MXR '74 Phase 90 CSP-026

One knob is about as simple as it gets. However, you can get a ton of sounds out of this pedal, so don't be fooled.

Compared to the originals, this version is dead on. All the classic sounds you want and it has the same warmth and the perfect mix between wet and dry sounds. It doesn't overpower your sound. Not noisy at all, and there are alot of sounds you can get with just one knob.

MXR seems to be a real solid product and if anything, these newer Custom Shop versions may actually be a bit more dependable than a 20-30 year old unit.

They have been real good whenever I have contacted them. They really do seem to want to make the customer happy.

This Custom Shop Phase 90 is a great opportunity to get that classic sound at a price you can actually afford. I also think it is a bit more trustworthy as many of the vintage pedals have either been tweaked by players who think they know what they are doing, or have been played to death and are somewhat fragile now. Hopefully, Dunlop will expand this Custom Shop version to each of the MXR pedals. It is worth the extra bucks.

How could it be any easier? It only has one switch. That's all it needs!

I own both the '74 Phase 90 reissue and the modern block logo Phase 90 I bought in 1999. I was never quite happy with the block logo one because it seemed to be too strong with too much midrange. The '74 reissue just absolutely nails the sounds on a lot of my favorite 70's songs. "Heart of the Night" by Poco, "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac, "Fly Like an Eagle" by the Steve Miller Band, Early Heart and many other great 70's songs. - It's all there in one awesome pedal! This is a home run. Thanks JD for bringing the real mojo back.

I hope it's as reliable as my block logo Phase 90. Never had any problems with it or anything else from Jim Dunlop.

Never needed customer support.

At $120 this pedal seems a little expensive but in 1982 when I first started playing electric guitar I plugged my guitar through an MXR Phase 90 into a Fender silverface Deluxe Reverb and was amazed at the great tone that was coming out. I thought $40 was kind of expensive for a pedal and instead got a cheaper pedal. Thousands and thousands of dollars later, I wish I just bought that amp and pedal and stuck with it. Add a '78 or a '82 Marshall half-stack and I would have been happy all my life. The '74 Phase 90 reissue is that magic pedal I should have bought all along. Don't be stupid and settle for anything less.

One knob and there is not a bad setting on this single knob tone machine.

Effects chain> Wah>Tuner>FD2>OCD>74 Script>Stereo Memory Man. Instantly after plugging this little orange wonder in I knew this is a great pedal. I have the EVH Phaser with the script button as well and there is no comparison. The EVH version is good, but Holy Crap Batman this phaser IS THE SOUND. Thick and lush. Some pedals sound great at home but in a live situation dont. Not this one. It sounds Fn amazing at stage volume.I would rate this 11 if I could.

Ive been using MXR/Dunlop pedals for years with no issues. The only gear I carry as a backup are a head,chord,strings,strap and picks. Any player should be able to make it through a local gig without much else. On tour you need triples of everything.

Never had to contact them but their website is nice

Great product at a great price. I dont know if hand wiring or hand matching parts is what causes the MOJO this pedal produces or if its the nude girls dancing around the technicians while they build these little orange boxes, I just know what ever it is IT WORKS. Add a ZVEX pedal power plate from Analogman and then your done having to buy batteries

This pedal is very easy to use(rate dial), and it is very easy to get a good sound at each speed setting. I give 9 only because there is no LED which may make it difficult to instantly tell if the effect is on when set at lowest rate (I actually like no LED, it is an authentic reproduction).

Excellent sound quality. Never noisey and not much background "woosh" unless there is an unordinary amount of high gain with no guitar signal being fed into it. This pedal works great alone or in a chain (I run fuzz, flange, and distortion before it, delay after). Might be my desert island pedal, not because it does everything under the sun (no pun), but because it produces a variety of very useful effects at every setting. With the delay set at its lowest, I get a subtle shift of phase which is great for leads, the 11'oclock position gives the classic phase of Gilmour and Page, and with the rate at its highest, I get a very cool setting, useful for adding a psychodelic twist to slow arpeggios(think organ sounds i.e. Echoes by Floyd and No Quarter by Zep). In all, very organic, warm, and never masks my guitar or hands.

So far so good, I give it high marks because i do not expect any problems. Very high quality construction.

Never delt.

