A substantial of time was invested in performing subjective audio listening tests on the Phaseomatic’s circuitry to make sure it sounded “good”, that the tone quality of the guitar was in no way compromised with the effect engaged. With many phaser pedals you get the phasing effect plus undesirable artefacts you don’t want. Artefacts such as noise, clipping distortion, pickup loading, loss of ‘top’ and ‘bottom’, the solid-state sound, etc. This is important stuff for Effectrode—to build effects pedals that don’t just preserve the guitar’s tone, but enhance it in some desirable, musical way.
Back in the early days, Mrs E. would would often help out with listening tests. In a way she was perfectly qualified for the job: she’s not an obsessive tube nerd; not a double-dome; nor is she an electronics engineer; she’s just a normal, balanced person; and therefore unbiased. Many tests involved A-B comparisons of the Phaseomatic with other solid-state phaser pedals. I’d play guitar through the different pedals in the front living room, and Mrs E. would listen-in, whilst sewing or reading from the kitchen. Not very scientific I grant you; however, quite amazingly she always preferred the sound of tubes to transistors, and this was over the course of dozens of such tests. So, even whilst listening in another room, whilst distracted by some other task, and having no particular interest in sound quality, she could discern a difference—the sonic differences between tubes and transistors are unmistakable.
