Songworks Little Lanelei Reverb Pedal

Pretty straight forward to adjust verb and gain level desired.

Sounds very close to a onboard Fender Verb, warm organic spring sound that does not color the amp tone, No digital effect can emulate having real springs. Not a lot of noise added when on and quiet bypass when off. I have over 10 vintage Fender amps with verb, I needed verb on a real 1960 Bassman, this did the trick. Of course I use my verb no higher than 3 on the amps, I used an analog delay for slapback of really deep echo style tone.

The unit is very good for a real spring sound copy of a vintage Fender amp up until 4, I do not agree with the claim from Songworks that you can get Surf verb tones, just not there..

So if you want to add a splash of Spring verb, this is for you.. If you want light to surf, spent the $$ and get a Verb tank.

Just got it, Looks well built. No problems yet..

I sent e-mail and phone messages to Songworks with questions,I recived response back to both in a timely manner.

For a light verb wash that has a Vintage Fender tone, not bad. For the surf Tone, look else where...

All and all not a bad unit if you pick one up used at a fair price and want to add a bit a verb to a non verb amp.

This fine pedal has but two knobs - one for gain and one for reverb. Turn them both up past 12 o'clock and you're in for some fine, fine spring tone.

I do not find it especially noisy unless turned all the way up - it can create feedback at the highest settings. Some feel that this doesn't provide enough 'verb, but it provides quite a bit IMHO. I could see a more hardcore setting for those outer-space moments (which is a bit of a misnomer, as space is a vacuum and no sound could carry). Still, it will liven up your reverbless amps and much better than a digital box, says I. Arrr.

Using it with a 74 tele or a 71 Tiesco Del Rey and a 65 Bandmaster head through a 112 cabinet, or with a Lectrasonics Maximouse or occasionally a Roland Cube 60 (1980s version).

I can emulate some Ventures-style sounds with this, maybe some Hank Marvin...too bad I can't play like them!

Yes, I would depend on it, seems quite solid and the springs are loose so I doubt they would break...footswitches don't look too sturdy but an extender switch means you can keep the 'verb in a safe place so you don't have to stomp on it.

Fast response to eMails.

This is a good pedal for anyone wanting to get that slightly sassy mid-60s reverb, but it generally livens it up no matter if you're going for that sound. I've been playing for 26 years and it's one of the best I've heard. Comparable to the sound of a Fender Super Reverb. If it were stolen I'd buy another buy I'd also hire a witch doctor and put a spell on whoever stole it...it's just not right to swipe another man's sound.

I tried the Danelectro Spring King and found it darkened the sound. Also tried the Holy Grail, Digitech Digiverb, and that Boss one (can't recall the model but it has like 5 settings, including spring). Both the Digitech and Boss pedals try to emulate the "toc" you hear at the head of a note when plucking hard, but neither do so very convincingly - in particular the Boss seems to add it in based on input level, which is understandable but in practice results in inaccurate tracking. The Holy Grail wasn't too bad but still not as convincing as the Lanelei.

Two knobs. One button. One remote switch (optional). Easy! And it's small - about 6"x9"x1.5".

One caution: the seller warned me to keep the pedal away from the amp so the springs don't pick up the speakers' vibrations and feedback.

Just what I was looking for. I'd test-driven a Holy Grail first. It had too many controls, none were persuasive, and the thing was noisy at all levels.

The Little Lanilei is lush! It has real springs in it, yet costs a fraction of what the big reverb units go for. Because it's smaller, you can't get the sound of, say, a Fender reverb turned up to 10. But since I never use that much reverb anyway, I'm not missing out on anything. Imagine a Fender turned up to, say, 4. That's the Little Lanilei turned all the way up - plenty for my purposes. An easy way to moisten up my reverb-less amps.

And when place properly, no noise. The thing plays totally clean and doesn't alter the sound in any way other than as intended.

Just got it. So far, so good. Solid, thick metal box. I have no qualms about using it without a backup.

Bought it used very recently and haven't had occasion to call the company about anything.

I play blues, country, folk - mainly roots American sounds, with some forays into free-form and world. I like a rig that lets you hear the wood. Have played mostly unprofessionally, but with a few band here and there, since 1968, I think. I now have two Strats and two Teles - all single-coil. My main amps: A Fender RI Vibroverb with a pair of vintage-style Jensens in the combo and the original Oxfords in an extension cab (don't need Little Lanilei there!), a '62 Ampeg M-15, and a Fender Pro Junior.

If it were stolen or lost, I'd get another one. Compared to the Holy Grail? The HG I tried was a noise box. The LL is the real deal.

