The Quasar DLX is a full featured analog phaser. The possibilities range from classic “on the slow parts” to thick watery vibrato to all out mad science craziness.

The all new Quasar DLX, designed from the ground up. The possibilities are endless with eleven LFO shapes, and the ability to control them with either tap tempo, or manually. When controlled manually the speed/ratio knob has two ranges. A normal range, and a high speed range accessed by turning the knob all the way to the right. As the knob is turned back to the left it goes faster and faster and faster…

The mix control goes to 100% for pitch vibrato tones that most phasers simply don’t allow. Voice control allows both positive and negative regeneration.

Choose the sinewave LFO and a speed and turn all other knobs to the center for some classy swoosh. Turn on all 8 stages and turn on a fuzz and you’ll swear you are standing at the end of a runway. Or turn up the speed and plug in an expression pedal for some crazy ring mod madness.

Back story of the DLX:
Phasers phaser phasers…. Where to start? Back When we released the original Quasar the phaser market offered many of the same ideas over and over. One or two knobs, maybe an extra toggle switch. The idea behind the original Quasar was more control than the average phaser, but others must have had the same idea. Soon everyone was making a phaser with above the norm control, but most derived from a few basic designs with the same basic modulation.

In 2008 we began what eventually became “Project Quasar.” With the original Quasar gone we started from scratch. Meticulously testing nearly every known existing phaser design that did not involve tubes. Eventually we came up with a VCA based phaser. Although more complex than a typical design it offered a huge range, exceptional headroom, and great consistency.

Then we were back to the modulation. Another phaser with faux sinewave modulation. It didn’t sound bad. It was that useful up & down swirl you’d expect. It became apparent that there was a question we were not asking. Although sonically excellent, the constant up & down swirl was exactly what every other phaser pedal in the world did. Not exactly remarkable. We really didn’t want to ask the question. Why don’t we do something truly remarkable? Something breathtaking. Something absolutely astonishing. Why don’t we take on a huge project and move beyond our comfort zone and invent something completely insane?

Once we put ourselves up to the challenge we quickly decided on a concept… Tap tempo with multiple speed ratios, multiple LFO shapes for modulation, expression pedal control with multiple functions, etc. Project Quasar became official, with a budget (we went way over it) and a schedule (we went way past it)

The only problem… We didn’t know exactly how we were going to do all of this. There weren’t many off the shelf solutions and the ones we could find weren’t exactly inspiring. It became obvious we’d have to do all of this our selves. We knew we’d need to step in to the digital world of micro-controllers to pull any of this off. Tom had some experience in programming, so he took on that part of the project, while I finished the basic architecture to make it all work together.