New to effects, talk to me about phasers

[fourstr00]

I use phasers pretty extensively when taking solos, and especially electric bass with an otherwise acoustic performance.

Long sustained notes on bass don’t sound “interesting” compared to a guitar or fiddle. Light phaser with reverb after allows me to use sustain tones without being boring.

Or, stick it after an octave pedal and the heck with subtle.

 

[otp57]

In an attempt to break out of a long rut with my approach to bass guitar, I bought myself a pedal for the first time that I can remember. It is a Subdecay Baby Quasar. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it.

So I’m trying to gain a little perspective and understanding of this particular effect before I get a chance to plug it in tomorrow. I want to hear things like:

Why phaser pedals rule.
How did getting your first phaser pedal help your sound evolve?
What are your favorite examples of phasers on bass?

I am not particularly interested in hearing a list of other phaser pedals that I should try out, because I probably won’t. Technical information about what makes them different is much appreciated, though. I am interested in all genres, but bonus points if someone throws down some metal phaser!

I have a jetphaser , custom made phaser, mxr phaser and a noname phaser but check this out .

You can add just a little phase or go CRAZY with it.

 

[Frank77]

That's an interesting thread. I've been curious about phasers for a while but haven't taken the plunge yet. I think the main reason is that all the cool examples I've heard of phaser sounds on bass involved playing with a plectrum. I can't play with a pick, and I get the (maybe wrong) impression that using a phaser while playing fingerstyle would be too muddy. I'd be curious to hear some examples of non-pick, non-slap examples.

 

[La Faro]

I would say they do the opposite, pick or fingers. They seem to focus the tone. I mentioned earlier about after fuzz or overdrive. They seem to me to create a thickness to the mids, and make these less muddy, than more,

 

[MHeardOnBass]

Another contemporary example of the phaser being used as an envelope filter from Rosetta Carr of Franc Moody:

 

[Williethump]

It's anice interesting sound. I think about McArthur Park by the British actor (?) Richard Harris and Matchstick Men by Status Quo from 1968. Though it could be flanger effects and not phaser effects I'm hearing since I can't tell the difference. My Roland Bass Cube features this effect and I use it a lot to add interest and amuse myself when I play my lead/melody/solo/rip bass 'music' in my bedroom. But even after Web research and trying to grok 'comb filters' and 'phase delay' and recombinant curcuits I'm at sea understanding or, really, hearing the difference between chorus, flanger, phaser etc. Can someone explicate for the simple minded non-math (UK-non-maths) old student bass duffer?
Cool pedal, enjoy.

 

[bolophonic]

I have a jetphaser , custom made phaser, mxr phaser and a noname phaser but check this out .

You can add just a little phase or go CRAZY with it.

Dude, that is so completely bonkers. I almost fell out of my chair.

 

[bolophonic]

Another contemporary example of the phaser being used as an envelope filter from Rosetta Carr of Franc Moody:

I’m LOVING that example. Thank you.

 

[andrus108]

I use a Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe. I don't notice any loss of low end, and like any Univibe clone, they make a sound more like 'whomp whomp' rather than uniform modulation in a typical phaser.

 

[TheLowDown33]

Can you go into any detail about the delay/reverb order that you mentioned? I actually went into this assuming that I could potentially achieve a faux-envelope filter effect out of it, so I’m glad to hear that is in the realm of possibility.

Absolutely. Obligatory background, I love making ambient soundscapes and with bass they just sound so dense and awesome. Because of the sonic density, you often need to approach it with a "less is more" philosophy with respect to harmony and rhythm, so a great way (IMO) you can create interest is by having subtle modulations to timbre.

I started by putting modulation before delay and that before reverb. It sounds good and in many cases this is a great idea. But I found that the ambient wash of the delay and reverb really allowed more subtle modulations to be way more effective. When using phaser, you get to hear the whole sweep without having to sustain each note. Like in between the note attacks you get the light woosh from the phaser. This also works well with tremolo/vibe/vibrato.

 

[Ffreddy]

Out the fuzz in front of the phaser, set to kill

 

[NortyFiner]

"Stranglehold" got me into phasers. The modern version of the Script Phase 90 -- MXR® SCRIPT PHASE 90 - LED -- has been on my board for years. I also dig the EHX Nano Small Stone, which is in the same "classic phase tone" ballpark but a bit darker. Feed either one with just a bit of dirt and OMG...

P.S. That Larry Graham video is NUTS. That slow phased groove could find a place in so many genres. Love it.

 

[dmt]

Credit to cusar5 for pointing this one out (I hadn’t thought about effects in relation to thus song before).

You can really hear the effect here, plus it’s just a great old song:

 

[GroovyBaby]

View attachment 3821271

Set to stun, just in case.

 

[TheLowDown33]

As an example of what I said previously, here's an ambient track both with and without phase

 

[Jared Lash]

It's anice interesting sound. I think about McArthur Park by the British actor (?) Richard Harris and Matchstick Men by Status Quo from 1968. Though it could be flanger effects and not phaser effects I'm hearing since I can't tell the difference. My Roland Bass Cube features this effect and I use it a lot to add interest and amuse myself when I play my lead/melody/solo/rip bass 'music' in my bedroom. But even after Web research and trying to grok 'comb filters' and 'phase delay' and recombinant curcuits I'm at sea understanding or, really, hearing the difference between chorus, flanger, phaser etc. Can someone explicate for the simple minded non-math (UK-non-maths) old student bass duffer?
Cool pedal, enjoy.