Very simple pedal to use, plug it in, turn a knob, and hit the switch...

I tried to use this pedal with a Fender-style 2x12 combo amp that had no reverb...but, this thing generated so much noise that I couldn't use it! I tried different places in the signal chain, but...no dice.
I eventually had Tony at Krank amps install a tube reverb in my amp, much cleaner and vintage sounding.

When the pedal arrived, the first thing I noticed was the led didn't work...the pedal seemed to function, but no led...so, I mailed it back to Songworks for some repair before even trying it with my amp...I would have returned it for good if I had.

I have to give them points for making my little led problem a priority...they had it fixed and returned within a week.

Not satisfied at all with this one...great concept, but poor execution. I have since purchased a combo with amazingly thick tube reverb...there's no substitue for the real thing.
I must admit that I am very curious to try one of their "Leslie" cabinets.

Very easy to get a good sound. I like pedals that are usable throughout the extremes of the knobs. This is one of those. It doesn't sound bad at any setting. The gain knob sets the level of signal that hits the springs, the reverb knob is a wet dry control. The gain knob is not a feature on any amp reverb I know of, and I find it very useful. Tris also includes directions with it, and they are straightfoward and helpful as well.

I am using this with a '76 Fender Champ and a G&L ASAT Classic. The Champ has no 'verb, and it really comes to life with this pedal. I also have a '59 RI Bassman that has no reverb, either, but I haven't tried it out on that. Not noisy unless the reverb knob is set at the highest level, but that's not really white noise, that's from the spring tank. I got the sound from Bob Dylan's Love Sick out of this, and that did it for me. I was convinced. It sounds like the reverb is actually coming from the amp, unlike the Boss RV-5 I had that never quite convinced me. It's not overly boingy, and I was worried that would bother me, but it doesn't.

I have not used it enough to know about its reliability. I did however buy it used, and when I got it home I found that it wouldn't work with batteries. However, I soon figured out that the ghettofied power supply the original owner used had fried something inside. He probably knew this, but he didn't tell me and refused to return my phone calls. Mother #*@$er.

Here's where the story gets better. I emailed Tris Mahaffey, maker of the Little Lanilei, and he offered to fix it for a very reasonable 25 bucks. When I got it back, I discovered not only the instruction sheet, but a remote foot pedal I'd never received from the original owner. Not to mention a fully working reverb unit that sounds fantastic. Maybe I've dealt with my cell phone company to often, but I was not expecting this level of service, especially since I bought the pedal used.

I play rock, blues, and jazz. I've been playing for 8 years. For some reason, I've bought two amps without reverb. I sort of missed it for a while, then bought a Boss RV-5 and wasn't impressed, so I sold it and went reverbless for a while longer. I've tried the Holy Grail, the Digiverb, a Peavy rack unit, and a Danelectro Spring King. None of them were bad, but they weren't that great either. I can't afford a Fender Reverb tank or a VanAmps Reverbamate which is roughly the same price, and after hearing and owning the Little Lanilei those costs do not seem justified. Plus, I know the customer support is there, which isn't the case for any other gear I own except maybe my Analogman SD-1/808. I buy and sell a decent amount of gear on ebay, but this one is going to stick around.

Very simple. Input,output, gain and reverb. However, for some reason, the input and output are reversed from all other pedals I know of! Thus the output comes out on the right. Thus you have to either put the unit backwards or use a long cable to get it to line up with others. Not a huge deal but kind of annoying.

Well, I bought this pedal because I was looking for a real spring reverb sound in a smaller package then my reverb tank. I used this pedal through my 1957 Gibson GA-6 amp and my 1964 bandmaster and unfortunately it didn't meet my expectations. There simply was not enough reverb. It needed to be maxed out to get any real reverb and I usually don't use much! My Traynor tank is usually set to about 2-3 at most! Another problem was that when it was maxed out it really started to feed back when at club playing volumes.

Seems very well built and would likely last forever.

Well, I do have to commend Tris, the owner of Soundworks and builder of the pedal. He personally called me when a dealer fell through with getting me the pedal at a great price. He got me the pedal at that price and with free shipping and the foot switch. I really wish I had liked the pedal more.

Great idea but needs to put out more oomph without feedback to be useful at a gig. Would be fine for bedroom use at low volumes where you don't want a huge amount of reverb. I play blues, country and some rock and gig occasionally. I have sold it to get a holy grail which, though not perfect, seems like a better deal and gives more reverb.

Plug it in, turn the knobs (gain & reverb), and play.

