Electro Harmonix Small Stone

It's a good phaser pedal. I really liked solos with prominent phaser mixed with distortion, delay and some reverb, like Van Halen's Eruption and, specially, some from Jeff Waters (Annihilator). I firstly discovered that sound in a presentation of his Annihilator V guitar and I was intrigued by it.

When I discovered that it was a phaser and tried to emulate it with a flanger, with moderate success, I searched for a good not expensive Phaser. The most used to get that sound was the MXR Phase 90, but it was too expensive for the few occasions in which I planned to use it. I decided to look to the EHx nano series, because I had an amazing experience with a Neo Mistress.

I found this one and the Bad Stone and, since I thought the rate control was everything I needed, I opted for this one.

I am happy with my purchase, I can use it to do the lead effect I was after, to make a creamy sound paired with a flanger or to inject live into a slow distorted part. But the minimalist controls makes it not very customizable, although very versatile, since the rate knob is really effective in going from annoyingly slow to furiously fast and the color switch makes the effect more pronounced if needed. The pedal sounds very good, although sometimes it feels to subtil with the color switch off and to intense with it turned on. Contrarily to what I read about other phasers, this one doesn't make picks or drops in volume along its sound wave, at least with a clean sound and before distortion, after distortion I really don't like the sound, not only of this pedal but phasers and flangers in general.

It is a very competent pedal, but it lacks some magic that, for instance, the Neo Mistress has despite being a miniaturized version of a more complex pedal. I wonder if the Bad Stone goes that extra step from good to great. The Small Stone, though very good, is a small step away from greatness.

The small stone is one out the 3 classic phaser sounds and as such is beyond opinions. Is true that minimal sound differences exist between all successive iterations, but in this case (which I did wait for, since this black box looks killer, at least to me) is impossible for me t/o find any /difference, no matter how minimal, compared A/B to the 2017/18/19 versions.

The simplicity of controls border the absurd. Just a know for rate and a brigthness mini switch and will deliver the tones you expect, as your are used to hear in records from 1974, which is no other than the classic sound of a 4 stage phaser. Please note that both the MXR Phase 90 and this Small Stone are both four-stage phasers, which is easily distinguishable from others offering two, three, six, ten, 12 or 16 stages. In this case, more is not necessarily better, just different sounding, and chances are that the sound in your head when it comes to phasing is that of a 4 stage (think classic Van Halen).

Pedal is not dead quiet, but not annoyingly noisy. If your juice is fine, this will not be an issue. Construction overall is impeccable and the unit seems indestructible.

I am plenty satisfied with this one. With its new looks, is something you gotta have is phasing is your thing.

Compated to MXR Phase 90 this one is more gentle, dreamy, has a greater speed range, greater frequency range sweep, so a little bit at odds with the guitar tones, which are midrange-focused, but has great potential with other instruments.
It has a nice warmth to it's phasing sound that's often missing on other phaser pedals like the MXR Phase 90. If you're looking for a basic, affordable yet lush phaser this is a great option, defenitely recommended.