Can low pitches from a whammy pedal HARM YOUR AMP.

[A pig in a cage on antibiotics]

I've heard some people saying that low pitches from whammy can harm a guitar amp because it's not ment to go that low. I've had a whammy pedal for about 4 months and I just got a good amp a couple of weeks ago (Ashdown Peacemaker) and I don't want to screw it up.
I had my old amp for about 2 years and I did notice a slight deterioration in the sound quality over the last couple of months, but I dont know if that was because of the whammy, I only started using the amp at high volume regularly within the last few months so maybe thats why, it was only a "Roland Cube 15" so the speakers wouldn't be great anyway.

So does anyone have any answers, does anyone who has been regularly using a whammy for a long time notice anything?

All replies appreciated. thanks.:thumb:

[A pig in a cage on antibiotics]

Your really sorry?!!!!! ha ha you wuss!

Edit: This dosnt make sense anymore coz ********** guy got his posts deleated

[: \]

You obviously don't get sarcasm.

Google is your friend :)

[Peg Dizzler]

If you have the guitar tuned to drop C, or standard C, or lower or something, I'm sure doing insane divebombs could mess up your amp. It's the same principle that a bass guitar shouldn't be run through a guitar amp. So tuning to drop B, fully depressing the whammy bar, and plucking the string is most likely going to mess it up. :p

But if you're tuning to standard, I don't really know. Maybe Aes could help with this one. All I know is that going too low can ruin an amp.

[7 skrang]

i have a lo pro on my 7 string and i do dive bombs on the low B until the strings are floppy. it doesn't do anything bad to the amp.

[A pig in a cage on antibiotics]

Ok so how can people like tom morello use the whammy for years...altho he doesn't really go down with his whammy, except in "Vietnow" and even thats not that low.

So can going really high like in "Killing in the name", "calm like a bomb" by rage or "just" by radiohead harm your amp? anyone know about this? thanks.

[Peg Dizzler]

I don't think going high can damage your amp. I have a small, short scale guitar (looks like a kid's guitar) that's tuned to a high B, and it can hit some insanely high notes, about an octave higher than a standard tuned guitar.

I still think going too low would damage it though, tuning low or having a 7 string and using the whammy bar would bring it down to bass guitar frequencies. Running a bass guitar through a guitar amp isn't good.

[Peg Dizzler]

Anyone have the answer to this? I'm still wondering, myself...

[Aes820]

On a solid state amp, if you've got the volume or the gain turned up high then after time you could damage the amp.
When I say 'after time', i mean like 6 months to a year or more. Depending on how loud and how often you play the amp tho.

On a tube amp you could cause the tubes to wear out sooner than they would otherwise.

Low frequencies through guitar amps are generally okay. Provided the amp isn't turned up loud. And you are not causing any 'clipping'.
This all comes under the concept of what is known as headroom. You may have seen that word thrown around alot before.

Headroom is like a limit to the amount of power your amp can pump out. When an amp is turned up loud and your amp is trying to amplify the signal higher than it can cope. It can run out of headroom and cause clipping.

It is easier to cause clipping while working with predominately more bass frequencies than it is with higher pitched frequencies. This is why you'll often see bass amps with rated power output of many hundreds of watts.

This clipping sounds bad; it can damage speakers and may damage amplifiers. But the latter is not like an instant damage, more of a long term thing.

[Peg Dizzler]

Awesome, thanks for that info. I have a 300 watt Randall Cyclone (ss); it seems to have alot of headroom, with that much power. I've tuned to drop C (don't normally tune that low) and had the volume up to 8 in my bedroom before (I had earplugs in). Needless to say, it was insanely loud and I couldn't hear any clipping. It sounded pretty smooth. That's the most I've ever turned it up though, and I'll probably never need to.

So is this clipping the same as the clipping in solid state amps when they are turned up too loud? Is it obvious to tell when it's clipping? I don't own a guitar with a trem so I've never gone really low to be able to tell.