Electro-Harmonix Nano

115
January 2017 Guitarist
Vintage-style Phasers
The Maestro was a simple unit with just three buttons
for different phase speeds. It was used by John Paul
Jones of Led Zeppelin for his keyboards, and guitarists
Steve Howe (Yes) and Joe Walsh among others, but
perhaps its greatest use on guitar was by Ernie Isley on
the Isley Brothers’ That Lady, released in 1973, where its
phasing mixed with fuzz delivers liquid synth-like lead
lines that still sound fresh today.
While the PS-1A was a large unit, the next phaser to
really make a splash was the MXR Phase 90: a four-
stage phaser designed by Keith Barr in 1974, which put
phasing into a more manageable underfoot size and set
the style for modern effects pedals. This little box had
a single rotary knob to change the speed of the phasing,
and was pretty much the go-to phaser for pro guitarists
in the mid-70s, used by many names. It was towards the
end of the decade, in 1978, that one of its best known
exponents, Eddie Van Halen, emerged using it on tracks
such as Eruption. MXR also produced the two-stage
Phase 45 and the six-stage Phase 100 (used by Keith
Richards, notably on the recording of The Stones’
Some Girls album in 1977).
MXR pedals were relatively expensive items
back in the 1970s, but there was soon a four-stage
phaser available for those on a tighter budget.
Electro-Harmonix was probably the most prolific
of pedal designers in the 1970s, with a massive range
of exotically titled pedals. The company came up
with the David Cockerell-designed Small Stone in
1974/’75. Based around Operational Transconductance
Amplifiers (OTA) rather than the FETs of the Phase 90,
the Small Stone was easier to mass produce and sold
in truckloads. Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead is one
notable contemporary user. Also in EHX’s 70s roster
was the larger Bad Stone, which featured a different
circuit design, and the mains-powered Polyphase.
Phasing Into The Future
While many companies produced phasers in the 1970s,
(and there are others that deserve a mention here such
as Roland’s AP-7 Jet Phaser with its built-in fuzz),
there’s one particular phaser that’s held in very high-
esteem and commands prices in excess of £1,500 if you
can find one. The Musitronics Mu-Tron Bi-Phase’s
designer, Mike Beigel, had the smart idea of putting
two six-stage phasers in one box with an optional foot
controller. This is the phaser used on many of Lee
Perry’s classic reggae productions, but has a sound
that will also be familiar to Smashing Pumpkins fans
as it’s all over their Siamese Dream album. Musitronics
also produced The Phasor II, a smaller pedal that’s
effectively half of a Bi-Phase.
Nowadays, there are numerous modulation pedals
seeking our attention. Besides chorus and flanging we
have very accurate-sounding Uni-Vibe recreations and
dedicated rotary speaker emulation pedals, but there is
still a role for the phaser’s swirl, whoosh or warble, and
if you want that 70s sound, it’s still up for grabs.
So, here we have four classic phasers: the latest
repro from MXR, Electro-Harmonix’s compact and
pedalboard-friendly version of its Small Stone, plus
boutique reproductions of the Maestro PS-1A and
the Mu-Tron Bi-Phase from Heptode in France and
Prophecysound Systems in Australia respectively.
Time to squeeze into those loon pants…
Audio engineer and
synth pioneer Tom
Oberheim was inspired
by George Harrison
playing through a
Leslie speaker and
decided to recreate
that sound…
The iconic ‘swoosh’ of
the phaser has been
sending guitar tones
off into the stratosphere
since the 70s. Now,
those vintage tones live
on in expertly emulated,
new and improved
phasers for your ’board
GIT415.peds_phaser.indd 115 01/12/2016 11:20