I loved the sound of the flanger from the first time I heard it used on recordings. I thought the jet-sweeping flanging sound used on recorded drums was simply awesome. Then I listened to Eddie Van Halen’s guitar on “Unchained” and thought it was cool having the up and down sweeps of the flanger move along in time with the dropped D pedal tone riff. After hearing that, I just had to have one for myself.
Being a young kid at the time, money (or lack of) was more of the primary decision-making factor than a box’s tone or quality. The only flanger I could afford that my local store sold was the DOD FX-75. I bought it, took it home and was then disappointed to say the least. It just didn’t produce that cool sweeping sound that I had heard on the albums. It sounded more like an exaggerated chorus that couldn’t sweep properly and sounded more like a de-tuning effect. I sold it pretty quickly and eventually picked up a Boss BF-2 Flanger when I could finally afford one (I also learned the valuable lesson to at least always try a box out in the store before purchasing it – there was no return policy with the DOD). At least with the Boss unit, I was thrilled to discover it sounded like a real Flanger and did a pretty decent job too. I used that Boss Flanger for many years to add special effects to my guitar sound.
Later still, I read about the A/DA company in a magazine article. The article stated that the A/DA flanger was the first one produced commercially and was also THE standard by which all other flangers should be judged. I found that interesting – I just had to try one, but didn’t expect that the A/DA could do a better job than my Boss, especially since the A/DA was “old 70’s technology”, right?
When searching for an A/DA, I had extra difficulty because these flangers were no longer in production. I eventually found one used but the dealer was asking $250 for it. Quite honestly, I thought he was out of his mind asking so much for a beat up old black box, but I decided to try it out anyway.
As soon as I played through the A/DA Flanger, I knew immediately why it commanded such a price. Sweeps were dramatic and lush. The unit itself was also quiet and didn’t produce any of the background sweeping noise that you can hear with other commercially made flangers. I was literally blown away by the sound of this unit. The A/DA Flanger’s sound is very full and delivers tones and special effects that other units just can’t. I was sold and fortunately was at a point where I could afford to buy the unit for myself (the dealer would not haggle on the price – Believe me, I tried).
The A/DA has some extra controls that interestingly aren’t found on today’s designs. The flanger’s controls include Threshold (similar to a gating effect), Manual (sets the tonal center of the sweep frequency), Range (alters the frequency spectrum of the flange), Speed (obvious right?), and Enhance (a resonance control; adds depth and intensity). The flanger also includes a switch to flange either even or odd-ordered harmonics. All together, some very unusual sounds can be produced with this unit.
The mystique and popularity of the A/DA flanger prompted the company to re-issue it several years ago. While I haven’t personally tried the reissue, I’ve read that it sounds virtually identical to the original. The reissue also features an improvement in that it uses a built-in power transformer and power cord versus the A/C adapter (a.k.a. “wallwart”) design of the original.
Even with today’s modern digital rack effects and new designs, I’ve yet to hear a flanger effect that sounds as good as the A/DA. Perhaps there is some truth that certain time-delay effects such as choruses and flangers do truly sound better analog. Listen to the sound files and then decide for yourself.
BEWARE OF PURCHASING EQUIPMENT FROM ADA AMPLIFICATION. By their own admission the ADA APP-1 does not work correctly in the UK due to power supply compatibility. When I first reported this to ADA under the terms of the 365 day warranty it took several emails most of which they didn’t have the courtesy to reply to and over a month before they finally give me an RA number to return it for replacement/repair. I returned it but it took so long that I sent a further 18 emails over the period of 6 weeks again most of them without the courtesy of a reply, when it was finally returned to me there was no difference it suffered exactly the same fault as it had before I sent it. After contacting ADA again I finally got the promise of a full refund, I returned it to ADA and gave plenty of time for the post to arrive in the USA before sending an email for a status update, as usual I got no reply and so far I have sent 7 emails over the period of 22 days with no response from ADA. It is now 28th June 2016, 6 months and still no contact, no refund. https://www.facebook.com/ADA-amp-advice-176399642726504/