MXR Phase 90

One switch (on/off)
One knob (speed)

Too easy !

I use a 1990 USA Strat / 2002 Tele into the MXR Phase 90 (mine is a old script logo) into a Marshall 1959 SLP MkII Reissue (with Power Brake). Did someone say VAN HALEN..... absolutley!!! I also use a G-Major and BBE Sonic Maximiser in my live rig but this pedal is just the money... cuts right through. Distorted I don't really move the speed past 12 o'clock (mostly turned all the way down); clean, I get some cool warm shimmery tones from 12 onwards.

I sometimes put a Sans Amp GT2 before the MXR to give me a little more distortion at non stadium levels or playing my practice amp at home. The MXR has no trouble with either amp. Wonderful lush sound. Try it with the BBE...

Built like a tank...

Heavy as all crap.. if it has lasted nearly 30 years and is still this good, these and cockroaches are the only 2 things that will survive a nuclear holocaust.

N/A

I play in a progressive/rock band with the more than occasional nod to VH, Dandy Warhols, Yes. Been playing for as long as I can remember, done the whole daisy-chain pedal thing, then floor multi-fx, then currently rackmount/midi. I think I could go back to just the MXR and my Marshall - that in itself would be bliss. I can't comment on the reissues as this script one is the only one I own..saw it on E-bay in original box and warranty card and snapped it up. Maybe I paid too much for it..who knows...I don't care. I'm a VH nut and I won't sell it anyway. Now all I need is to build that Frankenstrat.....

I just got back from my local guitar store, where I compared my vintage block logo Phase 90 (no LED or 9 volt jack) to a new reissue Phase 90. My block logo is a more subtle effect (at low speed settings, you can barely tell it's on sometimes). The reissue's phase sound is much more pronounced. You'd have to compare them yourself and decided your preference. I'd probably prefer the block logo.

seems sturdy

see my other gear at http://www.duke.edu/~drw5

I can only think of a few songs that use phasers, and this would probably be suitable for reproducing those sounds. The only time I'd use it is covering Daft Punk's Digital Love, which I don't do often. So it's an effect I'll probably never use. But I'll probably keep it in case I need a phaser for something.

one knob...!??!!? hahaha

at first, i had it after the distortion. and it sounded terrible...but i also thought it was my amp. then i used it before the distortion, and i got all the sounds ive been looking for. hendrix, iron maiden, the entire dark side of the moon album, lotsa of zeppelin stuff, van halen...it sounds soooooo damn good! i keep bragging about it to my girlfriend and i think shes had enough. i love it so much. it sounds so clean and lush. creamy!

hell yeah! a tank!

no but they seem nice!

i recommend it to everyone looking fora phaser. this guy at a skips music said theres no better pedal than a boss...that digital shit. he told me mxrs arent all that good....then again, there also not all digital! and theyre hella easy to use. only one knob!! what a moron. if youre shopping fora phaser, go with this one. dont read the bad reviews, they complained about it being too coloring and volume boosting, but thats only because they had it after the distortion. it only works before the distortion!!!! dont listen to them! buy it! believe me, ive been playing for 8 years, and ill soon be retiring, buy the damn pedal while you still can!

I have a reissue that I did the 'remove R28' mod to and it's great now. Very easy to use if you just twiddle the knobs on top. (If you go inside and start mucking with things, it's little more difficult, but still doable).

The sound quality was a little annoying before the mod (removing R28), but now it's great. Very smooth, pretty subtle, but still very nice. I'd recommend removing R28 as soon as you can, because it makes all the difference in the world. Before removing it, I wasn't using the pedal very much -- it colored the sound too much and also changed the level significantly. Now I'm almost tempted to leave it on all the time because it sounds that good. It's almost transparent, just sort of constantly slightly changing your tone in a good way.

It's well constructed and I've done a couple of mods to it and still works, so that's good. Once thing -- the input circuit (input Diode) and some of the subsequent circuity is quite vulnerable to being blown if you accidentally put the battery in wrong (I dunno how!) or use an adapter that doesn't have right polarity. I did this twice and had to replace the ICs and the diode each time (you think I'd learn) Just be careful and know what you're plugging in and what the box expects!

