Guyatone PS-3

Two knobs: rate and depth.

See below

Godlyke (Guyatone distributor) is great.

Announcing...

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THE GREAT 2004 PHASER SHOOT-OUT* ! ! !
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I got a whole bunch of phasers, determined to keep one. This wasn't it. I returned it. My styles are rock, metal, and
some classic rock. I am an analog snob, and I typically use Maxon
N9NE series effects.

For the shoot-out, I used a Schecter Blackjack C1, with a Seymour
Duncan JB in the bridge and a Duncan '59 in the neck. For the amp,
I used my ALL TUBE crate 50 watt combo (VFX5112). No other effects
were used in the chain. The phasers went right between the guitar
and the amp, not the effects loop. Here are the results:

Dunlop-reissue MXR Phase 100: A+, the clear winner. This is a 10
stage phaser, unlike almost every other model tried. PROS: A wide
variety of sounds, but most of all, CLARITY. Every other phaser
sucked all the treble out of the tone, and most of the bass. This
one preserved it, though it took some mids out. I was wary about
buying this at first, since everyone on HC was slamming Dunlop's
reissues. But the sound quality here is great. It handled the JB's
high output just fine, unlike some of the other models, and it
actually made sounds that I wanted to listen to! CONS: AC adaptor
jack is on the side, which is odd, and the jacks don't give a
satisfying "click" when you plug in. Also, there was no manual in
the box, rather, a Crybaby wah manual...a really lame marketing
scheme if you ask me! Wahs annoy me, and I won't buy one. If I
did, I'd test a bunch out. But this pedal restores my faith in
MXR. The BOTTOM LINE? A GREAT phaser--the sound samples on the
web don't do this justice! It's bright, and very clear.

RUNNER UP: Maxon PT-999: B+. This was a four-stage phaser, and of
that kind, it was the clearest. Very transparent, and the effect
became part of your tone. BUT, it sucked most of the treble out and
some of the bass as well. The physical construction of the box
was solid, nice "clicks" when you plugged it in. But because it was
small, I feared it getting battered about. There was only one knob,
to control the rate. The depth was, I guess, supposed to be set at
the best range. And it's hard to argue with the setting. The
BOTTOM LINE? If you want a dark, transparent, classic phaser, this
one is great! It just wasn't the sound I was looking for.

HONORABLE MENTION: Guyatone PS-3, C+. This would have been an
acceptable phaser. It's cheap enough, and it does have a separate
depth control (in addition to rate). This pedal does let a lot of
high-end through. It wasn't anywhere near as good with distortion
as the Maxon PT-999. It sounded like it was fighting the distortion.
Remember that I'm using tube-based preamp gain here, the real stuff.
Decent for clean sounds, very crisp compared to the Maxon, but it
did drop some bass and treble out. This worked okay with humbuckers,
although the JB would cause it to fizzle out when I whacked a high
note. The phasing would gradually creep back into the sound as the
volume level faded out. It was better with the '59. The BOTTOM
LINE? This would do in a pinch! It has a different sort of envelope
than the others and might be an interesting sound to have. People
are freaked out by the rubber ring that holds the battery compartment
on, though. Me, I use adaptors, so it's not an issue.

VOODOO LAB MICRO VIBE: C, just average. It really darkened up the
tone, pulling everything into the mids. It handled the distortion
the same as the Guyatone. Clean, it was not as crisp, so it gets
lower marks. It was very close in tone, and about twice the price
of the Guyatone, and so it was much less of a bargain. The BOTTOM
LINE? If someone gives you one, say thank you. Otherwise, save
your money. It's a good phaser, but not $150 worth.

DIGITECH HYPER PHASE: D-, that's still a passing grade! Yes, I am
an analog snob, but thi

Two knobs, speed and depth. Pretty easy to use, except that the
knobs make very subtle changes until you get to about 2:00 or so,
then it really starts to make a difference. The unit has a great
tone to it.

I'm the guy who wants phasing with high-output humbuckers, like
my Duncan JB. Is that too much to ask? Apparently. But this unit
has done the best job out of any so far. I would recommend that you
check this out if you're trying to play with humbuckers. It sounded
good with my Duncan '59 neck pickup, so if you can live with playing
neck for phasing, this is really an option. The MXR Phase 90 sounded
like ass, even with the lower-output '59. The Maxon PT-999 sounded
weak. This is nice and juicy, as long as you're not overloading it
by picking hard with a JB. As another reviewer mentioned, it sounds
weaker when used in front of a distorted amp (no "Ain't Talkin'
'Bout Love" with this one....) BUT sounds really, really good in
front of a clean tube amp.

