Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Nano

The Electro Harmonix Small Stone Nano is very small phaser from the Nano line. It is a very bare bones phaser with very few tweaks available. An input from your guitar, an output to your amplifier, a power jack , one rate knob, and a color switch that changes the frequency spectrum and hollows out the sound. It’s small in size (2” by 4.3” by 2.2”), so it takes up little of your pedal board . There is a red LED that lets you know when the pedal is engaged and the pedal can be powered by a 9 volt battery or by an additional power supply.

UTILIZATION

This pedal is built very strong and should handle plenty of road use. Metal enclosure and metal jacks, along with a sturdy stomp style switch all look very durable. There is one knob that allows you to change the rate, and I’m glad Electro Harmonix made this an oversized knob, because it allows you to make adjustments to the rate of the waveform on the fly with your foot. The color adjustment is available via a small flip switch and does change the overall sound of the pedal.

SOUND QUALITY

This pedal does suck a little high end off my tone and there is a slight drop in volume when used with my Marshall. The Small Stone has a sound of it’s own, so it sounds like a Small Stone should. A lot of people either prefer the Small Stone or the Phase 90 because they have different sounds, I suggest you try both out and see which fits your style best. Overall I feel the Phase 90 is a little brighter and cleaner with a more defined swoosh, and the Small Stone is a little darker pedal with a more low end swoosh. Adding the color switch does make this slightly more versatile, but I prefer the Phase 90. This pedal does have an issue with the bypass that I’ve noticed on a couple of my amps, it allows the modulation to seep through the pedal even when the pedal is bypassed. So even when the pedal is off, there is an underlying modulation sound going on, which makes the pedal useless for me.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall this isn’t a bad modulation pedal. It does do the dark swooshing sounds nicely, but it lacks in tweakability. If the added a knob to adjust the depth of the waveform I would find this pedal a lot more useful, but the rate knob alone doesn’t allow me to dial in what I need even if the overall tone from the pedal is nice. The bypass on this thing kills it for me, so I would point buyers in another direction. If the Phase 90 doesn’t do what you’re looking for I would still look for a pedal that has a few more features and a better bypass.

Electro harmonics nano small stone phaser pedal is very like the MXR petals. This one has a single control knob that just takes the effected phaser signal all the way up to pulsating signal. It's very simple design and extremely easy to use in overall it's a very cool pedal. The casing itself is right along the lines of the rest of the electro harmonics product lines. It's just a simple silver or gray box as a usually use on many other other products. You also get a small little switch that changes the voice on this box. You can play around with this switch to better color your tone to you amp, effect pedals, and instrument.

UTILIZATION

This is a very simple design as it only has a single control knob switch and a single color switch. This case itself is very small and fits pretty easily on any pedal board or rack unit. You don't really need a manual because it has one switch and one control an knob and any monkey could probably figure out how to use this devise.

SOUND QUALITY

If you like the tone of the original MXR phasers then you will like the sound of this effect. They don't sound that great in a clean setting but when you give it some distortion then it really get a very usable and cool sound. If you have ever listened to any early Van Halen album then you have probably heard a phaser in action. Of course it wasn't this particular model but the sound is the same. It i a cool pedal to have on your pedal board to use sparingly but not all the time.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall this is a very cool pedal to own and I think every guitar player should own one of these at some point . Whether that be this one of another the phaser pedal is very usable and very fun to play with. This pedal is a very good quality item and at the price new you can't really beat that. You can find them for right at around 480 which is an excellent price for this unit.

Characteristics have already been mentioned so I will not dwell

UTILIZATION

The configuration is simple. One can regret all the little thin switch to change mode.
I had the Russian version which had a more imposing switch that could be activated by foot.

SOUND QUALITY

I had several phaser
Small stone Russian and American mk2 version even a deluxe moon phaser in redwitch (which m 'was a big disappointment for the price)

In short, if I compare this little pedal 60 euros I think she is really good.
THE problem of older versions was a loss of volume that I found really annoying.
Here it is not the case.
That being said I think the extremes in each mode are not convincing, this being I am using little extreme settings.
I must admit that the hottest position breath a little but it still is not a problem. If we geek on the breath we fix it.

OVERALL OPINION

I did that recently and not prejudge its strength
The point I want to emphasize is that for the price it is really good
The effect is beautiful and there is no volume loss found in older models.

everything has been said, positive points format, the power supply to the right place, 2 levels of phasing via a switch and not a rotocontacteur. A larger switch should be mounted if you want to change color at the foot!
pure analogique.J adore ...
however, few possible. settings anyway, a pedal that features 10 effects and 4 or 5 settings is generally used for 2 or max with a setting that will not move ever ... So, with the small stone avoids getting lost.

UTILIZATION

one speed knob and a switch for two different intensities of phasing. the speed is very well staged, with a slow cycle hyper hyper fast. The knob is fluid.
both colors are interesting by phasing you want to mark the effect or not.
I noticed a slight "plop" when engaging the pedal and a little more intense breath mode.
mix the dry and wet is done well, the depth is set, so the config is sufficient to have a nice sound.
I tested it in the effect loop of my amp.

SOUND QUALITY

the pedal is transparent liquid, the effect is warm and well rounded while preserving the characteristics of the sound of my strat. This is a super good point because I was afraid that the sound is drowned more than that, more blurred. Not at all! beautiful highs are present. it is quite vintage in mind (dug in the midrange frequencies before and beautiful sounds.
oscillation is pretty awesome, you really feel a ripple effect at slow speed, a kind of wooooooshhhhhhhhh ... It is also very smooth and goes after frequency.
a killing on in clean arpeggios and chords shelled (remember "breathe" by Pink Floyd), and extra on the funk / disco. Super made in two colors.
in distortion, however, I am less convinced but anyway, it's not really (at all) my style. Attention must be paid to the synthetic side of the result seriously playing the guitar or amp tone and placement of the pedal in the effects chain.

OVERALL OPINION

Addicted to the period 1966-1972, I love this effect clean sounds or just on the wire, and therefore EH actually offers an expressive effect not food guitar. Means a good strat or LP embellished with the effect and not the reverse.
the price is among the cheapest which is a real asset when you know those main competitor MXR. I put lmongtemps decide and I do not regret anything, especially bought it used, so at a reasonable price. QPR beat.
I think the MXR is more suited to their very distos mediums (some would say too much) and the present small stone facing more clear sounds. In any case, for the latter, it is a success and a nice surprise.