Whammy adding treb

[thomflash]

Hi, I'm thinking about buying the Digitech Whammy, the (relatively) new red one, but after trying it from a friend, I've got my doubts. I like the effect, but the standby REALLY isn't real standby: it seemed to add a whole lot in treble. Do other people experience this too and what can be done about it? I think it's pretty lame and unhandy to get me yet an other Line Selector from Boss. I put it right after my guitar and after it there's a Cry Baby, Rat, Big Muff, Small Stone, Boss Tremolo, Memory Man. I tried connecting ONLY the Whammy, and that revealed indeed the true treb-adding nature of it...

thnx,
Thomflash

[jarviss]

i dont like how the fulcrum of the pedal is in the middle of the pedal..
(it was hard for me to get used to it)
the crybabys have the fulcrum at the back....something im more comfortable with..

just another thing to consider
-G

[phaboo]

A LOT of effects boxes (especially the cheaper ones) screw up your tone when on "standby" or "bypass." I don't know why it's so hard to bypass a pedal without screwing the tone up (adding treble seems to be the most common side-affect).

I went so far as using a separate mixer to bring effects in (reverb, echos, etc). I don't "bypass" these effects, I just shut them off. The dry sound comes into the mixer in its own channel, so there's nothing to color it.

You can only do this with additive effects, though--the digital whammy is a pitch shifter, so there IS no dry tone. Pitch shifters tend to make the bottom end go away if they aren't real good--that's why it sounds more trebly. No bass.

I'd skip the effect entirely--how often will you use it? Why screw up your tone 98% of the time for an effect you'll only use 2% of the time?

[thomflash]

Hi Phaboo, thanx. You're definitely right on the part that it's not worth screwing up your sound for an effect you use 2% of the time, but man, what a 2%! :)
I'm still looking for a way to get passed the problem. I'm afraid it's gonna be an extra loop/swith to indeed REALLY bypass it in an external way. It would mean placng it outside of my pedalflightcase, wich will/would make it more vulnarable and a bit more effort every gig (some 2 or 3 a week). Still thinking and considering and looking for a solution.

[phaboo]

You COULD use a hard-wired bypass . . . you'd need an a/b box. Take your signal from the guitar (or whatever pedal is just ahead of the whammy), split with one output going into the whammy input, the other into "in A" in the a/b box. The output from the whammy goes into the "in B" in the a/b box. The "out" from the a/b box continues into the signal path. Clicking the a/b box takes, then, either the dry guitar signal, OR the whammy output, without using the whammy's bypass.

Only problem is that you'll have a "click" in your sound whenever you switch, but you probably won't be able to hear this over the band, in a live situation. Kinda klunky, but it'll preserve your dry tone.

[thomflash]

Phaboo: I had the same problem with my Electro Harmonix Memory Man: very cool delay, but worthless bypass. I tried some splitters and found the Boss LS-2 to be the best solution: no click, no earth loop, and even controllable volume levels for on/off. Does need power supply though. It just sucks that they can't make a decent REAL standby and one has to search for such solutions when the pedal itself already cost more then say 300 Euros/260 US $.