flanger

A flanger is a modulation effect that duplicates the guitar signal, delays the copy slightly, and mixes it back with the original¹. An LFO continually alters the timing of the delay, usually between 0.1 and 15 ms, producing new harmonics and a sweeping, whooshing effect often compared to a jet engine²¹. In essence, the effect works like a continuously moving comb filter³. Flanging originated in the recording studio, where engineers ran two tape machines in sync and slowed one by hand on the reel flange, which is the source of the name³. Pedal versions appeared in the mid-1970s, starting with the Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress, followed by the MXR Flanger and Boss BF-1³.