Morpheus Bomber Polyphonic Pitch Shifter
MORPHEUS Bomber Polyphonic Pitch Shifter
Does Morpheus’ new Bomber get the drop on the competition?
Words: Tim Slater
The Bomber is Morpheus’ answer to the almost ubiquitous DigiTech Whammy pedal. Like it’s main rival, the Bomber – which is designed by American electronics company XP Audio – offers polyphonic pitch shifting including a full two octaves below and above the original note, plus the dramatic faux dive-bombing effect that simulates a guitar’s vibrato system plunging down until the strings are hanging off the edges of the fretboard. The Bomber’s unique feature is its USB port that will allow users to upgrade their Bomber pedal with new sounds via the Morpheus website as and when they become available.
Construction
Sleek and contemporary looking, the Bomber feels light and compact. Non-slip rubber pads on the expression pedal offer extra purchase
for the player’s foot; it wouldn’t be much fun if one were to stamp down on the treadle only to fi nd your size 10s scooting off into the distance! Two heavy-duty steel footswitches toggle between 10 separate effects settings and activate the selected effect. The lower footswitch doubles as a momentary switch enabling the player to quickly kick-in a pitch-shifted tone and then just as quickly return to their normal sound by releasing the footswitch. Besides the aforementioned USB port and a 12v mains input the Bomber’s I/O consists of a single quarter-inch jack input and a line out fl anking a Trim level mini pot that adjusts the intensity of the effect.
Sounds
The Bomber feels very intuitive to use and the quality of the effects is pretty much on a par with the same high standard as the Digitech
SHOULD I BUY ONE?
The whole point of the Bomber is to encourage the guitarist to experiment and have some fun morphing their guitar tones into strange and exciting new shapes. It isn’t an essential purchase, perhaps, but it nevertheless opens the door to some really inspiring sounds and fresh ideas.
THE GOOD BITS: THE NOT SO GOOD BITS:
SRP: £239.00 Contact: Sonic8 -
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Whammy. Besides simulating a locking whammy bar via the Dive Bombing effect, the Bomber’s octave doubling mode creates dramatic synth-like tones that swoop up and down between octaves similarly to the sound used by The Edge on U2’s Even Better than the Real Thing. Glissando slides and faux pedal steel effects are also possible and the beauty is that unlike some real vibrato bridges, your guitar will always come back in tune! The
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preset intervals (spanning a fi fth, fourth and second below and a fi fth and fourth above the fundamental note) are fi xed but are nevertheless still capable of being monkeyed around with using the expression pedal to bend the intervals away from their preset range, which can result in some very strange noises running the gauntlet from comedy cartoon sound FX to something not a million miles away from R2D2 trapped inside a tumble dryer! PM
Build quality, user-friendly features set. Great sounds. USB makes it future-proof.
Might be a bit pricey for the casual user.
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