Electro Harmonix POG 2

Like a lot of guitar players, I love Tom Morello. I love how he's invented new uses for a pretty small pedal board and come up with weird ways to make non-guitar noises with guitars.

So...I've always wanted a Digitech Whammy pedal. I think they're great, and love that aliased octave-up sound with all the "digital artifacts." I never had much use for the harmony settings, as they're more of a novelty than a useful thing for me.

Most of what I would use a Whammy pedal for are the octave up sounds. The POG 2 is awesome because it does that plus whole bunch of other stuff. You essentially get a 5 octave range, and you can fade in (with the attack fader) a volume swell, get a fixed-wah tone with the low pass filter, and even get a mild chorus with the detune function. This also eliminates the need for all of those sub-octave fuzz pedals that sound so cool--you can just dial in a -1 or -2 octave with the POG and throw some fuzz on it, and it sounds awesome.

Between the sub octave solos, the octave up riffs for bass guitar, the organ sounds that are so easy to get, and all the combinations thereof, this pedal is...expensive. And also worth it. I don't ever anticipate needing another octave pedal. It does it all. Also, the Micro POG is cool, but for a little more cash, you can pick one of these up used for less than the price of a new Micro POG.