I've been playing for fifteen years, and for me, this pedal ranks as my favorite modulation pedal. It is tastefuly subtle, yet it never gets relegated to background noise. It melds well with delays and with my guitar playing. It is suitable for Dub, Rasta, Psychadelic, Electro, Funk (all at once or on their own) and continues to inspire new uses: strings, voices, keys etc...It is non metallic like some flangers tend toward, and it has steers clear of the pitch vibrato of certain chorus units. In all, a great, timeless effect.

Easy as one knob.

I don't know how to describe it better than " there's nothing better out there". Sounds like the old days all over again. The real deal.

Good so far.

Hope I won't need it.

Well, nothing is perfect, although this pedal is close. Ya know it all comes down to what sounds good to YOU. I think this pedal is great...you might not. But in my not so humble opinion, if you want classic/musical phasing, look no further. If you wanna twiddle knobs, look elswhere.

Plug it in and fire away - only one knob to deal with which is simplicity at it's best.

Perfect!! I've gone through a few phasers and usually resided to shoving them in a drawer and forgetting about them. Not this one!
My initial test was through the clean channel of my modded TSL100 + 1960AV quad. The sound was very thick and just different enough to ear a place on my pedal board next to my Mojo Vibe. I have yet to try an original Phase 90 from the mid 70's but I was very happy with the sound. Switching over the dirty channel, some delay in the loop and my OCD as a boost - i was in old school rock heaven! fudging my way through some VH & hendrix licks were insanely easy and added a nice depth to the sound. Wasn't to fussed on using the phaser with the speed up high, much prefered to have the speed set at 9 o'clock or lower. Dunlop finally made a good phaser!

When i first got my hands on it I was thinking it would be lighter than it was. Very solid. The switch is going & a 3PDT switch is going in (Im running it before a fuzz)

Bought from Tonefactor.com
Great guys to deal with and they shipped to me really quick

Yeh i know i've been throwing 10's like it's going out of fashion. it's just that this pedal has put a big smile on my face where others have just conjured up a 'meh'

Definitely take this one for a test if your looking at a phaser.

Very simple to use, one knob! I love the simplicity of this design. The original was always so popular because it delivered one exceptionally musical phase, so you didn't need others. The Phase 100, with all the buttons, can get close to this phase but it's still to deep sounding, too effected. This one is just right.

I was excited by its release and it is very nice sounding, but I disagree with those that say this sounds the same, as good or better than the original Bud box Phase 90's. I own three originals, a '73(the earliest I've found), '74 and '75. All are Bud boxes and all of them sound better than this custom shop reissue. While the custom shop is the closest yet to the originals, the old ones are sweeter and more musical. I don't know what it is with good vintage gear but it almost always sounds better, certainly more musical typically. The new one seems to not have the little bit of magical overdrive the originals have, and it has less of that three-dimensional quality in the phase effect as found in the originals. I gave it an 8 because it does sound good just not as good as the old ones, which I would rate a 10.

Built well and feels sturdy with solid switching. My old ones are still going strong so I expect this one will too.

Never dealt with MXR(defunct anyway), now Dunlop owns the brand, I haven't been in a position to test them, so I can't say.

I've been around this stuff for a long time, 30+ years. I've had, and friends have had all sorts of gear: guitars, amps, pedals...some of which I wish I could have back. I mostly play with older equipment: '65 Strat, '66 Tele, '64 SG, '58 reissue Les Paul, into: '69 Marshall plexi, '56 and '61 Bassmans, '57 Deluxe, '67 Deluxe Reverb, '68 Super Reverb, '55 Gibson GA-30. Pedals of all sorts, many boutique, George L's cables. This pedal is good for what it is but does not nail or surpass the Bud box sound. I can't see keeping this, it just doesn't get THE sound that I get out of the originals, which to my and my friends ears sound more musical and that's what it's all about in the end.

Very straightforward. I knob & thats it

My guitars vary, Les Pauls & Strats , so humbuckers& single coils.
Zero noise , I cant detect loss of signal when disengaged so not sure a True Bypass is needed.

Spoke with Dunlop to get some advice as I heard the EVH model did have a problem when disengaged . I didnt know this Custom shop model existed I only knew of the other Script re-issue, so when I found out they had made a Custom shop model decided that was the one to go with.

Compared to the original its IMO as good if not better ( silent )
I recently sold my original as it had developed problems, it was purchased new in the mid 70's & lasted me 30+ years so cant ask for more than that. I was sad about selling but had a good offer for it & now feel over the moon happy because this re-issue nails it.

