Too funny, I just bought an MXR Phase 90. I know there are fancier ones, but that's the classic and it's cheap. Fun to play with, gotta go learn "For the Love of Money" now...
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New to effects, talk to me about phasers
- Thread starter bolophonic
- Start date
I LOVE Phaser on bass! I'm 100% in on the MXR Phase 100, it fits right in the nice lushness a chorus has and is funky enough to get stepped on sometimes in place of my envelope filter. To me the 100 can get a lot of nicer sounds than a 90 and it can get very deep
Might be worth a look!
Might be worth a look!
My first phaser was a Russian small stone
and I think its one of my favorite bass phasers
The big green case looked so cool and mysterious to me
like it had some magic secret technology or something LOL
Plus all the Electro Harmonics effects at the time in the 90s came with a heavy duty wood case.
it was just so dam cool looking at all the EH effects at the music store at the time.
I tend to like simple phasers with less stages.
as mentioned earlier you get one notch filter for every 2 stages
so the 6, 8 or even 12 stage phasers start sounding a little cheesy and too swoosy.
to much filtering.
rarely seen phaser is a MXR Phase 45
this was a even simpler 2 stage phaser.
So only one notch filter.
I really like that one since its a simple cool and pleasing sound
not to swoosy and cheesy
MXR Phase 45 = 2 stage, one Notch filter
MXR phase 90 = 4 stage, two Notch filters
MXR Phase 100=6 stage, three Notch filters
and I think its one of my favorite bass phasers
The big green case looked so cool and mysterious to me
like it had some magic secret technology or something LOL
Plus all the Electro Harmonics effects at the time in the 90s came with a heavy duty wood case.
it was just so dam cool looking at all the EH effects at the music store at the time.
I tend to like simple phasers with less stages.
as mentioned earlier you get one notch filter for every 2 stages
so the 6, 8 or even 12 stage phasers start sounding a little cheesy and too swoosy.
to much filtering.
rarely seen phaser is a MXR Phase 45
this was a even simpler 2 stage phaser.
So only one notch filter.
I really like that one since its a simple cool and pleasing sound
not to swoosy and cheesy
MXR Phase 45 = 2 stage, one Notch filter
MXR phase 90 = 4 stage, two Notch filters
MXR Phase 100=6 stage, three Notch filters
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Phaser and flanger are somewhat similar they both form Notch filters.
phaser is done with all pass filters,
flanger is done with a delay line.
as I showed early with a phaser depending on how many stages you have you get, one notch filter
so some phasers will have 1, 2, 3 or 4 notch filters that get modulated.
but the number or filters is preset depending on how many filters you have.
The cool thing about Flanger is it uses a delay line to form the filters.
if you use a long delay time you get more notch filters.
if you use a short delay time you get less notch filters
so in a way a flanger can be changed to a 2 stage phaser and then way up to a 32 stage phaser
by just changing a delay time. Otherwise like a phaser this would require alot of filter stages to get 32 stages
and it would be difficult to switch them on and off or modulate them
likewise since its a delay time you can modulate the delay, so a flanger can morph to a 2 to 32 stage phaser or even more depending on delay time.
it can also sweep all those filter stages frequency as well like a phaser does
or likewise emulate the change in frequency you hear in the dopler effect
which can have slight pitch variation, more easily done with a delay line
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Hey thanks for all the hip explanations.
I also owned one of those vintage small stone phase shifters with the big knob lol but mine was the standard looking model.
I also owned one of those vintage small stone phase shifters with the big knob lol but mine was the standard looking model.
I have a few phasers. This one has been with the family since new and it's the one I judge the rest by. If you can find one that's working properly, buy it and take care of it. BTW, A nice chorus will fatten up those slow passages, too.
Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
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I have used one of those before and was very impressed. Made me want to track one down but I don’t use much modulation anymore, so I felt like I could get by with my original 1974 mxr bud box phase90.
I did end up picking up 2 of the mu-tron bi-phase pedals when they got reissued last year.
Good stuff!!
They pretty much all sound the same. Ive had 3 different case versions of the small stone.
Only one sounded different, but it was only a slightly lower effect level when switched on.
Funny thing was my russian one got stolen with the cool wooden box.
Many Years later hanging out at a house, some DJ dude had my pedal. Then i remembered he was at the party it got stolen at.
He had no idea it was mine. Then asked me how to get signal through it. All those years he never even used it.
lets just say by end of day I had my pedal back lol
Its always good to write things or put stupid stickers inside the battery compartment of your pedals.
So you know its yours
Haven't tried it much on bass. But on guitar I love heavy fuzz with a looooooong phaser sweep. Like 8 quarter notes per sweep.
My favorite example of phaser on bass (it might be a modulated filter, though):
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the Baby Quasar. I'm on the hunt for a new phaser and the new Quasar, which I'm guessing is an updated version of the Baby Quasar, was on my list. I've got the Boss PH-3, which is actually a pretty good sounding phaser, but I'm really interested in trying an analog phaser. The top of my list is now the Mu-Tron Phasor III, the Chase Bliss Wombtone, and if I have enough cash and one becomes available, the Spaceman Explorer Deluxe.
It would be really cool of one of those boutique pedal makers made a phaser that had knobs labeled the same as the Star Trek phasers.
Probably already exists and I just haven't seen it.
I really enjoy phaser after delay as well. Phasing your delay repeats is a super psychedelic sound.
My 1st phaser was a small stone (1976) bought after hearing Miles Davis in 1974, Reggie Lucas used a big box Morley and his sound's dimensionality "blew my mind"... My latest board has 2 phasers, both TC, a ViscousVibe in the main line (set slow and juicy) and a Helix in the send-return of an EH Superego (which is a must for making sarod and pho cello sounds). The Helix is really fine having a clean mix knob...I use a toneprint (forget which, set and forget). Reggie used a wah wah and the phasor, when the wah is off you can hear the phaser at about 18:30 I never use fuzz into phaser though, it's too exaggerated. The TC VV is more like an slow envelope.
I appreciate you sharing that. The latest project I’ve been involved in has a lot of diverse influences. Several of the members veer way into the realm of Einsturzende Neubaten and Sigur Ros and I’ve been working on expanding my ambient repertoire.
Same, same, same. Of the big three modulation pedals on bass phaser is my favorite. Chorus sounds like 80s cheese and flanger is too watery? Phaser is where it is at.
Interesting influences,
when I think of Goth Rock or Experimental Industrial
you just think of hard plugged brite P bass with a little chorus and warm amp distortion or speaker distortion.
like Joy division or older Agent Orange or old Siouxsie and the Banshees
Einsturzende Neubaten or Pigface is another world
Going full circle ive had even software based Flangers and Phasers which so many eleborate modulation methods and feedback settings.
Be very elaborate for a pedal to replicate the signal chain. Likewise a panel full of knobs.
Its funny even with knob loaded functions on some pedals, its very nice to have a deeper level of control.
But going full circle I realized too that once you find decent settings. It sounds similar to the one knob wonders like the MXR or EH pedals
Id say a small stone phaser and small clone chorus, are 2 very useful set and forget classic ambient pedals.
people mod them to add more control. but you soon realize the original designers really knew what they were doing on the preset values
otherwise good old delay or reverb is ambient king, from simple delay lines to the more elaborate patches you can get with modern pedals or even software effects
Ok, I just got this pedal semi-dialed in and it has a nice, subtle thing going on when I play finger style, and then it goes completely off the chain when I hooked it up to the Blower Box.
