Sitek Guitar Electronics Ushers in Queen of the Waves - the Glorious Aqueous Phasia - Analog Multi-Stage OTA Phase-Shifter

Andy Sitek's attention to detail is always next-level, and with partner Hania delivering the perfect artwork for this effect, and housed in the most appropriate Oceanic Cerulean Blue enclosure. Everything about Sitek Guitar Electronics says exceptional high quality and attention to detail - and I've assisted Andy just a touch with refining and enhancing the Instruction sheet - which further raises the bar.

Andy is the master of getting the most impact from the least amount of controls, and the interplay of Feedback and Symmetry in particular is pretty genius here. This is a particularly strong and distinct take on the Phase genre - and is every bit as distinct as each of my other 3 phaser acquisitions. Each has its own voice and special qualities - and like I always say - inspires different styles of playing. The Phasia also has really cool light blue / cyan LEDs.

I tend to in the main have two key personal modes of phase-effect that I deploy the most often - a slow textured phase - to add definition and crunch to gain stages, and the full-on EVH Phase 90 sound as typified by 'Ain't Talking Bout Love'.

The Phasia handles those effortlessly, and does everything in between and beyond - delivering many more styles over and above the norm - meaning that you can more precisely hone in on your preferred phase effect / texture or otherwise achieve more distinctly accentuated tones not possible elsewhere. The combination of Hypertriangular and Symmetry is incredibly rare and can deliver very unique tones.

It's fascinating how each of my recent phaser acquisitions all have quite different control topologies - and each emphasizes a slightly different take on phasing. The Phasia is one of the most versatile of these, and is incredibly easy to dial in. Andy has laboured long and hard at perfecting this circuit and getting it to sound as musical and aqueous as is possible, and this is undoubtedly a triumph of those ambitions.

My own default settings tend to be for a Slow Textured Phase - Rate at 9 o'c, Depth at Max, Feedback at 11 o'c, Symmetry at 12 o'c, Triangular Waveform, and 6 Stages. For my rock'n'roll EVH setting (Phase 90 style) - it's the classic 4-Stage Phaser, with Rate around 10 o'c, Depth around 4 o'c, Feedback dialled back, and Symmetry at 12 o'c - with Waveform set to Sine.

You can go totally crazy with Hypertriangular at 6 Stages with skewed Symmetry - and then you get some really cool warbly and burbly sounding watery effects - great for intros and outros!