Mojo Hand FX Nebula

The Mojo Hand FX Nebula is a compact phaser pedal with a single Speed knob. It is a two-stage phaser, which puts it in the same family as subtle vintage designs like the MXR Phase 45 and DOD 201 rather than the more pronounced four-stage Phase 90 sound. Mojo Hand FX released it in 2014, and it went through two or three versions before settling on a black sparkle enclosure¹.

A 2-stage phaser with one Speed knob

The Nebula keeps its control surface to the minimum: one knob that controls the speed of the sweep, plus a switch to turn the effect on and off². There is no depth control, no mode switch, and no second footswitch. That simplicity is the point of the design. Pedal of the Day calls it "a 2-stage phaser that is more subtle than a 4-stage model," and says that "with just a single Speed control, it sounds like a Phase 90, but with more heart"¹.

The circuit is only loosely based on the Phase 45 and DOD 201. Pedal of the Day is explicit that the Nebula "is not a clone of the famous 2-stage vintage phaser, but rather a phaser pedal created to be the most" usable version of that kind of sound¹. Premier Guitar framed it similarly in 2021, calling it "a two-stage phaser that is like a modern version of old pedals like the MXR 45 or the DOD 201"².

For a player, the two-stage topology means a gentler, less dramatic sweep than a four-stage phaser. It sits under the note rather than over it, which suits rhythm playing and long stretches where you want modulation without it calling attention to itself¹.

What reviewers said

Pedal of the Day's 2023 review found the Nebula to be a balanced, practical phaser rather than an extreme one¹:

The same review describes "lots of Uni-Vibe-type tones coming out of this little box, sitting more in the high-end and adding a liquidy texture and clarity to your tone," and calls the result not too strong and not too weak, suited to a set-it-and-forget-it modulation sound¹.

Premier Guitar's reviewer tested it on bass and reported that it "sounded warm and rich, and even when the speed was at the highest setting, it produced a nice, watery full tone," with no volume change or drop at all². That is a useful data point for bass players, since phasers can thin out low end at fast settings.

The Nebula IV and the Tone Factor Nebula

The Nebula name covers more than one pedal. The earlier Nebula IV, reviewed by Premier Guitar in 2012, is a different, more feature-rich phaser. It shares a rate control and an orange exterior with the MXR Phase 90, though Premier Guitar noted it "arguably trumps the MXR in the visual department" with its silkscreened astronaut graphic³.

Premier Guitar called the Nebula IV "a higher-fidelity, lower-noise descendent of the original MXR Phase 90, more dimensional and spacious," crediting its precision metal-film resistors in place of noisy carbon comp parts, and found it good for subtle-to-radical phase effects³.

There is also the Tone Factor Nebula Phaser, reviewed by Pedal of the Day in 2014, which drew the same description: Uni-Vibe-type tones sitting in the high end with a liquidy texture and clarity⁴.

Availability

The Nebula is hard to find as of Pedal of the Day's 2023 review¹. Players looking for a current Mojo Hand FX phaser may want to look at the Mister-O Phase Shifter, a six-stage Maestro-inspired model the company released in 2021.

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