Aria Phase Shifter Ps-10 Pt. 2 - A two stage process

Aria Phase Shifter Ps-10

Pt. 2

 

Two Stages of Wow

I had this pedal for under twenty four hours when I wrote the first part of this blog post. Finest Guitar Pedals' entries shall grow alongside my pedal collection. This is my latest acquisition. Before this lovely green-striped grey box, I had the Mooer Micro Looper, the Fender Competition Delay pedal, and the Marshall Bluesbreaker 2. To put it bluntly, I can make my guitar go 'Womp', then 'Womp Womp', then a screechier 'womp', and then record it for up to a 30 minute loop. Fun! These pedals are all coming from local music stores. The looper and the phase shifter are coming from Shem Creek Music. The delay and the overdrive are from Mt. Pleasant Music. I'm in the process of making that Electro-Harmonix B9 Organ synth mine - It'll be the far left of my pedal board. The Aria ps-10 pedal however... this will be my most used. It has taken me about ten hours worth of working with it to understand its strengths and weaknesses. With any pedal, there's a need to do hands-on research. You really need to understand what you will get out of your investment, and the best way to pick that out from perusing the music shop is to have a strong concept of what you're wanting to convey. The electric guitar is 100% conveyance. You want to be clear. You don't want to be muddled. You don't want to be choppy. You don't want to peak. You don't want the amp to hum. When you find a pedal that'll either modify or add to that clarity, then think about what you can convey with that pedal.

 

The good pedals will blow past the conveyance stage quickly. That's how I knew I had a good one. Even though I had this pedal for under 24 hours, I knew at the shop that the strength of what I can do with it won't come until I purchase it and have it working in my current rig for a while. It added motion to the simplest of my riffs. I knew if it would add motion to those simple riffs, then it was worth the $25 I dropped on it. Now, what sold me; its two stages. I love this pedal because there's a metal latch under the black metal stomp plate, which allows it to lift up. This is where the battery is held. Wow! Easy 9volt replacement, and no need of a screwdriver! 'Well how do I get this back together?' I thought to myself. It took four seconds to realize that I can hold the metal latch out, which I pushed to get to the battery, to get the pedal back to stomping shape. I set the pedal down again, feeling quite accomplished with myself, and I get it under my toe. Before I had just stepped on it to turn it on. The Stage 1 light came on, which was pretty cool. I thought I was playing Megaman for the Nintendo Entertainment System. There was a whole 'nother layer of what I was messing around with to get to. This time, I stepped and I held it down - this brought me to Stage 2.

 

 

The Rate Knobs

So when I had 'wowowowowowowow' in the last post, that is to demonstrate via onomatopoeia that emulates what this pedal will do to your sound. When the rate knob is towards the left, it will pass like 'wwwwwoooooooooooooowwwwwwwww'. With time and practice, you can have lower end leads coming out one side, and then the high-on-the-neck leads coming out of the other. Its very slow and subtle. It's painting your dream lick two-tone. I love it. With the knob towards the right, it passes like 'wwooowwwooowwoooww'. Very distorted, very cool for a psychedelic effect on how you approach lead or rhythm. Now, you can see the Stage 1 rate knob. That's the big one, next to the depth and the feedback knobs. The smaller, pinwheel-like knob handles the rate for Stage 2.

 

Depth

You can have this pedal with a very small footprint on your tone, which has a very small impact on its usefulness. It's cool to tweak it to perfection, but I'd suggest to have this all the way to the right to get the maximum effect of the Aria.

 

Feedback

This is the closest control to a volume knob you'll get on this thing. It adds a small portion of distortion, but it also controls the amount of feedback coming from the second signal this pedal is generating. Everything this pedal is generating is feedback, technically, so when it's towards the left, your guitar will sound softer.

 

You can have two different rates of Phase Shifting with this thing. You can easily change between the two rates, and turn it off, quickly. There's no hassle. What I started doing, was having a slower rate on Stage 1, and then holding down for a faster rate coming off of Stage 2. Sounds freakin' cool. You're just sitting there, jamming with a backtrack from either your Mooer Micro Looper (or something else entirely), you have your overdrive going, and you kick on the Aria. There's now a dynamic approach to your soloing. You want to get a lot done in between the shifting phase. You can, because it's slower. You're building up to a wicked hard release of notes, so you need to put your foot down; time for Stage 2. Woah! You can shred and it's going to sound like a big ol' dragon is walking into your practice area, swinging its tail to and fro, trying to dance about to your majestic jams! You can do this. I'm not doing this. ;)

 

I have Stage 1 rate rather high, and Stage 2 rate as low as it'll go. When I have the Aria on, I'll be sure to hold down to introduce my lead. When I'm wanting to transition back to a rhythm aspect, I'll release my foot, which will produce a cool effect as it switches between Stage 2 and Stage 1. This twang enables one note to add some flair to what I'm doing. I like that. I like this pedal. You'll like this pedal too.