I've been digging the Phase 90 on my board.
Have it set up so i can easily adjust the speed with my foot.
Have it set up so i can easily adjust the speed with my foot.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
New to effects, talk to me about phasers
- Thread starter bolophonic
- Start date
I love phasers. A Phaser is the goto sound I wanted my whole life as a guitarist and bassists, and everyone told me to get a flanger or a chorus, which I did, and was never fully happy. When I discovered the phaser setting on my vox valvetronix amp like 15 years ago I went, wow, this is the sound. Now I own a cheapo danelectro phaser pedal that I use frequently and love it.
Great effect. Swoosh..... makes me think of classic floyd and lots of other classic rock.
Great effect. Swoosh..... makes me think of classic floyd and lots of other classic rock.
Octave->fuzz->a slow, deep phase. Very nice psychedelic effect. Personally I have a chorus in between the fuzz and the phaser. It makes the phaser sound even thicker, and when I get to play in stereo (which is often), stereo chorus into stereo phaser is the bee's knees.
There you have him playing in 1975 a Fender footswitch, a Maestro PS-1a into a MXR Distortion+ and what it looks to be a Shin Ei Fuzz Wah or a Foxx wah.
I'm triying to find wath he used with the Cobham Duke band with no luck may be the Musitronics gear.
Last edited:
Ok, I think this thread is officially starting to give me GAS for a phaser!
Question for those who use it frequently (especially in live situations): How does it affect the low end? Most phasers I see don't have a dry blend knob (since they're mostly targeted at guitar players I assume), but would you say that would be a useful / desirable feature?
Question for those who use it frequently (especially in live situations): How does it affect the low end? Most phasers I see don't have a dry blend knob (since they're mostly targeted at guitar players I assume), but would you say that would be a useful / desirable feature?
Zero issue with low end.
/using a phase 95, 45 setting for solos and acoustic, 90 for rock
/using a phase 95, 45 setting for solos and acoustic, 90 for rock
Alright, I guess I'm going to give this a try: Just ordered a Phase 95 from Amazon. The Phase 100 seems more versatile but I need tiny (and the 95 is significantly cheaper). I'll mess around with it and see if it's a keeper! I can probably cook up some pretty funky new sounds in combination with the other effects I already have (octave, envelope filter, overdrive, chorus).
So in my experience, even cheaper phasers like the MXRs don't lose any low end overall- BUT (and this is a big BUT) you will notice some tonal inconsistancy at certain points of the sweep. Some phasers seem to cut frequencies as the sweep moves, others will actually boost. The block Phase 90, for instance, has a bit of mid boost baked in.
For this reason, I consider clean blend an essential feature for phasers. The best implementation of this also happens to be the best phaser I've tried so far: the Empress Phaser.
Clean blend won't always save you though. I had a Chase Bliss Wombtone, which featured a terrible sounding "gap" in the sweep when it cycled back around, making it unusable for slow sweeps.
I use phaser depending of my mood. To me, it sounds better for clean parts and before overdrive. After sounds more metallic and similar to a flanger. It cannot stay forever in my pedalboard so i always swapped for something else.
Last edited:
Congrats on branching out on your plug and play after 30 years!
It's been mentioned here already about how having some of your clean signal blended in doesn't hurt. It let's you get a little farther out with your settings on your phaser/chorus/flanger (& dirts too) while still retaining the intact authority of the all important bass notes. Sometimes time based effects can leave spaces there that make some notes less emphasised or practicaly disappear in a mix altogether, depending on your settings.
I keep all of my time based/modulations in one loop and my octave with distortions and fuzz' in the other loop of a Switchblade Pro (dedicated clean blend, 2 loops, 3 seperate volumes, and the loops can go parallel or in series in either direction.)
I've currently got 3 phasers including the one knob big box vintage Small Stone, the 4 in 1 Southampton Utility Knife with just 1 depth and 1 rate knob (this one may be my favorite), and I'm still trying to make friends with the 6 knob/3 switch tap tempo 2-4 stage RedHouse phaser/vibrato combo, but it's requiring more work on my part.