The construction is weird, but it's too early to tell if it will
be reliable.

Godlyke, the US distributer, is generally very good about
answering questions.

I play rock from Hendrix to icon to Foo Fighters. It sounds good
clean for Hendrix, though for distorted, it gets weak. Still, it's
the best I've seen so far in the analog domain. I may get a Micro
Vibe and return this unit; I still haven't decided. I'm not changing
the pickups in my guitar. Even though it does crap out when you hit
a hard note with the JB, it does recover gracefully--the phasing
floats back in, and before that, there's no distortion. The MXR
Phase 90 went down like a led ballon, all "skronky" and destroying
the original tone. This unit lets the tone through, and then tries
to pickup where it left off. Let me say, beautiful watery tones
are in this, and it does double-stops very clearly and transparently.
It's cheap enough, and Blows anything digital away (tried Digitech,
tried Boss). I'm giving it a 9 for clarity and purity of tone,
and graceful degrading when it can't handle the signal. In short,
if you were thinking about buying a Phase 90, get this instead.

SOMEBODY MAKE AN ANALOG PHASER THAT CAN HANDLE HOT HUMBUCKERS!!!

In the meantime, this may be the thing to get you through.

Two knobs - speed and depth. It is very simple to get the phaser sound you want. And the footswitch found in all of my guyatone microeffects - the smoothest...doesn't even make a mechanical "click".

PRS McCarty Soapbar > Crybaby 535Q > Guyatone ST-2 Compressor > Guyatone PS-3 Phaser > VoodooLab Microvibe > Jeckyll&Hyde Overdrive > Guyatone MD3 Delay > Fender Princeton Chorus. The sound is great by itself in most settings, loses "smoothness" at the higher depth settings, but overall very good. No noise at all, and sounds good with wah, compress, and OD/distortion. The distortion waters down the phase effect a little in this chain, but not to a fault. Doesn't seem to effect tone when switched off, and level and tone are good with it on.

I've used this pedal for about 6 months, 1-2 gigs a week on average, never had a problem, and would trust it without a backup.
I'm not sure about battery consumption - I use a single one-spot adapter for all of my effects.

Not needed so far.

I play primarily rock and blues, and have been playing over 30 years off and on - consistently for the past 7. This little box gets the job done. If it were stolen or lost, I'd probably lean on my microvibe for modulation to see if that kept me happy. But only because I'd like to keep my effects chain thinned down. If I decided to replace the phase pedal, I would get another one of these in a minute. I like the clean sound, the simplicity, and the small size.

Just two knobs: "speed" and "depth". Pretty basic and simple to get up a good sound. The Boss PH-2 has an additional "resonence" knob and a two position "mode" knob and the PS-3 can get at least as many or maybe more usable sounds. Didn't need the manual.

I own alot of Phasers and I love them all. However I play a Strat or Tele-->some overdrive-->the PS-3--> a Silverface Princeton Reverb, with the Strat's 5 way switch and the Tele's pick ups with any phaser I would spend a whole lotta time foolin' with the knobs. Soooo...when I'm playing live I use the PS-3. With the PS-3 no matter what guitar or pick up I use I get a great tone... a different tone but a great tone. If you turn the rate up past 2 o'clock the phase cycle get kinda' lurchy drunk sound. It's sorta like a Hendix "Machine Gun" thing. Guyatone calls it "asymetrical sweep"...yeah whatever...sounds like some EH Mike Matthews hype.

I've had no problems with this pedal and it makes all my gigs, but I've owned it for under a year. The plastic jacks and rubber ring that keeps the battery in make me nervous...I'm using a Boss 9v power supply. Still, like I said no problems.

No contact what so ever with them...and I don't speak Japanese.

I play a screwed up, weird blues...kinda like Sabbath meets Beefheart. The PS-3 is on all the time. I always use phase and live, that's the phase I use. I would definately get another if I lost it or it broke. I don't wish it had any other features but I do wish it had a different way of putting on the back panel other than that rubber ring. I like the color...easy to see on stage. Knowing I have good phase tone in the bag helps me relax and jam. I guess i have to say that it could sound like ass with humbuckers...I don't like them and I don't own them...sorry I couldn't be more helpful with that.