MXR Flanger/Doubler

Easy? No it takes time to get used to the Knobs. You have to change the settings completely between Doubler/flanger mode.

For me it is the best flanger I ever used. (I played a lot, but no ADA Flanger yet) The flanger sounds thicker than the grey stomp (i own it too).
More like Ain``t talking about love than the stompbox, deeper fatter flange.
Quieter too. Electronically the rack flanger/doubler is! different from the stompbox!.
Put a momentary switch in for switching the flanger in for the short moments you use it (especally VH sounds!).I use it with an ENGL Savage and a marshall JMP, Peavey wolfgang and Ibanez guitars.

I bought mine for 25 bucks, there was a bad soldering joint, after 30 years of studio use.....
Otherwise built like a rock!

It is very, very sad that the real MXR is gone.

It is good for all styles where a flanger is used. Of course it is the holy grail for VH flanging. For me it is the best flanger sound in the world. I like the doubler for clean sounds too. More like a very good chorus, too bad it is mono. Im playing for 16 years.
It makes fun. I played the other flangers (old Ibanez Fl9,Mistress, MXR stombox flanger, boss, Danelectro, rack digital effects, ....)
I would like a stereo option for the doubler and a thru zero flanger setting. This would be even better.

If you can find one, buy it.

All analog! No menus! No teensy-tiny LCD displays! Just big, fat, manly knobs, one each for Manual, Sweep Width, Sweep Speed, Mix, and Regeneration. Effect Bypass switch on the front panel and footswitch jack on the back. Also buttons to switch between Flanging and Doubling, and to "Invert" the signal. No progamming or Midi, so "patch" changes are made on the fly. But at least all the controls are right up front where you can get to them. The knobs have a tight feel so are not easily knocked out of their settings. No manual, but the controls work pretty much like any other flanger or delay, except the "Manual" control is backwards, with "Max" to the left and "Min" all the way to the right (clockwise).

I play a Strat, a Tele, and a Les Paul through an older Boogie combo with a non-adjustable effects loop. I love this amp, but it is notoriously finicky about what effects it likes. Generally speaking, digital bad, analog good. Boss pedals and the like tend to be more compatible than rack processors.
The MXR sounded very good with very little noise and signal loss, and it didn't overload when using the overdrive channel. Yes, there is the typical "wobble factor" with the flanging sound, but if you turn the Width control down to Zero on the Doubler setting it sounds like straight slap-back, no "wobble". As you turn up the Width, you can get a combination phase-y chorus-y modulation with slap-back that nails the "Police" sound. Slow, deep sweeping Van Halen sounds are also available.
Effect bypass (using a Boss FSL footswitch) was silent.

It's rack-mount and weighs about 10 pounds, so it's fairly solid. Backup? What's that?? I've got two extra cables, three picks, and a spare .009 E-string: that's my "backup".

Uh, sorry, I don't think they make these any more.

I play just about everything style-wise. Not well, of course, but I try. The MXR sounds the best on retro-type tunes ("Sounds Of The Eighties" !!!), but you can dial in subtle colors for rhythm strumming, fake 12-string sounds, Hendrix-style solos, etc.
Bigger and heavier than a stomp-box but has more tweakability. My favorite feature is actually the Mix control between the wet and dry sounds, which most flngers lack. Many different and useful tones but lacks programmability. But I still think it sounds as good or better than many modern flangers with a zillion parameters (and NO knobs!)

Not as intuitive as five knobs and four switches would have one think. Fairly easy to obtain a flanging sound, but an effective doubling sound is trickier. I pulled out an old guitar magazine that had a photo of Dimebag Darryl's gear in order to get a setting for doubling.

Not very noisy, but this isn't the Holy Grail of flanging other reviewers claim. It IS a very warm flanging sound, very musical and crosses over into chorusing. It is not "the best" flanger. The ADA Flanger still holds that title. In an A/B test (I own an early ADA Flanger - a model with the external AC adaptor), the ADA is far better sounding, more versatile and more easily manipulated that the MXR Flanger/Doubler.

As far as doubling is concerned, it's fine - nice slapbacks can be had for a rockabilly type sound. The delays are very short. Also, the delay can be modulated which shifts the pitch for more effective doubling. This aspect is a little trickier to achieve as it's hard to accomplish this without the sound becoming wobbly.

I've seen the F/D on eBay plenty of times listed as having been used by Ed Van Halen. Don't know if it's true, but it would be a good choice for someone seeking after the tones of VanHalen I.

I would not want to depend solely on this device for flanging and delays. I've seen people advertise these on eBay as needing a repair - and portraying it as a simple matter: "Just take this to your tech and it should be simple to have it up and running."

NOT TRUE. This device has at its heart two long-OOP Reticon chips, the SAD1024 and the R5101. The SAD1024 is difficult to locate, not having been manufactured in at least 20 years. It can be obtained from Small Bear Electronics.

