All user reviews for the Aria APH-1 Phaser

I bought this in the mid 80s when BOSS ruled the show and everybody copied their design and aesthetic. Price on sticker on box reads £33 and I remember the limited choice of budget pedals in the store on the excited Saturday morning I had some spare cash to treat myself (I was unemployed at the time and the bills came first!) but were disappointingly limited to this PH-1, an ARIA CH-1 Chorus and an ARIA FZ-1 Fuzz or ARIA Bass Boost... so the PH-1 it was.

I had always liked the Phasing on recordings and in my nativity,thought this pedal would offer that - Think 'The Groundhogs' Snowstorm stylie

Anyway, of course it didn't do that(!) and all I could ever hear from it was Dub style Reggae tones... So, never employed it. A couple of years later the BOSS ME-5 appeared and I got one (my fortunes changed!) and as that had so many FX options, the Aria got forgotten.

Come 2015, I need a Phaser to get near the Thin Lizzy Rocker song tone to demonstrate to a guitar student of mine and so pulled it out not expecting much and suddenly realise that I can use this to good effect with a couple of other pedals in the chain after all... Is not an MXR beater, but I found it can also run stacked with a Vibe or UniVibe-style unit and add more density... Glad I kept it then!

Oh and is now considered a vintage in it's own right as of course it has that all important 'Made in Japan' backplate sticker!



Most usable setting seems to be consistently 2-oclock, 4-oclock, 2.30 on the dials L-R

See my blog and dedicated page to upgrading a BOSS ME-5 to render those essential 70s/80s SIX Vintage unit tones...
https://boss-pedals.jimdo.com