MXR Phase 90

1 nob...ok, everyone else said it. Easy, but could use some other features...but that shouldn't bring down the rating.

I play experimental (Sonic Youth-ish) tunes...sounds great. I play: guitars - Arion Stage Tuner - ElectroHarmonix Bad Stone (2 nob version) phaser (also some psuedo-ring modulation sounds) - DOD FX51 Juice Box (booster)- 3MS aToner (custom built for me, wacky pedal) - MXR Phase90 - ElectroHarmonix Big Muff (reissue) - Digitech PDS 20/20 MultiPlay - Ampeg 12R Reverberocket amp. Fits in great, Thurston Moore (and possibly other memebers) of Sonic Youth use this pedal...can get their sounds and more, so it works great!

Seems fine, I have the other phaser if necessary...but I doubt the MXR will fail me.

Never needed to contact them.

Good phaser, I had many phasers, and this one is a great workhorse! Nicde an small as well, since this pedal sounds similar to a Small Stone, the size actually was a factor (I used to own a Small Stone, great pedal as well, I just got a trade offer for this pedal first).

this is an update to my previous post in which i believe i unfairly slammed the phase 90. i said i returned it because i found that it changed my tone too radically. my experience, however, stemmed from placing the 90 after the distortion. subsequent experiments have taught me that, while the phasing effect is more pronounced when placed after distortion (i'm using a real tube overdrive and a fulltone soulbender), you get a transistory thinning of the sound which i found unacceptable. i've since purchased a reissue phase 100 and am using it before the distortion and am pretty pleased with it. some have described the sound as "watery" - that works for me. i like the 100 because there's more control over the level of effect. while i complained that the 90's effect was too strong, i have sinced discovered that - when actually playing in a band - the more subtle settings on the 100 get lost, and i end up going for a more extreme sound. so maybe the 90 was right in the pocket after all. anyway, i'm digging phasing now, and actually bought an old small stone too. the mxr has a somewhat clearer, more hi-fi tone to it, and i think that if i had to chose one i'd stick with the mxr. still, i think the small stone, with its color switch, is probably more versatile than the phase 90, as with that switch on you get a fairly extreme, chewy almost synthy sound. try stringing two phasers together - it's great! i'll set one with a slow sweep, the other with a faster univibey sound, and the sound is unbelievable. the down side, of course, is that you're going through two primitive 70's circuits at once (even when they're off!). thanks to SH for his help and advice

One knob, one on/off switch. If you can't figure this out, you had better check your pulse, you may be dead.

This pedal offers a very classic phasing sound. It's a bit harder in tone than the Electro Harmonix Small Stone (I prefer the Stone about 7 out of 10 times) but it's still a very cool pedal. I have never heard a vintage Phase 90 in person, so I can't make that comparison. In my opinion it's better than the Boss and DOD phasers, and different than a Small Stone. The Phase 90 doesn't have true bypass so unless you are using this in an MIDI loop switcher and/or a buffered signal (like me) you will lose some tone. Not as much as you will with say a Big Muff, but enough to notice. This isn't a Hi-Fi, transparent effect. If you want to hear every ounce of your original tone try another phaser or give up on phasing all together. It's a good, not great sounding pedal.

If I didn't use a MIDI loop switcher, I would not even dream of using this pedal without a backup. I have had my Phase 90 for a couple of months and before putting in my system. Twice when I went to turn it on with it's footswitch, it wouldn't go on without hitting it again. The switches on these things are complete crap. To make matters worse, the switch is mounted directly to the circuit board making replacement with a good switch like the Fulltone 3PDT impossible.

Never had to deal with Dunlop. Nice Crybaby Wah manual that came with my pedal though. How about a Phase 90 manual instead of the wah manual guys. I got the same damn wah manual with a Fuzz Face I bought a while back. By the way, if you're thinking of buying a Fuzz Face, save your pennies and get a Fulltone '69 pedal. It's a way better pedal even though Fulltone's customer service bites the big one.