Good. I send Dunlop an email when I fried the ICs and they told me what I needed to replace. I got the replacements from bearmusic or something in New York (from their website). I was happy Dunlop responded so quickly.

Great. I'm now using this pedal all the time. I don't use any other effects, save some distortion. This adds all the color I need.

I'm deducting a point here because there was no manual in the box (though there were instructions for installing batteries in a wah pedal!?). Hey, it's only one knob and a stompswitch, but still, they could at least have included a sheet with technical specs like current consumption and the like. A schematic would've been nice as well.

Don't let the simplicity of this box fool you...this is the best phaser I've ever had the pleasure of using. I've used the Moogerfooger 12-Stage Phaser, which has knobs galore and costs 4 times the money, and the Phase 90 beats it hands down.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I like this re-issue better than the original I used a few years ago. I'm not dissin' the originals, but this re-issue sounds a bit smoother and quieter to my ears.
A previous reviewer complained that he was getting clipping at certain frequencies while using a guitar with active pickups...all I can say is, turn down the volume on your guitar, for God's sake! This pedal runs off a 9-volt battery, meaning it has limited headroom, and it's *designed* to boost the levels at certain freqencies. My guitar has passive pickups and I've experienced no clipping whatsoever, except when I slam the strings *hard* and it happens to coincide with a resonant frequency in the phaser's sweep.

I've only had it a short time but it feels extremely sturdy.

Never had to deal with them.

Awesome pedal. My only complaint is that it's a pain in the ass to have to unscrew the bottom to put a fresh battery in.

The one I got was the display model from GC cause they were sold out and i got NO MANUAL AT ALL - not even a crybaby manual. HOW DO I USE THIS ? WHAT'S THAT KNOB FOR?

Oh..... I just figured it out. So NOW it gets a ten.

I like it a lot. Don't have an original - just this reissue so nothing to compare it to, just gotta take it for what it is which is a great, simple phaser. Dammitall, I'm not holding back - I LOVE THIS THING! It's an EFFECT and works great for that purpose. I use it on the clean channel of my puny Marshall MG15 DFX, after my Boss SD1. Sounds great to me, but not to my pesky neighbors. Pfffft - whatta they know - they probably listen to Depeche a la Mode.

This thing will survive a bunker buster. And maybe even a "Brando Stomp".

Mneh.

Are you looking for a phaser, or a stupid Korg M1 to play Doupeche Mod? Phaser - get this one. Douchepot mud - drown!!!

Too Easy

I bought a new one and I am comparing it to a 70s script phaser long ago. This one sounds pretty bad, makes me think something is wrong. Going straight through it distorts the sound and crunches at certain points. What happened to the tasty clean phase that I knew of with my original one. Oh how I wish I had that back. STOP selling these until you change it back to the original sound. The sound is junk unless you want all distortion. Even then I go with a Boss flanger before this.

I'm assuming it is decent, but mine is too new to know if it can handle wear & tear.

Duncan is great for their Cry Babys which is quality. But I have not delt with them to know this.

I play EC style rock n blues and sometimes have to play other styles to fit what is needed. I will not use this pedal in public. It sounds pretty bad with most any combo or set up I've tried. Please Mr.Duncan, go find the original 70s circuitry and put it back! Then these puppies will sell like "hot cakes". Maybe I got a lemon, are they suppose to sound that different from the original? Someone please let me know.

As easy as can be, one knob.

Fender Tele, RAT, Phase 90, delay, Fender amp. It's not more noisy than those things always are. It sounded decent righyt away when played distorted. The clean sound sounds dirty in a certain position of the swoop, and that's hardly acceptable. It's very metallic, bad transistor-like sounding. Also, there is a nasty gain when the effect is engaged. The Phase 90 does the Hendrix thing, Pink Floyd, and I can see why people sell it on eBay, advertizing it as EVH must have. Problem is, I still don't play like Eddie.
I did remove the R28 as stated on several web pages and tinkered with the trimpot. Removing the resistor didn't help in getting rid of distortion but it did make the levels between no effect and effect on more equal. Overall, it smoothed out the phase sound. Playing with the trimpot is much like twiddling with the dials on an amp: you stop when you like whatyou hear. You can adjust the effect from more midrange towards more trebly sounds. At the extreme points in either direction there will be practically no phasing audible. This way I could get rid of some of the distortion at the cost of losing some depth of phasing. It does make a great difference if I go from phaser into Rat and then amp or Rat into phaser and then amp. Having the phaser before the Rat sounds better to my ears because it provides a smoother tone. Overall it's a nice little effect but having to takje out resistors and stuff shouldn't have to be. They were able to do that in the 70s it seems, why not now? I like my effects to leave the sounds as close as possible to the dry tone. Therefore only a 6.

