
A diminutive modulator dishes distinctive phase tones that stand out in a mix.
Distinctive, prominent phase tones that pop in a mix. Cool 6-stage voice. Small size makes it practical for less frequent phase users.
Less transparent voice may not appeal to players that quest for pristine tones.
$119
Ibanez Phaser Mini
ibanez.com
Ibanez has an unusual phase legacy. While they never built a phaser as wildly popular as MXR's Phase 90 or Electro-Harmonix's Small Stone, they issued memorable and innovative swirl devices—from the outlandish FP-777 Flying Pan to the simpler, more utilitarian PT-999, PT-909, and PT9.
Tiny dimensions aside, Ibanez's new analog Phaser Mini outwardly pays homage to the latter two pedals, which emerged from the Maxon-built "0" and "9" series pedals from the late '70s and early '80s. As on those phasers, tones are shaped by depth, feedback, and rate controls. The Mini also riffs on the PT-909's elegantly hip enclosure shape and graphics. Unlike the blue 909, the Phaser Mini is an orange-red that's closer to the PT9. (Yes, color matters on pedals that look this cool!) In a more practical deviation from tradition, the Phaser Mini also features a switch that selects 4- or 6-stage phasing—adding an extra-warpy dimension to the smooth 4-stage foundation that propelled the PT-909 and PT9.
Recorded with Fender Telecaster, black panel Fender Tremolux, Universal Audio OX, Universal Audio Apollo Twin, and Universal Audio Luna.
Red Shift and Weird Wobble
When the Phaser Mini's closet relatives the PT-909 and PT9 first appeared, the 1-knob MXR Phase 45 and Phase 90 and the 1-knob/1-switch EHX Small Stone ruled the roost. Ibanez had even built a 1-knob phaser of its own in the form of the PT-999. The appeal and design motivation behind the older 1-knob phasers is obvious. They were simple to use and build. (It's probably also safe to assume that many psychedelicized phaser users in the 1970s were ill-equipped to operate much more than a single knob.) Ibanez probably saw opportunity in a phaser offering a little extra measure of control. They might have also heard the intense colorations of Mu-Tron's Phasor III and wondered if there was a way to deliver that pedal's wiggly, wobbly potency for less dough. Whatever the motivation, the 3-knob PT-909 was soon Ibanez's flagship phaser.
Anyone who has ever listened in frustration as a phaser goes missing in a mix will love the Mini's propensity to stand out proudly via its pronounced treble peaks.
The Little Guy Speaks Up
Like the original PT-909 and PT9, the Phaser Mini doesn't offer worlds of additional control—at least not by the standards of today's super-tunable boutique phasers. But the depth, feedback, and 4/6-stage switch open up the tone palette considerably and generate aurally striking phase textures.
One of the Mini's most ear-grabbing attributes is its slightly less transparent voice. Compared to a favorite vintage Phase 90 clone, for instance, the Ibanez adds more coloration to fundamental guitar tones. It often sounds relatively bright and bigger in the bottom end compared to other analog phasers, and it can feel extra-sensitive to drive from hotter or trashier pickups like P-90s. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. These slightly overdriven shades add a compressed cohesiveness to the output. And anyone who has ever listened in frustration as a phaser goes missing in a mix will love the Mini's propensity to stand out proudly via its pronounced treble peaks. As a result, I preferred working from the cleaner baseline tone of a Telecaster and using my guitar tone and volume knobs to taste. But if you're less concerned with headroom for other effects or achieving optimum pick articulation, humbuckers and P-90s (particularly in the bridge position) can lend a thrilling, brash Band of Gypsys tonality and attitude to the Mini—particularly when you add the extra warp of the 6-stage voice. Church of Gilmour-goers will probably prefer a cleaner phase that lets more transient tones shine through. More agnostic aspiring Jonny Greenwoods, Graham Coxons, and Kevin Parkers will dig the less immaculate swirl.
The Verdict
While phase is an essential effect for heavily psychedelic players and many Hendrix and Gilmour devotees, a lot of guitarists use it as an occasional splash of bold tone color. The Phaser Mini is a practical, compact, and colorful solution for players that use the effect more occasionally. It offers a lot of characterful analog modulation flavors in a small package, including very classic, go-to textures for Floyd and funk. For those less bound by tradition, the Phaser Mini is a distinctive alternative to the most prominent phaser types and the many upmarket clones that mimic their tones.
