Best Whammy Pedal (our top pick)

Whammy pedals are a type of pitch-shifting effect, which is exactly what it sounds like - dropping or raising the pitch of a note, either digitally or by actually bending that note on your guitar strings. This is how whammy bars work, thus the naming convention of the DigiTech Whammy series.

Octave pedals and other pitch-shifting solutions like the Boss Harmonist are also good options in this category, but the "Whammy" pedal has always been a name reserved for this particular DigiTech series.

You can easily recognize it by the red and black coloring and expression pedal.

If you're looking for a whammy pedal, the current version of this series is your best option.

Compare Whammy Pedals

Our Methodology

We focus on recommending gear from trusted brands and companies that have been in the musical instrument business for a long time. We do not make recommendations from companies that we do not have familiarity and/or experience with.

Moreover, when we make a recommendation it's based on thorough knowledge of that product from either using/testing it ourselves and/or consulting with someone who has.

We do not use third party marketing services or AI to write any of our content.

Everyone that puts content on this site is a musician with years of experience. 

If you have questions about our methodology, we're happy to answer them and to be as transparent as possible. Ask away.

Price Guide for the DigiTech Whammy 5

This is a price comparison table for the DigiTech Whammy 5 from the most popular retailers. Note that you can sign up for price alerts and track price history below, though with Amazon entries excluded.

Prices updated Mon, October 02nd, 2023.

Pricing from Multiple Vendors

Pricing from Amazon

Price Alert (lowest price among listed retailers)

Price History (follows lowest price among listed retailers)

What we like about the Whammy 5

Remember that the Whammy is not a single pedal, but a pedal series by DigiTech with multiple versions. The term "Whammy" pedal is also fairly unique to this DigiTech line. Most other pitch-shifting pedals are named differently and many of them do not have a built-in expression pedal.

So this could also be thought of the best pitch-shifting or octave pedal, and even within that wider category scope, the Whammy 5 is still our top choice.

Here are the features we like about this particular model:

• Detuning option (no need to manually tune down or up)
• Expression pedal
• Harmony/whammy mode
• MIDI controllable
• High level of trust in the community

And on a simpler note, we like the Whammy because there is really nothing else like it. DigiTech is hit or miss with a lot of their pedal series, but the Whammy pedals are definitely their claim to fame.

They're the best Whammy pedals, and they're also sort of the only Whammy pedals.

What's the difference between this and a "regular" pitch-shifting pedal?

Technically, the Whammy series and other pitch-shifting pedals are in the same effects category. And while a lot of effects incorporate pitch shifting as a way to adjust other effects, the Whammy is one of the few pedals dedicated to that effect.

It's built like a wah pedal with and expression pedal implementing the back/forth rocking motion to control the effect.

Other pitch shifting pedals, like the Boss Harmonist, might require an external expression pedal to operate in that fashion.

DigiTech Whammy Video Demo

This is DigiTech's own demo video that takes you through the Whammy's basic functionality. 

Conclusion

Remember that when this article was published, the Whammy 5 was the current version we recommend. Future and past releases should also be regarded as appreciably similar, therefore recommend in the same way as the Whammy 5.

If you've got questions about the Whammy series, or other pitch-shifting pedals, feel free to drop them in the comments section below.

We'll help as much as possible.

Thanks for hanging out and reading our content.

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