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I'd like to tell you a little story about a humble guitar pedal that, it turns out, revitalized guitar music and unleashed the guitar gods of the past 30 years. It's the MSG of your favorite rock guitarists: They were already great, this is just that umami hit that you dig.
It's the Digitech Whammy pedal. First released in 1989, it is supposed to emulate what you do with the whammy bar, which basically rocks the bridge of a guitar back and forth to change the pitch of the guitar's strings.
The issue with the whammy bar is that it can detune your strings and if you need to use that guitar multiple times over a set or for several songs in a row, you don't want to keep messing with the tuning -- especially if you don't have a roadie to do it for you.
So that was the problem Digitech was trying to solve when it released its pedal in 1989.
*As an aside, if you see this one in a guitar junk bin at Goodwill, grab it because it's now worth about $700.*
*As an aside, if you see this one in a guitar junk bin at Goodwill, grab it because it's now worth about $700.*
The pedal also comes with an octave shifter than can shift the sound coming from your guitar up or down two octaves. If you are playing certain forms of heavy metal and you want a low growl, you might shift down an octave, for example.
So, in the late 80s and early 90s there was a boom of guitar tech on the market, and guitar nerds everywhere would take the money they made working at Sam Goody or at Borders and took it straight to Sam Ash to buy guitar gear.
So, DigiTech released this pedal as just another bit of guitar junk that might be a hit, might not, but it fed the beast for nerds with disposable income and served a legitimate purpose.
One such nerd was Tom Morello, lead guitar player for Rage Against the Machine
One such nerd was Tom Morello, lead guitar player for Rage Against the Machine
Rage was formed in 1991 when then-hardcore punk singer and poetry slam artist Zack de la Rocha came together with Tom Morello, whose band Lock Up had recently broken up. They had all the loud guitar and catchy riffs of punk and the political conscience of the era's hip-hop
So, the idea was to fuse the two styles together, in a way that Red Hot Chili Peppers and Beastie Boys had done in years past, but they had a different thing going all together.
So, soon after the band came together, Morello (guitar nerd) was designated the band's "DJ."
So, soon after the band came together, Morello (guitar nerd) was designated the band's "DJ."
He broke out a recently acquired DigiTech Whammy, and ... well, I'll let him tell you:
So, all the sudden: Eureka
Emulate the sounds of hip-hop, through the guitar, in a way that really was only made possible by the kind-of-not-that-great sonic translation made possible by a kind of wonky pedal.
Emulate the sounds of hip-hop, through the guitar, in a way that really was only made possible by the kind-of-not-that-great sonic translation made possible by a kind of wonky pedal.
But that's the MSG, man. That's what you like. It's that screechy, two-octave jump through the 1989 DigiTech Whammy that you f***ing grooved on when you first heard this: (Start at 4:05 for Whammy in action)
So, Killing in the Name was a revolution for guitar. Everyone had their mind blown by that sound, and Morello was a fount of new sounds. The man did a DJ record scratch on guitar strings ffs.
Among those with their minds blown? Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood.
Among those with their minds blown? Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood.
When Radiohead set out to record OK Computer in 1996, an album about societal malaise and creeping anxiety associated with an increasingly sedentary and computerized society, Greenwood rendered a solo with all the tonality of dying dial-up modem trying to connect.
In Paranoid Android, the thrashing, squealing solo at the end is enabled by a little digital delay, distortion and, yes, DigiTech Whammy. See 5:30 mark for Whammy in action.
Paranoid Android was something of an unlikely charts hit, a depressing, meandering tune with such uplifting musings as "When I am king, you will be first against the wall" and a deep baritone choral "ah" section where Thom Yorke implores the heavens to "Come on rain down on me."
But its that solo, man. All the boredom and malaise of the song all the sudden lashes out in a flash of angry shred that is brought to you by none other than DigiTech Whammy.
Now, few are the guitar players who would tell you that Jack White, of The White Stripes, is anything but a legend. Some hair tossing, cigarette dragging hipsters in the early aughts didn't like the Stripes gimmick. But by the end of the Stripes run, he was cemented as a demigod
Probably his most recognizable song is almost entirely enabled by, you guessed it, the Digitech Whammy. The White Stripes were a two-person group with just a guitar and drummer. But did they hire a bassist for Seven Nation Army? No. Jack hired Digitech Whammy.
The Octave feature creates the bass sound for the distinctive bassline, and of course the screechy guitar solo is the Tom Morello-pioneered two octave jump. You don't need to get a time stamp because the whole song is a celebration of the Digitech Whammy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=164&v=0J2QdDbelmY&feature=emb_logo
And that's really the story. It's a story of how a guitar geek charged with creating a distinctive sound found an innovative use of a pedal that created a guitar revolution and unlocked the sound of a whole generation of guitar gods.
Thanks, Digitech.
Thanks, Digitech.
