So many varied ways to phase for days.
Sweet, distinct phase voice. Resonance, mix, range, and volume controls expand tone-shaping possibilities significantly. High quality.
Expensive.
$279
Spaceman Explorer
spacemaneffects.com
Spaceman effects tend to be cherished, treasured, and, in some cases, driven to insane resale market prices because they reliably sound fantastic. But Spaceman pedals are also rare creatures. And even its most popular pedals tend to come and go—often disappearing before real players can beat collectors to the punch. The analog, 6-stage optical Explorer phaser, however, is the unusual Spaceman pedal that is reappearing in the wild after a hiatus. It returns in a more compact enclosure. But this time out the Explorer offers access to six additional waveforms that build on an already expansive modulation vocabulary.
Not So Simply Red
I love one-knob phasers. They are a sure-fire means to mindless fun, and one less thing to worry about when drifting off amid some psychedelic-jam reverie. That mindlessness comes at a cost, of course. A classic Small Stone or Phase 90 tends to sound just like it’s supposed to and little more. So while you can extract everything from rotary speaker sounds to staccato pitch shifting with such a circuit, they’re usually imprinted with a specific voice and phase coloration—what you hear is what you get.
The Explorer brushes aside those constraints in very cool fashion. For starters, the mix control helps you render the phase effect nearly subliminal. That enables you to use pretty extreme phase voices in low-key ways—a beautiful means to apply the effect to add motion in a spare mix. The Explorer also comes with an output volume control. This means you can overcome any perceived volume loss when using intense waveforms. But it also gives your signal a slight—and slightly dirty—bump even when the effect mix is low. The volume gives you options in that direction, too. And although there probably won’t be hordes of players dying to use the Explorer at less than unity gain, the ability to do so opens up interesting arrangement possibilities in which you can move from straight-ahead clean passages to quieter effected chapters in a song without missing a beat. It also gives you a means to mate the Explorer more easily to an unruly or unpredictable fuzz.
The Explorer’s wave-shaping options are abundant and powerful. The rate control generally falls in line with most classic analog phasers in terms of range—moving from molasses sweeps to insectile stutters. Resonance, of course, adds vowelly emphasis to the waveforms. Its effect is strong enough that I tended to leave it in a modest 8 to 10 o’clock range. But it can also help put a phase over the top in a crowded effects mix and help add rhythmic emphasis. The Explorer’s range control is, perhaps, the hidden gem. There’s nothing magical about it. It’s essentially a filter that enables you to thin out or add a low-end bump to the signal. But the extra low end can be a beautiful sweetening agent with slower phase rates (which get chewier and dreamier with more low end) and gives you extra wiggle room for tailoring the Explorer to different guitars, amps, and effects in your chain.
The extra low end can be a beautiful sweetening agent with slower phase rates.
Crest-to-Trough Awesome
The Explorer isn’t the only contemporary phaser with the option for multiple waveforms. But there is something about the essential sweetness and clarity of its voice that makes the differences among these wave types feel more distinct. The sine wave is smooth-snaky and sounds dreamy at slow rates and sitting low in the wet/dry mix. Ramp-up and ramp-down waves have a pronounced “reset” pulse at the peak of each wave that tends to reinforce certain rhythm-based approaches. Triangle generates pretty, precise, and steady heartbeat pulses that make lots of room for picking detail at dryer mix levels, but it also sounds awesome at more stroboscopic rates and higher intensities. The square wave at a 50-precent rate and with a healthy heap of low end from the range control is another favorite—and with the resonance just right, you can get a very bubbly auto-wah effect. The alternate phase patterns, which are accessed by powering up while holding down the footswitch, are all worth investigating as well. And the arpeggiated phases, in particular, are especially cool—lending textures that evoke everything from bouncing ball bearings to tinkling glockenspiels.
The Verdict
The Explorer often distinguishes itself by living at a cool intersection of organic and mechanical precision pulses and sounds. But the abundant tone-shaping options mean you can fine tune these tone crossovers like a surgeon. It’s fun, too. The right sound rarely feels out of reach or impossible on the Explorer, so the search seldom feels like work. For anyone that has suffered the limitations of 1-knob phasers but been intimidated by more complex alternatives, there are a lot of cool compromises here. The Explorer is expensive. But it’s a high-quality U.S.-made pedal that reflects a lot of thought and experience. It may just tempt you to sell the rest of the phasers in your collection, too—a smart, constructive way to offset the cost, if you ask me.
An analog phaser that walks the waveforms between simplicity and subversive modulations sounds.
Unique features and sounds for its price category. Intuitive. Capable of sounds beyond simple phase. High-quality build.
Might be expensive for players that don't utilize the most unusual sounds.
