Small Stone Forever!

by Dave

I bought another phaser the other day to compare with the Electro-Harmonix Russian Small Stone. I love the Stone; my only gripe is that it’s huge and takes up a ton of space on my pedalboard. So, in my attempt to create the perfect board, I bought the MXR Phase 100 to compare sounds.

The MXR meets the prerequisite of being much smaller than the Stone. It also has the added versatility of choosing between four different waveforms for the phasing in addition to the standard speed knob. The sound, however, was not what I am looking for. There was a very noticeable cut in the bass frequencies when I kicked it on. BOOOO!!! Overall it sounded kind of tinny and unnatural compared to the Stone. The Stone is so warm and doesn’t cut the bass at all.

I especially like my Russian Stone better than others I’ve tried. I tried another that looked exactly the same, but it had a much brighter sound and didn’t have the character mine does. I also tried the new Nano version of the Small Stone, but the waveform sounded a lot different. As far as I know I’ve exhausted all the options within my price range, so I think it’s safe to say SMALL STONE FOREVER!