Let's talk flange and flanger pedals.

So, in theory, I love flangers. However, I've had a really rough time with flangers. I don't like "jet swoosh" sounds. That's one of the worst sounds Here's a list of the flangers I've had and some quick thoughts on them:

TC Electronic Vortex Mini — This thing sucked. I didn't have a smart phone at the time, so I was not able to mess with the TonePrints at all. Maybe there was something better in them, but as is, this thing sounded like popping bubble wrap to me. Just way too harsh and shrill.

MXR Micro Flanger — For a two knob flanger, this was able to get a lot of different nuanced tones. And, even at its most extreme settings, it didn't get too "swooshy" which was nice. I always felt like I was cheating because I used to just keep both knobs at noon. But hey, if it sounds good, it works. This is probably my favorite flanger I've ever played on. Like an idiot, I didn't keep it.

MXR Bass Chorus Deluxe — It's actually a chorus and flanger. I mainly wanted it for the chorus side, so while I didn't play on the flanger side super in-depth, I did like it. Probably should have kept this one, too.

Fulltone Choralflange — This is my current chorus pedal. I traded my CE-3 for it. It's fucking butter. The flanger side is okay. But, when the chorus is as great as it is, the flanger doesn't stand a chance.

Boss BF-2 — I mean, it's a pretty solid flanger. This is what I currently have and I'm not really in love with it. It does feel a bit brittle; though not as much as the Vortex. It's functional, but I feel like it will never be a pedal that I fully connect with.

Boss BF-3 — The "ultra" mode on this is of absolutely no use to me at all, as its main function is to increase "swooshiness" - no, thank you. When I had this pedal, I preferred the subtlety of the bass input.

And my buddy back in Reno had an Electro-Harmonix Stereo Electric Mistress that I played around on several times. I had the Vortex at the time, so of course the Electric Mistress sounded incredible by comparison, but it's been a really long time since I played on one, so my memories of it are cloudy, at best.

So, I'm thinking I would like to get a different flanger and, beyond that, I'm thinking I should go back to one of the MXRs.

Any thoughts?

Oh hell yeah. Flangers are my favorite effect by some distance - I love all modulation effects but there is nothing like the sound of an overdriven guitar feeding back and fed thru a flanger pedal set at the slowest rate possible and the maximum depth & resonance. I'm a big fan of the Japanese BOSS BF-2 - it's much more intense than the American version, has a wider ranger and a little goofier and more idiosyncratic. I haven't had the chance to play with any of the other pedals you mentioned except the Electric Mistress reissue, which is good but a little too thin imo. I'd love to see a version with a phaser instead of a chorus. of course there are the originals but goddamn those are in$$$$ane.

Prince loved flangers and I always wondered whether or not he gravitated toward them (partially) because they're purple or if BOSS made their flangers purple as a nod to Prince. he put everything thru flangers, most noticeably the Linn drum, usually at a very slow rate with maximum depth & resonance.

btw you can get a Japanese BF-2 on eBay for less than a hundred bucks, I think I got mine for $80 a few years ago. I don't imagine they've jumped up much in price.

I had a Japanese BF-2 a while back and I thought it was just okay. Something that I've had in the back of my mind for a while is the Boss HF-2 HiBand Flanger.

So, I ended up trading in my BF-2 (not long after I first posted this) towards an Electric Mistress and I really actually love it. The Choralflange, at my preferred settings, is a very smooth chorus, so the "thinness" of the Electric Mistress that you talked about is a really nice offset to it. I love the sound of the Choralflange stacked into the Electric Mistress with some spring reverb. That's like instant Seventeen Seconds-era Robert Smith.

before he outed himself fully as the complete asshole that he is, i sold off my old choralflange (got $200 for it, which was super rad) and i've since gone back to the mxr micro flanger. my modulation setup is now mxr phase 95-> micro flanger-> boss ce-3 and i honestly don't think i could improve on it for the kind of music i want to play.

the Ibanez Airplane Flanger is a really cool analog flanger you can get for $150-200.

I think it's designed to be similar to the wonderful vintage A/DA flanger.

it has some pros and cons depending on your personal tastes, its what they call "un pedalboard friendly" in size and it is very pink. it has a "take off" mode which does a thing you almost never want, probably you dont want to ever touch that switch. fantastic fonts on this one. it has a Paul Gilbert signature right on the thing, fair enough, it was his signature product. if you're wondering "who?" you can just pretend it's the Pam Grier signature flanger, that's what I do