THE 1970S WAS a boom time for gear innovation and evolution, during which modulation pedals, in particular, advanced by leaps and bounds. Boss, who would become one of the era’s long-running effects makers, bowed in 1976 with the CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, the most legendary and lushest-sounding chorus pedal, which we looked at in the December 2019 issue. But before Boss was Boss, parent company Roland delivered one of its earliest effects pedals with 1974’s AP-5 Phaser, followed in ’75 by the wild and wonderful Jet Phaser AP-7, featured here.
The phrase “greater than—in that order — to create a sound attainable from nothing else, unless you include latter-day copies of the AP-7 circuit. Prior to its arrival, many guitarists placed their phase pedals before their fuzz, for a more subtle distortion effect. With the Jet Phaser, Roland put the fuzz circuit ahead of the phaser to kick out a raw, raucous, perpetual motion–type effect that virtually takes over your instrument. At higher depth and intensity settings, the AP-7 almost sounds as if it’s talking to you and pretty much starts “playing” before you even hit the strings.
