Ashville Music Tool APH-12

Rick “Hawker” Shaich had been working for several other companies, including one well known synthesizer brand that built a well known 6/12 stage phaser. His new own little company is named Ashville Music Tools., shortend as AMT. Ashville? Isn‘t this the town where this four letter synth company is from? Yes! This phaser was released 2025. And APH-12 stands for Ashville Purpe Haze. Or is it just Ashville PHaser 12-stage?

This phaser got up to 12 stages as implied by the name. But you can switch from just 1 stage to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 or 12 stages. The odd numbered stages give you a more bandpass like shaped sound. 4 and 6 stages get you the phasing you heard from these phasers named little pebble - or something much like this. The 12 stages get you the bold sound not heard from most phasers. And with the very fine controlled overdrive pot, you get the sound of this phaser from this synth company in Ashville.

The Sweep pot got a huge range from 25 Hz to 10 kHz. The LFO is added bipolar, so you get less and more with it. Or up to 50 kHz by using the external CVs. The Resonance may get from zero up to self oscillation with some external CV added. The LFO got a slow (less than 0.01 Hz to 2.3 Hz) mode for real nice and slow phasing. The fast setting ranges from 0.3 Hz to about 78 Hz. And a third setting on the mode switch for an envelope mode with fast attack and medium release. The amount of modulation sweep is depending on the volume of the signal. So best used with guitars or a decaying keyboard sound with velocity. The LED next to the bypass switch will light up to the LFO/Envelope The Amount sets the bipolar LFO modulation or the positiv only envelope modulation amount.

There is no dry to wet signal pot. There is a three position switch for mostly dry (helpful for the 12 stage and high resonance settings), 50/50 (the classic phaser setting) and full wet signal (creating a vibrato like effect).

The overdrive is adding even-order harmonics by using a JFET staturation stage. At 9 ‘o Clock position it is set to unity gain. The CW max is nearly 30 dB of gain. The character is a nice and not a harsh drive. Ideal to add harmonics for more complex phasing harmonic content.

For power you need a standard 9 Volt one as used by most FX pedal (center negativ, 2.1 mm x 5.5 mm barrel). It will take 100 mA and up to 200 mA when powered on. There is one pedal or CV input in the back. you can use an expression pedal or CVs from 0 to 5 Volt. This single control input can control the Sweep, Resonance, Rate or Amount. A little switch selects the function. The input adds to the set corresponding pot, so be sure not to set them to hight when using this input in the back.

The only downside is the little switch knob for choosing where to route the external CV/pedal. This knob falls of easily. And you should not glue it to the axis, as you need to undo it for opening the pedal for service. But you can set this switch with fingers, a plastic screwdriver (never use a metal one!) or a guitar pick (there was one included my box).

The phaser got all major different characters in one: from subtile phasing to extrem whooshing phasing. Just the strange Schulte Compact Phaser A character is not included (as no other phaser sounds like these). It works without adding noticeable noise or hiss.