Finally, Gamechanger Audio’s Bigsby-in-a-pedal is now available to buy
Vintage-style polyphonic pitch shifter
5,0 / 5,0 | 
The Gamechanger Audio collaboration with Fender, the Bigsby Pedal, is now officially on sale. We covered it last year in June 2021, when it was announced as coming soon. Now you can actually buy one, at last!
Bigsby Pedal
This Bigsby Pedal simulates the vintage vibrato unit and was developed by Gamechanger Audio from Latvia, in conjunction with Fender, who owns the Bigsby brand. This recreation goes far beyond a subtle shimmer of a vintage vibrato, though. In fact, it offers a whole new world of possibilities. You also don’t have to modify your favourite guitar and bolt on a big lump of metal to use it.
Shaped like a vintage vibrato unit · Source: Gamechanger Audio
Polyphonic pitch shifter and more
It has various modes, including the polyphonic pitch shifter effect, and can achieve chorus like effects and a whole lot more besides. The heart of the Bigsby Pedal is a SHARC Audio Processor, along with a bunch of bespoke code written by the team at Gamechanger Audio. The pedal has controls for Rate, Blend, Tone, and Depth, and the main spring-loaded rocking foot-pedal which is shaped like a real vintage Bigsby vibrato. I like that the multi-function LED-lit knobs show intensity via brightness and modes via colour.
Key Features
- AUTO mode enables an LFO to control the pitch whilst you manipulate the foot-pedal to control the depth.
- BLEND control gives you access to a dynamic chorus and harmoniser sounds.
- DETUNE control emulates the tuning instability of vintage hardware vibrato
- Eternal footswitch input so users can access a latching mode for pitch-shifter, octave, detune, and chorus functions
- 12 semitone pitch-shifts in both directions
- Expression output gives the pedal control over other audio equipment
- Invert switch for choosing pitch-shift direction
- Knob Lock facility to prevent accidental parameter adjustment
- Full MIDI CC and PC control over parameters, along with preset recall, and clock syncing.
- 10 user preset slots accessible via MIDI PC.
Rear Panel and controls · Source: Gamechanger Audio
New Videos
When this pedal was officially announced last year, most of these parameters had yet to be fully revealed. Today, Gamechanger Audio also released Part 1 and Part 2 videos on how to use the Bigsby Pedal. You can see these below. They really expand on what this pedal is capable of. Certainly worth a look in my opinion.
I own their Plasma Pedal and that is a very solid, robust unit. Therefore, I am expecting this pedal to be very well-made. This company already makes some great and very unique effects. So I can see this new one being popular with a lot of musicians. Especially, if you want to recreate the undulations of a vintage vibrato, but don’t want to butcher your prized guitar. Plus, it has modes to mimic vintage vibratos, but goes way beyond just that one effect, making it a bit of a bargain, as you can use it on all types of instruments and not just guitars.
From a subtle ’50s vibrato shimmer, through to a My Bloody Valentine tremolo arm warbles and beyond, the new Bigsby Pedal has you covered.
RRP – EUR 379
More Information on Gamechanger Audio
Official Bigsby Pedal Demo Videos
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3 responses to “Finally, Gamechanger Audio’s Bigsby-in-a-pedal is now available to buy”
I would be interested in trying it out, despite me hardly using the bigsby on my ES-355 at all. Judging from their other stuff it must be top notch!
It certainly offers a lot more than a standard Bigsby. I also like that I could apply the effect to practically any source, not just guitars. Could be a very useful tool for many things, especially in a studio and also live.
Does this have true bypass?