PastFx Reticon Flanger

The PastFx Reticon Flanger is a compact analog flanger pedal built around a vintage NOS Reticon 512-stage bucket brigade device, a delay chip from the same family that gave the original Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress its character. PastFX describes it as a faithful recreation and expansion of the Buffalo FX Reticon Flanger, a pedal the maker itself calls "perhaps the most notorious and controversial" Buffalo FX release, housed in a smaller, pedalboard-friendly enclosure using the same quality components as the original¹².

Like the classic Electric Mistress, the Reticon Flanger is noted in the manual for its "very chewy, liquidy, and chorus-like textures at slower speeds, with trippy warbles and swooshing feedback"¹. PastFX positions it as one of the lushest EM-style flangers available today, in a tiny pedal size³.

Where it came from: the Buffalo FX story

The Reticon Flanger's circuit traces back to the Buffalo FX Reticon Flanger of 2020. In early 2020, the proprietor of Buffalo FX took pre-orders for a limited run of 100 units, and approximately 15 pedals shipped around March and April 2020³. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, who followed the saga closely, reports that fewer than 20 Buffalo FX Reticons were made from the 100 pre-orders, and he was one of many who paid for but did not receive one⁴.

PastFX managed to locate and purchase one of the rare 15 Buffalo FX Reticon Flangers known to be in circulation, and used it as the basis for its own recreation¹. Beginning in Spring 2020, people contacted PastFx asking whether it was a new offshoot of Buffalo FX that could fulfill outstanding orders, which prompted the maker to explain the history on its product pages³².

The controls

The Reticon Flanger carries seven surface controls plus internal adjustments, a set that Guitar Pedal X called "just the perfect degree" of range for a flanger⁴.

Inside the pedal there is a micro switch to expand the treble range and control overall brightness, alongside the LED brightness adjustment trimpot¹.

Matrix mode

Matrix Mode disengages the rate control entirely, freezing the sweep. With the LFO off, the color and range controls can be adjusted to give a resonant, chime-like effect². This mirrors the Filter Matrix setting familiar from Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress flangers, where the modulated signal is parked rather than swept, producing a fixed, ringing filter rather than motion.

Versions and prices

PastFX has offered the Reticon Flanger in more than one form, and the chip at the heart of each differs⁵⁶⁴.

The V2, announced in November 2022 as part of PastFX's updated Flanger Trifecta alongside the Elastic Mattress and Hot for Flanger, swapped the RD5106 BBD for an MN3007 BBD and came with a lower price⁵. Guitar Pedal X described it as a "Bold & Searing Flanger... now re-made and optimised on the MN3007 BBD"⁵. The V2 also added a Treble control and a Blend (dry-wet mix) control alongside the original control set, plus an internal mod switch for stock or bright settings⁵.

What reviewers said

Guitar Pedal X reviewed the Reticon alongside its two PastFX siblings in August 2022. Stefan Karlsson's verdict was favorable:

When the V2 updates arrived in November 2022, Karlsson noted that "where originally the Reticon was the strongest overall in format and function" among the three⁵.

A player review quoted on PastFX's own product page sums up the practical appeal for anyone who has owned the vintage EHX originals²:

The full quote continues that the pedal solves the volume drop, lack of blend or EQ options and high noise floor of the original Electric Mistresses, while keeping the signature sound in a tiny pedal size².

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