Boss PH-2 Super Phaser

Damn easy, but it you open the thing up and tweak to pots a little you can get the most of it.

Well, it's not awesome - I prefer analog for all uses and purposes. But I use mode II exclusively ahead of the amp with all controls at about 1/3 up (10 or 11 o'clock). I had to set one of the ajustment pots inside the unit to obtain this crazy thick saturated phaser sound which no combination of analog gear could produce. It's really the only awesome sound I could get out of this but it has found a way to stay in my all analog, all-tube rig. It's generally looped out, but when I need to make some serious ear damage...I love this pedal.

Never question this about Boss.

Generally replaceable with analog phasers, but that one sound I like is a keeper, though.

Three knobs and a mode switch. easy as...(insert word here)

Ok heres the thing. The first mode is the best IMHO, mode 2 is too bassy and i don't like Thick phasing any way. if i wanted that i'd buy something else. so since I only use mode 1 I'll just write a review for that. I like the phasing in this mode, it's a nice light phasing that doesn't overpower your chords. some would call this mode weak, but for me it's exactly what I want from a phaser.

I think I can depend on it.

I use this only with my clean sound. With distortion it just doesn't work with what i play. if i want something thicker I'll buy a Phase 90.

I just bought this pedal and it's my first so far,i really like it and it is easy to use but i can hear the modulation in the background really easily. I don't know whether that is normal or not. I bought it from a vintage guitar shop and i'm not sure wheather it's been upgraded.

I'm just using a small DRIVE amp. I think it sound best whith distortion and when you mute chords. Some times it doesn't sound to good but when you muck around whith it a bit, you can get a great sound.

i think it is dependable but i wouldn't rely on it for a gig whithout backup because at the moment i'm just using battery and i don't want it to run out on me.

i don't know about the company because i bought it second hand.

I think it suits the style of music i like and i have only been playing about a year and a half. I own a fender telecaster, a tennessee acoustic and a DRIVE amp. I think if it were stolen i would buy somthing differant. I really love the lime green and i don't really like the modulation in the background....i really wish it had distortion. I think it helps me write songs because it's easier to get a stong chord whithout making new ones.

Extremely Easy, its a stompbox, it's too freakin' easy!
If you can't figure it out, then maybe you should learn how to set the tone on your guitar first.

I bought it not exactly knowing how it would sound. It's the best pedal I bought, so far...but then again I love my other pedals.

I can barely hear the hiss. yes I hear the modulation at times, but thats when the amp is super loud and the distortion is all the way up.
I have a Jackson Js-1 Dinky into a Danelectro PBJ Delay, this Boss Super Phaser, and then Peavy Stereo chorus, and the into a Silvertone Vintage Amp, and a Crate 212. I can get a monster sound if i add a distortion.

I can depend on it.
If it breaks I won't go nuts..but I will buy another.

never dealt with them.

Ive been playing for five years.
I play everything, it matches anything I play, This pedal is insanely easy, and for 37 bucks its the cheapest one Ive seen in a while. I love all pedals, and this one is no disappointment. I would buy it again if broken, stolen, or lost, as stated earlier.
Awesome pedal.

It's a boss. If you don't know how to work this then you are either have a brain the size of a pigeon's brain or you're just a another newbie.

4 knobs ok!?

good analogue pedal. 'chewy' sounds unlike the digital PH-3/Phase-shifter. Sadly the mode II is just unusable for me it sucks my tone. I'm not using this on guitars - I'm a technohead and I use this with my juno2 to make psycedelic rave music (goa, acidhouse etc)
I love mode I with res half way up.

The noise ratio is a little high though but hey that's analogue for you.

built like a shit brick house

meh

I have used it for 1 year and I will never sell it. If it were stolen I'd just get another one, find the person who stole it and kill him haha! I love the green colour too, rather a tree green and I like trees cause I'm a hippy-raver.
my fave feature is the one where you forget about modeII it's useless. too thick and 'sssshky' or somthing ?

it's easy to use, but hard to get a good sound out of it.

I really don't like this Phaser. when you step on the pedal, alot of the bass gets cut off and all you're left with is a hissy, treble-y effect with very little of your original sound coming through. Mode two is almost unbearable on your ears, as it adds even more noise. It's like having an oscillating EQ pedal that goes around and around in a nauseating swirling motion, but it never touches upon any of the settings you like. The only setting I could slightly deal with is:

mode 1
rate at 2:00
depth maxed
res at 0

It's a poor man's Small Stone sound, but with very little bass and too much damn hiss.

yes, it's very reliable, Boss pedals rule.

I'm still searsing for a nice Phaser pedal that

1) allows the original signal to come through
2) doesn't cut alot of bass
3) subtle but rich

The Small Stone with mods is probably the way to go. The stock version is very watery and rich, but it cuts too much treble and has a little too mch effect and not enough dry.
Maybe I'll try the PH-1r and see if it lives up to it's subtle analog rep.

Extremely simple to use, it's a boss.

Not impressed at all by the Super Phaser. I've owned and played many phasers, and this one simply doesn't cut it for me. It's not versatile and has a very thin sound. It's unique that way I guess, and some people like it's sound - it reminds me of Incubus. The Ibanez PH-10 or the Moogerfooger Phaser, the Phase 90: these are quality phasers, the PH-2 is simply sterile.

