Red Witch Moon Phaser

The Red Witch Moon Phaser is a six stage FET based analog phaser, and the first pedal Ben Fulton of Red Witch ever designed and released. MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley notes that the New Zealand high-end stompbox brand made its debut with the Andy Summers-approved Moon Phaser, built around a FET-driven circuit offering 6-stage phase-shifting¹. Over the following twenty years, Red Witch counts it among the flagship pedals used and loved by players².

The pedal grew into the Deluxe Moon Phaser, which adds tremolo and a unique tremophase mode to the phasing. The original Moon Phaser has been long out of general production, and the Deluxe was discontinued in 2018, but a limited reissue appeared in 2025³⁴⁵.

A six-stage JFET phaser

The Moon Phaser's phase-shifting comes from a FET based phase system that Red Witch describes as super quiet³. Function f(x)'s technical analysis of phaser pedal types places the Red Witch Moon Phaser among the JFET-based phase shifting designs, a family that includes roughly a thousand other pedals⁷. JFET phasers use matched field-effect transistors as voltage-controlled resistors in each phase stage; the six stages here give the sweep its depth without the noise Red Witch's design avoids.

Red Witch is clear that the Deluxe Moon Phaser does not borrow its voice from anything else: "It does not reproduce the sound of any other phaser, it is a completely new design"³. In 2008, Premier Guitar reported that the Deluxe Moon Phaser was capable of convincing rotating speaker sounds, as well as any kind of phase you could imagine⁸.

History and versions: the debut pedal and the Deluxe reissue

Ben Fulton designed the Moon Phaser nearly 25 years before Red Witch's current product pages, and it was the company's first pedal⁹. The Red Witch design philosophy of "Functional Innovation" was established in that first pedal design³.

The timeline of the pedal and its versions:

The original Deluxe Moon Phaser was discontinued in 2018 due to obsolescence of the matched FETs used in the design⁴. In 2025, Red Witch found enough of those parts to make 19 Deluxe Moon Phasers, a limited run available on Thursday 22 May 2025⁴. That run is now sold out⁴.

The tremophase function

The Deluxe Moon Phaser offers two effects, phasing and tremolo, plus what Red Witch calls a completely unique tremo-phasing effect⁴. The maker describes it as a 100% unique tremophase function⁴. The pedal also carries a stereo output that splits the wet and dry signals³.

Guitar.com's reviewer Gary Walker found the three phase settings warm and understated¹⁰. The combined phaser-plus-tremolo idea is not unique to Red Witch: the Pigtronix Moon Pool Tremvelope Phaser pairs a variable bias tremolo with a 4-stage, VCA-based phaser¹¹.

Andy Summers and other players

Red Witch says Andy Summers used the Deluxe Moon Phaser to great effect on The Police Reunion tour and live DVD in 2007 and 2008³. MusicRadar calls the original Moon Phaser Andy Summers-approved¹.

Closer to the present, gearnews writer Jef is a longtime user: "I'm a big fan of Red Witch pedals and use my Deluxe Moon Phaser all the time on my main board"¹².

What replaced it

With the Moon Phaser long out of general production, the Red Witch line has moved on to other phasers. The Red Witch Invidium phaser carries the phaser slot in the current Red Witch range⁵, and the SOLARIA offers another take on the effect from the same maker¹.

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