Guitar for Worship

So I sold my Moog phaser. Again. I’ve had two, and sold them both. And
it’s my all-time favorite phaser. There are issues here (with me, not the
pedal). But it’s big and expensive, and I always think I can find a smaller
and less expensive phaser that sounds just as good and then I can use
the extra money and extra board space for another pedal. And then I always
end up just buying another Moog. It’s like a game I play when I’m bored
or something.

(One of my old Moog’s. And if things keep going the way they are
going, not my last.)

So I’ve been trying out a bunch of phasers, and my latest is the
Subdecay Quasar. But on Tuesday, it still hadn’t come in the mail
yet, and I just shipped off my current phaser, and the worship leader
playing with that night sends me the songs and they all have ambient
guitar parts. Of course. Sometimes I go weeks without using a phaser.
And the one day I don’t have one, I need one. That will always happen
in my life. No matter what. If I’m ever in a band that gets to open for
Coldplay or The Editors, the whole band will get sick or die, or what’s
even worse….lose their instruments, that night. (And it might be because
I stole their instruments. Not planning on it, just sayin’……if that kind of
temptation ever arose……I know myself too well.)

(The one in the mail…..unfortunately…..still in the mail)

So I take the plunge. Guitar Center phaser. Just for tonight, to get by,
and then I can return it to them with their 30 day rental…..I mean,
return policy. hehe But seriously, they encourage you to try their stuff out,
and if you don’t like it, they have their 30 day ‘no questions asked’ policy.
So I don’t feel bad…..because if I buy something from them and I play it
and it actually doesn’t sound like grossness, I’ll gladly keep it. But
usually it does sound like grossness, so I usually return these things.

The local Guitar Center had a grand total of three phasers:
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone reissue, MXR Phase 90 resissue, and Boss PH3.

So I go with the Boss PH3 because that’s the only one the kid at the
counter can find that also has a box. He tells me it’s the best phaser
ever. I thank him for his vote of confidence in my tonal selection skills
(meaning, deciding on the only one Guitar Center has in stock.)

And here’s the thing….I’ve had a black label Japanese Boss PH-1r
from the ’80’s before. And I sold it for just over a hundred bucks.
My handmade Subdecay Quasar that’s in the mail only set me back
130 bucks. And both of those are worth a lot more, and sound a lot
better, than Boss’ current phaser incarnation (PH3). And I’ve seen the
Boss ones go on   e-bay for like $40, so I figure this one will cost $60.
Oh, no. It cost $118.31. $118.31! I almost passed out, but then an out
of tune AC/DC riff coming from the direction of some kid on a Marshall
half stack brought me back. I thought the whole draw of these mass
produced pedals was their cheap prices. Obviously not! Now I could
have talked him down a bit, but it always feels awkward to do that when
it’s possible that I’ll return it the next day. But almost $120 bucks is
the street price on this pedal?! I have clearly been out of the Guitar Center
buying loop for quite some time.

(It is green. I like green pedals. Give me a green pedal with a
blue led, and the tone goes up like 50%. But it’s $118.31!)

So I buy it, amongst more promises from the sales kid that this
phaser will change my life, and it’s a new secret circuit that only
Boss, he, and the Argentinian mafia know, and how he has used
it in the songs of all 8 of his touring bands.

And, of course…..it did not change my life. In fact, it sounded like
I expected. The good things about Boss pedals have always been for
me that they are inexpensive and they are durable. And lately Boss has
been getting smart and adding versatility to them. Well, obviously 
‘inexpensive’ is not one of the strong suits for them anymore. But it is
durable…you probably couldn’t break it if you tried, and they did put a
lot of versatility into it. I was actually impressed that you could select
phaser settings from 4 to 12 stages, and that there were also settings
to make the phase shift downwards and upwards. And then there is a
setting that gives computer-type sounds ala the Moog Murf or Zvex
Seek Wah. Cool.

But the sound was disappointing. Just thin. I don’t know how else to
describe it. It sounds like, ‘Okay, effect is on’. No subtleness, the effect
just takes over your whole tone and makes it tinny. I mean, not unbearably,
but definitely noticeably. And that’s just your actual tone. The phase
tone itself was fairly tinny and digital sounding. Not hi-fi, just tinny and
lifeless. The 4 stage setting was the only usable one for me. And it still
wasn’t very warm or earthy sounding. I ended up using the pedal only when
I had to, for the Tuesday night church service, when the song absolutely
called for it.

So, if you play the PH3 and love it…….wow, more power to you. Like
I’ve said before, I like to joke about Guitar Center because there is a
ton of junk there….but if you look in the right places you can find some
good stuff. And if you’re a good enough player, you can get a good sound
out of virtually anything. Or maybe my ears are just different from yours.
But if you’re looking to buy the PH3, I’d say stay away. For the price it’s
at, you could get a nice boutique or vintage Ross phaser that sounds way
better.

So….bad review from me on the Boss PH3. It seems so cliche to give a
good review to a boutique pedal like the Zendrive (see previous post)
and then give a bad review to a ‘non-boutique’ pedal. But, unfortunately,
that’s how my ears heard it. And I really wanted to like it, too…..it
would have been really cool for the ‘mass-produced’ pedal to sound better
than my ‘handmade’ ones. But it didn’t. Not even a little.