It's a BOSS :)

It's a BOSS. I've never even heard of a BOSS pedal going bad.

I play everything from jazz to rock, funk and blues. I play on recording session of all kinds, on my own projects and live. I'm a professional musician in Los Angeles. I've been playing for about 15 years and have owned and played A LOT of effects - I'm very picky about sounds :)

This takes a lot of tweaking, at least with my setup. Still, it sounds decent when you find the sweet spots. Sounds GREAT clean or with chorus, a little more unweildy with distortion. You have to get two different settings, I think.

My rig:
Gtr: Schecter C1+ with Duncans. FX: Boss MT-2, CE-5, stored in BCB-3 along with this PH-2.

I got this New Old Stock from eBay, because I wanted to get a BOSS phaser. I bought the new digital PH-3 pedal and that sucked horribly. This is better, but it still feels like it's missing something. It doesn't eat your tone like the PH-3 did, but it's still hard to find a sweet spot that's not too over-the-top yet still sounds like something. Turning the Resonance control down helps.

Yet I still feel like there's no great middle sound that would work with both clean and distortion, the way you can throw in an MXR Phase 90. This pedal is not "chewy" as somebody put it. Yet it still makes some cool sounds. If you hate the PH-3, don't rule this one out. You can still get them on eBay, though because some guy from
Incubus uses one, every time they pop up there's 15 bids. I like this pedal. I think it's a keeper.

According to www.bossarea.com, Mode I (the one you can actually use in songs) is a 10-stage phaser (like an MXR Phase 100, and I've always liked that sound.) Mode II (the one you use to torture small animals) is a 12-stage phaser. Mode II hurts your brain. Even though the newer PH-3 has this "step" mode, and people think it's a cool noise box (said that myself, actually...) this pedal makes REAL noise in Mode II, practically unlistenable, good for making your singer shutup in the middle of a bandfight.

My wife (who's practically tone-deaf) said, "It sounds very '80s". I'm not sure what she meant, since Flanging and Delay are more '80s, but there it is, right from the people whose opinions we fear most: non-musicians.

Box
Overprotective
Start
Stomping

...er, or something like that.

N/A. Bunch o' keyboard playing wussies, if you ask me. Doh! I didn't say that. Nevermind. You didn't hear me say that....

This isn't bad. I may never find the perfect phaser. I like this one. It does what it's supposed to, and it fits in my BOSS-only pedalboard. Sometimes, when you get drunk and buy stuff on eBay, you score. I count this as a win. Five scotches, one "Buy It Now!"....

Hey! Forgot to mention! The color is MUCH better than the PH-3. The PH-2 is like a Tube Screamer green.

I'm sure you're convinced now. I still have an Ibanez PT-9, which is much more organic sounding, but a little weak by comparison. Nobody's built a phaser that makes me totally happy. In the end, this is what I've come up with, I think. The CE-5 is my ultimate chorus, though.

This is an update to my earlier review a few years ago. I had been using this pedal mostly in ModI for pretty strong Phasing. But I really wanted to capture the MXR Phase 90 EVH tone so I was going to buy one of those to do that. No matter what I tried it just was too strong of Phase tone, it needed to be more subtle to sound like early EVH. I even started using a blend box to get there which did a really good job. However, I just stumbled onto a setting that is really close and requires no blend box. First, put is before your distortion, yeah, thats how Eddie did it in the old days since he used his Marshall for distortion. Here are the settings to use [MODE I, Rate 2oclock, Depth 8oclock, Res fully counterclockwise]
Thats it, very simple. The key points are the Depth very low, almost off, and the Res turned off, and the box being placed BEFORE distortion/OD in the signal chain.

This product is very easy to get a good sound out of. Very easy to use. Thats about it.

i am using a Agile guitar into a fender blues jr. with only a couple other pedals. The noise is only heard if u put ur head up to the speaker on mode 2 and if your using it with distortion (but that isnt this pedals fault, its the distortion).

Mode 1: Warm, subtle phase that is closer to the sound of the MXR Phase 90(but not quite there). I would have bought it if it only came with this setting so thats saying something about its quality. It isnt good for any slow rising phase because it isnt really thick enough but its really good for medium to really fast phases. If u turn the RATE know all the way up it will sound like a cool sounding vibrato too.

Mode 2: This is probably the reason most people buy this pedal. It is a very trebly but thick phase that is best suited for slow phases. If you turn the RES and DEPTH knobs all the way up and the RATE all the way down it sounds REALLY good. You could use it for fast phases if you wanted a more obvious, pronounced phase as well.

Overall it sounds really good but honestly, if you want a vintage sounding phaser, you should get the MXR Phase 90 or the EHX Small Stone. Its good for what it does.

I got it off of ebay and I still think the world would explode before this pedal broke. Although i wouldnt want to risk throwing it against the wall or running it over, i really dont think it would break (not to give you any ideas....).

im not going to rate this because i never dealt with them

i play alternative rock and jazz. This pedal is a very good match for these styles and would be good for other things like reggae and blues too. i have been playing for 4 years and i would definatly buy it again although i dont think i would ever need to as mentioned before. my favorite thing about is the two different modes and my least favorite part is the extreme treblyness on mode 2 which is why i didnt give it a 10. I did wish it had all the features of the Digitech Hyper phase but with the SUPER PHASER sound quality. Hopefully that will happen with the PH-4...IM not saying im in any way disapointed though.