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So.... I got me a PH-3 (review)

N

Nyarlathotep

Inactive
Feb 5, 2006
8,987
10
43
West Coast of Canada
www.soundclick.com
#1
I would've gone with the Quasar, but 2 things drove me to the PH-3: 1) It was less $$$, and 2) I could get one locally today.

I pretty much got home from getting the right angle power adaptor chain (I can fit more on the board cus of it :D), made sure I had enough space for the PH-3, listend to the demo on boss' site and the clips in the wiki, and went out and bought one.

Its pretty versitile, even with just Rate, Depth (bassically seems like a "mix" knob for the original and out of phase signals), and Resonance (afaik it changes the "tone" of the out of phase signal). Each of the 4 numbered "stage" phasers is different enough to warrent all of them being on there. The 12 stage is two 6 stages cascading. The Rise and Fall modes are just one way in->90 degrees out of phase then directly back to in phase (do not pass go do not collect 200$ :p). The step is random jumping between phase positions and can sound like a computerish thing with some fuzz before.

Overall I like the phase sounds. I like the mixing thing with the depth knob, and can go from my normal tone with a background "shwoosh" to full on metallicish almost-tremelo. Right now I've got it set to Fall mode tho, cus it sounds like the phase is returning to sounding like normal, but its constantly doing so. Unless you let a note really sustain tho, you dont notice the phase going from normal "in phase" then directly to fully "out of phase". It gives some nice ambiantness.

In another thread someone mentioned a volume drop. I actually notice a volume increase, tho not by much. I have the PH-3 positioned on my board so that I can push it and the boost switch on my Hema at the same time. To my ears Hema->PH-3 and just the Hema with boost on seem to be at the same volume, at least with the settings I use.

I guess that covers the bassics ;) If anyone has any Q's thats what this threads for :D

My rating: :bassist::bassist::bassist::bassist::bassist: out of 5

NewPhaser004Medium.gif
 
#4
Gashaponcito said:
Soundclips man!! soundcips for God's sake!!
Click to expand...
The people (at least one of them) asked and I deliver!

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That is with the Rate, Depth, and Res knobs at noon, running thru the different models. For the first run thru of the riffs its just the Hema, after that its Hema->PH-3.

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As below:
PH-3_Settings.gif


All clips are Hema->PH-3->amp->Samson C01U mic->Audacity
 
#10
Darkstrike said:
I seem to loose a lot of low end with mine, I'll try it with settings closer to yours though.
Click to expand...

You're going to lose low end, no doubt about that.

Volume drops are one thing, but I'm always a little surprised when people claim that certain notorious pedals don't lose any low end for them. The Rust Ride is a big example of that.

And two pedals I really like (and are on my board) the Robotalk and the PH-3 fall into that category. All you really have to do is turn them on in a band setting and it is really obvious that you are losing bottom end, which is why I keep both of those in the loop of a blender.
 
#11
TheBigO said:
You're going to lose low end, no doubt about that.

Volume drops are one thing, but I'm always a little surprised when people claim that certain notorious pedals don't lose any low end for them. The Rust Ride is a big example of that.

And two pedals I really like (and are on my board) the Robotalk and the PH-3 fall into that category. All you really have to do is turn them on in a band setting and it is really obvious that you are losing bottom end, which is why I keep both of those in the loop of a blender.
Click to expand...

I've been messing with it more, and there is loss alright, no matter what I do, but at 10 stage its not so bad, if I was playing with a band, a blender would most certantly be on the cards.
 
#12
The Rust Ride doesn't kill your bottom end if you turn it up. problem is that ot adds so much on top of the original signal that it seems like a pretty big volume boost overall.
 
#14
I've been using the 12 stage to "minimize" the low end drop, although like Darkstrike, I'm using a mid-heavy sound - between the stage setting, the use of a single-coil neck pickup on a short-scale bass, and my eq choices, I've *mostly* overcome the low end loss.
 
#18
yeah, the ph-3 is a surprisingly good pedal. i'm not big into shifting phase, but it's definitely worth the money i dropped on getting it. (funny story--i accidentally bought two. more on this once my supporting membership check clears. :D)

i got it primarily for the step phase for use with guitar, so everything else is just gravy. :cool: i played around with the pedal yesterday and was able to get some good ow-wow-wow's going with it.
 

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