- Published: 19 February 2021 19 February 2021
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Hello, Effects Fans!
Today we announce our new GT-100 module. It compares to the original classic 70's MXR Phase 100 phaser, as well as its recent reissue. No doubt it was used by many artists in the 70's, including Keith on the Rolling Stones' Some Girls album, and Beast of Burden in particular. As with a number of MXR pedals, there were "script" and "block" versions released. With this pedal, you can't actually tell what was inside by looking at the outside, so "script" vs "block" loses much of its meaning. Nevertheless, we offer both configurations, as well as the ability to have both versions in one module by adding a couple of switches. The original and reissue pedals (as pictured) had four Intensity presets you could choose from, along with a Speed control. We can do that, but we offer several control options that let you get many more great phasing tones out of the circuit.
The circuit has 10 phasing stages, as compared to the usual 4 or 6 of most phasers. Six of the stages are controlled by optical devices called "vactrols". Normally, the portion of the circuit that controls the phasing provides a pulsed signal to the phasing stages. That pulsing signal can cause noise in a phaser. You've heard it - that swooshing noise that happens even when you aren't playing. That isn't the only source of noise, but it is one of them. By using vactrols, that source of noise is removed from the circuit. The two sections of the circuit are connected only by the light created by some LEDs and picked up by special light-sensitive resistors. The result is that this phaser is generally much quieter than other phasers that have electric connections between the control and phasing circuits. These vactrols have to be carefully selected and matched to be most effective, which isn't really a lot of fun to do since vactrols have widely-varying specs. But once done, you end up with a very nice phaser.
The circuit and control design also results in the full range of controls being great, usable phasing. You won't get a bunch of spacey, video game sounds that are more common in some other phasers and difficult to use musically. If you don't know of Gary Hoey, get yourself over to YouTube and check him out. He loves his surf tones, and has developed a killer metal crunch surf tone. Check out his version of Wipe Out! Or even some of his metal Christmas favorites. Anyway, he's got it going on and he uses one of the reissue Phase 100 pedals.
We offer a number of options for our GT-100, but they are almost all just control options. We leave the base tone alone and just allow you to dial in more of it. Check out the GT-100page for more details and listen to Beast of Burden or some Gary Hoey one more time!
You can see the details about our GT-100 module at: GT-100. Or look for it in the Phaser Modules section under Products -> Modules -> Modules By Type.