Warm Audio has unveiled two blast-from-the-past recreations of pedal classics of yore to brighten up your Monday – the Jet Phaser and the Foxy Tone Box.
The Jet Phaser is "a hyper-authentic recreation" of the infamous and most unique Roland AP-7 Jet Phaser, made famous by the likes of Sly & the Family Stone's Larry Graham. The Foxy Tone Box brings back that octave fuzz magic of the fOXX Tone Machine, a big favourite of Peter Frampton's and anyone who likes the idea of having a pedal covered in fur.
While both vintage pedals retail for big money online (expect to pay around 500 bucks), the Warm Audio Jet Phaser is priced $199, with the Foxy Tone Box coming in at $149.
Let's take a look at the Tone Box first. Here you've got an enclosure with the bypass footswitch on top, with controls for volume, sustain, Fuzz Mellow-Brite, and a toggle switch for activating the octave effect. Volume and sustain are self-explanatory, but the Fuzz Mellow-Brite knob running tones from organic crunch to a super-saturated fuzz.
The enclosure is finished in bright orange velvet. The circuit is 100 per cent analogue, true bypass, and draws 1.5MA of current. We're not sure how long the velvet will stay that colour, but under the hood the components are top quality – NOS 2N3565 germanium Fairchild transistors as per the original spec.
The Jet Phaser, meanwhile, really is something different mashing four JET modes together to complement two classic phase voicings with four fuzz/phaser combinations: bright fuzz/shallow phase, bright fuzz/deep phase, dark fuzz/shallow phase, and dark fuzz/deep phase.
When activated, output is controlled via the Jet Level control. The Resonance control operates across all four JET modes, operating as a filter control for some really out-there tones, with the Slow Rate control sets the speed of the phaser.
The Jet Phaser has two footswitches. One for switching bringing the effect in and out of your signal chain, the other, the Fast/Slow switch, allows for some truly crazy tones, as when engaged for the fast setting it ramps up the modulation to the fastest available speed, but gradually as to create a psychedelic dynamic.
You can return the modulation speed back to what you had set on the dial by pressing down on the switch again. Play a line, toggle back and forth, and that accelerating/decelerating modulation will send you for a spin. It's pretty darn gnarly, hugely expressive.
The Warm Audio Jet Phaser runs off 18V (DC adaptor supplied, or 2x 9V batteries) and draws 9MA. It is true bypass. At 10.25" wide might take up a little more pedalboard real estate, but quite possibly it'll be worth it.
- See Warm Audio for more information.
