Rotosound The King Henry Phaser

The King Henry is a phaser pedal made by Rotosound, the British string company, and designed with John Oram, whose history includes VOX and TRIDENT¹². It is a four-stage phaser: Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson called it "A particularly luscious 4-Stage Phaser"³. Rotosound's own product page now lists the pedal as discontinued¹.

The controls: Rate, Depth and Peak

The King Henry keeps its front panel to three knobs, and each does a distinct job³¹⁴:

Rotosound describes the pedal as offering "Smooth wide range control of rate and depth"¹, and MusicRadar's reviewer Trevor Curwen found that variety in practice: "The King Henry offers lots of variation on that 70s phaser sound" via the rate and depth controls².

The Peak knob is where the pedal departs from a straightforward two-knob phaser. Rotosound calls "PEAK a regeneration control for a wider range of phasing effects"¹. Curwen went further in his MusicRadar review: "Its secret weapon is the peak knob, which brings regeneration into the mix and emphasises the 'wow' in the sweep, giving you a sound like an auto-wah when you turn up the depth"². In other words, Peak feeds part of the phased signal back into the circuit, deepening the sweep, and at high depth settings it can push the pedal toward filter pedal territory.

Rotosound also lists high headroom among the King Henry's features¹, which matters if you run it with a hot or boosted signal.

Where it came from

The King Henry came out of a partnership between Rotosound and electronics designer John Oram. Guitar Interactive Magazine reported that Rotosound had teamed up with Oram for a new range of effects, with the King Henry phaser among them, branching out after the success of the company's fuzz pedal reissue the year before². The range also took in a Yellow King Henry Phaser variant⁵.

An earlier variant, the Rotosound Yellow King Henry, was reported by Guitar Interactive Magazine in 2013 with the same PEAK control, described there as "a control for the widerranging of phase effects"⁵.

What reviewers said

MusicRadar's review by Trevor Curwen is the main published verdict on the pedal. His reasons to buy were "Lots of variety on offer. Well built. Retro design."², and his one reason to avoid was a simple "- Pricey."². His overall verdict: "It's royally good phasing with a funky edge."²

Guitar Pedal X, covering Rotosound's reissue range in February 2025, was similarly warm, calling it "A particularly luscious 4-Stage Phaser"³.

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