reviews

A beautiful reincarnation of a classic analog phaser yields a bounty of character-rich modulation tones.

Pros: Impressive build quality for the price. More expansive and malleable voice than most vintage phasers.

Rate control could have a gentler taper at the slower end of its range.

$149

4.5
4.5
4.5
5

Warm Audio’s existence is a gift to vintage- and analog-fixated musicians with modest budgets. Their products range from very affordable homages to legendary studio equipment, like the Universal Audio LA-2A compressor and the Neumann U67 microphone, to rare and expensive vintage stompboxes. Given their affinity for replicating such treasures in the aesthetic and functional realms, it’s little surprise they built a tribute to the Mu-Tron Phasor II. Original Mu-Tron effects were candy for the eyes and ears. They were brilliant designs inside and out. And creator Mike Beigel and his team always made certain their products offered unique, deeper, and different sounds and functionality. The fruits of Mu-Tron’s efforts to create a stand-out phaser live on in the Mutation Phasor II, which is a beautiful, enveloping work of modulation machinery.

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The Rascal returns in an affordable, stylish format—this time with hot humbuckers driving the works.

Gorgeous lines. Balanced, comfortable design. Super playable. Excellent quality. Sweet value. Varied high-output tones.

Humbuckers mean less vintage headroom.

$449

Squier Paranormal Rascal HH
squierguitars.com

4
4.5
4.5
5

Whether you’re a bassist or a guitarist who occasionally fills in as one, short scale basses can be a source of joy, ease, and worlds of expressive potential. Great ones feel like lightning under the fingers. They pack a punch in the fundamentals. And the right ones look and feel a little less like an oversized Viking war ax if you are not a towering Viking. In the case of the newest version of the Rascal, the Paranormal Rascal Bass HH, all of those attributes come together in a bass that’s potent and cuts a unique and beautiful silhouette. And though it may be an amalgam of elements from less iconic but beautiful Fender shapes (not least the Fender version that preceded it nearly a decade ago), the Paranormal Rascal Bass HH is a striking, well-proportioned instrument that looks gorgeous and fits like a glove.

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Deconstructing mechanical vibrato leads to bold and bizarre sonic ends.

Unconventional approaches to pitch shifting yield creative results. Clever design on hardware and digital fronts. High-quality build.

Can be less than intuitive. Considerable learning curve. Expensive.

$379

Gamechanger Audio Bigsby Pedal
gamechangeraudio.com

4
4.5
3.5
3.5

It’s impressive to consider the ways Bigsby vibrato systems have been thrashed, massaged, and otherwise put to work in the service of making guitars sing in more emotional, weirder, and more humanly vocal ways. For my money, it’s one of the coolest improvements to the 6-string guitar concept ever.

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