Detuning pedals are great for kicking your guitar into an alternate tuning without all the hassle of turning those tuning knobs on stage or carrying around extra guitars. These pitch shifting pedals can drop into a half step down, a whole step down, and more. If you aren’t looking to drop your tuning these pedals are also great for pitch shifted sounds. Think of them like a whammy pedal but more static and with alternative options.
Top 3 Best Detuning Pedals
3. Digitech Whammy Ricochet
This pedal is very similar to the well known whammy pedal but with a much smaller footprint, as in you can actually fit in on your pedalboard! Unlike the traditional whammy this pedal doesn’t have a foot treadle (that thing you put your foot). This means more room for fuzz pedals. This pedal has a great sound, not obviously digital but has smooth tracking and lets you shift up to two octaves in either direction.
2. Digitech Drop
This is another pedal very similar to the Digitech Whammy but in a nice smaller sized package. No foot pedal to mess with just click on the pedal and you are good to go. This pedal unlike the Digitech Ricochet doesn’t shift up in pitch. The Drop is a great pedal with one purpose to detune your guitar up to one octave down. It does allow the foot switch to be used as a momentary switch. It’s great at what it does and doesn’t have a lot of extra fluff.
1. Electro Harmonix Pitch Fork
The Pitch Fork is the polar opposite of the Digitech Drop and is designed for a different type of player. This pedal comes with enough features to keep you busy for a while. It shifts up or down with a three octave range. It has a blend knob for blending the shifted sound and your dry signal. It has an input for an expression pedal so you can control the pitch like a traditional whammy pedal. Also, it can be used as a momentary switch like the Drop. Finally, it can be used in dual mode which means you can shift the pitch up and down at the same time. With all these features the Pitch Fork can take your sound to some pretty out there places. However, it also does the simple task of detuning your guitar really really well.
There it is our list of the best detuning pedals. All of these are a great addition to any pedalboard but hopefully this overview will let you decide, which one is right for you. Hope you enjoyed the list and be sure to leave us a comment with your favorite detuning pedal.