DigiTech Drop

The Black Keys and The White Stripes – there are some suspicious similarities. Both are two-piece acts. Both have “the color + plural noun” band names. Both went from Midwestern garage rock roots to become bands that your mom downloads from iTunes.

There is another similarity that musicians may notice: both bands like to use octave shift effects. That intro riff to “Lonely Boy” where it sounds like Dan Auerbach is giving his tuning peg a purple nurple? Octave Shift. “Seven Nation Army”? Octave Shift.

The DigiTech Drop is a new polyphonic drop tune pedal. It features a cutting-edge algorithm for doing digital shifting. Judging from the early demo videos, it sounds incredible. It also offers fine-grained control over the amount of the shift, from a single semitone to an entire octave and every semitone between. With this combination of control and a quality sound engine, you won’t need a whole quiver of guitars dropped to different steps when playing live.

Perhaps best of all, there is a “momentary” mode. Engaging this mode turns on the effect only when the footswitch is actively pressed. This can be used to drop a single note in an otherwise unshifted passage, which opens the door for some wild, “roller coaster” solos and riffs. Now all you need to do is find a drummer and you are guaranteed to win like 100 Grammys. – Nathan Smith

The DigiTech Drop is a dedicated polyphonic drop tune pedal that allows you to drop your tuning from one semitone all the way down to a full octave. Get down-tuned chunk without having to change guitars! The Drop also features a momentary/latching switch. With the switch set to momentary, you can turn the Drop into a true performance pedal. Fast trills and roller-coaster pitch dips are at the tip of your toes.