Metal Guitarist Forums banner

Detune 'em all or buy a Drop/Morpheus/Pitchfork?

4K views 32 replies 16 participants last post by  playstopause 
#1 ·
I tuned my new-to-me KM6 to D standard and decided that might be fun to have some of my guitars in D and some in E (yeah, I actually went back to tuning to E standard...) anyway, I can't decide if it's easier to tune all my 6s and my bass to D and my 7s to C and tune back to E/B when i want to do that sort of thing or just buy one of the pedals to drop a half and/or whole step from time to time. Wish I could just do that with my Helix, but alas, that's not meant to be...

I found this old thread: Best Detune/Drop Pedal



Then looked up the Morpheus and found this uber-helpful review on Amazon:

近藤信吾
4.0 out of 5 stars まさに画期的
Reviewed in Japan on March 4, 2013
Verified Purchase
ギターの本数がいらず、ペダルひとつでキーダウン。まさに画期的です。
ギター一本で済むし持ち物減らすことが出来て満足です。
ギター買うよりは安いけどエフェクターにしては、ちょっと割高かなそれで星1個マイナスです。
:lol:

Seriously though, it only gets 2 out of 5 stars aggregated, so it's not filling me with warm and fuzzies despite Cassidy's endorsement. (where's that guy been, anyway?)

But, the Morpheus doesn't seem to be in production anymore, which leads me back to the Drop, which gets much better online reviews.



Who has experience with any of these things? Pluses/minuses? Or, should I just detune everything and move on?
 
See less See more
2
#2 ·
I'm assuming you were being sarcastic when you said "uber-helpful" since it's in Japanese and you can't read it. Here's what it says:

"I don't need a ton of guitars, so I can get rid of them with a single pedal. It really is revolutionary. I only need one guitar now and I was able to reduce how much gear I own, so I'm satisfied. It's cheaper than buying a guitar, but it is kind of expensive for an effect, so I took off one star."

(And his title was "Truly revolutionary")
 
#6 ·
Totally sarcastic. Found it funny that my Amazon page decided to spotlight a review in another language. Thanks for the translation!

I've also heard the "dont drop more than a whole step" thing which is what's always made me hesitate.

Maybe I'll just retune em all and see how that goes, since it costs nothing but time (and frustration with the Floyd...).
 
#3 ·
I haven't tried the Morpheus, but used the Drop feature on my Whammy DT, where the Drop was spawned from. The Drop works fine on the first 2 semitones. From the 3rd onward there's some subtle changes in your tone, and anything lower, the latency and digital glitches become apparent.

For the sake of convenience, it's a nifty tool to have, especially for touring. Recording on the other hand, I personally wouldn't use it and opt to detune a guitar instead.
 
#4 ·
I haven't tried the Morpheus, but used the Drop feature on my Whammy DT, where the Drop was spawned from. The Drop works fine on the first 2 semitones. From the 3rd onward there's some subtle changes in your tone, and anything lower, the latency and digital glitches become apparent.

For the sake of convenience, it's a nifty tool to have, especially for touring. Recording on the other hand, I personally wouldn't use it and opt to detune a guitar instead.
^^^ not the only person I've heard talk about this issue with using more than 2 semitones.

Maybe keep the guitars in the middle and use the effect to go either direction? say like keep the 6 strings in D and use the pedal to reach down to C or up to E.
 
#5 ·
I keep most of my guitars in different tunings. They're fussier about going back and forth than my bass is, so the bass I just retune/detune when I record it. I've never liked the sound of detune effects, it's always super obvious to my ear.

:2c:
 
#8 ·
The Variax IS the only one of those detuners I've heard that actually sounds pretty good. It even sounds good detuning a ridiculous amount. The first time I heard Twelve Foot Ninja, I thought the guitarist was using an 8 string guitar. Turns out he uses a 6 string in Drop D and just uses the Variax to change the tuning, oftentimes multiple times within the same song.
 
#9 ·
I have one and IMO, it's pretty fine until 2 whole steps down. You need good tension on your strings you make it work properly. You also need to play loud or with headphones, 'cause otherwise, you'll hear the acoustic sound of your guitar over it and that's pretty annoying.
 
#12 ·
I don't like them on a conceptual level or a practical level. I find them inauthentic on a conceptual level, as pretentious as that sounds.

I mean, it sounds ridiculous, and everyone has a different area where they draw "THE LINE" in terms of what they consider authentic performance and what they consider objectionably fake. You know, auto tune type debates and what not. In terms of pitch shifting, octave based ones are one thing, because that's just doubling or halving frequencies. Intelligent harmonizers are more objectionable, though I guess I can see using them to replicate something on a record. But playing one thing and then having it altered and then not mixing it with an original signal is just over the line to me. "Poser shit" if you will.

Part of it is just that, considering the fact that it's much easier and more satisfying to just tune a guitar to the tuning you want, as well as more gratifying.

Of course you know, for any person in music, their opinions on what is "over the line" in terms of authenticity is usually intensely hypocritical, because there are so many ways to manipulate signals it's like, "You are EQing, and chorusing, and exciting, and this and that but you draw the line at pitch shifting?". Pot calling the kettle black and all that.

I don't like any pitch based effects. Overtone/harmonic/subharmonic generators are one thing, but pitch based effects like intelligent harmonizers or octavers have never gel'd with me.

