Arion SPH-1 Stereo Phaser

It's three knobs and it's labeled what they control. Not too hard.

For a basic phaser pedal, it does the phaser thing really well. The reason I score it so low is because of only one thing. I've always read about pedals "sucking tone" but to my knowledge I've never really had one that did so too badly. This thing sucks tone bad. Put it in the chain and while it's doing its phaser thing well, it muffles the original signal really badly and is noisy. It's this way across the board no matter what settings you have it on. It works a bit better when you have your pedals up front and then put the phaser by itself in the send/return of the amp. Not sure why as it's not like the send/return is a bypass, but it seems to work better for me with my Fender amp that way (my small Vox doesn't have a send/return).

I got it used and have only had it for a month or so. No issues. I'm running it off of the battery port using a onespot chain adaptor as I didn't have any extra ports on my power strip to plug it in. The tone sucking issue was present even when I plugged it in.

Tone sucking issue aside, this is a decent little pedal, especially for the price. Would I recommend it....probably not if you're looking for something that is clear in tone. But for the price you can't really go wrong.

Very siple, just 3 knobs (rate, deep, feedback) and 1 switch - 2nd out can send direct of effected signal.

(And vari resistor on PCB)

I used it with
Fender Stratocaster Yngwie Malmsteen Sign. /'89/, Epiphone Les Paul Ltd, Epiphone DOt guitars and Fender Bassman 50 /'68/, Roland Spirit 25A /'82/ aplifires.
I used it in aplication like:
guitar >jfet preamp>L6 crunchtone>ARION SPH-1>KOD NG-08 w/RC4558 chip overdrive>exar AD-1 analog delay>ibanez DL-5 digital delay > amp.
guitar >jfet preamp>ibanez DL-5 digital delay>ARION SPH-1> amp - very nice sweeping delay when you put the repeat knob CW (delay must be moded by decreasing range of pots SR2 and/or SR3 & 4)
Sometimes I plug SPH-1 through the Korg AX5 or Line6 POD xt live.
It's not noisy and sounds good in all aplication. I think it'l bee usefull for electic piano and synth pads.
Great for reggae and dub. It's sounds closely to polish phaser named Exar or EH Badstone and very different than Ibanez PH-7 which is one of better sounding phase shifters but you can tone of electroharmonics.
It should be used with 9V DC adaptor or batery but I notice that stompbox sounds much deeper when it,s overvoltage (I connected to it 15V DC adaptor and the box still works).
It's stereo unit with 2 modes:
mod1. it can be used as a stereo phaser with 2 amps
mod2. firs out - modulated signal, second - dry signal - it can be used as a splitter, 2nd uot may be connected with tuner, othe effects and other amp.

Plastic box is not a worst thing (long-lived plastic soundtanks for example) but the input and output connections solded on PCB.
When I used It during jam it buzzed and horrible noised sometimes after stomping the switch. It should be used with carefull; placed in the pedalbord or as a table effect. I'd rather not use it on a gig, neither as a backup.
Many people use it to creative audio short-circuiting, see the mutantphaser on intelligentmachinery.

I play rock, reggae, dub, alternative and experimental music since 20 years. I own many guitars (Fender, Epiphene, Framus, Migma, Teisco, Hofner, EKO) some amps (Fender, Roland, Novanex & custom) and many stopms and signal processors.
If it was stolen I'd probably buy another one or exar each for 25$.
I wish it had a time control.

its a Phaser... how hard can it be...?

If you keep gawking at this thing for $14.99 @ Musicians Friend-just buy the damn thing...Yes its Plastic & if it Cost $40.00 or more I would expect it to be Metal but its durt cheap & gets the Job done - VERY WELL...
(If you own a Marshall stack & a PRS Guitar then buy an MXR Phase 90...if you get the EVHalen Model you will probably be even cooler...)

Something made cheaply or even from inexpensive materials does not ALWAYS equate with "Quality"...I play Danelectro Guitars & they are very inexpensive to make but they have a very Unique tone precisely for that reason...I recently picked up an Ephiphone Valve JR AMP to play my Danelectro's thru because thats Exactly the kind of low power A Circuit amplification that Danelectros sound best thru...

