Phase 90 problem

[ZeroGravity]

Hi there,

A couple of years ago I built a clone of the MXR phase 90 to use on my fender rhodes.
I didn't use it much back then, but now I would like to use it, and I'm having some trouble with it.
I have a considerable amount of noise (hiss), but if I try to feed it with a stronger signal, it distorts.
It already starts to distort with the output of my rhodes at maximum and no preamp.

I used (matched) BF245's for the JFET's and no feedback resistor. The phasing sounds ok.
In the output stage I used 180K for the feedback resistor instead of 150K (although I'm still not at unity gain, should I go even higher?)
I did experiment with different feedback resistors, but it didn't improve things.
I don't have an original P90 to compare with, but can it really be this bad?
Is there someone with a fender rhodes who uses this pedal and has more succes with it?
The output of my P90 is connected to a fender amp which has 1Mohm imput impedance - so the loading is minimal.

Thanks.

[thedefog]

Hey there,

What type of opamps are you using in your circuit? Phasers are a little noisy by nature, since they're sweeping a peak across a frequency band. However, if the noise is obvious in a mix, I'd look there.

I've never been a fan of the phase 90 to be honest. It's just a bit too pronounced. I've had a lot better luck using an old small stone on my rhodes piano. I also built a clone for a friend with some CA3080 OTAs that sounded fantastic on it (I considered giving him my old EH instead).

[Joe Hart]

I have a Phase 90 (with the standard "script" mods -- and I messed with the trimmer a bit), and it is fairly quiet.  I know that's subjective, but it's quieter than my Vox Wah, my various DOD 250's, and a couple of random fuzz pedals.  I wouldn't say that my Phase 90 is particularly noisy at all.  No disrespect to your comment, thedefog, but my phaser just isn't noisy and I use a lot of amp gain (and have the phaser in a pedalboard with 11 other pedals before the amp).
-Joe Hart

[thedefog]

I may have been over-emphasizing the amount of noise. I just plugged mine in and it's really not that bad at all actually. The Small Stone was actually a tad more noisy. But nothing that would ever bother me or would become noticeable when playing.