PastFx

The company is candid about its position in the market. Its manuals state that "PastFx is not affiliated with nor endorsed by any of the other companies, individuals, or entities referred to in our publications unless explicitly stated otherwise"¹. Everything it makes is an independent tribute to circuits whose original makers have moved on.

A Brisbane maker reviving pedals from the past

PastFx's product pages read like a catalog of effects players can no longer buy new. The Echoflanger and Poly Chorus are its recreations of the original vintage EHX units "in a super small pedal board friendly package"⁵⁶. The PX99 Classic Phase is its take on the discontinued Ibanez PH99 Classic Phase, with extra features⁷. The Chorus Ensemble Deluxe is based on what PastFx calls "the Holy Grail of Chorus pedals, The BOSS® CE-1"⁸.

One line, the Spectrum Collection, is described in the Patriarch manual as "a series of pedals aimed at recreating the best dirt and modulation effects popularised and inspired by legendary Pink Floyd" tones, that is, the sounds associated with David Gilmour¹. PastFx also collaborates: the Nick James Foot Phaser is "a collaboration with Nick James of Peril Pedals" based on the Foxx Foot Phaser V1⁹, and the Foot Phaser Deluxe extends that circuit further³.

Not part of Buffalo FX

Bucket-brigade chips and 18V power

Because PastFx chases analog vintage circuits, bucket-brigade devices (BBDs), the delay chips at the heart of 1970s and 1980s analog modulation, are central to the range. Several models use original or old-stock chips, which limits supply¹³¹⁴:

• The 80/A Flanger uses a Matsushita/Panasonic 512-stage BBD, and only a limited number of pedals are available because of the small amount of vintage BBDs sourced¹⁴.
• The Echoflanger uses two vintage Panasonic BBDs⁵.
• The Chorus Ensemble Deluxe uses an obsolete 512-stage 1970s bucket brigade chip⁸.
• The doppelflänger uses Panasonic MN3007 chips, with MN3005s in the current release, in an all-analog circuit recreating a rack unit that originally used Reticon SAD1024 and RD5101 BBDs¹¹.

Power is where PastFx modernizes most. Many originals ran on bipolar or higher voltages; PastFx's versions run on standard 9V DC center-negative "Boss style" supplies. The Phase V "operates off the same bipolar voltages as the original, however it only requires standard 9vdc pedal power supply"¹⁵, and the same is true of the JFet Fuzz Phaser¹⁶. The Stereo Chorus PX65 runs on 9V DC with a 12VDC maximum¹⁷. The 18V Power Booster runs on 9 to 18V DC, with 18 volts allowing slightly more gain, and uses BC169 and BC184 transistors¹⁸; RockBoard's PedalPedia entry describes it as running from 9V internally doubled to 18V for increased headroom¹⁹. The Preamp Crunch supports a 9V battery as well as a supply²⁰.

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