Pick Of The Hits - Digitech in Premier Guitar, September 2014

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Racer X, The Mars Volta, Zavalaz Bassist Juan Alderete Digs Deep With HARMAN’s DigiTech Bass Whammy Pitch-Shifter Pedal

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – There are good bass players, great bass players – and players like Juan Alderete, who are complete masters of the instrument. Alderete first shot to fame in the 1980s as bassist for speed metal band Racer X, going lap for lap with blazing virtuoso guitarist Paul Gilbert. Alderete’s career continued to take off as bassist for The Mars Volta and today Alderete performs with Racer X and others, most recently with Zavalaz, featuring former The Mars Volta vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Alderete has always embraced the use of effects pedals in the search for new sounds both live and in the studio. Thanks to HARMAN’s DigiTech Bass Whammy pitch-shifter pedal, he’s digging deeper into uncharted sonic territory than ever before.

The Bass Whammy brings the legendary Whammy pitch-shifting effect to bass players everywhere. An update of the original, long-unavailable pedal, the Bass Whammy is optimized for bass guitar tones and delivers everything from subtle glissandos to outrageous 2-octaves up and 2-octaves down pitch leaps that go far beyond the range of a four, five or even six-string bass.

Aldrerete uses the Bass Whammy at the end of his pedalboard to transpose what he’s playing to match the key of a song. “I keep it as the last pedal in my effects chain so that I can send any sound I create through it, and the Bass Whammy will keep that sound intact while raising or lowering the pitch to match the song. It works fantastically well for this purpose.” He’s also held onto his original Whammy, which he uses in conjunction with the new one. “I can use one pedal to change the pitch of my bass, and the other to add pitch-shifting effects to that. It gets pretty crazy at times – but it also lets me get sounds that I’ve never heard anyone else get out of a bass.”

Aldrerete wasted no time embracing the expanded sonic capabilities of the new Bass Whammy. “My favorite new feature is the greater selection of intervals you can choose. With the new pedal you can get seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, octaves and even wider-than-octave intervals and more, either in the pedal’s Harmony mode or using the Whammy dropped-pitch effect. When you’re playing a live gig through a big on-stage amp and PA, the dropped-tuning and low-bass effects you can get are just sick – the amount of low-frequency power is enough to rattle any room, almost scary.”

Yet Alderete finds the Bass Whammy can be subtle as well as subterranean – “I love the improved tracking of this unit. It responds to everything I want it to do and keeps pace with my playing no matter how fast or intensely I play. The Detune mode can also go shallow or deep, which adds even more flexibility to the sounds you can achieve.” In addition to the Bass Whammy, Alderete uses the DigiTech DigiDelay and Bass Synth Wah and “a ton of DOD pedals.”

In addition to performances with Racer X and Zavalaz, he’s using the pedal on a new project called Halo Orbit with drummer Mark Guiliana and guitarist suGar Yoshinaga from the band Buffalo Daughter. “I’m also using it a ton on the new Vato Negro record we’re making, and have a new Big Sir record that is really heavy-sounding, with Bass Whammy-effects bass all over it.” Alderete and vocalist Bixler-Zavala are also working on a new Zavalaz album and are aiming for an end of year release. The bottom line for Juan Alderete? “These days I don’t go anywhere without the DigiTech Bass Whammy.”

“Its exciting to see a talented bass player like Juan using the Bass Whammy in so many creative ways to enhance his tone. I’m anxious to hear how it sounds on his new recordings and I know Juan will push the sonic limits as he continues using the pedal,” stated Tom Cram, marketing coordinator, DigiTech.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 15,200 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.1 billion for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2014.

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HARMAN’s DigiTech Bass Whammy® Pitch-Shifter Pedal Now Shipping

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – HARMAN’s DigiTech today announced its next-generation Bass Whammy® is now shipping. Bringing the legendary pitch-shifting effect to bass players everywhere, the DigiTech Bass Whammy is optimized for bass guitar tones and maintains all the classic settings of the original pedal while offering a host of modern upgrades including true bypass, MIDI operation and more.

“Since we announced the DigiTech Bass Whammy at Winter NAMM 2014, we have received great feedback from bassists who are excited about the range of new tones and creativity they will be able to achieve with this pedal,” said Tom Cram, marketing coordinator, DigiTech. “We designed the Bass Whammy to satisfy the broadest range of players and we believe it will be as invaluable to bassists as the original is to guitar players worldwide.”
The Bass Whammy is ideal for use with four, five and six string electric basses and employs extremely accurate pitch detection and polyphonic note tracking. The pedal offers two tracking modes, Classic and Chords. Classic mode provides accurate tracking for single note bass lines while Chords mode uses a sophisticated polyphonic algorithm for the smoothest chordal pitch shifting available.

The DigiTech Bass Whammy offers nine Whammy bending modes from 2-octaves up through 1-octave down, nine Harmony bending modes from 2-octaves up through 1-octaves down and Shallow and Deep detune modes. The Bass Whammy’s true bypass operation ensures that it can be added to any rig without any adverse effect on sound quality, unlike some non-bypass pedals that can thin and weaken the sound of a bass. The Bass Whammy includes a MIDI input that allows control of the pedal from an external MIDI device, and a 9-Volt DC power adapter. Like all DigiTech pedals, the Bass Whammy is built road-tough with an all-metal chassis.

The DigiTech Bass Whammy is currently available at a suggested retail price of $279.95.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 15,200 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.1 billion for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2014.

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Hitting A New Low: HARMAN’s DigiTech Introduces Its Next-Generation Bass Whammy® Pitch-Shifter Pedal

ANAHEIM, California – Who says guitar players have all the fun? HARMAN’s DigiTech today announced the introduction of its next-generation Bass Whammy®, bringing the legendary pitch-shifting effect to bass players everywhere. The DigiTech Bass Whammy is optimized for bass guitar tones and maintains all the classic settings of the original pedal while offering a host of modern upgrades including true bypass, MIDI operation and more.

The Bass Whammy is ideal for use with four, five and six string electric basses and employs extremely accurate pitch detection and polyphonic note tracking. The pedal offers two tracking modes, Classic and Chords. Classic mode provides accurate tracking for single note bass lines while Chords mode uses a sophisticated polyphonic algorithm for the smoothest chordal pitch shifting availble.

“The DigiTech Bass Whammy opens up a vast new range of musical possibilities that are impossible to achieve otherwise,” said Scott Klimt, marketing manager, DigiTech. “Now, adventurous bassists can express themselves with everything from subtle glissandos to outrageous pitch leaps that go beyond the normal range of a bass – way beyond.”

The DigiTech Bass Whammy offers nine Whammy bending modes from 2-octaves up through 1-octave down, nine Harmony bending modes from 2-octaves up through 1-octaves down and Shallow and Deep detune modes. The Bass Whammy’s true bypass operation ensures that it can be added to any rig without any adverse effect on sound quality, unlike some non-bypass pedals that can thin and weaken the sound of a bass. The Bass Whammy includes a MIDI input that allows control of the pedal from an external MIDI device, and a 9-Volt DC power adapter. Like all DigiTech pedals, the Bass Whammy is built road-tough with an all-metal chassis.

The DigiTech Bass Whammy will be available in March 2014 at a suggested retail price of $279.95.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 14,600 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.5 billion for the last twelve months ended September 30, 2013.

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