$250
Sitek Phasia
sitek.rocks
It's easy to overlook the expressive potential of a phaser if you use a simple, 1-knob version of the effect. Old horses like the Small Stone and Phase 90 may be perfect in their simplicity. But paradoxically, when you really listen to the depth of those basic pedals' voices—rich with ephemeral, passing overtones and harmonic complexities—you hear how varied and nuanced phase can be with precise wave-shaping control.
Sitek's analog Phasia opens up many secret corners of the phaser experience without a clumsy, complicated control set. There's a modest learning curve because these controls are interactive and have expansive range. But it's easy to use, and with tap tempo, selectable waveshape options, and variable 4-, 5-, and 6-stage settings, Phasia delivers unexpected treats that defy basic phaser categorization—all without inducing option anxiety or making the pedal impractical for stage use.
Sitek Phasia Review by premierguitar
Listen to Sitek Phasia Review by premierguitar #np on #SoundCloudTri-Lingual and Gifted
Phasers can come across as domineering and one dimensional if you're in the wrong mood. Phasia is far from one-dimensional, though. It readily moves from weird to seamlessly integrated with your guitar voice. This leaves ample room for different pickups and effects to speak, and it's responsive to changes in guitar tone and volume.This open, agreeable nature—combined with flexible controls—make Phasia capable of subtle to mind-melting extremes.
Phasia's stage-selection switch is one key to its extra headroom and adaptability. The 4-stage voice has a distinctly vintage patina. It's simultaneously elastic and soft around the edges, though there is also a snorkel-y midrange emphasis. The phase effect can be subdued at low depth settings—a nice option to have. But it's beautiful to hear the combination of chewy and soft contours at advanced settings. And it excels in faux-rotary style settings where the pulses take on an organic edge.
The 6-stage voice is more complex. Listening to a given waveform at the same rate, depth, and feedback in this mode can be like watching the rippling undulations on a creek versus observing rolling offshore swells. There's more color and complexity in the 6-stage modulations—at certain settings you might even perceive compound subdivisions within the overtones of a waveform. If you like to foreground your phaser in bold, weird style, the 6-stage voice delivers.
The 5-stage is the real revelation, and it does much to set the Sitek apart. This voicing is extra clear and smooth, perceptibly warmer, rounder, and more EQ-neutral, which means more of your guitar and amp voice shines through. It leaves ample room for dynamics, and bass notes in particular ring with detail. If you're a jazzist communicating complex chord voicings, a producer that likes to leave space and flexibility in a mix, or a fingerstyle technician that doesn't want to obscure rhythmic emphasis, I can't imagine a better range of textures than Phasia's 5-stage mode.
This open, agreeable nature— combined with flexible controls—make Phasia capable of subtle to mild-melting extremes.
Mutating the Classics
Phasia's basic controls—rate, depth, and feedback—all have expansive and useful range, from subtle to freakishly undulating. But the other controls contribute much to the whole once you master their sometimes elusive functionality.
The symmetry control, for instance, doesn't reveal its magic easily. It can be subtle, or just not jive with what you're trying to accomplish. But when you get the feedback, rate, and waveshape recipe just right, the Phasia can almost transcend phasing entirely. In the highest quarter of its range, the long-taper/short-rise settings can sound like soft, contoured delay echoes or even gentle envelope filter squawks. In the opposite direction, the long-rise/short-taper settings sound like a cross between a Vox Repeat Percussion's staccato tremolo pulses and a reverse reverb. Each of these settings can totally recast an otherwise mundane riff.
The waveform control is trickier to wrangle. The triangle wave is peakier and vowely. The sine wave is smoother but still very vocal. The hypertriangular setting, in general, has the most soft-edged modulations. But all these qualities can become more enhanced or mild depending on where you set the symmetry, depth, and feedback controls.
The Verdict
Sitek's Phasia is a joy to use. Not all of its virtues are immediately obvious. And some differences between waveshape and symmetry settings can be pretty hard to perceive at low depth and feedback settings. But this subtle-to-robust wave-shaping power and the easy, intuitive means of accessing the breadth of those sounds makes Phasia a star. Between the mellowest and maddest extremes there are smooth, intoxicating rotary-style sounds, Uni-Vibe style undulations, and slow-cycling modulations that warp time while leaving room for overtones, pick detail, and other effects to breathe. At 250 bucks it's not an inexpensive solution, and before buying you should really make sure that the subtler corners of the Phasia's performance envelope are textures you'll really use. If you're the kind of player, arranger, or producer that likes to stack effects, or just likes the options that come from using a more spacious and versatile phaser, the Phasia is an elegant, unique, and capable modulation tool.
Maestro's smooth, stylish PS-1 inspiresa simple and unique vintage-voiced analog phaser.
Great digital approximations of the Maestro PS-1's smooth, distinctive voice. Open, airy tonality. Nice combo of transparency and distinctive character.
No ramping between speeds.
