Spaceman Effects reissues Explorer phaser in compact form

May 2, 2022 · 3 sources

Spaceman Effects has reissued the Explorer, its first phaser, in a small form factor, the maker announced. The Explorer is an optical six-stage analog phaser, and the maker describes the new pedal as a compact version of the original circuit with its deluxe features intact¹².

The pedal has an all-analog signal path with six stages of optically swept phase shifting and a wide-range LFO with five waveshapes: Sine, Ramp Down, Ramp Up, Triangle and Square¹. A sixth position on the SHAPE control, Manual, disconnects the LFO and freezes the sweep; the RATE knob then moves the sweep position by hand¹². Six further waveshapes are reached by applying power with the footswitch held down: three arpeggiated shapes, a stepped shape, an MW shape and an inverted manually swept mode¹².

Controls are VOL, MIX, RES, RANGE, RATE and SHAPE. MIX blends in dry signal and, at 100 percent wet, acts as pitch modulation; RES adds feedback; RANGE sets how far the phasing reaches into low frequencies¹. A CV/EXP input controls LFO speed in the five waveshape modes and sweeps the phaser directly in manual mode, where RATE sets the top of the sweep and RANGE the bottom¹². The pedal runs on 9 to 24V DC and has true-bypass relay switching with a soft-touch footswitch¹. It is hand-wired and built in Portland, Oregon, the maker says¹².

The maker lists the Explorer at $279.00 and marks it sold out¹. RockBoard's PedalPedia lists the circuit type as analog, voltage as 9V DC center negative and current draw as 51mA³; Spaceman gives bypass draw as 26mA and engaged draw as 51mA, and input voltage as 9-24V DC¹.