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The country virtuoso closes out this season of Wong Notes with a fascinating, career-spanning interview.
We’ve saved one of the best for last: Brad Paisley.The celebrated shredder and seasoned fisherman joins host Cory Wong for one of this season’s most interesting episodes. Paisley talks his earliest guitar-playing influences, which came from his grandfather’s love of country music, and his first days in Nashville—as a student at Belmont University, studying the music industry.
The behind-the-curtain knowledge he picked up at Belmont made him a good match for industry suits trying to force bad contracts on him.
Wong and Paisley swap notes on fishing and a mutual love of Phish—Paisley envies the jam-band scene, which he thinks has more leeway in live contexts than country. And with a new signature Fender Telecaster hitting the market in a rare blue paisley finish, Paisley discusses his iconic namesake pattern—which some might describe as “hippie puke”—and its surprising origin with Elvis’ guitarist James Burton.
Plus, hear how Paisley assembled his rig over the years, the state of shredding on mainstream radio, when it might be good to hallucinogenic drugs in a set, and the only negative thing about country-music audiences.
Tom Bedell in the Relic Music acoustic room, holding a custom Seed to Song Parlor with a stunning ocean sinker redwood top and milagro Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
As head of Breedlove and Bedell Guitars, he’s championed sustainability and environmental causes—and he wants to tell you about it.
As the owner of the Breedlove and Bedell guitar companies, Tom Bedell has been a passionate advocate for sustainable practices in acoustic guitar manufacturing. Listening to him talk, it’s clear that the preservation of the Earth’s forests are just as important to Bedell as the sound of his guitars. You’ll know just how big of a statement that is if you’ve ever had the opportunity to spend time with one of his excellently crafted high-end acoustics, which are among the finest you’ll find. Over the course of his career, Bedell has championed the use of alternative tonewoods and traveled the world to get a firsthand look at his wood sources and their harvesting practices. When you buy a Bedell, you can rest assured that no clear-cut woods were used.
A born storyteller, Bedell doesn’t keep his passion to himself. On Friday, May 12, at New Jersey boutique guitar outpost Relic Music, Bedell shared some of the stories he’s collected during his life and travels as part of a three-city clinic trip. At Relic—and stops at Crossroads Guitar and Art in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, and Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center in Wheaton, Maryland—he discussed his guitars and what makes them so special, why sustainability is such an important cause, and how he’s putting it into practice.
Before his talk, we sat in Relic’s cozy, plush acoustic room, surrounded by a host of high-end instruments. We took a look at a few of the store’s house-spec’d Bedell parlors while we chatted.
“The story of this guitar is the story of the world,” Bedell explained to me, holding a Seed to Song Parlor. He painted a picture of a milagro tree growing on a hillside in northeastern Brazil some 500 years ago, deprived of water and growing in stressful conditions during its early life. That tree was eventually harvested, and in the 1950s, it was shipped to Spain by a company that specialized in church ornaments. They recognized this unique specimen and set it aside until it was imported to the U.S. and reached Oregon. Now, it makes the back and sides of this unique guitar.
A Bedell Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides.
As for the ocean sinker redwood top, “I’m gonna make up the story,” Bedell said, as he approximated the life cycle of the tree, which floated in the ocean, soaking up minerals for years and years, and washed ashore on northern Oregon’s Manzanita Beach. The two woods were paired and built into a small run of exquisitely outfitted guitars using the Bedell/Breedlove Sound Optimization process—in which the building team fine-tunes each instrument’s voice by hand-shaping individual braces to target resonant frequencies using acoustic analysis—and Bedell and his team fell in love.
Playing it while we spoke, I was smitten by this guitar’s warm, responsive tone and even articulation and attack across the fretboard; it strikes a perfect tonal balance between a tight low-end and bright top, with a wide dynamic range that made it sympathetic to anything I offered. And as I swapped guitars, whether picking up a Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides or one with an Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, the character and the elements of each instrument changed, but that perfect balance remained. Each of these acoustics—and of any Bedell I’ve had the pleasure to play—delivers their own experiential thumbprint.
Rosette and inlay detail on an Adirondack spruce top.
