Alexander Pedals Luminous Phaseshifter

The Alexander Pedals Luminous Phaseshifter is a compact stereo phaser pedal built on digital processing, with ten phaser engines, 32 onboard presets, and MIDI over USB. It belongs to the maker's Leap Series, which Alexander says improves upon its popular Neo Series platform in a number of ways, including an FXCore DSP with more than 8 times the processing power of the previous Neo Series pedals and a low-noise direct-coupled audio path¹.

Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio, whose product page is the fullest published account of the pedal, called it "in all likelihood the most comprehensive phaser pedal you'll find on the market today"¹. Guitar Pedal X listed it among its best new modutility pedals of 2023 at $230².

What it does to your sound

Alexander describes phasing as "a more round and liquid sound, one that sits in a mix a lot better than the sharp / angular" character of flanging, and the Luminous offers what the company calls ten distinct flavors of phaser, from very subtle to incredibly intense¹. Because it is digital, it also carries what Alexander lists as the features of modern digital pedals: presets, stereo out, and trails on/off functionality¹.

The ten engines

The pedal's ten modes range from conventional phasing to engines that blend in other effects. The ones documented in detail¹:

• PHLANGER: combines a phaser and flanger in a single mode; the Time control mixes and swirls between the two effects. Alexander says it takes inspiration from a classic DIY kit¹.
• DUAL: two independent phase shifters, configurable as SERIES (A into B), PARALLEL (A and B summed together), STEREO, or SPLIT. Phaser B may be LOCKED or INVERTED to the LFO for Phase A¹.
• DYNAMIC: an 8-stage phaser controlled by your playing dynamics; dynamics may control the phaser RATE or DEPTH, or be set to MANUAL mode like an auto-filter¹.
• PATTERN: a rhythmic step-sequenced phaser with 8 selectable patterns. Pattern 8 is user-definable using MIDI CC commands¹.
• PHASE DELAY: a clean digital delay of up to 800ms with an 8-stage phaser on the delay trails; the delay is controlled by tap tempo in this mode¹.

The DUAL engine's STEREO and SPLIT configurations and the pedal's stereo input and output make it a candidate for players running a stereo rig, and the PHASE DELAY engine reaches into delay pedal territory, while PHLANGER overlaps with what a dedicated flanger pedal does¹.

Controls and footswitches

Tweaking is done via four knobs. Three of them control mode-dependent parameters, meaning what they do changes with the selected engine, while the bottom right knob is also a push button and controls the LCD screen menu¹.

The two footswitches deal with presets, tap tempo, and momentary effects¹. For preset navigation, Alexander's instructions are specific: "Hold the Bypass / Preset footswitch to select the next preset, or hold both to go back"¹.

Connections: stereo, expression and MIDI

The Luminous is built to sit in both mono and stereo setups without any internal changes¹:

• The input jack is selectable for standard mono or TRS stereo signal input without opening the pedal¹.
• The output jacks are usable as either mono, two-cable stereo, or TRS stereo¹.
• Stereo audio input and output runs with phase correction¹.
• The multijack accepts an expression pedal, footswitch, or MIDI controller to add performance control, and is also compatible with the ALEXPANDER performance control switch¹. Players looking to exploit this can pair it with an expression pedal.
• Every Leap Series pedal features a USB port for MIDI control and firmware updates¹, which also makes it usable alongside MIDI pedal controllers.

What reviewers said

Delicious Audio's write-up, published in May 2023, is the main published review, and its verdict was that the pedal "is in all likelihood the most comprehensive phaser pedal you'll find on the market today"¹. The same piece characterized the pedal as "equal parts phaseshifter and swirly glowing haze machine"¹. Guitar Pedal X included it in its 2023 best-of-year round-up of new modutility pedals, listing it at $230².

For context in Alexander's own range, the company describes the Luminous as part of its Leap Series, which it presents as an improvement over the earlier Neo Series, including a low-noise direct-coupled audio path³; see the Alexander Pedals page. For other phasers, see the site's phaser pedals page.

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