Another lost Hen's Tooth, Seamoon Studio Phase

[Scruffie]

The Seamoon Studio Phase, can't find a single gut shot of it but it seems to actually be a flanger and be the predecessor to the A/DA Flanger, there are 2 guys that seem to claim ownership of its design...

Anyone got one sitting around? I'd be interested to see what's going on as from the one youtube video of it, it sounds pretty nice!

[Mark Hammer]

The label on the bottom of the case implies that it can make sounds similar to flanging.  Given the era in which it was produced (i.e., when we were just impressed as heck when something swept notches), my sense is that it is a phaser.  Maybe 6 stage or something like that.

[Scruffie]

I believe from what little info I could find, it was going to be a phaser and the original designer has that prototype, but he then designed it around a delay chip and they just used the same case anyway because they were already made and Seamoon was in financial trouble.

Hints to this are a claim that 'The unit could also delay enough to produce a short guitar doubling effect when mixed with the original.' by Jerry Pynckel and also the fact in the youtube demo, if that's not flanger i'll eat my hat...shaped germanium transistors.

"The first musical effect I designed for them used early bucket brigade devices from Radicon. These are earlier than the bucket brigades from National or Panasonic."
Comes from Dave Tarnowski of A/DA who also claims to have designed the studio phase. I assume he meant Reticon.

[Mark Hammer]

The writeup accompanying the Youtube indicates that this pedal eventually morphed into the A/DA Final Phase.  Sure sounds like a flanger at some points, though, I have to agree.

[armdnrdy]

I did a little digging and found this post at the other site. The following was written by Jerry Pynckel who states that he designed the Studio Phase while working for Seamoon. I highlighted the relevant part:

Re: Seamoon - Funk Machine

Postby seamoon design 75 » 08 Feb 2012, 16:16

Just found this site while searching the internet to show my little grandson, who is very interested in electronics, some of my 70's designs and modifications including the frequency shift and aluminum case of the existing Seamoon Funk Machine, creating the V2. (I designed the Seamoon TCP and the Seamoon Studio Phase, first FET based then Reticon BBD) and was surprised to find there is still interest in building a Funk Machine type effect.

The transistor is a simple NPN. There was a package of 2N3565 's at Seamoon with a higher hfe used and the house numbered 40006's were inexpensive over runs purchased from Godbout electronics. The direct connections on the board to the transistor are; Base = to 33K and 10 K junction, Emitter = to ground, with the10K ground. Collector = to 47K and .005 cap junction. So the transistor has a 10K across the base and emitter. The only ground connection to the transistor is the emitter.
Negrosinfe post diagram has a RED arrow with a question mark, that is the INPUT. The other post reference has an added a RED line grounding the whole Collector trace. Remove Red line and if required reverse position of that particular transistor. The RED letters on the diagram should read C, B, E. I hope this helps a little.

P.S. The reason a 5 meg pot was incorporated is simple, it's what they had in stock and wanted to use if it worked. When I added the 5 meg pot to circuit the gain resistor was reduced from 470 K in the original circuit to 47 K. I had added multiple features to expand and improve the function of original circuit however they had a large number of old PC boards in stock from their vender ready to load so any added improvements had to be shelved temporarily. So we decided to modify the old boards with only the Frequency Shift control and fill incoming orders to do a final run of the V2's, then layout the new board with the circuit additions and create Funk Machine V3. The problem, the case was to small for the new controls which meant designing a new wider case. Jerry Pynckel

[armdnrdy]

Scroll down to Seamoon products - Studio phase.

The circuit is explained in some detail.

http://www.jerrypynckel.com/indexrow2col2.html

[Scruffie]

Yup, I came across both those too, there was never a FET based A/DA though, optical and pwm (I think it was?).

I know there was a Studio Flanger from Seamoon too and also if you read Pynckel's site an unreleased version of the studio phase which sounds much more like a phaser design which I take to be the FET version he refers to.

A/DA also bought out the old Seamoon stock according to the A/DA history page so there are transition models it seems as in the video he mentions the PCB says A/DA.

