"Drop" tune pedal

[OlRedNeckHippy]

Working on a song that is technically in F#, but the original artist does it Half Down tuning, plays it in G.
It's difficult for me to sing it in G, not bad at all in F#.
In G, there is a bunch of cool guitar work that can be done, like the G-C bounce (G, Cadd9), and open string stuff, in E (capo 2), or just playing it in F#, that stuff can't be done.

I asked a friend how he's doing it, and he has a Digitech "Drop" pedal! Kicks it on and plays it in G, while it's actually in F#. Like having a half down tuned guitar, at the press of a foot switch!

So I says to myself, "Gotta get one of those!"

$179 new, 125 used. A little rich for my blood right now.

Is there a less expensive alternative, that is worth the investment?

I've googeled around and it's quite confusing. Polyphonic, chorus, pitch shift, momentary latch, octave, harmonizer, etc.
I just want to go half down and not break the bank or carry an extra guitar for one song. And the pedal needs to work on an acoustic, as well as an electric.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: The Mooer Pitch Box is interesting, price is right, but does it do what I'm looking for?

 

[-Hawk-]

I don’t know of alternatives to the Drop, but I’m sure something is out there. It’s a pretty useful pedal for live use if you’ve got a few downtuned songs though. Not cheap, but I don’t regret buying it.

 

[65 Champ Amp]

I just use a Boss TU2.



Uh, scuse me a sec.

 

[bgmacaw]

I've got a Cuvave Pitch pedal ($23 during an eBay discount day) on its way from China right now. I'll probably post a review of it once it gets here.

 

[dlew919]

Boss ps 6? But you’d have to work it a bit.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[brogh]

there's the EHX pitch fork around but the pricing is similar to the digitech, you might find one used for a bit less....

 

[zombiwoof]

Keep an extra guitar around that is tuned a half step low, it will be good to cover a lot of songs. Many guitar players today tune down a half step (or whole step even), you find that out when trying to learn songs off of recordings. I would rather do that than to use a digital drop tune pedal myself.
Al

 

[OlRedNeckHippy]

@zombiwoof, I played half down for a few years, as recently as 3 years ago. I got an awful lot of flack from my fellow player over it, and it just wasn't worth it, so we went back to standard.

Also, since I gave up smoking for vaping, my singing has improved exponentially. It's been over a year now and my range has increased considerably, just not enough to do this one new tune, in G. It's gotta be F#.

 

[Lies&Distortion]

Looks like the Moorer would do what the Drop does, but would it sound the same? Don't know.

You want to use with an acoustic guitar too? How would that sound? Seems like it would clash with the sound the guitar produces unless you had it isolated somehow.

 

[OlRedNeckHippy]

.....You want to use with an acoustic guitar too? How would that sound? Seems like it would clash with the sound the guitar produces unless you had it isolated somehow.

Yea, kind of. Same pedal board as my electrics. An A-B switch at the end of the chain puts the acoustic into a DI, then straight to the PA.
There is an old Ibanez SC10 chorus on my board that I often use with the acoustic, with very satisfactory results. I'd imagine a drop pedal in the chain would function similarly.

 

[memorex]

I've seen new Pitchforks going for as little as $137.50 (free shipping) on Ebay, used should be cheaper. It's polyphonic and it sounds as good as the Digitech stuff. Although you only need it for a quick pitch drop, Pitchfork can do much more, it's certainly more versatile than the Drop, and who knows, you might like some of the weird effects it can produce. The main thing is, it can do polyphonic pitch shifting with few gurgly artifacts even when shifting a whole octave, which means you can get 12-string like effects as well. I've been looking for an excuse to buy one of these because my GT-100 does horrible polyphonic pitch shifting.

 

[magicfingers99]

Morpheus Drop Tune or Morpheus Bomber, the bomber has a pedal to slide between pitches. the quality it very good it was probably the 1st polyphonic pitch shifter. The designer died and the rights were sold to other companies.

prices are all over the map.

https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=morpheus bomber



this guy is a little better at discussing it:



he's in some kind of band

 

[Shuster]

I bought a DigiTech Luxe a few months back, it gives you a variable of
-50 cent to +50 cent up/detune.