Anyhoo this guitar/amp combo has a very "pure" early 60's Vintage sound...I dont use distortion because I dislike coloring my tone...the Arion is a very transparent unit...I have been using this chain; Danelectro DC-59 Re-issue > Bad Monkey Overdrive > Arion Phaser > Dano Tape Echo > Dano Spring King > Ephi Valve JR. (the ONLY tone loss I get is from the Bad Monkey because it has slight compression on it but its still MUCH better & MUCH cheaper than a Tubscreamer)...the Arion Phaser sounds superb...its not NOISY like the EH Phaser...nor does it sound anything like the tone-destroying Boss pedals aka MXR 90 which are more subtle in their phasing but have that "guitar thru a Boss pedal sound"...The Arion is very quite & can take your tone & twist the living hell out of it or not - your choice...the Stereo Phasing is Suberb - I used a VOX ACVT30 on the "2 x 12" setting & the Valve JR in combination with the Arion alone & got everything from wonderful warm warbly swirly chord progressions, then increased the levels, & got mind numbing Video Game Seizure Psychedlia...I'm sure there are similar pedals but I have not heard any quite like this...

I'd say if your looking to add anything from a little movement in your signal to Mind Bending noise this is your Pedal...hell its worth the $15 just for a quite, quality, Stereo Signal splitter...

I also strongly disagree that this pedal doesnt sound "Vintage" as someone stated...it depends on your gear & what "Vintage" ie what year are you referring to...I love MXR 90's when I use my Jackson Guitar thru My Mesa Boogie.... just kidding - there's nothing wrong with that "sound" I grew up on it...but thats 80's Vintage tone...if want a Broad range for next to nothing grab one of these...sure its cooler to have an EHarmonix but they are gawd awful noisy & cost 5 times as much...

I dont care, I'll buy another one...

GREAT pedal/Very Versatile...A BARGAIN @ $14.99...just DO it!

Fairly decent phase sounds out of it, but if you're looking to change the shape of the sweep, forget it. You can only change depth and speed.

Fairly clean when kicked in and I use guitars with radically different output levels. Clips a little when the resonance is all the way up, but if I want that type of tone, I'll just use my wah instead. Set for a slow speed, when it reaches the end of the sweep, it seems to be somewhat choppy, I'd prefer it a little smoother. My guitars are Epiphones: '89 Howards Roberts Fusion III, '64 Olympic Double, and an early 70's Genesis played through a blonde '61 Fender Showman and '64 Gibson GA RVT-19 Falcon. Other effects are an Ibanez Chorus, Foxx Fuzz/Wah Volume, DOD 250 overdrive and an Arion Graphic EQ.

Plastic case, need I say more? Keep a either a set of 9-volts handy or a shielded power supply because it's a hungry little beast. Put a brand new battery in before a show, and by the end of the night it was drained, and I had only used it on 2 songs. I try to use batteries to avoid ground loops in clubs where a lot of neon signs are used, cuts down on the buzz.

Never dealt with it.

I'm in a variety cover band at the moment. Needed something for some 70's material. This will do since at the moment since we're only doing Harrison's "Cracker Box Palace" and Armeggedon's "Silver Tightrope". Any more songs than that in that vein, and I'll need to trade up to a REAL Phase pedal.

Fairly easy to use.

You get what you pay for as they say. If I had bought it for $50 I would have given it a 1 in this category, but since it was $17.99 it gets a 5. Don't expect quality phasing from this unit. If you're a beginner or a hobbyist you can have fun with it, but if you're a pro level player looking for a quality phaser and hoping to get lucky then don't even bother with this one. Save up a couple of extra bucks and get a Phase 90.

It's plastic and looks flimsy.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I'm a professional guitar player in Los Angeles, California and have been playing for 16 years.

Simple, Three controls. The rate, depth and resonance controls are simple to adjust. Easy to get that (dark side) sound.

I use and Ibanez RG570 and a Fender Strat through a Hafler Helrazor pre-amp > power amp > Marshall 4X12 cab in stereo. Very nice stereo effect. Very good phasing effects. I could generate great tremlo and phase effects like Pink Floyd, Nazareth, Queen and so forth. For an inexpensive pedal it does the job and WELL!

Depedable and yes it will be on the pedal board. People just need to remember that the (STOMPBOX) name does not mean STOMP on the pedal to get it to turn on.

Can not find any sites or places to use.

I have been in a band for 10 years and have used several effects and amps, guitars. Arion if they had customer support and housed their pedals better, would be a premire company. The sound the Arion pedals are capable of producing is well for the price of the units. I am buying more Arion pedals because they are inexpensive and produce great effects.

