moosers
Published on 10/18/09 at 08:22
The Arion SFL-1 is a digital flanger pedal that can be used with any electronic instrument, but I have only used it with electric guitar and I believe that is the best thing that it is suited for. The pedal has a 1/4 inch input and two 1/4 inch outputs as this has stereo capabilities. The pedal can be powered with either a nine volt battery or power supply, but I usually use a battery so I cant' say too much about the power supply. This isn't a rack mountable piece of gear.
UTILIZATION
The configuration of the Arion SFL-1 isn't hard to follow in the least. There isn't a lot going on, but there is enough here that you can get a good amount of differing tones. The pedal has parameters in the form of knobs for rate, depth, manual, and feedback and has a switch to use this as either a stereo or mono pedal. That is all there is to the Arion SFL-1 and for this reason I don't believe that a manual is a necessity.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality of the Arion SFL-1 is sub par in my opinion. While it obviously sounds like a flanger pedal and will give you the effect that it claims to, it lacks a certain fullness and depth that I look for in a flanger pedal and any effect pedal for that matter. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a terrible flanger by any means, I just don't think that it is worthy of being used by professionals. I have used the pedal with a '76 Fender Twin Reverb and a Fender Strat, so I'm hearing what the pedal truly sounds like...
OVERALL OPINION
All in all, the Arion SFL-1 is decent flanger pedal but is never my top choice for any application. It is probably best for live shows and not recording, but it isn't made all that sturdy and I would be extra careful with it because of this as it kind of feels like a toy. The price isn't bad at all if you can find a used on, which is one of the pedals best selling points. However, if you want a cheap flanger pedal I would recommend checking out the Boss BF-2 as this is quite cheap and definitely has a better sound than this pedal in my opinion...
UTILIZATION
The configuration of the Arion SFL-1 isn't hard to follow in the least. There isn't a lot going on, but there is enough here that you can get a good amount of differing tones. The pedal has parameters in the form of knobs for rate, depth, manual, and feedback and has a switch to use this as either a stereo or mono pedal. That is all there is to the Arion SFL-1 and for this reason I don't believe that a manual is a necessity.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality of the Arion SFL-1 is sub par in my opinion. While it obviously sounds like a flanger pedal and will give you the effect that it claims to, it lacks a certain fullness and depth that I look for in a flanger pedal and any effect pedal for that matter. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a terrible flanger by any means, I just don't think that it is worthy of being used by professionals. I have used the pedal with a '76 Fender Twin Reverb and a Fender Strat, so I'm hearing what the pedal truly sounds like...
OVERALL OPINION
All in all, the Arion SFL-1 is decent flanger pedal but is never my top choice for any application. It is probably best for live shows and not recording, but it isn't made all that sturdy and I would be extra careful with it because of this as it kind of feels like a toy. The price isn't bad at all if you can find a used on, which is one of the pedals best selling points. However, if you want a cheap flanger pedal I would recommend checking out the Boss BF-2 as this is quite cheap and definitely has a better sound than this pedal in my opinion...