What is a phaser pedal? A phaser pedal is the coolest guitar effect ever invented. It gives the guitar a swirly, hypnotic sound. Check out Jimi Hendrix's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock for a good example, or Rush's "Spirit of the Radio."

The phaser sound present on most all of Waylon Jenning's `70's recordings was where I first heard and went bonkers for this effect, only I didn't know what I was hearing, I just thought Waylon Jennings had super powers. Then I heard Van Halen I and was likewise convinced Eddie Van Halen had some kinda magic in his fingers (which he did, but he also had a phaser pedal). Finally Lowell George's playing on Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus sealed the deal and I bought the green one above, the Boss PH-2 Super Phaser, in 1993 or `94.

However at the time the Internet was still three or four years in the future, and therefore I had no idea about the technical differences in models of phaser, or what the knobs really did, and therefore didn't know how to get the exact sound I was after. Additionally I had no band and thus no incentive to pursue it too much.

Thanks to PC home recording technology and guerilla marketing on music forums I decided to get a couple more phaser pedals and see if I was missing anything. So I got the DOD FX20-C Stereo Phaser (left) on the recommendation of someone on a forum, and then the MXR Phase 90 Script Reissue (center) on the recommendation of just about everyone who ever strummed a guitar, including Edward Van Halen.

They're all similar, yet different. The DOD led me to compose my latest-and-greatest tune. I've gotten two of the DOD's because they were steals ($30, $28.50), though a couple of salesmen looked like they wanted to whack me for driving such a hard bargain (that means I was on the right track!). I was so tickled with the bargain I got on the MXR ($81 on E-Bay brand new, and they usually sell for $99.99!) that I grabbed two! Very unlike me to toss dollars like that...except where music stuff is concerned.

The orange "script" MXR is considered the holy grail of phaser pedals, but I'm thinking I'd like to try a "block logo" MXR, even though everyone criticizes them.

Anyhow, here's some sound samples so you can assess them for yourself. Yes, there are flubs. Cool effects, though! YOU ARE UNDER MY GUITAR SPELL!

DOD FX20-C Stereo Phaser

MXR Phase 90 Script Reissue

Boss H-2 Super Phaser

1 Comments:

 Sarah said...

lets hear the latest and greatest

please post it!

7:24 PM, June 24, 2007  

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