Popular Guitar Effect from Late '70s

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What is the term/name/device for a guitar effect that was popularly used in many rock bands in the late 70's? It's popularity is mostly found in songs dated 1978.

Examples:

Background Guitar for David Gilmour's Mihalis (1978)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djsi4Cx1BC4&feature=related[/youtube]

Background guitar (specifically between 02:28 and 03:13) in Don't Look Back by Boston (1978)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MyRuYnISL8[/youtube]

At 00:11 in Shotgun Rider by BTO (1977)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYK4ErYKnBg[/youtube]

I've been wanting to know for years.

I've never been into effects that much, but it sounds like a phaser effect.

I found a couple of videos on YouTube that explains it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lfEpWmvjtM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax9St_OCIzc[/youtube]

I hope that helps.

Phaser Effect! Thanks you, that was the name I've been searching for. The videos you sent were perfect. Thanks!

OK so that's what it is. But how does it work? Here's my guess, based on what the name implies:

The guitar signal is split into two signals, retaining similarity and phase for each frequency component. A varying time delay is used on one of the signals. The signals are then added. For a given time delay, there will be a frequency profile for constructive and destructive interference in the resultant signal. This affects which frequencies you hear from a given note, which is not a pure tone, but rather, a group of frequencies. The time delay is varied, which shifts the frequency profile, producing the sweeping effect and it's ambiguous effect on the pitch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaser_(effect)

OK, pretty much what I expected. You can make the effect less by making the amplitudes unequal, and the effect is limited to slowly varying time delay. High frequency modulation of the delay line would wash out the sweeping effect, and split the note frequencies.

Yes, that's how they work. I was the techie/roadie for a high school band back in the day, and kept the crude phaser the guitarist had working with solder and electrical tape.

Probably an MXR Phase 90 or a Phase 100, possible an ElectroHarmonix Small Stone Phaser, or other brand. There were a lot of small shops that made them with derivative names like 'Phasor' ,'Phazor', 'Fazor', etc,etc.

Phase pedals were pretty much standard effects pedals back in the 70's, and a couple of manufacturers, (MusicMan and Peavey being the most obvious) even built them into guitar amps, superseding Vibrato/Tremolo effects. . Original MXR pedals and Small Stones are still highly sought after which makes the originals spendy, but Dunlop and EH makes reissues of them that have been upgraded with LED On/Off indicators as well as jacks for AC Adaptors so you don't have to worry about batteries dying in the middle of usage.

Also, I'm pretty sure that Garnet Gillies built a phaser circuit into the Garnet BTO 100 amps that he made for BTO back in the 70's. He still produced amps until he died a couple of years ago, and aside from Pete Traynor, was one of the best know Canadian amp maufacturers. --He OEM'ed a bunch of small tube instrument amps for Montgomery Wards after MW's contract with Supro/National/Danelectro wasn't renewed.

Also worth noting is that Boston's guitarist, Tom Scholz is an MIT Electrical Engineering grad who modified most of his gear to get the sounds that he was after, hence his Rockman line of headphone guitar amps and half rack effects in the mid 80's. I don't know what he was using, but before the guitar part that you pointed out on the Boston track, the BG guitar is using a Chorus or Chorale pedal of some sort, most likely something that he built himself.

Last edited by Fogman on 21 Sep 2009, 3:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Heck, I used to have an amp with a built-in phaser...

Nowadays, you can probably find a free digital 'emulator' (virtual instrument/effect) that can do that for free...

Phasers are still pretty widely used. Cobain was a big time user of phase, flange, and chorus pedals. So is J. Mascis (Dinosuar Jr.) and Sonic Youth. I love the pedals myself, but these days phase pedals are alot more involved then the phase pedals of the seventies.

Not true if you get the Dunlop or EH reissues, aside from the fact that they now accept 'Wall Wart' AC adapters, whereas the originals only accepted 9V Batteries.

you can get multi-effects stomp boxes that do this and a lot more. Heck, you can even get a box that lets you emulate different guitars and amps (6 something...it's been awhile....

True, POD will actually emulate more than just six differant amps, it also does speakers, speaker cabinets, and a bunch of differant effects. --At the same time though it has little in common with a guitar amp, or actual effects pedals , and is basically a piece pf computer hardware.

Phaser is used a lot in Dance music along with Flange.

Phase and Flange give similar swirling/warp effects, but they work differently. Flange is the one that relies on two copies of the same signal, with a delay on one of them. Phase is something different, not sure how it works but I don't think it has anything to do with delay or signal copies. Which is why Phase cannot be put into the same "category" if you like, as Flange, Chorus and Delay (echo).

Another rocking effect type is the Leslie Rotary Speaker.

Rocking is right. I had a Leslie for a while. Sounded great, but it was a @#$%^ to lift (those suckers are heavy!...

Hence the reason why UniVibes and other similar effects were popular. FWIW, POD also does decent Lesie emulation that also simulates the time lag spin up/spin down on a Leslie