Honestly, my opinion would be a lot different if it was an effect that used a lot of fancy engineering to replicate the sound of something that is difficult to bring to life on a practical level. But in this case it's like, it's easier to just do the authentic thing, why the fuck would you want one of those?
 
#20 ·
But in this case it's like, it's easier to just do the authentic thing, why the fuck would you want one of those?
I'll answer that one. I went down the « different guitar for different tuning » road and just got tired of it. At one point, it was the unique reason to buy more guitars, which was, in my own specific case, ridiculous. I got tired of the need for specific strings for specific scale with specific pickups, etc. You get the idea. I realized I only like playing with a specific string gauge, in standard Eb and that's it. And not having 7 different guitars that only came out if the case once a month to play that song in C.

These days, I only use the Drop once in a while without the need for anything else. So, YMMV.

... and I don't feel inauthentic for a second.
 
#14 ·
The Morpheus is garbage from what I hear and its not surprising the product did not take off. For what it is, the digitech drop is pretty decent. I only have 2 guitars atm (one hard tail and one floyd) both tuned to standard so I use the fuck out of it. I do (occasionally) go 2 steps down but mainly go a half step or to D because thats just the stuff that I play. I do notice a SMALL bit of latency going down 2 steps but its acceptable for me anyway. I really dont notice any digital anomalies though. The thing I do notice though is it slightly darkens your tone a little. Is it the be all end all? No but for my situation, I love it. If I were to seriously record in a lower tuning though, I would set up my guitar to do so.
 
#16 ·
I used the Pitchfork to drop down a half-step when practicing cover tunes, as it seemed ~20% of the songs my last band covered were in Eb. It worked very well for that, and bonus, with an expression pedal, it does the whammy thing quite well, too.
 
#18 ·
Max's prototype Reaper ESP is sweet - wanted to check one out for years now. Listening to him clank his rings against the guitar noids me out though... all I hear is >chip< >scratch< >chip<... :lol:

Dig that they use the drop and don't seem to have any issues. Thanks for the link.
 
#19 ·
Depends what you want to do with it. I use a Whammy DT live to alter tunings from E down to D, C & B, there is some slight change in tone when you get -5 but an audience is really not going to spot it. I've also used the detune in the Kemper, I'd say the Digitech is fractionally better but then it is a unit that dedicates its whole processing power to just that one thing.

I've also used it to create guitar backing tracks for in-ear playback systems, it works but is not something that I'd want publically released.

Ultimately, it's a tool like anything else and you have to weigh up practicality against purism.
 
#22 ·
Decided to get a Drop, and sold the Jackson Soloist finally so have the funds to cover it. But, when I didn't have the cash, I was seeing 'em for $75-100 (not that I couldn't afford $75, but I was busy buying Elysian pickups first... ha!) Now, I'm assuming because of the pandemic, people are asking $150-350 for 'em (who pays $300+ for one pedal? that only does one thing? Chris?) When you look at eBay's sold listings there are still a lot that have gone in the $100-ish range, but so far all my offers have fallen on deaf ears.

If anyone sees a deal on one, link me please.
 
#25 ·
Decided to get a Drop, and sold the Jackson Soloist finally so have the funds to cover it. But, when I didn't have the cash, I was seeing 'em for $75-100 (not that I couldn't afford $75, but I was busy buying Elysian pickups first... ha!) Now, I'm assuming because of the pandemic, people are asking $150-350 for 'em (who pays $300+ for one pedal? that only does one thing? Chris?) When you look at eBay's sold listings there are still a lot that have gone in the $100-ish range, but so far all my offers have fallen on deaf ears.

If anyone sees a deal on one, link me please.
Good choice on the drop, if I see one in your range I'll let you know.

Forum discussions on these pedals always ends up with pages of hypothetical navel gazing. Ultimately in my situation, this pedal means I can cover three different tunings, patch controlled via midi, but only fly with one main guitar and one back-up. I'm currently reviewing the audio from a live DVD we shot on my last tour, and I'm hearing no artifacts or issues in the songs where I'm using the DT.
 
#24 ·
I already have 8 (well 7 and 1 bass) - :lol:. Since I try to record with 2 guitars, it's a PITA to change tunings all the time if I want to go from E standard to D or Eb. And, trying to change tunings on my FR equipped S540 is a drag. So, having the Drop and just keeping everything in E (or B for my 7s) is appealing and I have the extra cash to spend now.

I would love to have a Solar though... but there are reasons why I don't pull that trigger (1. can't bring myself to buy one without playing it first. 2. don't absolutely love any of the current color/option choices they have at the moment). I wanted this blue metallic one bigtime, but they never re-released it. https://www.gearnews.com/a-splash-of-autumn-colour-solar-guitars-announces-new-finishes-for-a2-6c/





Wonder if they had a quality control issue with this run or they just weren't very popular... either way, I'm sure Ola has a reason for not continuing with them. :shrug:
 
#28 ·
The only really strange thing to the drop is noise from your rig. I thought my amp was having a really strange issue and then I found it was because of the pedal. The noisy rig became feedback> feedback hits the drop tune and creates this strange oscillating noise. Now I have an isolated power supply for my pedals and use high quality cables to eliminate as much noise as I can but here is a strange issue I experienced:

 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top