What's your favorite analog phaser?

[bass-shy]

well, IMO, the Mojohandfx Mister O phaser (digital emulation) sounds pretty much identical to my vintage PS1-A Maestro (100% analog), so there's that.

You know, I was fooled too. I had no idea the Mister-O was digital until you mentioned it.

One other Maestro phaser clone I have come across is the Hochstrasser Centrifuge. That one claims to be an analog recreation of the Maestro Stage Phaser. Sounds pretty damn good to me.

 

[GMC]

"Good digital is as good if not better than good analogue. Any other opinion to this is speculation, prejudice or simple bias." But that's your opinion. May not be the right one for someone else. Similar to pedals I am done with digital amps. This is not a knock on your ears either. Digital may be the future. Maybe. They can replicate what came out before and create frequencies higher and lower. But it's not continuous. It starts out analog than goes into digital converters than back out in analog A/D D/A. Through this process there is a difference. Digital isn't continuous as it has points and sharply shifts as analog does not (hard to explain, wish I were a geek) . You can try to replica many of the different sounds of your favorite past pedal, but it won't be exactly if you A/B them. Generally analog will be smoother (some use warmer, fatter etc.). But as we all see you can get more sounds from a digital than an analog pedal. In general, not fact per se. Again, not knocking what you like. Sure, many even say I want analog and hear a digital pedal and go with the digital. It's what you want out of a pedal that is pleasing to your ears. But I feel you may imply that digital will out do an analog pedal to the ears of the musician, there I disagree. Eric Johnson can hear the difference with different batteries. Which is why some power supplies have a lower batterie dial or simulation.
So, you may like the digital pedals better and again not knocking them, but the difference is subjective to the one who likes it.

You seem to be assuming that all digital pedals should emulate legacy analogue pedals. Actually, what I personally want is analogue sounding...not necessarily a Digital re-creation. Top end digital offer a lot more control and features than analogue, usually in stereo. One of the major benefits that digital pedal boards have is the ease that they can be stereo or mono. Some things like dirt, octave, filters...there is little point to going stereo. However, anything that incorporates a delay or modulation (kind of delay) is vastly improved by going stereo. Some people claim to be able to hear a AD /DA converter. With a top drawer high clock rate 24bit unit...yeah right...I'd like to see some blind science A/B tests on that. I really recon you can't, certainly not in a live context on stage through a bass cab. I also don't believe you would notice the difference in a recorded /mix situation either. A 56bit processing path is way higher resolution that our ears or brain could possibly perceive as digital.
As I said before, good digital is as good if not better than good analogue. You really should look up @smeet 6 phaser shootout: A quick 6-phaser shootout a blind Phaser test on this forum. The Source Audio Orbital Modulator was generally regarded as the clear winner from a pure audio / sound bite point of view. That wasn't even stereo, it was an older unit compared to what is currently available from Source Audio. From a fat and warm point of view, the Source Audio Orbital modulator in the above test was commented by blind listers as one of the analogue Phasers. Go and listen for yourself and see which ones you liked the best.
From a true science / observation point of view, the only argument other than an emotional "I want That one" is the current draw. An an old school (some of these legacy phases are nearly 40 years old...) phaser will draw probably a tenth of the power that a comparable Digital DSP loaded unit will do.

 

[Stubb]

Part of why I have no interest in the Source stuff is the additive distraction of the editing. I know, I know, I don't have to use it at all and can just use the presets, but that's not how many of us are wired. As far as purely digital stuff with controls like you'd see on an analog pedal, I have no issue with those. I've used and liked stuff like the Xerograph Deluxe, Utility Knife, Mr. O, El Cap, etc, and it's all great. But for me right now, with an all analog board and room left for a phaser, I specifically wanted a simple analog pedal that wobbled that I wouldn't end up down a rabbit hole on. Hence a Phase 90 type. And in reality, maybe half of my band members can hear a real difference, and maybe a few people in the audience, so it's all about what works for me. And interface wise, in most cases, simple works.

Plus there is something sweet about making sounds with actual components. Having your sound altered by a light bulb inside the pedal, for instance, is just cool. My wife builds analog synths and conceptually it's just amazing to me. To me, and I fully recognize and respect that others may feel differently.

I normally don't wade into these things where other folks are trying to convince you that your opinion and preferences are wrong, but here we are.

 

[Bassist30]

Part of why I have no interest in the Source stuff is the additive distraction of the editing. I know, I know, I don't have to use it at all and can just use the presets, but that's not how many of us are wired. As far as purely digital stuff with controls like you'd see on an analog pedal, I have no issue with those. I've used and liked stuff like the Xerograph Deluxe, Utility Knife, Mr. O, El Cap, etc, and it's all great. But for me right now, with an all analog board and room left for a phaser, I specifically wanted a simple analog pedal that wobbled that I wouldn't end up down a rabbit hole on. Hence a Phase 90 type. And in reality, maybe half of my band members can hear a real difference, and maybe a few people in the audience, so it's all about what works for me. And interface wise, in most cases, simple works.

Plus there is something sweet about making sounds with actual components. Having your sound altered by a light bulb inside the pedal, for instance, is just cool. My wife builds analog synths and conceptually it's just amazing to me. To me, and I fully recognize and respect that others may feel differently.

I normally don't wade into these things where other folks are trying to convince you that your opinion and preferences are wrong, but here we are.

Agree Totally. It's almost like politics. There is no more respect for the others opinion but rather hatred. If we can't even give a definition of a women, how can we give a definition of a phaser anymore.

 

[bass-shy]

I stumbled upon a Custom Shop MXR Phase 99 today. Haven't had a chance to plug it in yet but I have high hopes for this one. The demos I've watched make it seem like it is pretty intense!

