DigiTech MonoNeon Whammy review: “This is the most innovative Whammy since the original”
$329/£269, digitech.com
The DigiTech Whammy is one of the most innovative and important effects pedals of the last four decades – and one of the last truly innovative pedal concepts to reach widespread artistic and commercial success. In the decades since, however, DigiTech in its various guises has continued to develop variations on the theme – the DT, a bass version, the Richochet, Drop and HammerOn to name a few – and now we have what might well be the most eye-catching of the lot, the MonoNeon Whammy.
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Who is MonoNeon and why is he getting a signature model?
It’s a fair question, especially since the Whammy has been used to great and iconic effect by the likes of Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy and Radiohead over the last 30 years. But MonoNeon (real name Dywane Eric Thomas Jr) is one of the most interesting and innovative bass players around, whose creative use of microtonal sounds has made him a social media star as his preference towards bright neon clothes and guitars and a penchant for balaclavas.
Why MonoNeon gets a signature Whammy isn’t just about the colours – although I’ll be honest with you, the bright yellow hue of this version definitely pulled my interest when I saw it on the show floor at NAMM this year – it’s about his vision for evolving the concept into something rather different.
Image: Press
MonoNeon Whammy – what’s the difference between this and a regular Whammy?
The MonoNeon Whammy isn’t just a basic WH-1 Whammy with a paint job. Primed for use with either bass or guitar, it gives you everything a regular Whammy would offer plus a trio of new octave shifting effects plus an entirely new mode – Hypersonic. This crazy thing takes your instrument into the stratosphere with a three-octave pitch rise.
That neon paintjob is also primed to glow under a black light (I tried it, and it looks absolutely killer) and in a nod to MonoNeon’s penchant for creative labelling with gaffer tape, the pedal also comes with a neat customisation kit that includes two rolls of neon gaffer tape and a marker plus several stickers.
Like the regular modern Whammy you also get MIDI control, the ability to down-tune electronically, and swap between the classic Whammy algorithm, plus a more modern polyphonic chordal mode.
DigiTech MonoNeon Whammy – sounds
The best word I can think of to describe plugging this pedal in is ‘inspiring’. Straight out of the box I headed for the new Hypersonic mode – you gotta try the craziest thing first, right? And it certainly has the wow factor.
It’s not just a gimmick either. I found it really useful for running basslines then taking advantage of the full three-octave swell to explode into higher register solos. The dogs in my neighbourhood perhaps didn’t appreciate me exploring the full limits of the three-octave fun to be had, but I sure did.
The various octave modes are loads of fun too, and that’s without getting into the guts of it just being a regular Whammy. It does all the fun stuff that a Whammy should do – I owned a few original Whammys back in the day and it’s still a fun and creative bag of tricks to add to any guitarist’s arsenal. I also really liked the Detune mode, which wasn’t on the Whammy the last time I owned one – you can use it for downtuning and it tracks really well of course, but I liked using it quite subtly, almost as a chorus effect to add some warmth to your sound.
Another relatively new addition that many of us are sure to enjoy is the MIDI connectivity, which really expands your options for how you want to use it. The only thing that is perhaps lacking is stereo – the ability to utilise these crazy sounds across a stereo spectrum would be very cool indeed.
DigiTech MonoNeon Whammy – should I buy one?
As mentioned above, one of the main reasons you might want to pick this over the standard Whammy is the colour – the Whammy’s red and black look is iconic but it’s fun to be a little different isn’t it? Especially when it costs just 30 bucks more than the current WH-5 version.
But in truth there are very real and very musical reasons to pick this one too – it adds some genuinely inspirational and inventive new tricks to the recipe, and it’s set up for bass and guitar right out of the box. I think I might be getting that gaffer tape and writing my name on it very soon, because this is the most innovative Whammy since the original.
DigiTech MonoNeon Whammy alternatives
There aren’t really any like-for-like Whammy competitors out there, but the original Whammy ($299/£249) has been updated for modern considerations and is a killer option. As is the stripped-down Whammy Richochet (£139.99/$219.99), which ditches the expression pedal for its own brand of pitch-shifting wildness. If you want to get really in depth about pitch-shifting, then EHX’s outrageously creative POG3 ($645/£599) might be the last word in high-end polyphonic octave sounds.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