Played only at home but seems very reliable due to its simplicity.

No idea.

Been playing for over 20 years. Grew up in the 80s listening to Van Halen, and Van Halen, and Van Halen. I'm also into other stuff like Minutemen, Jeff Beck, Hendrix.
It's nice to have the LED and adapter input. I don't know the original script phase 90 but would be very curious regarding a direct comparison. This is a nice little effect, very down to earth and usable. If it was stolen I'd try to at least check out an original. What bothers me the most is the distortion. I find it completely acceptable if you can't have a clean tone. I always can make it dirty if I wish to do so. The coolset thing about it are probably the cheap looks. It's so retro and looks like you can throw it against a wall, pour beer into it, and it still works. Nice try Jim Dunlop but it couldn't be that hard to make an exact replica of the old version...

I was really overwhelemed by all of the buttons and knobs and levers... come on, theres one knob and an on/off switch. The manual says nothing about the phase 90. it does however, tell you how to change the battery in your crybaby wah-wah pedal??? I would give it a 10 out of 10 but i'm gonna say 9 since the manual is useless and isn't even for the phase 90.

Squier Strat --> Phase 90 --> Boss OS-2 --> Orange Crush 15 amp. it has aliitle whoosh noise to it when you are not playing but barely noticeable. The effects sound great at any setting. Many MANY people have used this pedal. When it is turned all the way up it sounds like you are underwater (in a good way), and if you turn the tone way down with the pedal turned on all the way up it sounds like an organ. You can also get wah-wah sounds and echos from it at different settings.

It seems very solid. I have only had it for a few weeks. The only thing I could see going wrong is the on/off switch. it feels a little cheap. maybe after a few years it would break but thats just me guessing so don't listen to me.

Never have and hopefully never will.

I play lots of styles of music, and this pedal is great. Everyone should own one. I will always keep one in my pocket now just in case, and you should too. It is really pretty versatile for only having one knob, but it sucks having to stop playing and bend down to turn the knob.

This pedal is by far the easiest you will ever own. One knob. Mine came without a manual, but I don't think I'll need it. Just turn the knob to the desired rate of phase, and you're off and running.

This is a review for the reissue, not the script, so take that into account. When the effect is engaged, there is no noise or popping with the switch. The only noise thru the speakers is the rise and fall of the phaser, but would never audible while playing. That is normal...same thing with chorus, flanger, etc. The sound of the effect is in my opinion, great. Lush, thick, and swirly. The only thing that I don't like about the effect, and I think others have mentioned this, is that I think the depth of phase is set too deep. From what I understand, there is a capacitor in the effect that you can fiddle with, to help with this problem. Personally, it doesn't bother me enough to go digging around in a stompbox. I'm using this effect in the effects loop of a 5150 combo. It sounds great in the loop, but I haven' tried it in front of the amp. Probably won't either. I have noticed that it does sound better with higher output pickups, so this effect might also be guitar dependant. It gets a great Van Halen phaser effect. But any setting beyond 12 0clock I think would be useless unless you are into art or experimental noise music.

Seems really solid. Metal casing, tight jacks. The switch feels possibly flimsy. I wouldn't "stomp" it. A light touch for the switch is recommended

I like this pedal alot. People have complained about a slight signal boost. That's Ok. I just use it for solos, so the boost is welcome. I've used it for jazz and blues besides rock, and sounds really good. I would buy it again. I wish you could control the depth of the phase, but it still sounds good. I've read that the Phase 100 has a depth control in addition to the rate, but it just doesn't sound as good or genuine as the Phase 90. I compared this to the Boss Super Phaser. No comparison. The Boss is very metallic, and digital. If you like the sound of "nu-metal" get the Boss. But in my opinion there are way too many knobs for not enough good tone. For a nice boost and cool tone to solos, this pedal is great.