Fender Deluxe Fat Strat > VIntage Vox V846 Wah > Original 1970's Proco Rat > T.C. Electronic Chorus > EHX Deluxe Memory Man (w/ mods) > Fulltone Supa-Trem > Little Lanilei Reverb > '59 Bassman R.I.

Unfortunately, the Little Lanilei didn't live up to the hype. I've always used on-board reverbs (and some digital), but since I got my '59 bassman, my reverb hunt led me to the glowing reviews for the Lanilei pedal.

I found one, an hour away, that was brand new, but wasn't pumping out much reverb. The store owner said it had worked before, and because of Tris's good reputation, I decided to fork over the cash and deal with it myself. I sent it to Tris (on my dollar) and got it back in working order the following week.

Once it was in my chain, I found the reverb to be very vanilla, not as warm as I'd have liked, and kinda weak. I was expecting it to be on the subtle side, but as I turned the gain and reverb up, it would go from nothing, to very subtle, very subtle, subtle, drenched. Not much room in between. I also noticed a volume loss with the pedal on... If you're looking for spring reverb, save your cash and buy a Fender reverb unit. That's really the only way to go. The Little Lanilei looks cool, and it sounds alright, but for the price, it's not worth it.

Seems well built. The screws on the battery door are longer than the rubber feet, so it wobbles a bit on a flat surface. Not great for something that "boings" a lot anyway. I would have placed the Lanilei in a padded box, left it by my amp, and used the footswitch, so, who knows...

It does seem a lot of folks have to send their Lanilei Reverbs in for service, and because mine didn't work very well when I first got it, I have to say that the reliability is only average.

Initially, I sent Tris a few emails, left a few messages, and didn't get a response. Finally, I got a brief email back saying, "Did you get my other emails?" Once all that was sorted out, I sent Tris the non-working pedal, and asked for a couple simple mods (like others have), an adaptor, and a manual. I got the pedal back, and it worked better, but didn't get anything else that had I requested and offered to pay for (even though some reviewers got all this stuff for free). Too much trouble, and once again, not worth it.

6 - Friendliness
5 - Service
3 - Helpfulness

I play rock n' roll, sometimes on the indie side, sometimes on the classic rock side... some jazz, blues, surf, alternative, r&b, electronica...

I really, really wanted to like the Litlle Lanilei reverb... I mean, it's a beautiful pedal. But it just didn't give me the wet sound I expected. It's a little TOO subtle, not round and warm with nice tails like it should be. I even cranked the knobs and busted out "Misirlou" and "Sleepwalk" and was still disappointed... Maybe I got a lemon, but I wouldn't bother with another one. Needless to say, after all that trouble, I returned it.

And the reverb hunt continues...

This is a really easy pedal, just two knobs to work with and you can't really get a "bad" setting from them. The battery compartment is kind of annoying to get to because you need a screwdriver, but it includes an AC adapter. The AC adapter mine came with has a little high-pass filter or some such thing wrapped in a rubber sleeve on the cord, I don't know if that's normal from Songworks or what, but I think it helps get rid of any AC noise.

Gibson SG Special -> Tubeworks Real Tube II preamp -> FX Loop [ Little Lanilei Reverb -> Danelectro EQ Pedal ] -> Tubeworks MosValve -> 1x12 cab
It's important to put this in your FX loop. If you have it in your chain before your preamp, it will probably feed back when the level knob is around 2:00. This preamp has level knobs for the FX loop send and receive so that might have something to do with a lack of feedback, but in this setup the gain and level can be all the way up with no feedback or noise.

Anyway, the sound is super-smooth. It makes those cool spring reverby blurps when you bop the strings, and it really sounds like that old school reverb sound. I still felt a bit disappointed. I got into the surf sound after hearing the band Man... or Astroman? and their spring tone is just way over the top. This pedal doesn't quite match up with the reverb on Fender amps, like the Hot Rod series. It's still a fine pedal and I definitely always have it on and enjoy it, but I won't say it sounds like the crazy warm Fender reverb. But I guess that's not exactly what it's supposed to sound like, or it'd have some tubes in it and stuff. It really is a great sounding pedal though. It sounds just like The Chantays and The Ventures and stuff. Dig.

I got it used, so I don't really know what happened before, but there was a very low hum that got louder as the level knob was turned up. It turned out to be a loose ground wire that had to be re-soldered. From what I've read, Songworks would have fixed it, but it still kind of sucks. Anyway, all the internals seem very secure despite that, and the case is very sturdy. You can bump it around to make the springs crash and it doesn't blink. Because it doesn't have eyes. It has solid rubber feet, and the jacks and stuff have never bugged out, even though they're those stupid cheap jacks in plastic casings that are inside of every instrument, apparently. Those old guys at music shops who hate everything that was made after 1972 know what I'm talking about. I don't gig but I definitely trust the hell out of this thing.

