tc electronic Helix Phaser

TC describe this pedal as 'The most flexible and versatile phaser ever' which is a very bold statement but I think they may be right.

Firstly the connections are stereo in and stereo out but it can also be run in mono. The inputs can handle high impedance guitar inputs and line level equally well which gives you a great range of connection options - not only just in the placement and ordering of this pedal in your effects chain but also in using this with keyboards or other instruments as well as for post-processing and mixer effects loops.

The three main settings from the toggle switch give you 'Vintage' which can be great for emulating phase 90 and small stone style phasing. 'Smooth' is a much more vowel like sound. The third mode is 'Tone Print' which is one of the most innovative features for effect pedals ever - if you've never tried a toneprint pedal I suggest you do. This allows you to 'beam' a configuration for the internal settings through your phone or PC or edit your own configuration through your PC.

Creating and editing your own toneprint is what truly makes this 'The most flexible and versatile phaser ever' as it is very simple to download and use and tweak to your heart's content. My only gripe with this is that there is no explanation of what the settings are actually doing it terms of how a phaser works - most are obvious but a few are not. Still, this doesn't stop you fiddling with them to hear the difference they make to the sound.

My only other gripe is that the stereo input and output jacks are reasonably close together so that two Hicon pancake style jacks will not fit next to each other, but all my other jacks are fine.

Overall, this is a truly versatile phaser which could only be made better by the addition of an expression pedal input.