6 Must Know Phaser Settings

Six phaser pedal sounds that I think are essential to know if you own a phaser. Which is your favourite?

Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
00:25 - 1. Understanding Stages with the Standard Swirl Setting
02:00 - 2. Sci-Fi Filter Sweep
04:10 - 3. Vowel Emphasis
06:41 - 4. Reggae Phaser
08:28 - 5. Hammond Organ Rotary Speaker
10:28 - 6. An Alternative to Cheesy Chorus

For this I’m using the MXR Phase 90 which is a vintage style 4 stage phaser pedal, the Boss PH-2 which is a 10 stage phaser in mode 1 and extends to 12 stages in mode 2 and there’s the TC Electronic Helix which is a modern, ultra versatile digital phaser pedal.

What I call the standard swirl setting is probably the easiest and one of the most common ways of using a phaser pedal, you can take almost any guitar part clean, distorted, chords or lead playing and it just adds this very nice swirling type movement to the sound. Works great for guitar parts that otherwise might just be in danger of sounding a bit boring and forgettable, this setting injects a bit of character.

Overall I don’t prefer any particular amount of stages to a phaser, it all comes down to the sound you’re trying to get. With this standard swirl sound I think you can use any amount of stages really but with the other examples I'll reference the amount of stages I’ve chosen and why, so having a good understanding of it will help you find your favourite settings more easily.

You can set a phaser to perform a nice filter sweep type effect, it can sound a bit cliche sometimes but it can also sound innovative and modern too. It all depends on the type of guitar part you’re using it with. For this sound I generally prefer using a phaser with a lot of stages like the PH-2, setting the resonance or feedback control quite high is good, that feeds the out of phase signals through the pedal again and gives a more intense liquid type sound to everything and set the depth quite high so there’s a good amount of depth to the sweep. You can add distortion and delay to move into more synth type sounds. I prefer this setting with the phaser after drive because it sounds smoother and has a more extreme phasing sound.

This next setting is all about getting a more vowel like tone from the guitar. Great if there’s a guitar part that might otherwise be a bit dull and boring and it helps bring the guitar right to the forefront of the mix with it’s unusual tone. I had better results with using slightly more stages, I’ll use mode 1 on the PH-2 for this but the main trick is to turn up the resonance and turn down the depth.

Phaser is used on a lot of reggae records. Lee Scratch Perry who produced a lot of the Bob Marley and The Wailers records is known for having a Mu-Tron Bi-Phase which is a monster phaser with two separate 6 stage phasers that can be set to interact with each other.

Now the key for getting this sound is to make sure you have a mix control so that you can just inject a subtle amount of phasing so that it doesn’t dominate the overall tone. If you don’t have a mix control you could use something like the Boss LS-2 Line Selector to put it in a loop with a mix control. This way you’re using it like I think Lee Scratch Perry was doing in the studio, you’re using it as an auxiliary effect and mixing it in with the dry signal.

There’s nothing saying you can’t use a more dominating phaser sound in reggae and it does happen but when I hear phaser being used on reggae tunes, this is normally how I hear it being used, just giving a subtle movement to the sound. It's a little similar to gently rocking a wah pedal back and forth but it’s more subtle than that.

Phaser is very good at emulating the rotary speaker effect used with hammond organs and whether it’s classic rock sounds like Deep Purple or more modern indie and alternative music like The Charlatan’s or The Dead Weather, a phaser pedal can give you that swirling rotary speaker effect.

I like to set the speed relatively fast. I don’t really mind how many stages the phaser has, more stages tends to add a bit more drip and click to the sound while a lower amount of stages sounds a bit fuller. I prefer this with phaser before the overdrive because if the phaser is after, it can suck up a lot of the lower frequencies and thin the sound a bit too much, especially when using an octave pedal.

If you’re getting a bit sick of the cliche mild chorus effect that we all hear so much, try this setting on a phaser pedal instead, it gets a similar result but hasn’t been as overused. It’s nothing dramatic it just adds a little bit of movement to your tone, but if you're playing chords or a riff and you just want a little bit of movement this is great.

It’s all about keeping the phasing sound subtle so I’d say definitely use a more vintage style phaser with not too many stages to the phasing so the sound stays nice and full, and put the phaser before any drive pedals so the phaser doesn’t dominate the sound too much.