MXR Phase 90
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: US $55
Submitted 06/08/2001
at 12:07am
by tinebiter
Ease of Use
:
4
very easy to get alot of intermodulation disTrortion-YUCK! WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT GREAT PHASE 90 SOUND I ASK?
Sound Quality
:
3
MY BUD BOX,BLOCK,AND 93 RE ISSUE DONT DISTORT LIKE THIS WHATS UP?
Reliability
:
2
THEY ARE GETTING WORSE! NOT BETTER! COME ON JIMMY!(I LOVE PHASE 90'S)
Customer Support
:
7
JASON JASON JASON!
Overall Rating
:
3
tHEY NEED TO GET RID OF THAT DISTORTION IN THE PHASE SWEEP! TOO MUCH FOR A rhodes piano. Its a classic Jim, dont let go down hill!!!!!!I mean it dam it!
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: US $69.99
Submitted 06/04/2001
at 12:02pm
by Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
10
Very easy to use, one knob
Sound Quality
:
10
Excellent sound, by far the best of all the phasers I tested. I use a Strat through vibrato/chorus, wah, phaser, delay, TS-9. I can recreate the phase sounds of evrything from Pink Floyd, to Eddie Van Halen, to Mike McCready. allround great quality of sound just find the setting you prefer and go!
Reliability
:
10
very sturdy, very depenable, battery or adapter
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never had to call Dunlop
Overall Rating
:
10
Overall great pedal, I play rock just about everything from SRV to STP anything really, Great effect, would definitely get another if anything ever happened to it, Easy to use and great sound. Would recommend to anyone looking for a phaser!
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 06/02/2001
at 12:28pm
by Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
10
I think you can figure it out.
Sound Quality
:
9
I have a newer model and like everyone else says, it puts out some distortion in the middle of the sweep. I only use it when I'm playing distorted, so it doesn't matter to me. Besides that, it's the best phaser I've heard. Their reputation is well deserved.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Haven't had it long enough to know.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I dunno
Overall Rating
:
9
I play blues, rock, metal, whatever. This is a great pedal, I like to use it when I'm playing leads sometimes. I just love the dynamics it adds. I have compared it to the boss, and the phase 100. Tthe boss pedal sucked and is worthless. As for the phase100, its not bad but I really could't tell much of a difference in the different wave patterns. And honestly, anyone who is not a musician won't know either.
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: 125 (Cdn)
Submitted 05/11/2001
at 10:09am
by Chris Gunter
Ease of Use
:
10
This pedal is very easy to use as it has one knob! Speed.
Sound Quality
:
7
This pedal sounds good from a slow phase to a fast tremolo like warble.
However the original versions of this pedal sound better.
This new Dunlop reissue seems to boost your signal and adds some distortion at certain frequencies.
Reliability
:
10
Never had a problem with dependability.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never dealt with the company
Overall Rating
:
7
This is good effect however as stated before the original ones sound better
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: N/A used
Submitted 05/10/2001
at 10:11pm
by Andrew Jadczak
Email: hangwire<at>angelfire dot com
Ease of Use
:
10
1 nob...ok, everyone else said it. Easy, but could use some other features...but that shouldn't bring down the rating.
Sound Quality
:
9
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!
Reliability
:
10
Seems fine, I have the other phaser if necessary...but I doubt the MXR will fail me.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never needed to contact them.
Overall Rating
:
9
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).
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 04/20/2001
at 06:29am
by jaqarow
Email: jaqarow at aol<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
Sound Quality
:
No Opinion
Reliability
:
9
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
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: US $75
Submitted 03/21/2001
at 04:39pm
by Ty Gerhardt
Email: tygerhardt at hotmail<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
10
One knob, one on/off switch. If you can't figure this out, you had better check your pulse, you may be dead.
Sound Quality
:
7
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.
Reliability
:
4
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
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.
Overall Rating
:
7
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.
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: US $80.
Submitted 03/04/2001
at 06:45am
by jaqarow
Email: jaqarow<at>aol dot com
Ease of Use
:
9
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 ...
Sound Quality
:
5
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!
Reliability
:
No Opinion
seems solid enuff, though as i think i'll be returning it i can't really speak as to its reliability.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
5
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.
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: 45 (English pounds) used
Submitted 02/07/2001
at 11:23am
by Ben
Email: benc18uk<at>yahoo dot com
Ease of Use
:
10
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.
Sound Quality
:
10
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.
Reliability
:
9
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Don't know - I've never contacted them.
Overall Rating
:
10
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.
Product: MXR Phase 90
Price Paid: US $70
Submitted 02/04/2001
at 02:17pm
by Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
10
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.
Sound Quality
:
9
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.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
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.
Customer Support
:
1
Thanks for the wah manual...
Overall Rating
:
10
I would not get rid of it. It has such a beautiful sound, and is so simple to use. Definitely check this one out!
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