Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Reissue Small Stone vs XO Polyphase

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • July 13, 2011 at 2:51 am #81758
    Sametz
    Member

    Hey guys, I need some expert opinions here:

    I’m really interested in picking up a classic big box Small Stone (reissue w/ LED, etc). Listening to Youtube videos, it’s got such an elegant warm sound, and the sweep is so nicely shaped. It’s like a perfect sine wave

    Now, I currently own an XO Polyphase, which is a lot of fun in itself, but to be honest, I’m a little disappointed in it’s Phase shape. Though I like that I can control its Start and Stop positions, the wave shape itself isn’t as circular or smooth as the Small Stone, at least from what I can tell. It seems that it reaches the peaks and valleys much too quickly, instead of being a constant, smooth flow

    I hope that makes sense

    Anyway, the Small Stone seems really appealing to me. The one I’ve got my eye on is around $100, and has been modified by Analogman to include an internal volume pot and feedback trimmers. Is this a good deal? Will I really notice that much of a difference between the Polyphase and Small Stone?

    BTW: I mostly do a lot of Synth stuff, though I’m starting to get more into guitar.

    July 13, 2011 at 12:53 pm #115830
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    hey
    fellow guitar-pedals-on-a-synth guy here
    do you use a laptop based synth [or one that can output control voltages?]
    You can ‘fix’ the LFO on the stereo polyphase by using it on the exp pedal mode and run a sine wave you drew in audacity or whatever into it [or the LFO out from your minimoog/voyager/little phatty or whatever].

    That said, the small stone is nice/simple and a better four-stage phaser than the MXR phase 90. $100 would be a bit much for an unmodified one but it sounds about right for an analogman one. and there’ll be a bit of a difference seeing as the xo polyphase is a digital pedal with a rather lot of tweakability and the small stone is analog and pretty simple but I doubt either is sonically unpleasant- just different flavors.

    regards,
    Sam

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.