THE SPAMPhaser

Beam me up Scotty, phasers on stun! No, Captain, it’s not that kind of phaser…

THE SPAMPhaser is a guitar preamplifier and headphone practice amplifier with an analogue phaser effect.

What is a phaser? In this effect the buffered guitar signal is split into two paths. One side is continuously phase shifted in a phase shifting network which is modulated with a low frequency oscillator (LFO). The rate of phase shift and the amount (depth) of phase shift are adjustable. The phase shifted signal is added to the through signal and the resulting sound is a sort of wow-a-wow-a-wow. THE SPAMPhaser also has a pivoting tone control that can be used to emphasise the bass or make the top end sound more jangly.

The input is Spamp Man’s signature JFET buffer. The very high input impedance presents minimal loading to the pick-up resulting in a wide, flat passband which sounds great.

RATE adjusts the frequency of the low frequency oscillator which adjusts the speed of the phase change. Anticlockwise for slower, clockwise for faster.

DEPTH adjusts how much the phase is shifted. Fully anticlockwise there is very little phase shift – fully clockwise, the effect is strongest.

TASTE is a pivoting tone control. Anticlockwise for more bass, clockwise for more treble. Middle position is flat frequency response

HEAT adjusts the headphone volume and the output level of the 1/4 inch jack output.

LINE IN 3.5mm socket intended for connection to a line or headphone level source from a mobile phone or other media player. A 3.5mm stereo male – male cable is supplied for this. The stereo input is mixed into a mono signal and added to the guitar output path.

‘PHONES 3.5mm output socket. THE SPAMPhaser can drive headphones with a nominal impedance of 16 ohmsor greater.

The amplified guitar output is mixed with left and right channels of the headphone output so you can play along without disturbing your parents, partner or children as applicable.

Technical Stuff