Harley Benton Vintage Phase

I believe this is definitely the best phaser pedal one can buy period. For me anyway, a phaser is not an effects pedal I use often and therefore don't have the money to spend on an expensive pedal I'll use once in a blue moon. For this reason, it's simply the best in it's class.

There's no way you'll get better in this price bracket, this pedal is awesome, it's made out of real metal, has a very sturdy construction and even looks great too. The great part is, it can accept a battery or DC 9V power, which some cheap pedals cannot, it can also has a much nicer knob compared to even the MXR pedals it's clearly modeled after. This pedal really is built like a tank and will take quite a beating.

Now onto the sound, in this regard it does exactly what it says on the tin, it's a phaser, nothing more, nothing less, the single speed control has a nice progressive control, from extremely slow sweep speed to way too fast, so you should find the sweep speed you need. As for the effect itself, it sounds just as good as a phase 90 to my ears, although I've never had them side by side yet and gives a great lead sound effect, I couldn't ask for more at this price.

Although there is just one thing that bugs me about this pedal I must mention, when I'm using it on it's own, or with other pedals on the same power supply it creates very little electrical noise, however I have a Blackstar HT-Metal Pedal which I use and has it's own 22V power supply and for some reason if both of these pedals are in the signal chain I get loads of electrical noise whenever the phaser is on, none of my other pedals have this problem and it occurs if the phaser is on battery or mains power. Just thought I should mention it in case anyone has a higher voltage pedal like that in their chain.

In conclusion though, this is another great product from Thomann that can provide great enjoyment.

I wasn't expecting much from this piece when I ordered it. Truth to be told I just needed a simple budget phaser with decent sound and that's what this is. The sound is very subtle and probably someone wouldn't find it very satisfying for some kind of an extreme use because it only has one knob to modify the phaser's speed. But on the other hand it has metal casing, true bypass, no hums in a pedal chain, good quality knob(s), good sound (except that "subtle" detail that I've already mentioned) and it's even more that you could for this kind of a price range.

Ok, my computer crashed so here's the basics of what I wrote last time without all the flowery details!

The sound on this pedal is very good. I have used pretty much every popular phase pedal out there as it's my most used effect outside of distortion. The sound is very warm and natural, doesn't suck the tone and the level does not change when the pedal is engaged. It engages without audible pop/click.

The top speed is not as fast as some other pedals out there but it's still a decent speed, it's also not as deep as some other pedals out there but again, what you get is more than usable for most situations that call for some phaser action! I've never really had to use the extreme end of any phase pedal as it's too much anyway.

Overall the tone is very comparable to the MXR 90 but at about half cost it's a no-brainer. And solidly built.

Just a few weeks ago I sold a very popular and acclaimed phase pedal as it didn't cut the mustard for me but I can see the Harley Benton staying in my pedal board for a long while to come.

Me: Nearly 20 years playing guitar and 15 years freelance audio engineer.