I play mostly noise pop and vintage rock and roll. If it were stolen or damaged, I would probably replace it unless I could find something that sounds similar but better. Between the Phase 90 and the Small Stone, I've got all my phasing bases covered. I've replaced a Crybaby and a Fuzz Face with a RMC3 and a Fulltone 69 pedal. In my opinion, this is the only effect that Dunlop makes that can't be replaced with a better unit (I didn't even bother getting a Univibe reissue. Fulltone, Prescription Electronics and Roger Mayer already make better units). If there's anyone out there who knows of a killer phaser with a sound that's similar to the Phase 90 that's on par with Fulltone, Roger Mayer, etc. please e-mail me with the info/website that I can find it at and why you think it's better.

with one knob, its certainly easy to use. i guess i'm wishing that i could turn the effect down. i guess that's what phase 100's are for ...

i'm a traditionalist when it comes to tone, and favor vintage or reissue type gear. i'm playing a reissue strat or tele, a travis bean artist, and a les paul classic into a vibroverb reissue or mesa blue angel. my only (other) effects are a chandler tube driver and a DOD analog delay. i was looking for something to add a trippy effect, wihtout killing my tone. this phase 90 reissue has the major drawback of significantly brightening and thinning the tone. the only pickup setting i can use on my 57 reissue strat is the neck, and even that sounds thin. forget the brighter settings - no body at all. so this pedal fails the acid test by degrading a great guitar sound. i'm thinking of trying the phase 100 to see whether turning down the intensity of the effect will give back some of that expensive tone i've been working on all these years!

seems solid enuff, though as i think i'll be returning it i can't really speak as to its reliability.

agains, the effect is a little pronounced for my taste. i'd rather be able to leave the thing on and have it be barely noticeable. i play blues and classic rock, but i also have a psychedelic bent ingrained from listening to the dead for many years. jerry supposedly used the 100 - i know i never heard him getting an effect as in your face as this. i probably would have loved this when i was seventeen.

One knob for speed - EASY! This pedal is surely foolproof. As a bonus to the singular knob though, There's also a little trim pot in the circuitboard and if you turn it with a dinky little screwdriver it changes the intensity - phase 45 tones are acheivable with this. Cool. I have no manual but it doesn't really matter due to the amount of knobs onboard.

What can I say about the phase 90 without repeating the words of so many others? This pedal does it all - subtle warmimg up of your tone,leslie simulation,vocal swooshes - divine. If you like Radiohead,Floyd,Van Halen's 1st LP (or you want to get that riff to Bill Wither's 'Lovely Day' spot on!) then the phase 90 is your pedal. No noise either. I use this pedal with a Telecaster through tons of pedals (BigMuff,whammy/wah,RAT,MoogerFooger Ring Mod,BuzzBox to name a couple) and I can get some seriously wierd stuff happening. At the moment I'm into At the drive-in, Radiohead,Sebadoh,Blur,Salaryman, Dinosaur Jr,and Sonic Youth amongst others and the MXR phase 90 can create the sounds of these bands. I love the speed knob up full for wobblyness and also the slow phases it does - invaluable for picking out chord arpeggios.

MXR are built like brick out houses. The switch is good from what I can gather and the LED always comes on bright as you like. The knob is rock solid and you also get a little rubber tyre to put on the knob so you can change settings with your foot on the fly - neat idea. I have a SmallStone so if the MXR conks out I have backup but as I say the phase 90 is a tough cookie.

Don't know - I've never contacted them.

I bought the phase 90 of Yahoo auctions for #45 including a free lead and battery. The pedal had only ever seen home studio use and is in MINT condition - It truely was a steal. Ofcourse its sound that ultimately decides if a pedal stands or falls and this MXR reissue stands head and shoulders above modern day phasers at this price.
An intensity knob would be interesting but then again the simplicity of the phase 90 is one of the keys to its popularity and cult status. If you need a phaser thats not complex,won't break down after two weeks,fits onto nearly any pedalboard and that sounds top notch then this pedal is well worthy of your attention ...and your cash too.

the only thing that i think would be kewl with every swirly modulation type effect, would be to have the LED blink at how fast the rate is.

