MXR CSP-101 'Script logo' Phase 90

One knob for rate. How much easier can it get? Bummer having to unscrew the whole bottom to get at the battery, but that's MXR. Most know that, going into the deal, though.

I'm using a number of different guitars through this: Burny Les Paul Custom with EMGs, Custom Strat with a JB jr. in the bridge position, Ibanez RG, and an 86 Charvel Model 4, all through a 1987 Laney AOR half stack. I'm running it, up front, on my pedalboard, next to my wah, my custom-made volume-cut pedal, and my Digitech Bad Monkey, with great success. THIS is the phase tone I've been searching for: Subtle, with no extra midrange. This pedal sounds great with the rate set at any setting, however, I prefer to run it at around 10 O'clock, so far. This is supposed to be a remake of the famed Script Logo-era Phase 90. Unfortunately, I've never had the pleasure of owning the original, so I can't side-by-side compare. However, it IS giving me the sweet phasing tones that I have heard on albums for years that were credited to the original, so it's good enough for me.

MXRs are built like tanks. There are plenty of the old MXRs still kicking around, and I have no reason to doubt that THIS one won't be, either.

Since I've just gotten it, this is pretty much an "N/A" for me. I'm guessing I'll never HAVE to deal with them, either, at least I HOPE not!

I am a fan of 80s rock and metal (Duh! Just take a look at my rig! hehe), and play in a band that does mostly originals, with a few covers thrown in for kicks. Our sound is pretty diverse, and since our other guitarist is very bare-bones, "guitar-straight-into-amp" type, I'm usually the one to cover any special textures needed for any given song. Thanks to this pedal, the "phase" category will be well taken care of. Now, for maybe one of those Digitech Expression Factories......hehe.

Very easy to use, One knob that controls the rate of the phase effect.
1 x input and output
On/off switch
9v input

This pedal sounds great really sweet in front of an amp or in its effects loop.


P.S

This unit is a EVH phase 90 without the paint job and the script button. Trust me if you want prove check inside the pedal It says EVH on the electronics board inside.

Have not had it long so cannot comment.

Never needed them with any other Mxr products I own so no comment.

Overall this is an awesome unit great sound. Sweet on guitar, bass and a whole host of other instruments.
It does seem to deserve a 10.

But two points.

1- The on/off switch is connected directly to the electronics board so I feel I need to check the switch to make sure it does not come loose frequently. Not great but have had no problems with it yet.It has not come loose as of yet.

2- If you use a battery with this unit you have to unscrew the base of pedal to connect one. Time consuming.

Well, there's only one knob and a footswitch. The pedal itself is not difficult to use. It is slightly more complicated figuring out where exactly to put it in your signal chain, but that is a matter of personal preference.

This is the classic phaser sound. Nice and warm. No midrange boost like the newer Dunlop reissues have. Doesn't overtake your guitar's tone either. It just adds some pleasant swirlyness to it. I don't think there's a bad setting on this thing. Everything is here from long sweeping slides to fast warbly jitters.

I've never played with one of the 70's script phasers so I can't attest to the differences, but this has got to be closer than anything else on the market. Read the first review with the quotes from the MXR rep. Very interesting.

My only wish is that it was actually true bypass, but the way they buffered this pedal is so well done that there is no noticeable resistance. However, that is why I'm giving it a 9.

Well, I've owned at least 2 of the Dunlop reissues and I finally bought this one to replace a horrid sounding Small Stone which replaced a crapped out Dunlop. But so far I've not had any trouble with this one. Because I'm a poor musician I have to gig without a backup, but I would feel a little more secure if I did have another one. I guess I just have to say a little prayer before each gig and hope that it doesn't die on me.

I dealt with them once, but not concerning this pedal (it was one of the other reissues that crapped out on me). I wanted to order a new pot to replace the crap one in my pedal and they charged me an arm and a leg for it, but they got it to me with relatively little pain. So perhaps they aren't as bad as everyone seems to think they are on here.

I cover a lot of ground stylistically and I've heard this pedal (or one very similar to it) on nearly every style of music and nearly every instrument to good effect. It's a great way to spice up a drab tone. I've tried a lot of different phasers and this is the only one I've been completely pleased with. I would only replace this pedal with another one just like it.

Quite possibly the easiest to use pedal in exitence. 1 knob and a on/off switch and that's it! Very easy to get an amazing sound out of.

