PastFX revives and enhances the vintage A/DA Flanger with its beautifully textured MN3010 BBD Chip - courtesy of the pedalboard-friendly 80/A Flanger

It seems like PastFX’s Verlie has left the best to last here - with an already stellar roster of vintage style rare BBD analog flangers. The early trifecta included superior versions of the EHX Electric Mistress, Buffalo Reticon, and MXR 117 Flangers. Each one of those carrying all the flavour of the originals, but with added features and in a brilliant pedalboard friendly format. Significantly all those Flangers are individual and distinct - and for fans of this genre - absolutely essential.

The A/DA Flanger was originally introduced back in 1977 / 1978 and the very earliest pedals came with the Reticon SAD1024 BBD’s, while since Reticon went out of business that same year - A/DA very rapidly switched over to the Matsushita / Panasonic MN3010 BBD Chips.

The SAD1024 chips give you slightly more bite and edges wile the MN3010 produce overall wilder and more varied flanger tones. I used to really enjoy using my Chase Bliss Audio Spectre for its yawing whale-like tones - if you set it just right the device kind of plays itself and produces an ever evolving ’whale song’. And this 80/A does that even more so! In fact that is partly what makes this 80/A my favourite flanger.

It does all those classic Flanger voicings - from subtle modulation, through soaring jet woosh, metallic clanging, and otherworldly wale-song warble! That MN3010 BBD Chip really has some special sauce about it. And Verlie has enhanced the format to make sure you get every ounce of tone and warble out of it.

The Original A/DA Flanger had : Harmonics : Even / Odd, Threshold, Manual, Range, Speed, and Enhance controls, along with a Control port.

The PastFX 80/A adds Blend and Level controls so that you can get even more out of this circuit :

• Manual - Fixed Delay Time : from c 0.39ms > 14ms; the Control port allows you to control this via Expression pedal if you wish!
• Range - Determines whether Speed or Manual control Delay Time : FCW means 100% Speed, FCCW is Fixed / Manual (Matrix style), and noon / 12 o’c is a blend of both 
• Speed - Controls LFO Rate (Range FCW) - visually displayed via Red and Blue LEDs
• Harmonics - Red = Positive Feedback / Fuller Sound, Blue = Negative Feedback / Hollow Tubular Sound
• *Blend - New Control which restricts amount of Modulate / Wed signal mixing with the dry signal. FCW is stock, reducing Blend does not reduce Feedback
• Threshold - Controls the Sensitivity of the Noise Gate circuit which is determined by the intensity of your instrument’s attack. FCW minimises this feature. With careful CCW adjustment, the Threshold control enables Envelope Style Flanging to occur pending the attack and amplitude of incoming signal
• Enhance - Essentially Color / Feedback / Regen - controls the amount of signal fed back and regenerated back intro the front end of the circuit - makes for a a more intense output
• *Level - another new control for this circuit - which gives you ultimate control over the output volume for this effect

NOTE - all the trim-pots are DO NOT TOUCH - solely for Verlie to do the final calibration - which is an incredibly delicate and time consuming process. Even though one of them is accessibly through the right-hand edge - you should not go anywhere near these and Verlie warns that you will end up with a non-functioning pedal if you were to tweak those even a fraction!

So this is the one Flanger to rule them all! With several different split personalities which extract every ounce of Flanger flavour and variety.

I of course love all my PastFX Flangers and advocate that you should have them all - each is quite different and distinct. While this A/DA is most assuredly the King of the Castle!

I’ve been so fixated with the whale song dynamics that I’m still kind of spellbound on those textures - where they can still be really musical - with Manual @ 3 o’c, Range FCW, Speed @ 9 o’c, Harmonics on Positive Red, Blend @ 9 o’c, Threshold FCW, Enhance @ 3 o’c, and Level FCW.

For a cool Jet style Flange my preferred settings are - Manual @ 2 o’c, Range @ 12 o’c, Speed @ 9 o’c, Harmonics on Negative Blue, Blend @ 2 o’c, Threshold @ 2 o’c, Enhance @ 4 o’c, and Level FCW.

I typically like a full fat flavour on flangers - to tone things down you just dial back Blend and Enhance - and even Threshold for a more dynamic approach.

This is truly a fantastic Flanger - one of the very best out there for sure - but note that because of the super rare long-since discontinued MN3010 BBD Chip - these are in very short supply. They can only be ordered via the PastFX Webstore. I believe they’re being made in batches of 30 at a time - whenever Verlie manages to get hold of more MN3010’s - those are nearly extinct in the wild though - so you’d better get your skates on if you want one. These go for AUS $489 which equates to circa $315 USD - while prices may go up - depending on what Verlie can get the MN3010’s for. Verlie is also looking to build a more affordable version of the 80/A using her favourite Matsushita MN3007 BBD chips - which are still rare, but not quite on the verge of extinction yet. Those will likely be at the AUD $299 price point - like the Elastic Mattress and Hot for Flanger varieties - which equates to roughly $192 USD.

If you’re in any way a fan of the Flanger format - then this is surely a must-have.

The demos are pretty decent - but none really quite showcases the full potency of the 80/A - it’s really quite brilliant!