It's been mentioned here already about how having some of your clean signal blended in doesn't hurt. It let's you get a little farther out with your settings on your phaser/chorus/flanger (& dirts too) while still retaining the intact authority of the all important bass notes. Sometimes time based effects can leave spaces there that make some notes less emphasised or practicaly disappear in a mix altogether, depending on your settings.
I keep all of my time based/modulations in one loop and my octave with distortions and fuzz' in the other loop of a Switchblade Pro (dedicated clean blend, 2 loops, 3 seperate volumes, and the loops can go parallel or in series in either direction.)
I've currently got 3 phasers including the one knob big box vintage Small Stone, the 4 in 1 Southampton Utility Knife with just 1 depth and 1 rate knob (this one may be my favorite), and I'm still trying to make friends with the 6 knob/3 switch tap tempo 2-4 stage RedHouse phaser/vibrato combo, but it's requiring more work on my part.
My TC Electronic Helix Phaser has a mix knob that solves that problem, so I keep it anywhere between noon and 3:00 and don't have any problems with low end loss. I recently dove into the Toneprint app for TC Electronics pedals to see what parameters I can tweak. Not sure if they have a setting for a high pass filter so that you can roll the effect off the low end, but with the mix knob, it kinda doesn't matter. I know that Source Audio pedals allow you to do what I just spoke of with their Neuro app, which is why I can't wait for the Gemini Chorus and Vertigo Tremolo to ship to me. The amount you can do with pedals these days as a bassist is crazy.
I could be mistaken, but I think that gear was used on Larry Coreyell’s Level One album. Always dug that sound.
My TC Electronic Helix Phaser has a mix knob that solves that problem, so I keep it anywhere between noon and 3:00 and don't have any problems with low end loss. I recently dove into the Toneprint app for TC Electronics pedals to see what parameters I can tweak. Not sure if they have a setting for a high pass filter so that you can roll the effect off the low end, but with the mix knob, it kinda doesn't matter. I know that Source Audio pedals allow you to do what I just spoke of with their Neuro app, which is why I can't wait for the Gemini Chorus and Vertigo Tremolo to ship to me. The amount you can do with pedals these days as a bassist is crazy.
Some say they experience low end loss, others don't...I'll experiment and see (or rather hear) how it goes. Maybe I'll end up keeping the Phase 95, or it'll be my "gateway drug" into phasers and I'll return it to get something fancier / full-featured, or I'll decide that's it's just not for me at all.
I suspect that if I do end up keeping it, it's usage will be limited to solos and intros/breaks where there isn't much else going on other than drums and bass - That's how I typically use the more "dramatic" effects like envelope filters, octavers and even chorus (although there is a handful of songs where an effect will stay on throughout). The main band I play in, or at least USED to play in before crap hit the fan, is a rather large ensemble (8-piece funk band, with a focus on vocals). Again there are exceptions but I try to keep effects like these for the instrumental bits, otherwise that can lead to mud. I do have a compressor at the end of my chain that keep extremes in check to a certain extent, but with that many musicians, simplicity is often the only way.
I just got a seymour duncan polaron and am really liking it.
I've got a Polaron and I dig it! It's pretty juicy. Having said all that, and in spite of all the searching and researching I've put into looking at phasers, I've actually taken the Polaron off of my main board in favor of my trusty Boss PH-3. I know, that completely flies in the face of all that's holy about phasers, but the truth of the matter is the Boss just makes the phaser sound that I want to hear. It has adjustable stages, like the Polaron. The PH-3 is a bit easier to dial in than the Polaron, 4 knobs vs. 6 knobs. I've got the PH-3 at 10-stages with the Rate at 10, Depth at 1, and Res at 1(all values are clock face), and it sounds amazing. There's no mix knob, but there's no low-end loss either.
I'd say if someone is looking for a phaser on a budget, you should at least give the Boss PH-3 a shot. You might be pleasantly surprised at how good it is. I'd still like to have a Spaceman Explorer Deluxe, but I'm honestly content with the Boss PH-3.
The postman brought my Phase 95 today, and after work I got all my stuff out and messed around with it for about 2 hours.
