The Ghost Fax is no ordinary phaser pedal

If you’re after a phaser that can go from traditional tones to far-out sci-fi sounds, have a go at the Ghost Fax: A Phase Computer. Dwarfcraft Devices’ newest pedal packs a bounty of features—there are even ‘hidden’ controls—that’ll have you crouching over it for hours.

With a pair of toggle switches, you can activate one of four modes: Standard, Envelope Up, Envelope Down and Manual. The first is your old-fashioned LFO phaser, while the Envelope Up and Down modes either crank the phase down or up relative to the amplitude of your input signal.

The Manual mode, on the other hand, halts the ‘whooshes’ of the phase at your preferred spot. You can also do this temporarily on any of the other three modes by stepping down on the “Pause” footswitch. It sounds, in Dwarfcraft’s own words, “like a robot throwing up forever.”

And then there’s the “Poles” knob. The Ghost Fax has 32 phaser poles, and you can dial in the number of poles you’d like to activate using the knob—up to 16 settings in total. The more poles, the more “slippy and splashy” your sound will be, according to the company.

All modes except Manual also have a ‘secret menu’ version, which unlocks another bank of controls. For instance, in the regular Envelope Up mode, the “Action” dial controls the depth of the phase fading out. But once the secret menu is activated, the same knob controls the length of the envelope attack phase.

For even more versatility, the Ghost Fax is also compatible with an expression pedal: You can either hook it up to the “Action” or “Poles” pots.

Learn more about the pedal in the video here:

The Ghost Fax will start shipping next month. For more information, check out dwarfcraft.com.