Phasers are pretty damn useless and usually suck alot of your tone away.
Phaser is like anything else. It's an effect and it can be abused. Smaller doses in just the right spots and it's really effective. On all the time and it gets old pretty fast.
My stage amp ('73 SG Systems by Gibson/Norlin) came with a Maestro Phase Shift built right in it. (the kind with the three colored speed rocker switches) so tone suck is less of an issue. It's part of the design. I only use it for one solo and these days, I think one bridge and an alternative for another five second bit if I don't bring the Flanger.
Maestro's 70's Phaser (same case as the fuzz I posted before) is a monster of an effect. Super wide warm sweep and those big wheels you can adjust with your feet. Absolute genius design.
Doog wrote:Lacking a tone control = worthless to me.
it's not lacking any meat
Maybe, but it'd still bug me. I had a Hendrix Fuzz given to me years back and though it sounded good, it was so much more toppy than the clean signal. No good if you wanted to switch between them. The tone control just seems like such a big omission to me.