Need Flanger recommendations for Guitarist

[amos]

My guitarist uses a Boss Flanger, and I think it sounds like poop. Boss pedal for everything except for his MXR Boost and BBE Sonic Stomp. I heard an older DOD Stereo Flanger recently that I liked. I'm pretty sure he agrees he needs to find a better Flanger, as when it's turned on it's louder than his signal dry or with any of his other pedals, and there's no way to change it. Suggestions?

[Ryan Mohr]

Is it the BF-2 or BF-3? I really like my BF-2. A lot of guitarists like the old Boss HF-2. Other common ones are the MXR Flanger, and the Maxon FL-9.

[bigchiefbc]

Originally Posted by amos

My guitarist uses a Boss Flanger, and I think it sounds like poop. Boss pedal for everything except for his MXR Boost and BBE Sonic Stomp. I heard an older DOD Stereo Flanger recently that I liked. I'm pretty sure he agrees he needs to find a better Flanger, as when it's turned on it's louder than his signal dry or with any of his other pedals, and there's no way to change it. Suggestions?

I used to have the DOD FX72 (the bass version of the DOD Stereo Flanger) and I absolutely loved it. I think it is WAY better than the boss flangers personally. If you like that sound, I'm sure you can search around and find one on eBay or elsewhere. IIRC, the guitar version is the FX75. I eventually ended up with the EHX Stereo Electric Mistress, but I'm not sure if he would have a use for Chorus and Flanger in parallel.

[Geddyfleaharris]

MXR EVH 117. Killer. I use it for bass.

[Col200]

I'm using an old ADA flanger and it's the best flange I've tried yet. Tough to track down but the sound can't be beat. I'll even use it as a chorus with the right settings.

[winston]

Originally Posted by amos

My guitarist uses a Boss Flanger, and I think it sounds like poop. Boss pedal for everything except for his MXR Boost and BBE Sonic Stomp. I heard an older DOD Stereo Flanger recently that I liked. I'm pretty sure he agrees he needs to find a better Flanger, as when it's turned on it's louder than his signal dry or with any of his other pedals, and there's no way to change it. Suggestions?

If it's the old analog BF-2 Flanger there are 3 trimpots on the circuit board inside. One of them controls the effect level (which would take care of the volume jump), another seems to affect maximum resonance, and the other sounds like it changes the frequency at which flanging occurs. (Great technical explanation, eh? )

I have a BF-2 that I didn't really like until I messed with the trimpots to tune it to my basses. Now it's one of my favorite all time FX--it can go from mild chorusy tones through metallic jet swooshes to an eerie hyper-resonant self-oscillating whistling reverb. It's kind of noisy but I don't really care.

Before tinkering with trimpots be sure to mark the original settings with a felt-tip pen. If it's a digital BF-3 I'm not sure that there are trimpots inside. Good luck!

[JanusZarate]

A few good recommendations that all sound very different than the Boss BF-2 and BF-3:

EHX Stereo Electric Mistress
Maxon FL-9
MXR M-117 (or M-117R, if he wants the "EVH" setting )

As he's still exploring flangers, I'd suggest checking out all three if he can.

The older Deluxe Electric Mistress is pretty cool on guitar, too (think "Pink Floyd"), but it's large and a bit inconvenient to power. It's somewhat different than the new Stereo Electric Mistress as well, especially since the new one has a chorus section that runs in parallel.

[James Hart]

Maxon FL-9