammy and harmonizing
    is serious stuff I liked it alot and I'm fighting the temptation to
    blow this month's house payment on one.. but then I'd be three months
    behind instead of two and I'd probably be living alone.. 
    
    Greee Veee King!

    re: What does it do?                                     
    
    Here's the article:
    
       COOL IDEA - DIGITECH HAS CAPTURED A FEW OF the IPS-33B Super Harmony
       Machine's most useful functions in a relatively low-priced ($249.95)
       floor unit.  While the Whammy Pedal offers only a fraction of the
       IPS-33B's sonic power, it's no toy-this box can wreak some serious
       audio havoc.
    
    
       The unit does three things, and does 'em damn well.  In "whammy" mode,
       it works as a digital whang[sp] bar, providing pitch bends of up to two
       octaves, up or down.  In "detune" mode, the pedal controls the amount
       of detuning (up to 100 cents) , a sort of groovy manual chorusing
       effect.  And in "harmony" mode, it combines your dry signal with its
       pitch-shifted cousin, the harmonization sliding between two pitches as
       you pedal.  For example, select the "fourth down/third down: setting;
       play a D on the third fret of the second string and (get a day job,
       Keith) it's the opening lick of "Honky Tonk Woman."  Pedal-steel
       wanna-bes will really go ape over this gizmo.
    
       Each performance mode offers several variations.  When whammying,
       you can set the pedal to ben an octave, two octaves, or a major second
       down, or one or two octaves up.  (The whammy function works best with
       single notes.) You can also choose from two detuning depths and nine
       harmony variations.  The wet/dru mixes are predetermined - 100% effect
       in whammy mode, 50/50 in the others - but seperate wet and dry outputs
       let you adjust the balance with two amps or a mixer.
    
       The pedal sounds just great (the 20Hz-12kHz frequency response is
       plenty wide for guitar applications), and the tracking delays are
       almost imperceivable.  displacing an note by, say two octaves doesn't
       exactly ksound natural, but the extreme digital transpositions have an
       eerie, edgy quality that I, for one, dig.
    
       The only features on the pedal's tough, appealingly low-tech housing
       are the function-select knbo, a bypass swithc and LED, four jacks (for
       input, wet and dry output, and the detachable power supply), and the
       pedal itself.
    
       The Whammy Pedal is a welcome droplet of trickle-down technology,
       priced for the 6-string proletariat, yet sonically insidioius enough to
       captivate high-end gearheads. 
    
                                                             - Joe Gore

    
    My son got one for christmas and absolutely loves it.  It does a nice
    job of tracking solo stuff.  I particularly like the octave stuff and
    the detune which gives a chorusing effect.  
    
    I was disappointed in one area. I thought it would be a neat way to
    easily tune the guitar when playing along with those many tapes which
    always seem to be slightly # or b.  It's fine for melody be can't cut
    tracking chords in most modes.  Seems like a neat toy and he's learned
    how to get some nice effects.
    
    Frank