Hailing from Count Dracula’s favorite shipping port (Varna, Bulgaria), the SviSound Techno-FA is, pound for pound, inch for inch, one the most powerfully addicting phasers on the market. Packed into its 1.5" x 3.6" steel housing is an analog circuit with four mini knobs—frequency (rate), range (how far the effect shifts in each cycle), bright, and depth—a pushbutton for selecting two- or four-stage phasing, and a slightly confusing array of sci-fi-cool LEDs indicating effect status, stage selection, and phasing rate.

Simply put, the FA is one of those effects that immediately inspires. For disorientingly warbled—but still classic-sounding—aural vortexes, choose four-stage mode and crank the range knob. For a cushier, more inviting vintage sound that can lull you into blissful oblivion in myriad ways, choose two-stage mode and tune to taste. The bright control is a genius inclusion, but regardless, virtually every setting seamlessly melds with your overall tone. About the only way designer Mark Svirkov could improve it would be to somehow defy physics and fit an expression-pedal jack on the housing so you could modify effect rate while playing. A must-try for the vintage-inclined player looking for tiny but mighty!

Test Gear: Squier Vintage Modified Tele with Curtis Novak JM-V and Tel-V pickups, Fender ’64 Custom Deluxe Reverb

Clip 1 — Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster with Curtis Novak Tel-V bridge and JM-V pickups, in the middle pickup position, into SviSound—first in two-stage mode, then in four-stage mode, with frequency at 9 o’clock, range at noon, bright at min, and depth at max—then into a Fender ’64 Custom Deluxe Reverb miked by a Royer R-121 feeding an Apogee Duet going into GarageBand with no EQ-ing, compression, or effects.

Clip 2 — Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster with Curtis Novak Tel-V bridge and JM-V pickups, in the middle pickup position, into SviSound—first in two-stage mode, then in four-stage mode, with frequency at max, range at max, bright at min, and depth at max —then into a Fender ’64 Custom Deluxe Reverb miked by a Royer R-121 feeding an Apogee Duet going into GarageBand with no EQ-ing, compression, or effects.