MXR Phase 90

One knob(speed) and a footswitch

This phaser is outstanding. You can do a lot with it, and it sounds incredibly organic. I know someone who has an Ibanez phase 7, and that sounds like a spaceship being launched compared to the MXR. The sound of the MXR is VERY smooth and natural, and it just fills you up with joy!

This is an old model- I know it's from at least the eighties, very possibily the seventies. It has no LED display, and it's a block logo- but it's hard to believe that the new ones are worse or better or that different. This thing has held up very well. Some of the paint is scratched off, but it works like a charm and appears like it will hold up for awhile longer.

Great pedal. I'd buy another one in a second because of the reasonable price and the great sound. Buy one!

The Phase 90 is perhaps the most easiest to use pedal I have ever had. It has just one knob (speed of the phasing). I was kind of dissapointed that I didn't get a manual with it but there would be know need for one. Turn the speed down to about 9 or 10 o-clock and you get those Van Halen sounds (ala solo for Ain't Talkin' Bout Love). Turn the speed up to about 2:30 and you get those Hendrix style rotating speaker effects (ala Star Spangled Banner). Finally, turn the speed all the way up and you get those Pink Floyd underwater sounds. Another good example of the Phase 90 is on the live version of Dazed and Confused by Led Zepplin. Jimmy does a violin bow solo with his guitar and he has the phase 90 turned on.

I am using this pedal with an Epiphone SG custom. I have a Peavey Transtube Bandit 112 amp. As for other effects, I have a Crybaby, a Danelectro Fab Tone, a Boss DD-3 delay, a Boss CE-5 chorus, a Boss TU-3 chromatic stage tuner, and a Dunlop High Gaine volime pedal. The Phase 90 gives the best sound when it is distorted. There is a slight volume boost that occures but I find that very usefull for solos. As for playing it clean, I don't like it. It distortes the signal just like my Crybaby wah. Some people can find this very musical in a way bit I can't. If I want a clen sound, I WANT A CLEAN SOUND! But as I mentioned before, it's perfect for getting those Van Halen and Hendrix tones. You can get a lot of variety out of this pedal.

The darn just won't break. And the freaky thing is that my batteries hardly ever where down in this thing.

Don't know.

I play a lot of classic rock and modern blues styles. I like this pedal better than the rotating speaker simulators because the effect in this is much more pronounced. I recomend that every musician own this pedal. You will always fing a place for it in your'e music.

This thing has one knob, not very hard to use. But the sound that comes out of this bad boy is incredible! All you have is the Speed knob and the activation switch. Very easy, but great!

The sound produced is amazing. I never was real big on the Phase 90, but I tried it at the store and knew I had to buy it! I thought the one knob wasn't capable of producing a lot of sounds, but just move it and you'll get everything from a fast, fluttery phaser to a slow, thick phaser. Just great!

It's built out of cast iron and is heavier than looks. I would definitely depend on this. As far as gigging, you won't need a back-up.

I don't know

Overall, this pedal is the best phaser out there. Now, I am comparing that to the phasers I have heard: Boss and Ibanez. I've never heard the Small Stone, but I hear that it sound's similiar to the Phase 90. The only thing I have heard that I can't figure out, is that there's a trim pot somewhere in the pedal. I don't know how to access it or even where it's at. If anyone knows about it and how to adjust it, please e-mail me. I would appreciate it!

It is easy to use. There is one knob and a footswitch. You would have to be retarded, if you cant use this thing.

Currently my setup is, Fender strat or Epiphone SG into Boss oc-2 octave, TS-5 tubescreamer, RAT, Phase 90, Boss dimension C, into both channels of my Ampeg gemini 22 amp. when played clean, sounds range fom a slow sweep, that sounds good for playing reggae, ska, funk; to a fast warbly underwater sound. When distorted the unit sounds amazing when set to a slow to medium sweep, and wacky space age effects are achieved when set to a fast sweep. Note; make sure you place this unit after your distortion source it will make all the difference. The effect works well with my amp tremelo, octave box, and chorus pedal. It does not work well with a wah. Both effects seem to almost cancel each other out resulting in a weak crappy sound. It doesnt seem noisy to me. the unit will distort while clean, when strummed hard on the top three strings, but in a cool musical way. Also seems to boost the signal and the highs a bit, which makes it great for use as a unique sounding booster for leads. Heres an awsome sound I stumbled upon a couple of weeks ago; Phase 90 (set to about 10-11 oclock), dimension c on setting 4, Rat on, octave pedal on. This results in a thick engaging signle note tone, that will sustain for days.

I've had it for 3.5 years, no problems yet

Ive been playing for 7 years, have been in local punk/ska bands, and involved in experimental projects with my friends. I would defineltely buy this thing again if i had the money to do so. My favoite thing about this is the slow sweep you get, when playing through heavy distortion, it is such a pleasing sound to the ears that I never want to turn it off, I cant think of anything I dislike about this except that its hard to stomp on with bare feet. It makes me want to play so in that respect it helps me make music.