$149
Mojo Hand FX Mister-O Phaser Shifter
mojohandfx.com
Though enormous and limited by modern standards, the original Maestro PS-1 (created by Tom Oberheim in 1971) is the very picture of pedal design elegance. It's also one of the most swirlingly smooth phase circuits to ever exist.
Mojo Hand FX's digital, six-stage Mister-O is inspired by the silky voice of the PS-1. The company did away with the design limitations of the original—like speed presets and fixed depth and resonance—but Mister-O still speaks in a deep, enrapturing, and distinctive phase voice that sets it apart from more common phasers. It also retains the straight-ahead simplicity that makes vintage phasers so attractive.
Fender Telecaster and black-panel Fender Tremolux recorded through Universal Audio OX and Universal Audio Apollo Twin to Universal Audio LUNA.
Segment one is all knobs at noon (original Maestro PS-1 "medium" rate). Segment two is depth and color at noon speed at minimum (original Maestro PS-1 "slow" setting). Segment three is all knobs at noon (original Maestro PS-1 "fast" setting). Subsequent segments feature depth and color at 3 o'clock, maximum settings, and 9 o'clock
Styled Out … Subtly
If you love vintage pedal style, the Mister-O is a snack-sized meal of visual treats. "Mister-O" is printed in an original font that evokes the old Maestro logo. The white-on-black pinstripe looks ace. And while I'd be ultra-stoked if Mojo Hand had used red, gold, and blue knobs, the tri-color branding at the bottom hints at Maestro's beautiful '70s color motifs. (Future versions of the Mister-O will be called Mr. O to avoid confusion with the Maestro brand.)
Where the original PS-1 used three rocker switches to select slow, medium, and fast phase rates, the Mister-O utilizes a variable speed knob as well as depth and color (resonance) knobs that enable deviations from the original's voice. It's a cool set of additional but traditional controls that enable experimentation without getting into the weeds.
Apart from lacking analog circuitry, Mojo Hand omitted one important facet of the original Phase Shifter's functionality: It doesn't share the capability for ramping between speeds—a function that enhanced the PS-1's Leslie-ness. Though it might have elevated the very appealing $149 street price considerably, an expression pedal that approximated that functionality would be a nice addition.
Elastic But Never Overbearing
In the humble, one-page manual that accompanies the Mister-O, Mojo Hand suggests a few voices based on original Maestro sounds. These settings—all of which utilize depth and color controls at noon—are tuned to match that of the PS-1. They are truly sweet spots that are a great place to start—and stay, as I often did.
Mister-O's clear low-end carves out room for other phasing nuances that make the output sound more complex and detailed.
Phasers are inherently non-transparent. They change your tone as they cycle through a waveform, and every phaser does this with a distinct voice. Mister-O's is a wide-frequency voice that seems to retain much of a guitar's natural color. Players that gripe about tone suck and volume loss in vintage modulators will love this facet of Mister-O's performance envelope. (I even sensed a slight bump in volume in phase mode.) But Mister-O also heaps on a lot of unique, vintage patina'd personality. The contoured clarity it lends to low frequencies, for instance, is beautiful. It's not quite as bubble-gum chewy as a good Phase 90, which is extra gooey, in part, because of the unique way it filters and "stretches" low end frequencies. The choice between chewiness and low-end articulation is down to personal preference. But I loved the way Mister-O's clear low-end carves out room for other phasing nuances that make the output sound more complex and detailed. It might be the first phaser I routinely use for fingerpicking.
Advanced color and depth controls emphasize mid-range resonant peaks, which can make Mister-O feel more pulsing than elastic. But the effect is no less weird or psychedelic. The color knob can add extra noise as you get into its weirdest zones. Though I'd venture that anyone exploring these more bizarro sounds will not be terribly offended by a little white noise wash. At lower depth and color settings—and particularly at fast speeds—the Mister-O offers a cool, wobbly alternative to low-intensity tremolo.
If you tend to use your phaser for Hendrix and Gilmour-style fuzz-and-phase sounds, Mister-O's open tonalities—particularly the airy, present top end—are well suited to the task. The enhanced control also gives you more power to tweak resonant peaks to suit your pickups and drive source. The original Maestro voicings are ideal for fuzzy fare, but you shouldn't be shy about ladling deep textures on top. Because Mister-O is so articulate, there's plenty of room to heap on gnarly buzz without obscuring nuance in the modulation.
The Verdict
The Mojo Hand FX Mister-O is more than a little evocative of the original Maestro PS-1. But above all, it has a flexible, unique, and warm vintage voice that manages the minor miracle of sounding authentically analog and colorful while enabling your guitar's tone to shine. There's something effortlessly classy about the sound of the Mister-O. And it's refreshing to be able to explore such distinctly vintage phase flavors without treading that same old path—especially at such a reasonable price.
