Bigsby Polyphonic Pitch-shifting Pedal Review

Think About It

I have used a Bigsby B5 on a 1968 Telecaster ever since I bought the guitar new. When I first saw this new pedal featured on YouTube I was totally in awe of this technical achievement and the possibilities it presented. Could it mean the end of the physical Bigsby tailpieces that we have seen for decades? Well, I don't think so. While this pedal can do things that the physical… read more tailpiece equivalent can never do, your hand can do things faster and more articulately that your foot can only dream of. In my opinion, this will simply mean that the fully equipped guitarist will have now have both since this pedal it allows for deeper dives in both directions that a physical Bigsby will never be able to do.

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The Cool-iest

This thing is nuts! Its really expanded my creative abilities. It has a plethora of uses and can even acheive some Digitech Whammy areas if adjusted right.

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More than a whammy bar

I've only had this a few hours. I compared it to a trem bar on my strap and you can't tell the difference in the sound. I am not as deft with fast vibrato using my foot. The trem bar is still better for fast vibrato. But for the music I play on my Les Paul, this is perfect. Before this, I was considering buying a Les paul with a tremolo on it. Don't need to now. I like that… read more I can both dip and rise as needed. What surprised me the most was some of the other things you can do. With a momentary foot switch you can lock the pitch like a pitch shifter, and still use the trem feature. I have a Drop pedal and this will likely replace it. It has no digital artifacts like the Drop occasionally has. It also lets you blend the dry signal back in so it can harmonize by any interval you choose up to one octave. Really impressed. And it looks sharp too.

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Enjoying the ability to be subtle!

I knew that I would either love or hate this pedal based on its ability to give me a subtle effect, and I love it. It is attached to my board via the temple audio quick release plates, which means I "put a ring on it"! I would say it's worth the money even just for the one effect, but there is so much more under the hood I am excited to try. First impression is that the pitch… read more shift effect isn't a big leap forward from the POG or whammy, but if you need it it's there, and you can lock the pitch shift with an external pedal (nice option). The 'natural' sound, which does really emulate the sound of a Bigsby goes away when you turn the pitch depth past a half tone. (I suspect many of the bad reviews come from setting the depth too deep and then trying to achieve that little warble.) The unit is sturdy and well built and its huge... I wish it was just a little smaller.

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Goodbye whammy hardware! Goodbye retuning!

This is the most significant product for guitar (and any other electric instrument) since modeling. Without changing the tension of the strings, the Bixsby can raise or lower a whole chord INTUNE and can be set to anything from a quarter step to a whole octave. It can also be set to sound just like the chaos a whammy bar gets, but why would anyone want this? No more heavy hardware:… read more springs and heavy block. This Game Changer is the end of all that hardware that never really works to stay in tune. I have had this for a few days and it is so much fun and easy to understand. Jimmy Hendricks, sorry you could not have had one of these. It works with acoustic pickups just as it does for electric pickups.

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