Asheville Music Tools Analoger APH-12 Review

At the end of the very thorough—and essential—manual that accompanies the Asheville Music Tools APH-12 phaser, designer Rick “Hawker” Shaich sweetly dedicates the pedal to the memory of the Grateful Dead’s bassist Phil Lesh. In fact, there are several references to the Dead in the manual—most pertaining to the APH-12’s ability to mimic Jerry Garcia’s envelope filter tones. But it is probably Lesh, the Dead’s relentless experimentalist, that would have appreciated the impressive, immersive APH-12 the most. Because while the all-analog APH-12 excels in rich conventional phaser sounds, it is capable of radical filtering and EQ effects, vibrato, tremolo, ring modulation, and more that would have been right at home on 1968’s Anthem of the Sun, the Dead’s mad-scientist production apotheosis. But you certainly don’t need to be a Deadhead to appreciate the sounds and craft that distinguish the APH-12. If you dig peppering your own productions and compositions with distinctive, weird, arresting textures—or just buttercream-thick phaser sounds—the APH-12 is a feast of treats that can transform a tune. 12 Stages, Infinite RoadsThe fact that Hawker once worked as an engineer for Moog is a less-than-well-kept secret. And it’s impossible to not be excited about the APH-12 in the context of the Moogerfooger MF-103 phaser, a Bob Moog modulation masterpiece that Hawker helped refine during his tenure. With its 12-stage capability, drive control, and LFO section, many aspects of the APH-12’s features and functionality mirror those of the MF-103. But the APH-12 has a very different architecture. Where the MF-103 featured just 6- and 12-stage phase effects, the APH-12 is capable of 2- and 4-stage phasing as well as single-stage and odd-numbered staging that yield unusual, colorful out-of-phase effects. It also features an envelope-controlled mode that enables dynamic command of the modulation.Learning how all these functions work together takes time. Though Hawker initially conceived the APH-12 as the company’s first analog/digital hybrid pedal, his ears led him back to an all-analog design. That means you can’t rely on presets to capture sounds derived from sensitive and interactive controls. You have to pay attention and probably take notes. But the process of decoding the APH-12’s secrets is instructive, engaging, immersive, and intuitive in its way, and learning its language is addictive stuff that often yields musical gold.You Can Always Go HomeThough it’s easy to get into very strange places with the APH-12, getting back to a safe space is as simple as selecting the 1-, 2-, 4-, or 6-stage phasers and backing off the phase amount, LFO resonance, and sweep controls. The latter, which adjusts the center frequency for the modulations, effectively works like a tone control, taming and enhancing peaks that can make a phase cycle super intense or subtly woven through the fabric of a musical phrase. It’s not only easy to return to these more modest phase effects if you get lost in the weeds, but they are deeply satisfying and, in terms of depth and character, rival or better my own favorite phasers. This capacity for thick, rubbery versions of classic 4- and 6-stage phase controls is enough to make a case for replacing every phaser in your collection with the APH-12. But it’s the pedal’s ability to deliver the unexpected that makes the hefty near-$400 price tag a value.The odd-numbered stages, for example, are as impressive for their filtering effects as modulation. In the single-stage mode, the modulations can double as tremolo pulse, but the frequency cancellations lend a dirty ’60s attitude to guitar lines that would serve one of Sergio Leone’s grittiest spaghetti Western scenes. The 3-stage setting is home to some of my favorite colors in the APH-12. It can sound nearly as chewy as the 4-stage setting, but has a funky, vowel-ly attack that bridges the gap between Funkadelic and Pink Floyd and, for its narrower tone emphasis, sounds more focused in a multi-instrument mix. “This capacity for thick, rubbery versions of classic 4- and 6-stage phase controls is enough to make a case for replacing every phaser in your collection.”The 5-stage mode, like the 3-stage setting, is home to some of the most Garcia-like tones, especially when used with the dynamic envelope setting on the modulation switch. But in 5-stage mode you also start to hear more pronounced variations on the APH-12 and the most mold-breaking tones. Here you’ll find modulations that are both elastic and vocal but also effectively lo-fi in a distant radio broadcast kind of way. This tendency is beautifully enhanced in 9-stage mode, and you’re likely to find a lot of sound designers lurking here, crafting dark submarine resonances and the atmosphere of chains clanking in an empty, hulking space freighter.The odd-number modes aren’t all, well, odd. Slow-motion phase cycles with a heap of drive (which uses a JFET saturation stage to enhance even-order harmonics) can produce dreamy filter sweeps that are super-dramatic without being sprawling and bossy. The APH-12’s 12-stage mode is another place where sound designers and players seeking simple but pronounced coloration will co-exist. Here again, the APH-12 excels at shaping intense modulations that can be slotted surgically in a mix. But I was also able to construct tone environments equally well suited for a David Lynch-led field trip to trans-dimensional realms populated by metallic seagulls, distant throbbing motors, and fragments of fractured interstellar communications.The VerdictThe sounds highlighted here are a fraction of what the APH-12 can do. And while there are significant differences under the hood, anyone who has been thwarted in the secondhand Moog MF-103 market will find much to sate their hunger here. But outside any comparisons to a discontinued classic, the North Carolina-built APH-12 is an outstanding modulation, filtering, and noise machine that can bring the weirdness and the ruckus one second and slide back into slippery, sonorous, rich, and gliding phase tones in the next. It’s an expensive pedal, but you could replace multiple phasers and noisemakers sitting in your closet with this and never miss them—unless you get a hankering for your Phase 90’s one-knob, no-brainer simplicity. Factor in the considerable R&D and the many years of engineering experience behind the execution of this fine modulator and that $397 price tag starts to look like a very fair price—and a smart investment—indeed.