Ultimately, that’s what brought Bedell out to the East Coast on this short tour. “We have a totally different philosophy about how we approach guitar-building,” Bedell effused. “There are a lot of individuals who build maybe 12 guitars a year, who do some of the things that we do, but there’s nobody on a production level.” And he wants to spread that gospel.
“We want to reach people who really want something special,” he continued, pointing out that for the Bedell line, the company specifically wants to work with shops like Relic and the other stores he’s visited, “who have a clientele that says I want the best guitar I can possibly have, and they carry enough variety that we can give them that.”
A Fireside Parlor with a Western red cedar top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
A beautifully realized mashup of two iconic guitars.
Reader: Ward Powell
Hometown: Ontario, Canada
Guitar: ES-339 Junior
I’ve always liked unusual guitars. I think it started when I got my first guitar way back in 1976. I bought a '73 Telecaster Deluxe for $200 with money I saved from delivering newspapers.
I really got serious about playing in 1978, the same year the first Van Halen album was released. Eddie Van Halen was a huge influence on me, including how he built and modded guitars. Inspired by Eddie, I basically butchered that Tele. But keep in mind, there was once a time when every vintage guitar was just a used guitar—I still have that Tele, by the way.
I never lost that spirit of wanting guitars that were unique, and have built and modded a few dozen guitars since. When I started G.A.S.-ing simultaneously for a Les Paul Junior and a Casino, I came up with this concept. I found an Epiphone ES-339 locally at a great price. It already had upgraded CTS pots, Kluson tuners, and the frets had been PLEK’d. It even came with a hardshell case. It was cheap because it was a right-handed guitar that had been converted to left handed and all the controls had been moved to the opposite side, so it had five additional holes in the top.
Fortunately, I found a Duesenberg wraparound bridge that used the same post spacing as a Tune-o-matic. I used plug cutters to cut plugs out of baltic birch plywood to fill the 12 holes in the laminated top. I also reshaped the old-style Epiphone headstock. Then, I sanded off the original finish, taped the fretboard, and sprayed the finish using cans of nitro lacquer from Oxford Guitar Supply. Lots of wet sanding and buffing later, the finish was done.
I installed threaded insert bushings for the bridge, so it will never pull out. The pickup is a Mojotone Quiet Coil P-90 and I fabricated a shim from a DIY mold and tinted epoxy to raise the P-90 up closer to the strings. The shim also covers the original humbucker opening. I cut a pickguard out of a blank and heated it slightly to bend it to follow the curvature of the top.
All in all, I'm pretty happy how it turned out! It plays great and sounds even better. And I have something that is unique: an ES-339 Junior.
ENGL, renowned for its high-performance amplifiers, proudly introduces the EP635 Fireball IR Pedal, a revolutionary 2-channel preamp pedal designed to deliver the legendary Fireball tone in a compact and feature-rich format.
The EP635 Fireball IR Pedal brings the raw power and precision of the ENGL Fireball amplifier into a pedalboard-friendly enclosure, offering unmatched flexibility and tonal control for guitarists of all styles. This cutting-edge pedal is equipped with advanced features, making it a must-have for players seeking high-gain perfection with modern digital convenience.
Key Features:
- Authentic Fireball Tone – Designed after the renowned ENGL Fireball amplifier, the EP635 delivers the unmistakable high-gain aggression and clarity that ENGL fans love.
- Two Independent Channels – Easily switch between two distinct channels, with each channel’s knob settings saved independently, allowing for seamless transitions between tones.
- Built-in Midboost Function – Enhance your tone with the integrated Midboost switch, perfect for cutting through the mix with extra punch.
- Advanced Noise Gate – Eliminate unwanted noise and maintain articulate clarity, even with high-gain settings.
- IR (Impulse Response) Loading via USB-C – Customize your sound with user-loadable IRs using the included software, bringing studio-quality cab simulations to your pedalboard.
- Headphone Output – Silent practice has never been easier, with a dedicated headphone output for direct monitoring.
- Premium Build and Intuitive Controls – Featuring a rugged chassis and responsive controls for Volume, Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, and Presence, ensuring precise tonal shaping.
SPECS:
- Input 1/4” (6,35mm) Jack
- Output 1/4” (6,35mm) Jack
- Headphone Output 1/8”(3,5mm) Jack
- 9V DC / 300mA (center negativ) / power supply, sold separately
- USB C