Steve Jones

Steve Jones is seen using the Fulltone PlimSoul overdrive effects pedal in a photograph from Getty Images.

Steve Jones used the MXR orange phaser live when he was in the Sex Pistols. He said in an interview with Ultimate Guitar it was a Phase 45 (https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/the_classic_albums_never_mind_the_bollocks_heres_the_sex_pistols.html) He mentions recording "Anarchy in the UK" with an MXR Phase 90 in a 2017 interview, seen here: http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-10-24/the-guitar-stories-behind-never-mind-the-bollocks-by-steve-jones 0:21 & 1:07 of the video shows an orange phaser on the floor at his feet, & based on the orange color & sound, it's clearly an MXR phaser. Given that he himself has mentioned he used both the Phase 90 & the Phase 45, who knows what phaser he actually used. Either way, it was an MXR.

While I've confirmed Steve Jones used a Phase 45 &/or MXR Phase 90, I'm not sure of which specific MXR Phase 90 version he used, but I'd guess it's the script version. Here's why I believe it's the script version of the Phase 90 and not the later block logo version: according to the Sex Pistols' official website section on "Anarchy in the UK," (http://www.sexpistolsofficial.com/records/anarchy-in-the-uk-7/) the song was first released as a single on November 26, 1976. According to the Wikipedia page on the MXR Phase 90 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MXR_Phase_90), the block logo version of the Phase 90 wasn't released until the next year in 1977, meaning it would have been impossible for Steve Jones to use the block logo Phase 90 to record Anarchy in the UK, as the block logo Phase 90 hadn't been released yet. However, there was a transitional period between the debut of the original Phase 90 in 1974 and the update to the block logo version in 1977 where some Phase 90s with script logos had the circuits from the newer block version, and vice versa. So while it's impossible to know the exact circuitry version in Jones' personal Phase 90, we can confirm that the phaser he used on "Anarchy in the UK" was indeed an MXR Phase 90, as seen in the video of the Sex Pistols performing "Anarchy in the UK" in 1976, and in the aforementioned interview where Jones explicitly states he used an MXR Phase 90. Personally, I'd recommend trying an MXR Phase 95 to replicate Steve Jones' sound with the Sex Pistols. While we don't know what circuitry version was in Jones' MXR phaser, or whether it was a 45 or 90, the MXR Phase 95 can switch between script/block circuitry & 45/90 modes, and it's an MXR phaser like Steve Jones used in the Sex Pistols. Hope this helps!

Steve Jones used an MXR Phase 45 on "Anarchy in the UK." In an interview with Ultimate Guitar, he said: "I only used one effect pedal and it was on Anarchy In The UK, it was a MXR Phase 45. That was the only thing I added on my end." He's always been a no-frills, simple rig guitar player, so his primary sound with the Sex Pistols was his white Les Paul through a cranked Fender Twin. Some websites mistakenly state that he used an MXR flanger, but he didn't use one, and the interview here shows he himself said he only used a Phase 45 & it was only on "Anarchy in the UK."

In a Getty Images photograph, Steve Jones is pictured with a Jim Dunlop GCB95 Original Crybaby Wah pedal, highlighting its use in his setup.