My setup (in a nutshell) is:
ESP MII Neck Through w/ dual EMG 81 pickups -> Korg DTR-2000 Tuner -> Dunlop Rack Wah 2SR -> ISP Decimator Noise Supressor Channel 1 -> Mesa Boogie Triaxis Preamp (with ISP Decimator Channel 2 in FX Loop) -> DOD 31 band graphic EQ -> Digital Music GCX Guitar Audio Switcher (MXR Script Phase 90 is in loop 6 and it wired before the preamp and after the rack wah) -> Mesa Boogie 290 Power amp -> Marshall 1960AV Cab

I've owned several Phasers/Phase Shifters over the years, mostly from Boss and MXR. I've always chased Eddie Van Halen's Phase Sound.

The Boss simply couldn't come close though you could get some interesting sounds out of it.

The MXR Phase 90 was good and just as easy to use but the sound wasn't right. I did the R28 mod and it still wasn't quite right.

Then on to the MXR EVH Phase 90. This must give me the sound I'm looking for, right? Nope. It was very close and the "Script" switch is a nice add on too.

Finally, I ordered the MXR Custom Shop Script Phase 90 w/ the LED. It's amazing! The sound quality easily blows away the pedals mentioned above. The pedal sounds very very full on my Lead channels and very funky on my cleans. Easily gets that true EVH phase tone!

I can't detect any noise coming from it but the ISP Decimator pretty much gets rid of any noise anyway. On the clean channels (I have the FX Loop supressor off so it doesn't cut off my notes) the pedal sounds very very clean and sounds perfect for funky type playing. It doesn't change your tone at all with the exception of adding the phase effect.

I've owned several MXR pedals and they all work great to this day and have never gave me any trouble.

I'd use it on a gig without a backup since the pedal is safely in a drawer in my rack and it's always turned on (with the Guitar Audio Switcher I choose when to turn the loop on and off through my Ground Control Pro).

I've never dealt with them before, never had a reason to.

I play mostly metal with various inspirations from many different artists of all different genres of music. I've been playing for almost 10 years now.

If this was ever stolen (no way I'd ever lose it) I'd buy a replacement in a heartbeat!

I love it's simplicity and sound quality. Compared to the Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter, MXR Phase 90 & MXR EVH Phase 90, it smokes them all in tone. This pedal does it's job fantastically. It's not riddled with different modes, parameters, steps etc.

Hands down, this is the perfect Phaser on the market and is nicely priced (especially for a Custom Shop)!

1 control - cant get any eaier than that. Easy enough to get a good sound out of it....set to about 11-12 o'clock and you essentially have Floyd's Breathe, use the same setting with tube drive, fuzz and delay and you have the Time solo from Pulse.

I bought this pedal primarily to play Pink Floyd. I couldn't afford a Univibe and this to me does the job on all those 70's Floyd songs. I am using it with a G&L ASAT Special and it sounds nice and warm and organic. It's probably not quite there for the original but it's close enough for me. It sounds great clean and doesn't seem to have that distortion problem that the block logo has when playing clean.

Solid pedal and has been gigged. No problems and don't think I'd need a backup.

Very impressed with Dunlop for one of the bigger companies. Emails were replied to within a day and customer support were very friendly.

I play 70's rock primarily and this is an ideal pedal for me. I certainly could not do without it in my fx chain and would buy another if lost/stolen.

Well, this is an interesting review for me to submit. I received my CSP 101 yesterday, plugged it in and after 5 minutes of playing,it died. I opened it and looked at the board and it said EVH phase 90. Imagine my surprise when I took the thing apart and found that contrary to my expectations, nestled inside of the old style script style box, is an EVH PHASE 90! Yup, no difference from the more expensive unit at all. Even the functioning switch is there in all of it's glory. On one hand, it's cool to get the more expensive unit but really, it's not in any way a repro of the old pedal. Pretty disengenuous if You ask me. 10 for ease of use.

Great while it worked but it does not reproduce the original Script sound as accurately as I'd like.

The jury is out. We shall see if they replace or repair the pedal.

I don't have one, but post this as a guide to prospective buyers of this reissue of the original MXR 'Script Logo' Phase 90. The information was provided by Abraham Hammad at Jim Dunlop, October 2006.

Obviously it's easy to use - one knob for speed.

Every important detail was indeed taken into consideration when our engineers designed the CSP-101. Some components have been rearranged, and the exact pc board layout has been changed to accommodate the newer surface mounted components and pc mounted jacks. Other than that, it is a very faithful recreation of the classic MXR script phaser.

The switch that we use is a DPDT, and the pedal is not true bypass. It uses a buffer circuit that is designed to ease signal loading. The buffer works so well in fact, that the pedal (when in bypass mode) will introduce the equivalent impedance of about 1-3ft of high quality coax cable (not much at all!)

MXR pedals are always in a sturdy box. It's a shame the jack sockets are pc mounted, but all the Dunlop MXR pedals are for economic reasons, as well as ease of assembly.

Abraham Hammad at Jim Dunlop was very helpful

Shame it's not true bypass, but neither was the original.