THE ANSWER TO THE BLIND COMPARISON:
A = REISSUE WH-4
B = ORIGINAL WH-1
EVER WONDERED WHICH SOUNDED BETTER? THE ORIGINAL WH-1 OR THE WH-4 REISSUE?
THEN THIS IS THE PAGE FOR YOU!
Whammy Comparison
My humble opinion of the comparison.
For single note stuff, the WH1 seems the nicest. Very smooth sweep, and good timbre. For chords, I prefer the WH4. Both add 'artifacts' when letting a chord sustain. The WH4 has a 'retriggery' glitch, where the WH1 has a more 'warbly' glitch. You'll see it in the video.
For low octave stuff they sound the same. But when octave is mixed (dry + 1oct down) it's hard to say. The WH1 sounds chunkier when listening to the low octave, but adds an almost chorusy 'feel' to stuff, as I think the lower octave being delayed a few ms gives it that sound. The WH4, although not as chunky (very small degree difference here) feels 'tighter'.
The treadle is interesting too. The WH1 has a smoother feeling sweep, but is tiny, so that can feel weird under the foot. The WH4's sweep feels more 'jumpy', or rather, it's hard to get a perfectly smooth gliss going. BUT the size of the WH4 is more comfortable under the foot. Particularly since I have gigantic feet. It is notable that even though the WH1 is smaller, it has the longer ‘sweeps’ from heel to toe.
The detune modes are a landslide. The WH1 by a longshot. It doesn't even sound like the same effect. On the WH1 it sounds like nice analog chorus. The WH4 sounds like an RP-50 or something equally terrible.
(CLICK HERE TO SEE A GUIDE ON MODIFYING YOUR WH-4 TO BE TRUE BYPASS!!)
.WAV version of the comparison
.MP3 version of the comparison