NAMM 2025: If you thought DigiTech’s signature collaboration with MonoNeon was out there, a little wild, a Whammy Pedal variant that took its pitch-shifting concept to new extremes, you’ve got to check out the HammerOn.
The HammerOn is part of the Whammy family of DigiTech’s radical pitch-shifting effects for electric guitar, but like, say, the Drop or the Ricochet, it is not controlled via a treadle. It does, however, have seven modes, and for those who wish they had bigger fingers – perhaps a four-octave stretch on their fretting hand, fingers like Mr Tickle’s arms – then this might be the pedal for you.
DigiTech describes HammerOn as “seven pedals in one” with seven different pitch-shifting modes to back that claim up. You can use it as a “instantaneous momentary pitch shifter” – i.e. in Hammer-on mode, which allows you to hand over hammer-on duties to the pedal for rethinking (revolutionising) your phrasing options.
Alternatively, you can run it in Hammer-on with Trill mode, which does just that, performing a trill, with the tempo and pitch of these both user-defined – and tap tempo is available.
Harmony-On creates harmonies at a press of the footswitch. There is a Drop/Capo Sequence mode for transposing your electric guitar into different keys, or for programming a sequence of notes for it to play.
The Sequence with Trill mode allows you to create automatic riffs and note sequences while the Sequence with Dry+ and Trill mode is described as a – wait for it – “automatic techno guitar sequencer” that gives you the option to add two, three or five note sequences.
On paper, yes, this is crazy. But you should hear this thing. It sounds crazy, too.
Lastly, there’s an Impossible mode, an algorithm designed for “playing the impossible”.
For this you’ve got to get used to the Pitch 1 and Pitch 2 footswitch configuration and think of a two different hammer-on pitch shifts that you want the pedal to automate. The Pitch 1 footswitch is always set up to activate your hammer-on pitch shifting. Pitch 2 can be configured in one of selectable modes.
The possibilities are, if not endless, they’re surely unprecedented. This is the sort of pedal you could lose a weekend to, playing around with the settings.
Like the MonoNeon Whammy, this can be controlled by MIDI. And for any player who has grown bored of common or garden variety pitch shifters and is seeking something wild for the pedalboard, the HammerOn is available now, priced £219/$279 street. For more details, head over to DigiTech.
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