 

[Shuster]

Or possibly this puppy?? DigiTech Whammy Ricochet.

 

[PCollen]

Working on a song that is technically in F#, but the original artist does it Half Down tuning, plays it in G.
It's difficult for me to sing it in G, not bad at all in F#.
In G, there is a bunch of cool guitar work that can be done, like the G-C bounce (G, Cadd9), and open string stuff, in E (capo 2), or just playing it in F#, that stuff can't be done.

I asked a friend how he's doing it, and he has a Digitech "Drop" pedal! Kicks it on and plays it in G, while it's actually in F#. Like having a half down tuned guitar, at the press of a foot switch!

So I says to myself, "Gotta get one of those!"

$179 new, 125 used. A little rich for my blood right now.

Is there a less expensive alternative, that is worth the investment?

I've googeled around and it's quite confusing. Polyphonic, chorus, pitch shift, momentary latch, octave, harmonizer, etc.
I just want to go half down and not break the bank or carry an extra guitar for one song. And the pedal needs to work on an acoustic, as well as an electric.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: The Mooer Pitch Box is interesting, price is right, but does it do what I'm looking for?

Sounds to me like you are a perfect candidate for a Line 6 Variax guitar...."You can even access alternate tunings—including Open G, DADGAD, Drop D,or any other custom tuning—with the turn of a knob." 1/2-step down is one of the standard options.

https://line6.com/variax-modeling-guitars/variax-hd

FWIW, I heard a guy playing a L6 Variax last month and he was getting a killer tone.

 

[magicfingers99]

the drop tune just goes down, they also made a capo pedal, it just goes up. I have the capo, and the bomber, don't think i have a drop tune. The capo works nicely though,

starts around 75$ at reverb
https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=Morpheus+Droptune

review of 3 pedals morpheus, digitech and pitchfork



the morpheuse are very well built metal pedals.

 

[OlRedNeckHippy]

Sounds to me like you are a perfect candidate for a Line 6 Variax guitar.....

Well, YEA! That'd be great! I really like the James Tyler signature model, and have seen a few "superstars" on TV using it recently. It would be just perfect....
The $175 Digitech Drop pedal is financially not justifiable right now, so the $999.99 Variax is a stretch. Maybe if I sold my Paul and my Heritage......

I think I'm going to swing by GC and grab the Mooer Pitch Box. The Cherry Hill store says they have an 'open box' one for 68 bucks. I can swing that.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

I bought a DigiTech Luxe a few months back, it gives you a variable of
-50 cent to +50 cent up/detune.

Cool alternative for chorus, but 50 cents isn't going to drop you into another key.

 

[Rustbucket]

Keep an extra guitar around that is tuned a half step low, it will be good to cover a lot of songs. Many guitar players today tune down a half step (or whole step even), you find that out when trying to learn songs off of recordings. I would rather do that than to use a digital drop tune pedal myself.
Al

This is what I do too. Keep a spare acoustic tuned down a full step when my voice requires it, sometimes capo up 1 to get the key you are looking for.

 

[littlebadboy]

I did a demo of it too here.

I used a Squier CV50 Tele modified with coil sized rail humbuckers and overwound vintage repro on neck position. Guitar was tuned to drop D and I used the Drop to tune down to drop C. I should have gone further down to drop B but C sounded better to me for the song.


I'm a metal player and I ventured into down tuned guitars. However, I don't like the width of multiple stringed guitars. I also don't like re-stringing guitars with bigger strings to accommodate low tunes. And, I do not have enough money or justify buying a dedicated baritone guitar. So, I looked at pedals. The Boss OC-3 didn't work out for me. I tried the TC Sub n' Up, it was okay. Then, I tried the Drop and it was perfect for me! So, any of my guitars can be down-tuned easily when I need to!