Verdict: I think it's a keeper! I didn't notice low-end loss (at least not at the volume I was playing at), and I think it will be fun to use for some fills, leads, intro/breaks and whatnot. I'll have to double-check if it's actually the case or just ear fatigue, but it darkens the tone noticeably in "Phase 90" mode (this I am sure) and seems to have the opposite effect (thinning things out a bit) in "Phase 45" mode. Still, it is very usable when playing fingerstyle (which is pretty much all I do on bass). Transparency is not really a consideration for me when using this kind of effect, anyway.
I don't think it sounds particularly good combined with overdrive (I've tried both before and after, the latter being marginally better), however it does play very well with octave and envelope filter or even both (quite to my surprise). I thought envelope filter and phaser together would be way much, but it can actually be very cool without being muddy. I can obviously also use it for guitar...Come to think of it, most of my board is very guitar-friendly. Obviously the Pork Loin is also great on guitar, but surprisingly the BOD is cool, too: I tried it the other day and it spontaneously took me in a "Queens of the Stone Age" type riff direction.
The only minor downside is that I had to take my compressor off my board to fit the phaser, but that's not a huge deal. Eventually I'll get a medium-size board that will give me *some* wiggle room without being too bulky or heavy, but I want to sell my large board first.
Shameless plug, just in case...
For Sale - Pedaltrain Classic Jr. w/ Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2
Verdict: I think it's a keeper! I didn't notice low-end loss (at least not at the volume I was playing at), and I think it will be fun to use for some fills, leads, intro/breaks and whatnot. I'll have to double-check if it's actually the case or just ear fatigue, but it darkens the tone noticeably in "Phase 90" mode (this I am sure) and seems to have the opposite effect (thinning things out a bit) in "Phase 45" mode. Still, it is very usable when playing fingerstyle (which is pretty much all I do on bass). Transparency is not really a consideration for me when using this kind of effect, anyway.
I don't think it sounds particularly good combined with overdrive (I've tried both before and after, the latter being marginally better), however it does play very well with octave and envelope filter or even both (quite to my surprise). I thought envelope filter and phaser together would be way much, but it can actually be very cool without being muddy. I can obviously also use it for guitar...Come to think of it, most of my board is very guitar-friendly. Obviously the Pork Loin is also great on guitar, but surprisingly the BOD is cool, too: I tried it the other day and it spontaneously took me in a "Queens of the Stone Age" type riff direction.
The only minor downside is that I had to take my compressor off my board to fit the phaser, but that's not a huge deal. Eventually I'll get a medium-size board that will give me *some* wiggle room without being too bulky or heavy, but I want to sell my large board first.
Shameless plug, just in case...
For Sale - Pedaltrain Classic Jr. w/ Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2
My favorite phaser for bass is not usually recognized as a phaser....Fulltone Deja Vibe. Most people think of MXR 90 or Small Stone, but vibe pedals are phasers too, just different.
I don't have tech info like you ask for, but it sound fantastic and very musical. Traditional phasers always have me a LFO sweeping hiss sound. Maybe this gets lost in the mix, but when playing alone it sounds awful.
I don't have tech info like you ask for, but it sound fantastic and very musical. Traditional phasers always have me a LFO sweeping hiss sound. Maybe this gets lost in the mix, but when playing alone it sounds awful.
Depending on what comp you use, a half dozen of those EBS Flat patch cables will get those pedals much closer together. Enough so that if your comp is a mini or has top jacks, it might just shoehorn in there. I think i read that there are now other companies making cables similar in thickness (thin-ness?) as well.
Congrats on your new phase.
This conversation should feel like deja vu to you...
Yesterday I sold my larger board / power supply combo, which I didn't use in over 2 years because of the bulk and the weight, and I have a Metro 24 on the way. This one will fit everything comfortably with some room to grow, and still be a manageable size to carry around.
I guess I went overboard (sad pun intended) when I bought my first board kit (the larger, angled one w/ a Voodoo Lab PP2). After a while I realized all my pedals having a similar draw/impedance, I could daisy-chain them to a one spot with zero noise. That's a 2 lbs saving right there.
Edit to add: The EBS cables are amazing, but here they go for 20$ a piece...basically the patch cables would be worth as much as the board itself! Most of my pedals are full-size anyway so the real-estate gain, in my case, would be many times outweighed by the expense.
