Agileguy_101
Master of his Domain
The chrome jobby up top - it's my new Instruments For A New Electric Music (Infanem) Faye Sing. Supposedly it's based on the Mu-tron Phasor III, which is awesome for me, because I didn't want another Phase 90 type. Like the old Mu-trons, it's got a rate, depth, and resonance controls. Unlike the original, it can switch between six and eight stages of phasing, which both yield very different but extremely musical tones. It has an expression pedal out so you can control the LFO speed remotely. It also features a switch that goes between the slow and fast speeds. The slowest it will go is about one cycle every minute (beautiful, by the way) and can get as fast as 10 cycles a second I believe. There is also a manual mode, which I have yet to fully utilize. In manual mode, the LFO is halted, and you have control of the sweep of the phaser by turning the rate knob. You can also use the aforementioned expression pedal to control the phase shift, making a sort of "phase-wah" sound. Of course, my expression pedal is at my practice space. No matter - I'll check it out tomorrow.
The depth and resonance are extremely interactive, and let you dial in a hoard of different tones. Pushing the resonance knob gives the sweep a vowel-like character, which is accentuated when you increase the depth. One very handy feature that I have yet to mention is the balance knob. More or less a glorified mix knob, this is the key to the Faye Sing. I put mine post-dirt, while most people like phasers pre-dirt. With the balance control, I can get the best of both worlds - mix in more wet signal for cleans and back it off for distortion.
This is a very versatile phaser, but it's not a Phase 90, and it doesn't sound like it. It can cop a small bit of the vibe with the resonance at 0 and a slow sweep, but once you increase the speed a bit you can tell it's not your mammy's phaser.
Probably the most important thing is how it reacts to your playing. I've never had this experience with a modulation pedal before - this phaser works with the natural dynamics of my playing instead of just being "on." If you play softly, the phase is less pronounced. Slam on your strings and MOAR PHASE.
I'm seriously glad I got this thing. Before I got it, I wouldn't have paid the $280 the chrome ones go for. After having played this one for just a few hours, I can tell you it's worth every penny.
