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Boss PH-3

sillyfabe

sillyfabe

keeping the low-end silly since '06
Mar 13, 2009
3,877
2,748
San Bernardino,CA
#1
A.K.A. Boss Phaser PH-3. Just got one because of a good deal and was just wondering what the overall consensus on this pedal is. I work night shift and cant play with it properply till about thursday night when i'm free. Any cool things that I can do with it? Besides either throw it out the window (for the people that don't like it) or sell it (ditto). Searched but just came up with reviews and versus ( insert other phaser) threads. Any tips? :help:
 
#2
I used the PH-3 for well over a year and liked it a lot. I ended up moving to the EHX Stereo Polyphase just because of the different modes it had from the Boss.

As for consensus around here, I'd say that generally it's considered to be quite a versatile phaser, although some people think its tone is too thin and digital. I think its a bit unfairly maligned. It all depends on if you want a "funky" or "spacey" phaser. The boss is definitely more on the "spacey" side.

Here were my favorite settings when I had it:

4-stage mode, high rate (around 3:00), depth and res lower (below noon) - kinda sounds like a leslie

rise mode, low rate (below 9:00), depth and res high (3:00 or higher) - sounds like a neverending jet taking off

step mode, high rate (4:00), depth and res wherever it sounds good to you, fed into a delay pedal - trippy spacey arpeggiated stuff.
 
#4
rratajski said:
Did the highs on the step get all poppy?

That was my issue w/ the gyroscope.
Click to expand...

Nope, I didn't notice it when using 'my' guitarists. In my experience that's just a quirk with some analog step filters in the highs, especially if you cant control the envelope. my gyro did it too in many settings, and the prometheus will do it in some, albeit not as prevalent through its range, the moog can be controlled, etc.
 
#14
It's a good pedal with a lot of usable options for bass. As a regular phaser it is very tweakable compared to something like a small stone. Plus step mode is cool and the rate can be controlled using tap tempo.

On the down side it suffers it bit from bottom end loss and BigO accurately described it as sounding a little on synthetic side - which is a reasonable call.

It you use a an old P bass through a B-15 you'll probably want something more organic but if you're going to run it after a noise box or heliotrope or my fav, an OC-2, it's the phaser for you.
 
#15
Thanks for all the hints so far. Bigchiefbc: the rise mode that you recc. is isane and works great when talking to my q-tron. As far as the spaciness goes it sounds great, if i want funk then the q-tron can more than deliver. Besides that tha nks so far and keep it coming. Gonna play with it all day tomm when i wake up!
 

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