This is a bit of an oversimplification but here is my explanation.

One thing you have to understand is an LFO or low frequency oscillator. All this is an oscillator that sweeps some parameter at 20 Hz or less. For these effects, usually much less. If you listen to how long a chorus, flanger or phaser take to make one complete cycle, that's controlled by the LFO. For phasers set to a slow sweep that could be several seconds or something like 0.2 Hz (1 cycle every 5 seconds)

All three effects also split your signal in two, keep one version clean and modulate the other.

Chorus and Flanger are similar in how they work. Let's start with chorus.

A chorus pedal splitsysplits signal and applies a delay to one copy. The delay time is then modulated by the LFO. This has the effect of changing the pitch of the copy of your signal that is delayed giving it anything from a shimmer to a seasick warble depending on the speed and depth.

A Flanger is very similar to a chorus with two differences. The delay times of the LFO are generally shorter and some of the output of the effected signal is fed back into the input. The shorter delay times tend to add resonance to the higher frequencies (where chorus has more resonance in the lows) and the feedback adds a somewhat harsh, metallic sound.

Phasers also split your signal but instead of delaying the copy it goes through one or more filters that phase. When mixed with the original signal there are notches or cancellations that get created. The amount of phase is swept with the speed controlled by the LFO. Like a flanger the output can be fed back into the input for more resonance. Compared to chorus and Flanger, phaser is warmer, softer, and more vocal. It has a more inherently bouncy or funky sound.

In terms of sound:

Chorus


Flanger


Phaser

 

[BogeyBass]

In a band situation
Usually try to set the speed to modulate somewhat in time to the music.
And either use a slow half time speed, or if you wanna go fast a full time speed

or if just practicing at home, i start with a slowish speed and then jam to the Speed of the effect

like any modulated effect, it tends to make more sense or have a cool sound if your playing is somewhat in time
with the effect. Then when you play notes you hear the filtering effect kinda roll or morph in time with the music.



The effect is called a phaser, so most just assume its making the signal roll out of phase and that is what your hearing.
Well sorta.
Its actually a modulated filter or notch filter. If you imagined just a multiband EQ and you completely cut one of the bands
that is basically similar to the filter a phaser makes.

above is the mxr phase 90 and you can see it actually has 2 notch filters which is common for a 4 stage phaser. You get one notch filter for every 2 stages of all pass filters which makes a 90 degree phase shift.

But as you know the phaser is a modulated effect controlled by the speed.
As I mentioned earlier if you fully cut a band on multiband EQ its similar sound to the phaser notch filter.
But it will modulate this cut frequency back and forth across the spectrum.
Some pedals will have a width or depth knob which controls how far up and down in frequency the notch sweeps.
and the speed controls how fast it does this.

anyhoo all i got to add
its just a modulated filter and works good with alot of harmonics as well since its a filter.
so phaser after or before distortion can have a interesting effect.

and just have fun practicing and playing in time to different speeds

 

[HardNHeavy]

whats the difference of a phaser and the flanger?...I still have this old 80's era BF2 Boss flanger, hardly ever use it..but love the effect on certain songs intros, breaks or leads

 

[AlvarHanso]

First off, thank you for thenLarry Graham video, that was awesome! Secondly, I love phaser for bass. In addition to Have a Cigar, the Floyd song that popped into my head immediately was Sheep. Gilmour has the MXR Phase 90 for that, Waters plays the fantastic rhythm guitar at the end.

My first and last phaser purchase was the Moog MF-103 12 Stage Phaser. It is fantastic. I keep it at the end of my chain because it just thickens and swirls things around, and its mostly the way the stereo effect works on it, where the effected signal is on one side, while the uneffected signal is on the other, and they alternate and even when I sum down to a mono output after that into the amp, it keeps a great emulation of that stereo effect. It's been my favorite pedal since I got it. Not because I use it all the time or anything, but when I do use it, I really love what it does.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Alphonso Jonhson is the phaser man. He used a Maestro PS-1A a 70s 6 stage Phaser.

Do you know if he ever used a Link Removed (or Link Removed)?
I ask because one of the most bizarre pieces of memorabilia I owned was picked up at the factory auction when ARP (the synthesizer manufacturer) went out of business. Just prior to going bankrupt ARP had bought the Musitronics company; I think (not positive) the only product they introduced after ARP acquired them was the Link Removed. But anyway, at the ARP auction I bid on and won a set of legal documents outlining the conditions of Alphonso Johnson's Musitronics endorsement deal!

So clearly he had used and liked those products, and it certainly makes sense that he would like their phase shifter as they were gorgeous sounding pedals. But I just don't know the timeline, or whether Alphonso was actively performing and recording with Musitronics pedals before this (presumably aborted) endorsement deal.