Something for Nothing: Maestro PS1-A Phase Shifter

Phase shifting is one of my favorite guitar effects. You would never know it by watching me play live or by listening to records/recordings I’ve played on. I hardly ever use a phaser in the music I play. Still, I LOVE phase shifters and spend a good deal of time plugged into them while dicking around at home.

The Maestro PS1-A is my holy grail phaser. When I entered the world of guitar playing as a wee lad RUSH was my absolute favorite band. The lush sound of Lifeson’s phaser on those first few records has always been my reference point for guitar phaser. In 1977 or so I purchased a Japanese Epiphone ET-270 electric guitar from a small mom and pop music store in Grand Rapids MI and the sales person threw in a bright orange Ibanez Roto Phase. My first pedal ever. That Roto Phase sounded pretty good but even my young, unsophisticated guitar ears could hear that there was something much more otherworldly in Lifeson’s phaser tones.

A while back a good friend of mine heard me yammering on about the PS1-A and about how I’d love to snag one someday and sometime later he purchased one and sent it to me. Bless his heart!

The Maestro PS1-A came out around 1971 and was designed by synth pioneer Tom Oberheim for Gibson/Maestro. Guitarists and Keyboard players alike took to it immediately. Rumor has it that John Paul Jones used this phaser with his Fender Rhodes on Zeppelin’s no Quarter and it certainly sounds like it.

This pedal is big. Really big. It has a threaded flange on the bottom and was designed to sit on a microphone stand. There are no batteries needed as it runs on AC. It’s very well made and looks cool AF.

How doesn’t it sound? Really great. There is a depth and an organic swirl to it that I’ve yet to hear in any other phaser…and I’ve heard a lot. It has 3 speeds activated via big rocker switches and all are extremely usable. Switching between speeds causes it to ramp up/down just like an organ. There is a bit of “tone suck” (high end loss) when plugged in but adding a buffered pedal upstream fixes that.

I own 5 phasers and they all sound good but the PS1-A is the one I reach for. It sounds fantastic. It is a bucket list pedal for sure. Who say’s you can’t get something for nothing?