Pitch shifting

Foster

Getting back into guitar and mucking about learning white stripes and black keys songs - I really fancy something that can do harmonies, octave devilry and dive bombs (think the intro to lonely boy)

So far the options are a Whammy V, Boss PS-5, Boss PS-6 or a Behringer US600

Most expensive by far is the Behringer - it's long since discontinued, I found a listing on ebay from Japan that is asking just over £1k... Sod that.

I'm leaning towards a used PS-5 but are there other (cheaper) options I should think of? 

thecolourbox

The behringer will be the cheapest option, as the example you've given must be an anomaly. There normally less than £50.

That said the Digitech Whammy is probably as good an option as your can get. I've not  learnt much Black Keys but White Stripes is all octave up or down, which the whammy would work for that and can do other intervals too

NorthernStomps

Not sure if it will serve your needs but I’ve got a Digitech drop that works a treat!

Foster

Had a quick muckabout today by using my bass octave pedal - it doesn't work great but it's fun!

I can see a Whammy V being on the "to buy" list at some point in the future

TeleMaster

Definitely a whammy for what you’re talking about. Plus you can start playing Rage Against the Machine too!

stickyfiddle

The Whammy V is excellent. 

siremoon

stickyfiddle said:

The Whammy V is excellent. 

Agreed

joeyowen

Whammy 5 wins out of those choices 

english_bob

Whammy won't do harmony well though.

The others allow you to define the key and interval you want and get "intelligent" harmonies that shift between, say, major and minor third intervals to stay in tune with the key. You can just about replicate this with the Whammy in maj3/min3 harmony mode, but you have to do it yourself with the footswitch pedal.

Cheeky fifth option? Line 6 M5. Does both a dedicated analogue octave down, a Whammy pedal and an "intelligent" pitch shifter / harmoniser. You can get one for  £60-odd used, although obviously you'll need an expression pedal to do the Whammy stuff. Best of all (for me anyway) it has presets so you don't need to twiddle all the knobs again to find the sound you had last week. 

...and it's a pretty good delay, reverb, modulation and batshit synth sound pedal.

thecolourbox

In terms of White Stripes and Black Keys though harmony is not really required, the more important shifting would be octaves for those two bands songs. I think harmony can be done on the whammy to switch heel and toe between major/minor 3rds or 6ths but may be hard work, I'd get shin splints!

english_bob

thecolourbox said:

In terms of White Stripes and Black Keys though harmony is not really required, the more important shifting would be octaves for those two bands songs. I think harmony can be done on the whammy to switch heel and toe between major/minor 3rds or 6ths but may be hard work, I'd get shin splints!

Sure, for those particular bands you wouldn't need harmonies, but the OP did specify that as something he wanted. 

And yes, you can do it with the Whammy, but you need to know when you need major or minor intervals and be able to keep the pedal rocking in time with whatever you're playing. It would be far more amusing for the rest of your band watching you trying and failing to do it, but too much like hard work for me.

rsvmark

Further options are H9 and pog....

Foster

I'm not as keen on the Linux equivalent of pedals - Digi modellers tend to give you options for every teeny little variable which I really can't be arsed with. 

I might just get a cheapo behringer octave pedal as a make do muckabout for now, depending on how cheap it is of course!

Grunfeld

Foster said:

 (think the intro to lonely boy)

Boss PS-6...

This can definitely do that intro -- funnily enough it's what I'm playing most at the moment.

It's a good pitch pedal but you need a bit of oomph for it to track accurately.

I generally have it after an "always on" OD so no issue there.  Clean it's a bit glitchy.

Foster

Well I plan on running it after my FuzzFace (which i'm tempted to gut and transfer to a smaller case) - I read something somewhere that octave pedals work better when fed a square wave signal rather than sine, not sure why though!