The DigiTech Whammy Pedal: How David Gilmour’s ‘Marooned’ Bend Became a Signature on *The Endless River*

On The Division Bell’s instrumental “Marooned,” David Gilmour used a DigiTech Whammy WH-1 pedal to create those swooping, vocal-like pitch bends. By setting the pedal to a two-octave shift and rocking it manually, he could slide smoothly between notes—something a standard guitar or slide couldn’t replicate. The effect sounds almost like a voice crying out, and it became one of the most distinctive textures on the track.

Years later, that same Whammy technique became a cornerstone of The Endless River. Gilmour pulled the pedal out again for tracks like “Louder than Words” and “The Lost Art of Conversation,” using the same swooping bends to tie the album’s atmospheric, synth-like guitar parts together. The Whammy’s ability to blend a dry signal with a pitch-shifted copy gave him a unique tool for expressing melody without words—a sound that both fans and engineers now instantly associate with his later work.