The R5101 is utterly impossible to obtain. (Just try to do an Internet search for the chip - what few entries come up are newsgroup postings from others looking for this chip.) If this chip goes bad, you're sunk. This was my situation. Fortunately, I won an eBay auction for two as-is poor condition Flanger/Doublers, of which I was able to cannibalize one good R5101 chip for my Flanger/Doubler.

And yes, these chips do fail fairly often. To be fair, sometimes the bias trim pots only need to be adjusted for these chips - this cure will often get a non-functioning Flanger/Doubler or old Electro-Harmonix Small Clone up and running again.

Jim Dunlop ain't gonna be able to help you with this one.

I've been playing and working in repair for many years. I sought out this device to replicate some of the sounds I've heard on classic rock albums of the '70s.

Is it worth some of the prices I've seen people pay for these? No. This device is decent, has the problems mentioned and is nice to have, but again, it's not The Holy Grail. Its main attraction is the vintage factor, that's it.

I mainly use it for doubling sounds, but then again, one could do the same thing with a far less fickle and difficult-to-repair device like a Maxon AD80...

EASY TO USE

Excellent sound

Never a problem

out of business

I agree with the above review about Eric Johnsons hylandrons tone
I traded Eric for this rack mount unit it was used on hylandrons
every time he played it live..it nails hylandrons Ej used two and
split them by ear to do the wooshing house burning down tone..
I own the stage unit he used live and most likely one half of the
two used to record hylandrons..Thanks for putting up with me Eric
youve spoiled me for life..

The MXR Flanger/Doubler is very easy to use. If you know how to use a Flanger then you have almost everything you need to know. Any Flanging sound is going to sound good to someone so, the wide range of flange sounds it makes will have something for everyone. It is a very old unit, and you have to be very new to playing guitar to not know how to use it. And if your just getting into guitar, theres no reason why you should have an expensive 2 space rackmount flanger anyway. There's no manual for this thing, and I don't think it ever came with one but it's still easy to use.

My setup is a Flying V going to a pedal board, going to my Randall Cyclone full stack. The MXR is going into my effects loop with the rest of my rack which runs as: Korg Tuner, Aphex 204 Aural Exciter, MXR Flanger/Doubler, Hush Super C, Furman PQ-3, to an old Ibanez HD 1000, and finally back to my head. Almost any flanger is going to make noise. This one isn't very noisy at all, but I also have a gate in front of it so I don't hear any noise. The effects of the flanger/doubler are very strong. It all sounds great, depending on what sound you are looking for. I use the doubling feature, and it's just a different form of flanging. Overall on sound quality, I think this is the best Flanger ever. I've never heard anything this warm. DOD, Boss, Ibanez, Rocktek...they all sound like crap compared to this. They're digital and don't have any feeling to them. It's just a personal preference, but you're never gonna get a "new" flange pedal to sound like this.

To be honest with you I think I can depend on it. I don't really have a choice to use a it with a back up because I couldn't afford another one. It' gotta be at least fifteen years old, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

MXR is dead, but was taken over by Jim Dunlop, and if you own any MXR effect that Jim Dunlop doesn't make now, don't bother calling them. The tech supports there were almost arguing with me that MXR didn't make an MXR Flanger/Doubler, until I emailed them a picture of the big blue box with the MXR logo on it. I don't think that this thing has upgrades. I'd probably have to bring it to an old electronics shop and have them custom modify something should I want something done. But anyway, for this and whatever other old MXR stuff there is out there, there's probably no Customer support whatsoever.

I play heavy metal music and I'm the only guitarist so this thing definitly thickens up my sound. I've been playing for six years or so and I can definitly say that I appreciate that this was once made. Hell, I'm only 18 but I can definitely say they don't make em like this anymore. Should it get lost or stolen, I'd have a hell of a time finding another one, especially for that price, but I'd have to try. I love that it's the best flanger I've ever heard, and it blows all the other crap digital flangers out of the water. I wish it did come with any kind of manual for any info, like a wiring diagram, but I'm not complaining.

VERY EASY TO USE. JUST A FEW KNOBS AND A SWITCH OR TWO.

SOUNDS FINE BY ME. IT HAS THAT REALLY SWOOSHY FLANGE THAT MOST DIGITAL BOXES JUST CAN'T DO.

IT'S ANALOG. IT'S MXR. 'NUFF SAID.

NO SUPPORT---MXR HAS BEEN GONE FOR YEARS.

THIS BOX HAS A FEW FEATURES THAT I THINK ARE BIG IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE PEDAL VERSION. 1) A MIX CONTROL. 2) AN INVERT SWITCH. WITH THIS SWITCH OUT, THE SOUND IS BASICALLY LIKE THE PEDAL, BUT WITH MORE CONTROL.THINK VAN HALEN'S"UNCHAINED". WITH THE INVERT SWITCH IN, THE SOUND IS MORE AKIN TO ERIC JOHNSON'S "HIGH LANDRONS".3) THE DOUBLER MODE, WHICH GIVES SHORT DELAY TIMES WHEN AND IF YOU NEED THEM.