This phaser is extremely simple to use. It's very easy to get a good sound out of it, there's just one knob(speed). You don't need a manual for it, at least Dunlop thinks so(they sent me a generic dunlop brochure telling me how to use a crybaby).

My setup is: Squier Strat into crybaby->boss od/dist.->phase 90->Fender Blues Jr. amp. From this pedal I can't really detect any noise at all and the actual phasing this pedal does is awesome. For $70, this is the best bang for your buck when it comes to phasers. You can get Rush, Pink Floyd, and Van Halen sounds out of this pedal. It's very versatile and has wonderful tone characteristics.

The Phase 90 is VERY reliable. The casing is a big chunk of metal. I don't know if it eats batteries because I use AC power supplies with all my pedals, but I would gig with it without a backup(If I gigged).

I don't know about Dunlop customer support. My Crybaby and Phase 90 are fairly new pedals, hopefully I'll never need Dunlop's help on anything.

I like to play classic rock and hard rock music and this pedal is very useful for both. YOu can get a great "underwater sound" with the speed turned up(think Pink Floyd's "Echoes"), or with the knob turned lower you can imitats Rush and Van Halen all day long(like I said before). Overall, this pedal suits my needs and it was the cheapest phaser I saw when I was looking for one. But don't let the price fool you, the tone and phase that comes out of this pedal are awesome.

Too easy! This thing has one speed control and that's it! It does have a trim pot on the circuit board but I haven't touched that yet.

This thing sounds really nice. I like it with the speed up half way. I just bought it a couple days ago so I haven't had a lot of time to mess with it. but it's so simple that you can check out all the sounds in a couple hours of playing. When you get sick of the sound or if you don't find what you are looking for then open it up and mess with the trim pot. I like this pedal. It has a cool sound. I haven't tried any other phase pedals so I cant rate it against the competition but for me this pedal is great!

This thing is very solid. I'm sure it will be around for years.Just look at all the old school beat up phase 90s and 45s that still work! I opened it up and they pack a lot of stuff into that little orange case. And it's pretty neat work inside too.

I have never contacted them.

I play hardcore and punk music. I play a tele into my pedals and then into a crate VC5212. My pedals go like this. crybaby wah-Boss DS1-Big Muff-Dod grunge-Phase 90-Danelectro cool cat-Dano Dan Echo. This pedal is a nice addition to my board. I am playing with it tuned to D and I wonder how it would sound if I down tuned to B! That would be something! I like this pedal. I like the simplicity of it. One Knob to mess with. I'm the kind of guy that sets it and forgets it. I hate messing with knobs. I rather play music. This is a high qualitly pedal and I'm very glad I got it.

How hard can one knob be to operate? I have an original script phase 90 from the first batch. I bought it on 48th St. in NYC when it first came out. Last year I found another one in mint condition. Dueling script phase 90's. It's simple to use......plug in and play. Eddie Van Halen loves these things too.
The original Phase 90's had the word BUD embossed on the inside of the bottom plate. Bud was the supplier of the actual fx casings.
*********ALERT!!!!!! SOME GREEDY DEALERS JACK UP THE PRICE ON THE ORIGINAL BUD UNITS....look around, I bought my 2nd Bud Script Phase 90 for $40.00 from a music store ( if I bought a block MXR Distortion + at $40.00 too......COOLIO!!!!)

I'm using this with a white 35th anniversary Marshall 1987 halfstack,white and regular re-issue Bluesbreakers, Marshall TSL 100 halfstack, JTM 30 Combo with JTM extention cabinet, Groove Tubes Soul O 75, Legend Super Lead 50 with Marshall 1936 cabinet, various Les Pauls, 335's, Strats and Tele's.
The sound is warm and analog. It seems to favor tube amps. It does distort but in a musical way. According to Keith Barr and Terry Sherwood," the phase 90 achieved its notch position variation through the use of FETs, which is a typre of transistor that has the ability to act like a resistor whose value can be controlled by a voltage. They didtort, and the second-harmonic distortion that pours out of a Phase 90 has a hell of a lot to do with how it sounds" ( from page 108 of STOMPBOX by Art Thompson.
It has that warm swishy/warbly sound and it is a pronounced strong sound. It also adds a bit of treble bite when used with a cranked amp. Very tasty with a plexi ( tasty, the lost word in todays music ). Listen to Van Halen ( he used one ) in the Roth days, Eddie was less commercial then and more firery.
Not the quietest pedal, just very musical.

I have my original since the first batch came out in the 70's.....no problems. Until I bought my 2nd one, I always gigged without a net with the phase 90. With decent batteries, fx life is long.