Controls are simple, with rate and depth, and resonance for mixing the effect level in with the signal. This allows the user to dial in effects from subtle to dynamic. Unit has 1 input and stereo outs.

Basic setup is a Carvin DC127 guitar into a Marshall JCM900 half stack. I think the phaser sounds best thru a clean amp. When used with distortion, the effect tends to "muddy" the sound a bit, but if I use a compressor, the sound quality improves. I found the pedal to operate relatively quietly, but it can distort a little if the resonance setting is turned all the way up. For the money, this pedal performs better than I anticipated.

I haven't owned the pedal long enough to comment on reliability. I can tell you that is housed in plastic and is not built like a tank. As far as I can tell, these pedals don't come with any warranty.

na

Overall, this is a good pedal for the money. If price is no object, there are better quality pedals on the market. Value wise, this can't be beat.

very easy to use, it's got 3 knobs, and a switch from mono to sterio

this pedal sounds cool for about a day or 2 and you think you've got a great deal cause there so cheap these days, well i got news for you, it's a bad deal unless you got it for like 2 cents, this pedal has like no versatility to it, the renocance (or how every you spell it) knob does absolutly nothing no matter which way you turn it so bacicly it only has 2 things depth and speed worst of all when you strum hard or just semi hard, when it reaches a certain point it gets distorted and makes a horrid noise on the other hand there are some possatives about this pedal, it's pretty durable, and it's one of those pedals where you can stomp on it as hard as you want and it will deal with any punishment you can dish out also if you mix this with some good effects it can sound a bit cool, infact on my bands instrumental song, i mixed it on the intro with my ibanez cf-7 flanger, and my echo on my korg tone works and it sounded wicked cool, but other than that this pedal sucks, i got rid of this pedal as soon as i had enough money to buy a digitech x-series hyper phase, now there is a phase pedal you can be proud to have in your set up

for the most part this pedal won't give you any crap and won't give you any trouble with traveling or electronics inside of it

over all for the time that i had it, it gave me no problems, i just really did not like the sound of it after about 2 days. you may think hey this is only like 20 bucks with tax and everything but i can assure you that is a good waist of 20 bucks, that 20 bucks could go to something good like a digitech hyper phase, or a boss ph-3 all though i prefer the digitech i'm sure anything is an improvment over this

Rate knob, Depth, resonance, Switch between stereo and direct. Very easy!

This is the first phaser i've ever had, so it sounds really good. The only con I can give is when the battery goes dead (which happens quite freqently), it goes bonkers. But dispite that, sounds good! I have a Stratocaster, an Arion distortion, a DOD Tech 4, an Arion phaser, and a Fender DSP Bullet 15w amp. My favorite sound outta' this one is with distortion. It sounds scorching! I once tried this with a flanger going a whole 'nother speed, and even then, I could hear both of em'!

I've gotta' say... This is made of plastic, so it's not the srongest. The battery cover is always coming off, but you can snap it back on. I can depend on this for sure, and I have kind of a concert setup in my basement. I gig with it down there, so I would gig with it out there!

Never delt with them.

I'd say that this is a very powerful phaser I would get one again no matter what! The cool part is the stereo feature. Plug it into two amps and it sounds like a Leslie! So, GET ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its ur basic pedal, 3 knobs - level, rate, depth. pretty easy to use. has two outputs which is cool to send to two different amps.

I play both guitar and bass, but i am more of a bass player. but when i do play guitar i use it. it has ur basic phasing tone. i am using it with a cheap silvertone guitar and amp, works pretty good. if ur not really too serious about the tone u should buy it because its so cheap and does the job.

most people complain on here about how its plastic, but dont let that hold u back. i would probably use it on stage i just wouldnt slam my foot through it. the only thing that feels cheap are the knobs. u probably wont break them off unless ur foot accidently hits them.

never had to use it. but then again u cant really find ANY information on the company.

overall this pedal is decent. if ur like me and ur really not too serious, u should buy it like i said before. since i am more of a bass player i dont know too much about a good phasing tone. but even if u cant decide, buy it anyway, its ony $20. if it were lost, i might buy it again. maybe not though because i would look for a new effect. anyway, this pedal gets the job done, maybe the not the best a phaser could but it does it.