I've been playing guitar for a little over 3 years, playing a lot of straight up rock and roll, surf, blues, and 80's kinda hardcore punk. I've had the pedal about a year, and it's always on when I'm playing. When you back the gain and reverb off, it sounds like a nice background reverb, and when you turn them up, it sings that jangly surf/rockablilly sound you know you love. It's kind of an expensive pedal, but it's pretty much a monopoly because no one else makes a decent spring reverb unit, so they're forgiven. I don't mean to be elitist, but this sound can't be reproduced digitally (yet). It's a great sound, and can't be done without springs. It's missing something if you're going for the absolute wild Fender spring tone, but it definitely helps scratch the itch, and you can play it through anything. I enjoy it and would buy it again. [Insert clever "I'd beat down the guy who stole it" joke here]

-Analog spring reverb tank
-active/bypass switch
-controls for "gain" and "reverb"
-optional external 1 button active/bypass footswitch
This is a simple effects unit. It acts like any on-board spring reverb unit, only more powerful. The unit itself
has an on/off foot switch, but because stomping on a spring tank results in a loud, banging, vibrating noise,
an external 1 button footwitch can be attatched. This is extremely helpful, though I've heard people like to
bang the actual spring tank around just because it makes neat noises.

Like I said, It acts like any on-board spring reverb unit, only more powerful. You're not going to get any
crazy spaced out sounds with this unit, but it gives you great, natural sounding reverb. I play with a gibson
es-333 through a boogie dc-5 and a fender ultimate chorus. I prefer this unit to the spring reverb on the
boogie and the digital reverb on the fender. It's warm and natural sounding, and it doesn't interfere with your
tone in the least bit.

It's great at generating feedback. I can put the little lanelli in my effects loop on the Mesa/boogie, and run
directly into my sound card out of the boogie's record out line and generate feedback while the speaker is on
mute. The lanelli acts like a self contained room in doing so. It's tough to learn to control, but once you've
got it, this simple pedal reveals itself as being full of possibility

Solid metal construction. The knobs fall off occasionally, but they can be screwed back on.

It seems clear to me that this thing wasn't designed to be gigged with. There are no rubber feet on the bottom
of the spring tank, just a couple of protruding metal screws. What's worse is that these screws are placed in a
way that sets this thing off balance, so if you stomp in it, it will wobble from side to side for a few seconds
afterwards, resulting in a lot of excess noise. The external footswitch is a must. When i gig with it, i leave the
actual tank off to the side of the stage in a padded case. Otherwise it would shake about the place, and make a
great deal of noise.

I've been playing for 10 years, and this is the most natural sounding external reverb i've ever heard. It's a
great addition to any amp if you're looking to retain your true tone. The actual housing needs work, but it's
the one pedal i own (i'm an analog freak, i don't trust digital products messing up my signal line) that i trust
to be on at all times without worrying about a loss of tone.

unit is fairly easy to use. Two knobs, fiddle around with them and you'll get lots of great sounds.

Strat - Boss TU-2 - Keeley bluesdriver - Nick Greer Sonic Boom - Diaz Tremodillo - Fender 59 Bassman R.I. It seems made for this amp. The pedal is very quiet and does not affect the tone of my amp. I use just to wet up my sound, both knobs around 11:00 - 12:00. I've read people get feedback when they set the controls up too high. I turned mine up to 2:00 - 3:00 and didnt get any feedback. I was able to get some fairly deep reverb sound without any feedback. Although I think its optimal setting is just wetting up your sound. I leave it on all the time, no problems with distortion pedals.

I just got it, but it seems well built. If you take reasonably good care of it, you should have no problems. Cant really speak of reliability yet, as I just got it.

Tris is great. I bought the pedal used and was getting some tone and volume loss. I called Tris, and he told me to send him the pedal and he would fix it, which he did. It works great now. He fixed and shipped the pedal back to me free of charge. Always recieve e-mails and returned phone calls promptly.

I play blues, country and rock. Its great for all of these. Sounds awesome when used with my tremelo pedal. Ive been playing for alot of years. Ive tried the Holy Grail and the Danelectro Spring King pedals. This kills them both easily. It sounds as good as any on board Fender amp reverb I've used. Its not cheap, but you get what you pay for. If it was stolen I would hunt down the sumbitch that stole it and get medevial on his ass.