It is essentially two separate Phase 90s in one box. Each one has a separate Rate control that can either be set independently or synced to the same rate with a switch. There is a lot of flexibility for stereo setup, series/parallel and a Vintage switch which switches between Script and Block tones.

I often run multiple phasers at different speeds simultaneously. Having the ability to do that with one pedal in a small box seems pretty cool.

Has anyone here used a Phase 99? If so, what are your thoughts?

 

[Bassist30]

Has anyone tried the Heard this on youtube. Sounds great.
Seymour Duncan Polaron

 

[fingerbun]

You seem to be assuming that all digital pedals should emulate legacy analogue pedals. Actually, what I personally want is analogue sounding...not necessarily a Digital re-creation. Top end digital offer a lot more control and features than analogue, usually in stereo.

I think you are contradicting yourself. On the one hand, you want to say people can’t tell the difference, and on the other hand you want to say that digital is superior. If you can tell the difference, then maybe someone else who can tell the difference prefers analog.

All music has an element of taste. One person puts together sounds differently to another. I have nothing against digital per se, and if you listen to two effects in an A/B, I will usually hear a difference. I don’t think “urghhhh that one is digital”, but I do think “I don’t like it as much”.

But to be honest, who cares? We each like what we like. And the older I get, the more I believe the sound is in your fingers more than anything else.

 

[D.M.N.]

After not having a phaser in the mix of pedals for years, I recently dugout my MXR Script Phase 90. I had seen a friend's band play recently and loved the sound of their bassists Phase 90, but I'd always had issues with mine. Namely, volume drop, and being a bit subtle because of that. I tried out a modern block logo and found it far too honky in the mids and a bit throaty overall. That may work for a lot of people who are using more "traditional" bass tones, or less mids and highs in their sound, but with my EQ and amps, it was too much (I already push the mids a lot in sound, as well as the high, and run tone knobs wide open). Thought about a Whirlwind, but given they're a similar circuit, figured I'd save some money and dive into mine. First things first, sorting out the volume drop (and occasional intermittence). Pretty simple in the end, the intermittent drop out was caused by how the input jacks were arranged, causing them to ground each other out if they jiggle at all. Reoriented them so the grounds will touch if they jiggle at all, instead of a hot lead touching a ground. The volume drop was solved with swapping a single resistor at the output, iirc. I also changed out a cap or two (it was a quick mod, forget exactly what I changed) which did a lot to increase the bass frequencies passing through, no more thinning out of the sound. If I make any more changes, I'll add in true bypass and an LED, but for know it works great! Just set it to about 1 o' clock and it's the most classic phaser I've heard, distinct and clear with a decent output boost and mid attack without the noticeable honkiness and overly accented sweep of the newer block models.

 

[Stubb]

Sounds like a lot of work to arrive at the Whirlwind Orange Box.

But for some, the work is part of the reward. Sounds like a sweet solution.

 

[2112]

 

[D.M.N.]

Sounds like a lot of work to arrive at the Whirlwind Orange Box.

But for some, the work is part of the reward. Sounds like a sweet solution.

Well the MXR '74 Script is the handwired version, and besides the LED and true bypass, the Whirlwind and '74 are ostensibly the same circuit. In the end, I'd likely do the same modifications to the Whirlwind to make the circuit a bit better adapted for bass. Having now subsequently played a Whirlwind as well, I'd definitely choose the '74 with aforementioned mods. I'd be interested to see if the Orange Box already has a different output resistor to change the volume (didn't have a chance to open it up), it's possible they deviated there from the original circuit for modern utility. Otherwise, I think combined all the mods took maybe 10-15 minutes. That said, it does take a basic ability with a soldering iron, so not for everyone.

 

[Bassist30]

Getting my Prolaron today. What I hear about it is its similar to the MXR 100... Looks like there are alot of options..... Hoping its what will get me closer to the best phaser I will ever need. Same with my octaver, OC, etc etc.

 

[Stubb]

I have to say that I'm really pleased with my Whirlwind Orange Box. No volume drop, no low end loss, bypass that doesn't suck, LED. If you want something that just works, you can get this, set the rate knob to 11 o'clock, and never think about it again. For someone like me who wants a wobble but doesn't want to spend time hassling with it, this is about perfect.

 

[bass-shy]

I had a Whirlwind Orange Box. Had really high hopes for it but it just didn't sit well with the rest of my gear. The effect was very subtle and thin sounding.

There are a lot of phasers in my collection and I have pretty particular tastes when it comes to the effect. I found that I much preferred the overall tone and sweep of the BYOC Classic Phaser built to Script logo specs than the Orange Box. Different strokes, of course. That said, one of my buddies absolutely LOVES his Orange Box.

A while back, I also modified an MXR Block logo Phase 90. It is an older one, before they went full SMD. I did the standard R28 mod and I replaced the transistors with a matched set. Matching the transistors seemed to make a world of difference compared to stock. It sounds every bit as good as my MojoHand Nebula IV, VFE Enterprise and Retro-Sonic Phasers, which are all based on the Phase 90 circuit.

 

[cnltb]

For my needs, the a/ da pbf gets close enough.

 

[BassyBill]

I really like my recently acquired MXR Deep Phase.

 

[Bassist30]

I like my Polaron and working with it. Got it today. Definitely different than what I am used to.

 

[bass-shy]

Does it seem intuitive to use? It looks like there's a TON of different sounds in that box.

 

[Bassist30]

Does it seem intuitive to use? It looks like there's a TON of different sounds in that box.

Tons of it...... Really like it.

 

[Bassist30]

I realize each phaser has its signature that others don't have. I feel like you need 2 phasers. One which can do so much and have presets like the polaron and one simple MXR 90.