I'm using this with a custom mod strat with humbuckers, a duncan in the bridge and a dimarzio in the neck. It is very nice sounding. Very rolly sounding on slower settings, but always really silky sounding. I love how when the rates all the way up, the effect isn't all garbled like on my small stone. Sounds reminiscent of Blind Melon, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Pink Floyd. The Phase 90 is definitly a dirty sounding phaser, when I strum hard on clean tones it actually distorts. The small stone does not. However unlike the small stone, the volume does not dropped whben engaged, i actually think it might slighty boost it.

I'm sort of worried about it. When I switch it on and off, it clicks very loudly, and sometimes the signal cuts out for like a millisecond. I hate this style switchs. I hate the one on my big muff, i hate it on my small stone, and I really hate it on this. But I will hope for the best.

Thanks for the wah manual...

I would not get rid of it. It has such a beautiful sound, and is so simple to use. Definitely check this one out!

Dude this thing is the bomb, I love this thing, one knob, thats it and it sounds tight all over.

Man this thing sounds so tight! Its not noisy at all its so lush and full, I'm using it through a Laney VH100-R halfstack. wiht a strat it gets that jimi feel, with a lp it sounds tight and HUGE.

Ok i bought this thing in a pawnshop for 35$ and its in pretty ok condition but it looked like it had been used, but it works Great soudns great!

IDUNNO

I play Christian music funk/fusion/rock I love this pedal soo much, if it was stolen or lost, i'de be really really mad cause i got it at such a great price! I love the way it doesn't over power my sound with phase, like the super phaser i had before, the rate knob is prety much all you need. This pedal just flat out rocks, I paid 125$ for a super phaser, my friend bought this one and i traded him with no regrets whatsoever DA BOMB pedal. LOVE IT!

Absolutely easy. One large speed knob, and an on/off switch. I dont need a whole bunch of pedals each with their own volume and eq knobs to screw up my tone, I just like something simple. I suppose it would be nice to adjust the depth of the phasing as well, but its set just right for me. And I think theres a trim pot inside that lets you do it anyway.

I use this pedal mainly with my Rickenbacker bass (I use a Rotovibe for my electric guitars). It imparts a rich warm tonality to it, as long as you keep it rather slow (speed knob). When it gets going faster it becomes more of a distraction, at least with a bass. Amongst other effects, I run a Fulltone BassDrive overdrive pedal before this in the chain. They sound very cool combined...works very well to fill in space in my progressive 3 piece band. If the speed is up with the distortion on, then things get a bit too crazy. The phaser sounds wonderful. It doesnt sound sterile and cold like a chorus or a flanger, but warm and natural. It pulses, reminding me of a leslie. One of these days Im going to try my bass through a Leslie (or leslie effect) just to see what it sounds like. One complaint though...it does distort occasionally. Strat pickups and my rickenbacker pickups dont drive it that hard, but my stock Gibson les paul pickups do. Nasty sort of distortion, not nice when you want clean phaser sound. Thats why i use the more tame Rotovibe for a guitar phaser. But overall great.

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I play quirky prog rock, and this is a great addition to my weird bass stylings. Perhaps Im just a frustrated guitarist who wants as many toys as his six string wielding compadre, or perhaps I just like the tone. Either way, this is a great little pedal, better than the EH Small Stone I ran it up against. Great sound, very usable.

the easiest phaser on the planet!

this is the best sound effect you can put on a rhodes piano.Using it in only one channel on the suitcase amp is best.The reissues sound great.The bud box script logos are better.They dont get in the way of your attack as much.

I have had a reissue go south on me after only two days.They sent me a new unit-free, no questions asked!

Jason at dunlop is your man-awsome customer service!

11 this unit makes a fender rhodes piano sound awsome!

In my post below I mentioned I knew how to adjust the depth of phase...Due to many emails, I have decided to post the instructions here.

Open up the bottom by removing the 4 screws. At the top center of the Printed Circuit board there is a little hole with a control in it. Use a small hex wrench to carefully turn this control. This control may be plugged with clear or white wax on some models. Just pick away at the wax with a paper clip until you see the hex hole. Play thru it as you adjust the control...You can hear the difference as you turn it.
Thats It!