Details
I don’t even know what you’re supposed to do with a phaser other than fail to play Van Halen songs, but this hobby goes one of two ways for me:
- You get an idea, it becomes all-consuming, and you work relentlessly until the dream is realized.
- You don’t have an idea, the lack of an idea becomes all-consuming, and you relentlessly work on something until you get an idea.
This is a Number 2. In multiple ways.
First, I had problems with this finish, which was particularly annoying because it was already orange (even though I previously built an orange pedal in this exact same design, powder coated orange enclosures were on sale, so…). All I had to do was clear coat over the decal, and that somehow completely failed to cure, requiring a strip and redo. I also hated the first LED and wound up swapping that out, which also required a different current limiting resistor. I got sockets for the transistors because the Internet of Pedal Nerds was cautioning that they can easily be cooked during soldering, but I think putting a roach clip on the legs would have been sufficient. The sockets are lame, the transistors were too tall for the enclosure, and they kept falling out so I wound up hot-gluing them in, which looks ridiculous.
But it’s fine. I am, after all, typically unfazed. It’s a “The Vibe” circuit board from GuitarPCB with their matched set of transistors. I think it’s reminiscent of an MXR Phase 90 and Phase 45 in the same box, perhaps with a bit more swoosh.
Vital Stats
SOund
Aside from Van Halen, I guess you can do super chill clean stuff too. This sample is Serial No. 1 into the Typically Unfazed in “90 mode” (i.e., more phase) running into a clean Fender Deluxe. It is joined halfway through by the two additional recordings of the same guitar panned hard left and right with different pickup and phaser settings. Any chorusing in that section is not an electronic effect…it’s just natural chorus due to the slight differences in the settings and playing.
