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Idea for the next whammy pedal

N

ndrly

May 5, 2007
727
3
Melbourne, Australia
#1
I have just got an idea for the next whammy pedal...

What if Digitech made a whammy that could handle regular guitar, bass guitar, AND chords? Not to mention the fact that you could program in whatever you wanted...

I'm talking of course, about a Whammy pedal that doesn't exist...yet...

There would be a switch on top that could let you choose between whammy and harmony.

There would be two LED screens, one labelled "Toe Up" (the setting where the whammy is rocked all the way back) and the other labelled "Toe Down" (the setting where the whammy is rocked all the way forward). You can input what setting you want, be it two octaves up, 5th up/Octave up harmony or a simple chorus effect.

The maximum level the whammy can go up or down would be two octaves.

The whammy would look something like this (I don't know how to put up pictures from my computer, ok?)...

Whammy {switch here} Harmony​



Toe up Toe down
00.0 00.0
0.0 [-] [+] [-] [+] 0.0
0.0 [-] [+] [-] [+] 0.0




O
Bypass switch​

Examples
00.0 - 00.5 - Chorus effect in harmony mode, slightly higher in whammy mode
05.0 - 12.0 - 5th up/Octave up
00.0 - 24.0 - 2 octaves up
05.0 - 06.0 - 5th up/6th up

This is the best I can do now. I'll post some more ideas involving this later.
 
#3
better than the wheel or the footswitches for choosing between settings would be a trackball. I've seen them before, it wouldn't really be a trackBALL its more empty toilet paper roll shaped. you could roll it up and down with your foot to get to the setting you want
 
#5
I personnally love your ideas, but i dont see the chords working anytime soon. My only thought on that is having a synth guitar pickup hooked up to it so it picks up individual strings and control the pitch of each strings seperately (but controlling it in general with the pedal, like grouping on a mixer)

Would be handy because you could drop the bottom string to D and keep the others normal.

...This is sounding like a line 6 project rather than digitech.

I want one of these magical pedals now.
 
#6
animvl said:
I personnally love your ideas, but i dont see the chords working anytime soon. My only thought on that is having a synth guitar pickup hooked up to it so it picks up individual strings and control the pitch of each strings seperately (but controlling it in general with the pedal, like grouping on a mixer)

Would be handy because you could drop the bottom string to D and keep the others normal.

...This is sounding like a line 6 project rather than digitech.

I want one of these magical pedals now.
Click to expand...

1) do you know about the POG and HOG by EHX? both can track chords, and the HOG can take the chord and hold it, but I don't remember if you can shift it... you probably can though. So if Digitech is half the "Man" EHX is, it will be able to do this sometime soon. but then again, part of the allure of the whammy is its glitchy goodness. they should have a switchable option between old and glitchy and new and chordy

2) they do have the drop D feature, though it just drops the tuning of the entire guitar... but the good thing is you can play in D this way, and its actually easier cause you don't have to remember different ways to play scales
 
#10
ndrly said:
That's a very good idea. Yeah, it should model the different whammies.
Click to expand...

I'm full of 'em! :D

among all of the ideas discussed so far I think the best are: fully custom harmonies (pitch bends as well), programmable settings, switching between programmed settings via a wheel you can easily roll with your foot, switching between excellent chord tracking and glitchy goodness (or rather, have it as something you can program into your patches)

I think an intelligent harmony setting would be a good idea as well
 
#15
Darko74 said:
How about a switch that can make it turn into a little robot and carry my rig out to the van.
Click to expand...

Or one that actually turns into a van! Like a Transformer / Optimus Prime type thing.

It drives you to your gig, turns into a Robot pack horse to carry your gear in, turns into a magical updated new Whammy with all the above mentioned new features and then packs up and drives you home at the end.

It would also have a bottle opener on it somewhere, a cigarette lighter and might even possibly provide the odd sexual favour...

EDIT: Also instead of 9v AC power requirements, it would run on the carcass of dead Behringer pedals. I see this as being pretty handy bacause you can't always get access to a power point, but there is always broken Behringer equipment handy.
 
#20
I love the idea of custom harmonies/bigger pedal sweep. Honestly, if DigiTech released a new Whammy with those two features, I'd be camping out to buy one...

...honestly, though, I'd probably be willing to buy any new dedicated new Whammy pedal they'd come out with as long as it had the 5thUp/1OctUp setting. I can't believe that didn't make it onto the Whammy 4 :(

-Dash
 

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