Phased and Confused
The Phase 100 showed up late yesterday afternoon. It is not anything like I expected.
BTW, before I say anything else, let me comment on the four-position switch. This should really have been a three-knob phaser, but they integrated two of the knobs into that switch. The symbols show how much regeneration (big or small circle) and how much depth (wide or narrow line) each setting yields. It's a pretty good solution, though. Each of the settings does a good thing.
Like the Maestro PS-1A, the Phase 100 is a six-stage phaser (functionally; it has ten stages, but four of them don't modulate). It's got that same kind of richness and warmth. The Maestro was a FET-based phaser, though, and the Phase 100 is an optical phaser that uses Vactrols. Those Vactrols going out of production is why the Phase 100 was finally discontinued last year.
I actually had to A/B this with my Heptode (Maestro copy) a few times to see how it compared. They're slightly different in character, but either one would do just fine in a pinch. Although I'm drawn to the Heptode a little more. Both are really nice, though. Back in the 80's I had a TC Electronic Phaser XII that was also an optical phaser with 4, 8 or 12 stages switchable on the front panel. I also had a Mutron Phasor II that was a six-stage optical phaser. This doesn't sound like either of those, really. FWIW, I loved the Mutron and never really cared for the TC very much. Both of them had become collectible and valuable enough that when I was staring Fool I sold them for startup funds.
Anyway, I always expected the Phase 100 to have a kind of, "sproingy" sound because of the Keith Richards, "Shattered" sound. Turns out Keith was using a Boss DM-2 analog delay with his Phase 100 on that track. Just like Billy Duffy has always owned a DM-2. The reason their phasers sounded "sproingy" was obviously because of their analog delay lines.
The only analog delay I ever owned was in an old Ibanez rack unit called the UE405. That was a multi-effects rack unit that had a compressor/limiter, stereo chorus, parametric EQ and analog delay. I used the delay for a short slapback most of the time. I remember it used to have some qualities at longer delay times that annoyed me, but maybe I was just baked into digital delay expectations back then. Analog delay lines were considered kind of ghetto right about then because the expensive Lexicons and the like were digital.
Now, the simple answer would be to grab a reissue DM-2, but when you notice that sticker that says, "The One" on Billy Duffy's old DM-2, it makes me wonder if the "flaws" they "fixed" in the WazzupCraft reissue were actually part of the sound those guys were going for.
Which probably means I need to rent an hour at the Guitar Center rehearsal studio and sit around with their selection of analog delays and my Phase 100 educating myself on the audible differences in the various current analog delays.
Sorry to be so long-winded about this. I head down the rabbit-hole too often chasing things that probably aren't that big a deal.
Phased and Confused
The Phase 100 showed up late yesterday afternoon. It is not anything like I expected.
BTW, before I say anything else, let me comment on the four-position switch. This should really have been a three-knob phaser, but they integrated two of the knobs into that switch. The symbols show how much regeneration (big or small circle) and how much depth (wide or narrow line) each setting yields. It's a pretty good solution, though. Each of the settings does a good thing.
Like the Maestro PS-1A, the Phase 100 is a six-stage phaser (functionally; it has ten stages, but four of them don't modulate). It's got that same kind of richness and warmth. The Maestro was a FET-based phaser, though, and the Phase 100 is an optical phaser that uses Vactrols. Those Vactrols going out of production is why the Phase 100 was finally discontinued last year.
I actually had to A/B this with my Heptode (Maestro copy) a few times to see how it compared. They're slightly different in character, but either one would do just fine in a pinch. Although I'm drawn to the Heptode a little more. Both are really nice, though. Back in the 80's I had a TC Electronic Phaser XII that was also an optical phaser with 4, 8 or 12 stages switchable on the front panel. I also had a Mutron Phasor II that was a six-stage optical phaser. This doesn't sound like either of those, really. FWIW, I loved the Mutron and never really cared for the TC very much. Both of them had become collectible and valuable enough that when I was staring Fool I sold them for startup funds.
Anyway, I always expected the Phase 100 to have a kind of, "sproingy" sound because of the Keith Richards, "Shattered" sound. Turns out Keith was using a Boss DM-2 analog delay with his Phase 100 on that track. Just like Billy Duffy has always owned a DM-2. The reason their phasers sounded "sproingy" was obviously because of their analog delay lines.
The only analog delay I ever owned was in an old Ibanez rack unit called the UE405. That was a multi-effects rack unit that had a compressor/limiter, stereo chorus, parametric EQ and analog delay. I used the delay for a short slapback most of the time. I remember it used to have some qualities at longer delay times that annoyed me, but maybe I was just baked into digital delay expectations back then. Analog delay lines were considered kind of ghetto right about then because the expensive Lexicons and the like were digital.
Now, the simple answer would be to grab a reissue DM-2, but when you notice that sticker that says, "The One" on Billy Duffy's old DM-2, it makes me wonder if the "flaws" they "fixed" in the WazzupCraft reissue were actually part of the sound those guys were going for.
Which probably means I need to rent an hour at the Guitar Center rehearsal studio and sit around with their selection of analog delays and my Phase 100 educating myself on the audible differences in the various current analog delays.
Sorry to be so long-winded about this. I head down the rabbit-hole too often chasing things that probably aren't that big a deal.