My favorite flanger of all time is the Ibanez Paul Gilbert Airplane Flanger. Can the Walrus Audio Polychrome Flanger unseat my fave?
Ibanez Paul Gilbert Airplane Flanger
This flanger is my favorite of all time. It was made between ~2009 and early 2010’s. It has Manual, Speed, Range, and Enhance knobs. Plus a Takeoff Speed knob, for an extreme dive bomb jet engine effect.
The Airplane Flanger is supposedly based on a circa 1980 DOD Flanger. It nails the throaty light flange of Van Halen’s “Hear About it Later”. It has the requisite “Unchained” extreme flange. It can do a light chorusy flange and a “shimmer” flange, as well as the warbley flange (I never use warble sound in flange or chorus).
And it has the iconic jet Takeoff switch. For some reason, Paul Gilbert, known for for being a shredder, switched to a stoptail bridge on his signature Ibanez Fireman guitars in the late oughts. This gave him no option for Floyd divebombs so he compensated by a quick click of the jet Takeoff switch.
I have used this effect as quick transition at the crescendo/resolution of a lead guitar part a on a recording. Mixed in, it was similar to a pick slide and made a nice transition.
Just make sure you don’t accidentally click the wrong switch and turn it on during a live gig – especially a live gig at a church or coffee house.
I used the Airplane Flanger on my solo coffee shop, church, whatever gigs in the early to mid-2010’s. I had a guitar synth and a looper and would lock in a pad or a guitar part and then play over it.
Walrus Audio Polychrome Flanger
The Walrus Audio Polychrome Flanger has Rate, Depth, Sweep, and Feedback knobs. It has 3 modulation waveforms and a 2-way voicing switch which offers two distinct flavors of flanging: a traditional, full-frequency effect or a more complex, notched flange effect with less low end. It also has a d-f-v knob which allows you to dial in dry, flange, and into vibrato signal.
Pros:
Where it really shines is that with the Shape/Voice switches and the Sweep knob, it allows you to lock in the flange tone in a certain frequency. Think of it like taking a wah wah pedal and playing it half way down (like some people do to get a specific tone). But instead of tone it is locking a frequency of the flange. It is very unique.
When the Shape switch is down, it modulates the LFO randomly. This is weird and I have not absorbed this feature much yet.
Plus – when you hold the footswitch and then let up, it flanges just for that short guitar part.
This demo video shows all of the features of the Polychrome Flanger. It can do VH, Heart’s “Barricuda”, etc.
The only con is that some people complain about the right LED light, which strobes in time to the Speed, even when the flanger is not engaged. Some people have commented that they can hear the flange bleed in when it is not on, but I have not had that problem.
Ibanez Airplane Flanger VS Walrus Audio Polychrome
Ok, this is not really a comparison. I love the Airplane Flanger tone, but the pedal is huge. It takes up about a quarter of my pedalboard. The switch is clicky. There is no hold function. And I have hit the Takeoff button by mistake more than once in a coffee shop gig.
The Polychrome Flanger is smaller, I can dial it in for my current playing style. And can I hold the footswitch and then let it up, for a brief flanged guitar part.
The Polychrome Flanger has made the cut for my pedalboard.
Walrus Audio Did it Right
I like the attitude of Walrus Audio – that they approach making a pedal to match the Sound that is Inside Their Heads. And they do this all analog – without just modeling it digitally. Plus they are US based, in Oklahoma City, as part of the current boutique pedal Golden Age going on.