Keith and Terry are no longer in the picture with MXR. Never needed to contact MXR for any operational problems. 25+ years and still ticking.

As far as I know, this is the best phase shifter stomp box out there. It's simple one knob operation is incredibly expressive. It's a nice tone coloration toy.

this is an extremely easy pedal to use it only has one knob that sets the speed of the phasing. Mine was modified with a switch that turns power from the battery off so that you don't kill so many batteries. Other than that just plug it in and go

I use this pedal with a marshall 100 watt superlead made sometime in the 70's, a sovteck reissue big muff and two les paul standards one 93(with seymour duncan seth lover pick ups) and one 96 (stock pick ups) this pedal makes just about the best swooshing psechedelic phased sound I've heard(the guy at the music store said it was the best phase 90 he had ever heard I believe him, even though he could have been putting me on. slow settings thicken up the sound, fast setting are almost like a tremolo. with distortion If you don't set the speed fast(for tremolo sounds) or slow enough(for thick swirly phasor sounds) you could possibly get dizzy listening to it. One thing you have to be aware of If you are considering buying this pedal is it is not true bypass so If you are using with certain pedals (mostley fuzz boxes) then you will have to have it true bypassed(I plan on having mine true bypassed soon, so I can use it with my fulltone soulbender) because it will make your fuzz sound horrible.

I'm sure it is reliable, Mine is a script logo version Kinda vintage so I wouldn't gig with it. Just because of the possibility of getting ripped off.

I've never tried to get a hold of the company I'm not sure If the Dunlop reissues are made by the same people.

I play spacey music in the vein of space needle and Pink floyd. It is great for that, but I wish it had just one more knob maybe a mix knob. I have been playing for 9 years. If it were stolen I would scour the earth looking for another script logo version that sounds as good.I used to use a rp-10 and the phasor sounds out of this pedal are far more complex than the rp-10's and the rp's were decent. I write mostly on acoustic guitar then usually record on electric that's when I start playing with effect's and this pedal is always fun to pull out and plug in.

Well, it looks simple enough... that is until you realize that there is an internal trim pot and you have to completely dismantle the pedal to get to it. Playing with that pot really helped me get the sound I wanted, but it sure would be nice to be able to adjust it from the OUTSIDE.

Well, I gotta say... I had no intention of buying this thing when I went to the store. My heart was set on an Ibanez PH99 Classic Phase, that is, until I played one... It was too powerful- the phase would be at what I thought was the bottom of its cycle, but it would just keep on going... really un-natural sounding. So the quest continued... I tried a Boss Ph-2 which sounded even more unnatural and computerish, and a Small Stone which I thought was too weak, and had kind of a nauseous-sounding phase. I had previously owned a Rocktek phaser that sounded better than any of these. Then I tried the Phase 100 and the Phase 90. The only sound from the 100 that I really liked sounded pretty much like the 90, so I decided to save $50 and go for the 90. I never considered the pedal before because it seemed so un-versatile, and I didn't think there was a jack for an AC adapter. Well, it does have an AC adpter and it doesn't matter that it only gets one sound because that one sound is absolutely amazing! It's such a nice, rich, organic sounding phase. The others all sounded really thin at the top of the cycle and almost overdriven at the bottom, but not this one- it sounds full and thick all the way. I love it! It's gotta be the warmest sounding pedal I've ever owned! Instead of making weird new features and super versatility, MXR just took the basic idea and perfected it. If you want a point of reference, listen to Hendrix's version of "Mannish Boy" on his Blues compilation CD, it sounds like he's using one of these things with the rate set at 12 o'clock.

Here's where I'm expected to say something cleverish like "You could drop a nuclear bomb on it and this thing would keep on rockin'!" or some BS like that... well I won't do it!

Warm, warm, warm! It just makes me feel good when I turn this thing on. It works especially well complimenting my EH Microsynth, just making it sound that much weirder. Or not! It also sounds great clean, or after (never before) a nice distortion pedal. I think this is one of the best purchases I've made.

Yeah, I know, 1 knob, 1 switch and 1 TRIM POT inside buried in silicon. EASY. I give it a five for not putting the trim pot on the outside.

I have a reissue. This thing is the best...NOW! This thing never really impressed me until I adjusted the trim pot. Now it roars!! The pot controls the range of the phase and the smallest movement in it, changes the sound a lot. So, for all those unhappy with this little gem or wishing to explore the unknown, crank up the distortion on your amp(mine being an Acoustic 100 watt tube amp) until you can hear the phasing and adjust the pot to please. Just remember where it was when you started.
Thanks to the person here who mentioned that this thing had trim pot!

No problems! Should put one in a super collider and produce some new phonons(sound particles). Should withstand a nuclear explosion and hopefully your foot as well.

Bought used and could probably fix it(if simple) myself.

It's great NOW. I love it. For $30 its a great value!