[Mark Hammer]

"Then in December 1975, Jerry designed a phase shifter for the Seamoon line from a previous circut he had been working on in 1974, called the studio phase which was one of the most versatile units on the market at the time. In the original prototype he incorporated the following features; The Studio Phase used a three position selector switch to activate added stages of increasing delay, resulting in some very unique spatial effects. The first stage created a normal phase shifting, while increasing the depth, it even became more ethereal.  The second stage produced a chorus effect and also a simulated a Leslie effect on the guitar. The third stage was for flanging and generated a full up and over sweep and had the ability to be stopped at any point. The unit could also delay enough to produce a short guitar doubling effect when mixed with the original. The second prototype was more of a subdued, watered down version. Jerry still has the orginal studio phase prototype he designed. Variations of the designs are still in use today in different markets and in different packaging.
At the NAMM trade show in Jan 1976, John Lang decided to take a break and check out the competitions phase shifters, about 10 minutes later he came running back to the Seamoon booth, grabbed all of the catalogues and immediately began to raise his prices. Especially the Studio Phase, increasing it significantly."

I think we're seeing the bleedthrough of ad copy into explanation of design here.  It's a phaser.

[Scruffie]

From the information i'm not so sure if it's not just confusion of events some 30-40 years on... especially as we have two different guys claiming to have designed it.
Listen at 5 minutes on in on that demo... i'm pretty sure I can even hear the delay slightly.

Tarnowski designed the Studio Phase, an impressive phase shifter with intensity, shift and speed controls that originally retailed for $129.

Regardless, still a rare one and i'd like to see the insides! If it is a phaser, it's the most flangey sounding i've heard and if it is a flanger, it's got that A/DA vibe but could be a nice simpler version.

[Mark Hammer]

Depending on the number of stages, and the input signal, there IS a point where phasers and flangers can sound remarkably similar.  Somewhere at home, I have a sample of a 24-stage phaser Mike Irwin built (  ), with a white noise signal source to demo it.  That broadband signal allows every stinking notch to be heard, in a manner that a guitar - even a fuzzed one - simply won't provide.  And it sounds for all the world like a flanger.

[pinkjimiphoton]

there's definitely "phasey" settings possible with bbd's... i can tune my clone theory build to the point it sounds like a phaser for sure.

or phaser-ish, anyways.

[DiscoFreq]

I have both a Seamoon Studio Phase and a Randall RP-1 Phase (also designed by Jerry Pynckel). The Randall is still on my desk, I have to search for the Studio Phase.


I have mailed with Jerry Pynckel several times in the last few years. Before the Seamoon and Randall pedals he also made these:
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/designtechnology

For Randall he made 2 Phase pedals and a "Notch Generator" (related to the Seamoon Tone Controlled Preamp):
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/randall

(with each of these pedals you can see a little family tree under "related")

[Scruffie]

I have both a Seamoon Studio Phase and a Randall RP-1 Phase (also designed by Jerry Pynckel). The Randall is still on my desk, I have to search for the Studio Phase.


I have mailed with Jerry Pynckel several times in the last few years. Before the Seamoon and Randall pedals he also made these:
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/designtechnology

For Randall he made 2 Phase pedals and a "Notch Generator" (related to the Seamoon Tone Controlled Preamp):
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/randall

(with each of these pedals you can see a little family tree under "related")

If you could find the Studio Phase and get some gut shots that'd be really great! 

I did see those designtechnology pedals but couldn't find much on them.

[Mark Hammer]

It would seem that the term "Phase" was getting applied to several different things that Jerry was attached to.  I was initially convinced that they were calling it a phase shifter but using the terminology of flangers.  But if I look at your page on the database for the Studio Phase, I see a warning on the chassis NOT to remove the paper covering around the board, in order to avoid static damage to the components.

Now, there is VERY little likelihood that any standard phaser would have used static-sensitive components.  Although, to be fair, the Bad Stone used a CMOS chip, and variations of the ETI phaser circuit did, too.  But those were really exceptions, and 98% of all other phasers would have used FETS or photocells or OTAs, none of which are static sensitive.  In contrast, BBDs and the HF clocks used to drive them ARE static sensitive.  So, it is quite possible that the Seamoon Studio Phase is actually a BBD-based flanger, where those other things Jerry designed for Randall that are called phasers actually ARE phasers.

[DiscoFreq]

I think they all use BBD chips, but I'll see if I can make gut shots soon

[analogguru]

The Seamoon Studio Phase (as can be seen at DiscoFreak´s site) definitely uses a SAD1024 (BBD) with a 4047 as clock oscillator - even when the chips are sanded.

The Randall RP-1 is a FET-based 4-stage Phaser running on 2 x 9V batteries.