The Maxon PH-350 Rotary Phaser
By Andrew Enright Pickin-n-grinnin.com Staff Writer

We recently received the Maxon PH-350 Rotary Phaser from our friends at Godlyke for review. It came to us with a reputation that preceded it, and we can honestly state that in our opinion, it has lived up to its reputation.

The PH-350 comes in your favorite shade of orange. Fortunately, the orange on this excellent stomp box is neither the garish fluorescent orange found on road cones and crossing guards, nor is it the drab institutional hue thatsighs, "This color was on sale" and adorns the state hospital day room. It's just a pleasant orange. Leave it at that.

This is a typical stomp box design. We appreciate that amidst an industry bent on winning customers with "radical" packaging and presentation but no appreciable improvement on last year's model. Yet don't let the "typical" outer coating fool you- there's something sweet inside!

This pedal does what others only promise- gives the player everything they could possibly want in a reasonably priced effect box. This is the phase shifter you've been looking for. Why? Because no matter what variation of phasing you are looking for, the PH-350 will deliver it to your door, gift-wrapped. Most phasers have controls for rate, depth and feedback. The PH-350 also has a switch allowing for a four, six, or ten stage phase shift. Combine this with the usual array of controls and it seems possible to recreate any phasing sound you've ever heard or to create your own unique sound. And, if you are a fan of rotary speaker effects then this pedal has even more to offer. The rotary effect recreates that beautiful Leslie sound very effectively. We were very pleased with the performance of this part of the effect as well. We tested this pedal against some of the most sought after vintage phasers, the ones that are no longer in production. The PH-350 went the distance.

One feature worth a special mention is the feedback control which sports a "center detent for positive or negative feedback", according to the Godlyke website here. Another way to explain this in the common tongue is that the feedback control starts at "0" in the upright middle (center detent) of the range and can be dialed to provide either a negative (left) or positive (right) feedback, or, if in the center detent, 0 feedback. Some of the other features that make this a very user friendly pedal include the following. The included AC adapter alleviates the worry of battery changes. Of course this makes it necessary to have a power source available to plug into. The simple LED indicator is a clear indication that the pedal is on or off. The sample settings as listed in the manual give you a pretty good direction to head in without tearing the wheel out of your hands.

For those interested in the ability to pan the phasing effect between two amplifiers or channels, the PH-350 offers stereo outputs, but will work just fine with one. The manual states that when both A and B are used," then A gives phase shifted sound and B gives dry sound". This is a standard by which other phaser pedals should be judged.