apierz
Active member
- Build Rating
Here is my build of the Aion FX Quadratron which is a clone of the Lovepedal Doppelganger Twin Phaser, an optical based phaser.
I was initially attracted to this because the dual LFO mode is much subtler than the single LFO mode and the idea of being able to switch from a subtle worbling like a Magnatone amp vibrato to a very noticeable phaser effect with one switch is something I have been looking for. I have a Boss VB-2W that I love but I have two very different sets of settings that I like to use and it isn't practical to switch the between the two on the fly.
Build:
This would have been a fairly smooth build if I liked the sound of the pedal as designed, but the phasing felt too uneven throughout the sweep. The bottom was way too pronounced compared to the rest and I couldn't smooth it out no matter which settings I tried and it seemed to be lacking sounds I heard in demos. It made playing with it difficult because if my pick attack came at the bottom of the sweep it might get cut entirely and it felt like playing a tremolo with a logarithmic volume increase. My fix was to send a little extra power to the LEDs from the voltage rail through 10k ohm resistors. This mostly worked and gave me more even phasing at subtler settings. The PCB layout is very nice and there wasn't any parts that were difficult to track down.
Sound:
I was ultimately disappointed by the sound of this pedal. The dual mode was always too subtle and I couldn't find a sound in the single mode I liked. enough to justify keeping a 1590XX size pedal on my board. There's lots of interesting sounds in there, especially with the antiphase switch, but nothing that I'd use on a regular basis. I'd rather have the VB-2W and an XC Phase than try to get both sounds out of this one pedal. It's also on the noisy side.
Design:
Something about the name Quadratron Phaser made me think of a 4 color print going askew. It's simple but I like how it turned out on the winked silver enclosure.
Stars:
Five for the build and three for the Sound so I'll average it to four.
I was initially attracted to this because the dual LFO mode is much subtler than the single LFO mode and the idea of being able to switch from a subtle worbling like a Magnatone amp vibrato to a very noticeable phaser effect with one switch is something I have been looking for. I have a Boss VB-2W that I love but I have two very different sets of settings that I like to use and it isn't practical to switch the between the two on the fly.
Build:
This would have been a fairly smooth build if I liked the sound of the pedal as designed, but the phasing felt too uneven throughout the sweep. The bottom was way too pronounced compared to the rest and I couldn't smooth it out no matter which settings I tried and it seemed to be lacking sounds I heard in demos. It made playing with it difficult because if my pick attack came at the bottom of the sweep it might get cut entirely and it felt like playing a tremolo with a logarithmic volume increase. My fix was to send a little extra power to the LEDs from the voltage rail through 10k ohm resistors. This mostly worked and gave me more even phasing at subtler settings. The PCB layout is very nice and there wasn't any parts that were difficult to track down.
Sound:
I was ultimately disappointed by the sound of this pedal. The dual mode was always too subtle and I couldn't find a sound in the single mode I liked. enough to justify keeping a 1590XX size pedal on my board. There's lots of interesting sounds in there, especially with the antiphase switch, but nothing that I'd use on a regular basis. I'd rather have the VB-2W and an XC Phase than try to get both sounds out of this one pedal. It's also on the noisy side.
Design:
Something about the name Quadratron Phaser made me think of a 4 color print going askew. It's simple but I like how it turned out on the winked silver enclosure.
Stars:
Five for the build and three for the Sound so I'll average it to four.