Favourite artists....I have quite a few
early Van Halen turn the dial to 9'oclock
Ritchie Blackmores " Catch the Rainbow" 12 o'clock
Physical Graffitti/ Prescence era Zeppelin
Jimi Hendrix.....
all there & easy to tap into

I have a couple of quality valve amps & some digital equipment, sounds great with all of them. Rich , phased tones just like the original

The one thing that I did notice & this may be due to my vintage Phase 90 developing problems , is that the 74' Custom shop doesnt colour the signal or dirty it up at all. My original could add a slight overdriven quality that wasnt always there as far I can remember & certainly wasnt always noticeable. I cant see that being a negative because I'd much rather have a silent pedal in the chain than one that creates noise or colours the signal when disengaged.
I'm not an expert on vintage phase 90's & not certain if this is common to the vintage Script phase 90 If it is common, perhaps for others this aspect may be a negative.

I've spent a fortune on quality cables ( Evidence Audio ) , amps , guitars etc.to achieved a pure signal so for me its a positive & an improvement on the original..

Yes I would be , but in any live situation its an idea to have some form of backup
Personally I'm thinking of buying a 2nd one just in case they decide to stop making them
My original lasted 30+ years before any problem developed
I cant really rate it as I've only used it for 3 weeks
No problem so far

Excellent. Spoke with Abraham in Tech support, & Derek who emailed me with info,, Very helpful & professional. Wanted feedback on the new one. Took on board a suggestion/ minor criticism in regard to the pedal.

Very hard not to give the pedal a 10 because they have re created this pedal exactlty...even down to the cosmetics
My only minor critisism is that its soley powered by a 9 volt battery.
Personally I think they were right in keeping it that way as its cosmetically identical to the original which I love.
The thinking behind this re-issue was to keep it as accurate to the original as possible & therefore its purely battery powered.
My suggestion was that they create a tiny hole where the baseplate meets the body on the lower left or lower right corner, which would enable the user to run in a battery clip attatchment from 9 volt power supply. The tiny hole being a discreet modification that wasnt noticeable.
I created this access hole myself in 2 minutes, so easy enough to mod it yourself with a tiny round metal file.
I'm giving it a 10 because its exactly like my original minus the noise & I cant detect any signal loss & it looks fanatstic.
I'm crazy about it. Thinking I'll get the re-issue MXR Flanger next to replace my old one. hoping they do the same with the Distortion +

This pedal has one knob so my dog is qualified to operate it.

I love this phaser. Honestly, I haven't tried a lot of analog ones but this thing kills all the digital ones I have tested. Very chewy phase that you can sink your teeth into. It has a lot more headroom than the block letter phase 90. No volume change when engaged either.

The footswitch on mine was sketchy but I put a TB switch in it after day 1.

In stock form I give it an 7 but with a simple True bypass mod this quickly goes to a 10. Without the mod there is some high end loss when bypassed.

I was able to mod this pedal myself with some general instructions i found on the net. A TB switch cost about 5 bucks and its just a matter of soldering a couple of wires. Unlike the other current Phase 90's the footswitch is not attached to the circuit board which makes the procedure relatively easy.

If you can play with one knob you'll manage with this.

The pedal sounds as great as you would hope from a hand-wired reproduction of the classic Phase 90 of 1974, so there really is no need at all to pay silly money for rare examples of the original. This even has the foam inside and is painted in the original orange, with 'script' logo & text.

Mine is modded to True Bypass by those nice people at Perfect Rhythm Music Supply, so the buffering is gone.

I'm using a Gibson Les Paul R0 or a Fender '57 Vintage Stat into a modded Blues Junior & the Phase 90 sounds smotth and swooshy on slow speeds, and a bit like a Leslie at faster speeds.

This is Gilmour's Wish You Were Here, Jimmy Page's Achilles Last Stand sound.

All MXR pedals are built like tanks & are pretty indestructable. The wiring looks good & I'll happily gig this without a backup.

I've only dealt once before with Jim Dunlop (not about this pedal) & they were helpful enough considering the size of the company (for real service you'll need the boutique makers).

Been playing for 35 years & don't like loads of effects: I currently run Fulltone Clyde > Fulltone OCD > Phase 90 > Fulltone Mini Deja-Vibe (& sometimes a Digitech JamMan for loops at the end of the chain).

MXR got this right - one control and a classic sound - so it's good that Dunlop have finally produced an accurate reproduction instead of all the crappy models they've put out previously.