MusicRadar Verdict
If you want a certain early 70s flavour, you'll find it here.
Pros
- +
Flawless sound.
Cons
- -
Limited control.
MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.
Where the original Maestro PS-1A was a beast of a pedal, Heptode's take cuts it down to a manageable footprint that's just right for housing three footswitches (each with a different coloured LED), but it remains rather tall at 70mm from the base of its rubber feet to the tip of a footswitch.
We didn't miss a speed knob because the three speeds cover plenty of musical possibilities, and the option of changes on the fly is a great onstage asset with the speed ramping up or down when switched, as on the original.
The phasing sound is thick and natural, sits well with guitar and features a unique complexity to the sweep with bags of vintage flavour.
While we didn't have an original to compare sounds with, we reckon this pretty much nails it - when combined with our 1973 vintage 'Rams Head' Big Muff it was the nearest we got to that Isley Brothers tone than with any other phaser.
“A synthesizer that is both easy to use and fun to play whilst maintaining a decent degree of programming depth and flexibility”: PWM Mantis review
“I feel like that song had everything we needed to come back with”: Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia on Shadow Moses, its riff and the secrets behind its tone, and why it was the right anthem at the right time
“I said, ‘Are we sure we can write a song about death?’”: The story of Mike + The Mechanics' classic No.1 The Living Years
