Retro-Sonic Flanger

The Retro-Sonic Flanger is an analog flanger pedal from Canadian maker Retro-Sonic, first announced in July 2019¹. Retro-Sonic describes it as capable of "a wide range of sounds from chorusing to vibrato, to classic sweeping flange effects," which means one knob set can get you a subtle doubled chorus, a wobbling vibrato, or the deep jet-style sweep most players picture when they hear the word flanger².

What the facts establish about its build is straightforward: it comes in a sturdy cast aluminum housing², sells for $199 USD², and carries a Normal/Effect LED that lights on when the effect is engaged and lights off when it is bypassed². Its input jack takes the output of the guitar or another effect pedal². Retro-Sonic is the maker behind it¹.

From chorus to vibrato to deep sweep

A flanger works by mixing a short, modulated delay with the dry signal, which creates a series of moving notches across the frequency spectrum. Because the Retro-Sonic's delay path is analog, built on a 3207 bucket-brigade device, it behaves like the vintage units it copies rather than a digital model². Set the Range low and the Rate moderate and the notches move gently, which is where the chorus and vibrato sounds live; push the Range and Color up and the sweep deepens into the classic flanging effect the maker describes².

The practical details round out the picture. The pedal is housed in sturdy cast aluminum³, priced at $199 USD², and its Normal/Effect LED lights on when the effect is on and lights off when the effect is bypassed². The input jack connects the output of the guitar or another effect pedal².

The controls

The control set is small and direct, mirroring the original Mistress layout:

The Normal/Effect LED lights when the effect is engaged and goes dark when it is bypassed².

The Filter switch deserves a note. With the LFO sweep off, the notched filters freeze at a fixed point instead of moving. That is the same concept as the Filter Matrix mode on Electro-Harmonix's own Mistress-family pedals: MusicRadar's review of the Andy Summers Walking On The Moon pedal explains that Filter Matrix "stops the LFO at a specific point, adding the resulting resonant, metallic feedback"⁴, and Guitar World's review describes it as suspending the LFO to open up "metallic and boxy-sounding ring modulations"⁵. On the Retro-Sonic, the switch gives you access to those static, resonant filtered tones without touching the knobs.

Power: 12-18V DC, 23mA

The Flanger runs on a 12-18V DC adapter with a center negative plug, and the adapter is not included². Current draw is 23mA², which is modest by modulation-pedal standards and easy on an isolated power supply. The key requirement is voltage: a standard 9V supply will not meet the pedal's stated range, so it needs a tap or supply capable of 12V or more. There is no battery option mentioned.

The 12-18V window is itself part of the design story. The original it copies was the "18V Electric Mistress," and other modern Mistress-inspired builders went the same route: PastFx's Reticon Flanger requires an 18V DC negative-center supply and advertises "18 volts of headroom"⁷, and Lectric-fx's Old Chap Flanger, based on the Deluxe Electric Mistress, requires an 18V supply too. The Retro-Sonic's wider 12-18V range gives it a little more flexibility on supplies that top out below 18V.

An Electric Mistress circuit with the noise fixed

Retro-Sonic is direct about what the pedal is: it "provides the distinctive liquidy character and chorusy flanging of the late seventies '18V Electric Mistress'"². The original Electric Mistress family has a long afterlife. Electro-Harmonix's own Deluxe Electric Mistress was discontinued in 2023⁸, and the company has revisited the circuit in other forms, including the Neo Mistress introduced at NAMM 2011, which MusicRadar's press release described as "true to the classic Electric Mistress" with "an array of precisely notched and tuned filters that sweep the sound spectrum"⁹, and the Andy Summers Walking on the Moon edition, which Guitar World called "a near-sonic recreation of an original Deluxe Electric Mistress stompbox with the same topology"⁸¹⁰⁹.

The Retro-Sonic Flanger's pitch is that it keeps the sound while fixing the original's practical faults. Retro-Sonic says the early 18V versions were noisy even when switched off and had a volume drop, and that this pedal corrects both². PastFx makes the same argument for its own Mistress-based Reticon Flanger, which its maker also presents as solving the original Electric Mistresses' volume drop, missing blend and EQ options, and high noise floor¹¹. For a player weighing a vintage unit against a modern recreation, noise floor and level consistency are the usual deciding points, and both makers address them explicitly.

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