MonoNeon

MonoNeon is the stage name of Dywane Eric Thomas Jr, a bassist from Memphis whose viral YouTube videos first showed off his chops and feel, and whose creative use of microtonal sounds has made him a social media star¹². He is primarily a bass player³, and he is as recognizable for the look as the playing: bright neon clothes and guitars, a penchant for balaclavas², and gaffer tape covering everything, including his bass and his pedals³.

A bassist known for gaffer tape

Jim Dunlop's artist page calls him a lifelong bass player whose YouTube videos "became hilarious viral sensations"¹. Those videos brought him to the attention of Prince, who tapped him to play with protege Judith Hill and in his own live band¹. Since then he has played with Eric Gales and with GhostNote, the Snarky Puppy spin-off group¹. Guitar.com's Eric Dahl calls him "one of the most interesting and innovative bass players around"².

The gaffer tape is not a one-off: DigiTech's own introduction describes a player who decorates everything with it, bass and pedals included³. At NAMM 2025 he demoed his signature pedal with a solo bass odyssey on his Fender Jazz Bass⁵.

Prince and the Whammy

MonoNeon's connection to the Whammy goes back to Paisley Park. In a Guitar World demo video he explained how it started:

Guitar World reports that he worked and performed with Prince in Prince's latter days⁶, and that he "became a Whammy convert thanks to Prince"⁷. He has used a Whammy for a long time⁵, and in the same demo he described how the signature model came about: "I told him I want a signature pedal cuz I've been using it for so long and um I just wanted to add some different octave stuff on it"⁵. On stage he says he uses the one octave up preset, moving in and out of his regular bass tone sporadically⁵.

The signature pedal and its colors

The DigiTech MonoNeon Whammy is a signature take on the Whammy developed in collaboration with him, delivering pitch manipulation for guitar and bass alike⁸. MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley calls it "a DigiTech Whammy pedal, co-designed by the bass guitar genius and Day-Glo polymath MonoNeon" with "some of the wildest treadle-activated pitch-shifting you will ever hear"⁹. Premier Guitar reports DigiTech worked with him on tweaking the Whammy 5, with revamped detune settings giving distinct pitch-bending and harmonizing options not found on the standard model¹⁰.

The headline feature is the Hypersonic mode, which raises the pitch by up to three octaves¹¹. In the Guitar World demo he calls hearing it "sick"⁵.

On colors: the pedal comes in yellow, matching his Fender signature Jazz Bass model from 2022⁴, and Guitar.com's reviewer admitted "the bright yellow hue of this version definitely pulled my interest when I saw it on the show floor at NAMM this year"². MonoNeon has said the yellow and black scheme comes from his two favorite colors and his love of how construction workers look on the highway⁶.

Guitar World's review says the pedal "looks to combine the two (funk and flamboyance) in equal measure"⁶, and Bass Musician Magazine reported DigiTech's own framing of the partnership: "a pedal that pushes boundaries… just like MonoNeon"¹².

There is also a novelty side to his signature gear: a single-run limited edition of The Fart Pedal, a fart-sound effects pedal, was made as a MonoNeon Edition inspired by his use of the original, each sealed in a Tub o' Tasty Beans with panoramic artwork by Noah Ginex¹³.

What else is on his board

His Jim Dunlop artist page names the bass pedals he uses:

• MXR Bass Envelope Filter¹
• MXR Sub Octave Bass Fuzz¹
• MXR Bass Octave Deluxe¹
• Cry Baby Mini Bass Wah¹

He uses Dunlop Super Bright Nickel Wound strings and Tortex .73mm picks¹, and he endorses the strings in his own words: "These strings feel and sound dope-age!"¹, adding, "Doesn't matter when these strings get old from dirt and sweat, they still hold up for whatever I want to play."¹. Of JAM pedals he says simply: "JAM pedals is my shiet mane!!"¹⁴.

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