Tone Report Weekly Issue 128 | Page 53

on the Spectre. I tend to use modulation in a subtle manner, and I found a beautiful, deep flange with minimal knob tweaking that I sat on for about half an hour. I added in some slight delay and reverb, and played mystical arpeggios that I was sure would conjure up a wizard from another dimension. The Spectre’s bypass switch can function as a momentary switch, and I had a blast highlighting passages of songs with extreme, watery flanger. The Spectre is capable of capturing the elusive through-zero tape flange sound by sending your guitar signal through two delay lines. If you’ve played through a flanger and felt like it was cheesy and cheap, it’s because it couldn’t do this. As we’ve heard with other units such as the Strymon Deco and Catalinbread Zero Point, tape-style flanging is awesome, and the Spectre will get you there. With some more knob tweaking, The Spectre also boasts great chorus and vibrato sounds. I came to think of it as a multimodulation machine. Yes, it is a spectacular flanger, but it can probably cover many of the other modulated sounds you have in your head. With the ability to store two presets, this could be the only modulation pedal you need on your board. And again, if you use MIDI, the sky’s the limit here. WHAT WE LIKE An entire universe of high quality flanger sounds. Maximum tweaking capability. CONCERNS The control options may be overwhelming to those who prefer a simple layout. If you’re tepid about stepping into the world of flange, let the Spectre ease your mind. With a huge range of sounds, great functionality, and the ability to tweak every possible parameter, you’ll find the flanger sound that’s right for you, and it’s going to be a damn good one. The pedal is costly, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and you’re not likely to find another flanger that can do everything the Spectre does. And when you consider the fact that it could knock a few modulation pedals off your board, it seems like a bargain. ToneReport.com 53