DigiTech Bass Whammy review

DigiTech's original Bass Whammy pedal, introduced back in the early 90s, had many fans and - like many effects - seemed to become more desirable after it was discontinued.

Well, now it's back and with plenty of upgrades. A big-footprint pedal that'll eat up a lot of 'board space, it's feature-packed with monophonic Classic mode and the new Chord polyphonic mode.

We get MIDI input, 21 harmony, Whammy and detune effects, plus true bypass and overall updated sounds.

Sounds

Robustly built and fully fit for purpose, the sounds it can produce are truly stunning, if at times a little scary: not least Dive Bomb, which bends your signal down three octaves!

But as you gradually work your way through the octave and interval options (via the multi-notched rotary control), you soon understand the way things operate.

Selecting a sound then finding a good place to set the expression pedal works very well, but it's when you rock the pedal that the sweeps in octaves and harmonies are unleashed.

On the Chords setting, it works something like the levers on a pedal steel guitar - so you can shift notes to create new chords and harmonic emphasis.

There are also octaves above and below the played note - an amazing array of sound options that some will find helpful in songwriting, too.

With so many pitch variations on offer, this pedal varies from the sublime to the ridiculous, but in the right hands some serious musical magic can be made. A great return for the adventurous player.