The StewMac Lightcycle is an optical-phaser pedal kit based on the Mu-Tron Phasor II. This stomp features deep functionality with depth, rate, and feedback controls, plus a pair of internal controls for intensity and sweep settings as well as a true bypass switch. Committed lifelong phaser fan, aspiring pedal builder, and PG’s senior editor, Nick Millevoi, gave this build a try.
The Lightcycle kit is more challenging than some of StewMac’s other projects and includes photo resistors and vertically mounted resistors, both of which are tricky to install. Luckily, Nick has been building StewMac kits for the last year—he’s previously built both the Sun Fuzz and Ghost Drive kits. Equipped with their pedal-building tool kit, he felt like he leveled up his skills.
In this video, Nick unboxes the Lightcycle kit, talks about the building process from testing and labeling each component to installing them (following the kit’s 40-page step-by-step instructions along the way), then plugs it in for a pair of demos with various sounds from this vintage-inspired unit.
