For a number of years Danelectro have been making these rather stylish looking easy to use retro pedals. I have always been rather taken by their looks, and as I have stated in previous reviews guitars sound better with effects pedals and you can never have too many, which is why when I saw this little baby in Dawson’s Music in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester going for £15 I decided why not get this one too.
So what is a Phaser then? Well below is some info I managed to gleam of the internet:-
“Phasers use an internal low frequency oscillator to automatically move notches in the frequency response up and down the frequency spectrum. An important difference between phasing and flanging is that phasers space these notches evenly across the frequency spectrum, while the notches in flanging and chorus are harmonically (musically) related. You don't hear the notches as such (because they are the frequencies that are removed); what you hear is the resulting frequency peaks between these notches. Early phasers did not provide any feedback, so the original effect was quite subtle; ideal for textural rhythm playing.” (1)
Ok so it produces a similar effect to flanging but more subtle and is ideal for textural rhythm playing…….. Yup I can agree with that plugging this baby into the effects loop on my amp and strumming a chord produces an almost watery sound with a shimmering quality. Increasing the volume on my guitar slightly increases the distortion, producing a nice progressive rock sound.
There is only one control on this pedal which controls the speed, turning it up increases the amount of notching, which makes the sound even more watery and shimmery, ideal for those moments when I am feeling all prog rock………
However these moments are few and far between, combining this baby with my Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal, beefs up the sound quite dramatically, and an evil chuckle emanates from the back of my throat, as I have an evil prog rock moment.
Combining it with my Boss BF-3 Flanger pedal produces some very strange sci-fi effects and an even more sinister chuckle from me…….. Combining all three effects and oh my god you get an amazing WWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG sound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So there was only one thing to do at this stage, crank up the volume and Play Hawkwinds Sliver Machine. The result was me and my humble guitar out Hawkwinding Hawkwind, and really evil chortling followed……………….
So there you have it a very nice little basic pedal that is highly useful on its own, and really great with other effects. Danelectro have kept the design and controls rather basic which is a good thing for beginners, hoverer it is not as sturdy as the Boss pedals in their sturdy Stomp Boxes, which is a pity as it is the only thing that lets this pedal down.
(1) Taken From Guitar Effects What They Do – (http://users.chariot.net.au/~gmarts/fx-desc.htm#Phs)
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
