MXR Commande Phaser

Great pedal from 1985, I am not sure if the guy below had a lemon, but this phaser is really, really nice.......I dont hear any " clicks"
when I toggle on and off.....Very rich sounding, and close to the humingous morley phaser pedal I had that got stollen from me some 8 years back...I can do the V-H thing on this as well as classic stones, and retro top 40......

Excellent....very rich and full.

One kunundrum I noticed is that, I find the batteries drain quickly..other that that its 22 years old, and despite the hard plastic casing, the pedal is great.

Never had to deal with MFR!

I recommend this pedal to anyone.....it just is really good, does not sound artificial like the new rackmounted muli-fx do now..it great, I play many styles and it's always part of my rig.........If you find one, I seriously recommend you snatch it up, providing its not a lemon and is working properly, you will love it and have lots of fun

Two knobs that seem similar to the potis on fender jazz basses. There so big you can actually change the settings by foot (!!!) which can be very handy!

I use it with my Ibanez JS 6000 (has splittable humbuckers)t. NOW it's 2nd in chain of my fx-chain because there was a high-frequent noise coming off it while switched on when placed after my distortion pedals- even when they were switched off!
I find that the effect cuts off high-frequencies when on. When off it's true bypass works great.
Despite all these negative points the sounds you can get out of it are quite various and warm. And it also sounds quite cool when you use distortion after it. It gives you nice feedback without totally changing the distorted sound.

I do use it in gigs without backup. But I don't know if I should!
It's the only pedal that I use with a battery since I haven't yet found a power-supply with the right polarity. And the battery has kept quite long so far: at least three months although being regulary used! And it's still working...
However, because it has a hard-ware bypass I don't have to worry in case it drops out in a gig because I do not totally rely on a phaser.

I tried to get some information about the polarity. Jim Dunlop couldn't really help me when I send them an email because they said that it was produced before they took over. But at least the person in charge was so kind to give me somebody's email-adresss who was supposed to be an expert on old pedals. But I didn't bother...

I like the fact that it has the hard-ware bypass. And I like the warmthness of the sound although a little more brightness might be better.

Very simple - 2 knobs (Speed and Regeneration) and a footswitch.

This pedal was made by MXR in the 80's, before they were bought out by Jim Dunlop. I bought it from a seller on eBay. It was supposedly new/old stock. I used it with a Strat and a 79 Pro Reverb amp. The basic sound was great. Just what I'd expect from old MXR stuff. (Is gear from the 80's "vintage" yet?) It reminded me a lot of some Rolling Stones songs from the 80's (Shattered & Beast Of Burden).

But, it loses points for 2 things. First, a loud "CLICK" came through my amp whenever I stepped on the switch. Very annoying. Second, there was a drop in volume when the effect was on. This made it too much of a hassle to use at gigs.

Have you noticed that everything above is in the past tense? I wound up selling it. It wasn't of much use to me. Maybe it would have been good for in the studio. But it didn't work in my setup. I never gigged with it.

I should also mention that the case was entirely plastic. This really isn't a big deal with me. I've used Danelectro mini pedals before and never had one break. But the Commande Phaser just felt flimsy. And the switch seemed to be about to give out.

N.A. The real MXR is long gone.

I play Surf with my band, and everything else at home. I've been playing for about 20 years. I'm constantly trying new effects and trading in old ones. Sadly, this one wasn't a keeper.