5 Pitch shifters

tom morello is the effect’s most notable proponent

Pitch shifters take your guitar signal and bend it up or down - subtle uses can emulate your guitar’s whammy bar, but much greater ranges are available.

DigiTech’s iconic Whammy pedal is the best known and most loved example, and it offers up everything from a bowel-troubling three octaves down (dive bomb) to an ear-piercing two octaves up.

Smaller intervals, such as 2nds or 4ths, allow you to use a pitch shifter like a virtual capo, or a drop-tuner – DigiTech’s Drop is a good example of the latter. Most pitch pedals operate in a similar fashion: choose the maximum bend range and step on the treadle to let rip.

Tom Morello is the effect’s most notable proponent, creating one of rock’s most iconic solos in KillingIn

TheName via the siren squeal of a two-octave up setting.

1 Dan Auerbach uses a pitch shifter to create a smooth dive bomb in the riff from LonelyBoy