Songworks Little Lanelei Reverb Pedal

Wicked easy.

I agree with the review below ? it?s the best outboard reverb on the market. I used to have a Fender reissue tank, and I?ve tried the EH Holy Grail. I think the Little Lanilei is better. It?s much more versatile than the tank (not to mention less than half the price), it has better tone than the Grail, AND it?s totally quiet even when you turn it way up. Quieter than any amp w/reverb combo I?ve ever had, and frankly it sounds better. But there are already a bunch of reviews that say all this...I?m writing to let you all know that it also works great with other pedals. You can slam the input with all your toys and it still sounds great. I use a Fulltone ?69>Blues Pearl Blue Balls>Analog Man Silver Mod 808>Fulltone Fatboost>Diaz Tremodillo>MXR Analog Delay>Little Lanilei Reverb>Dr. Z. I sometimes feel the urge to use two or three or all of those at the same time and it still sounds great! And with the reverb on full it makes the Diaz downright spooky. Anyway, if you have a bunch of other pedals and were worried about compatibility, well, don?t be. If you like spring reverb, you will not regret buying one of these.

So far so good, and it?s mostly metal. Looks pretty solid to me. The switch doesn?t need much force, but I kinda like that. I keep mine in the back row of my pedalboard, and I can easily kick it on and off with the tip of my foot. Last couple gigs I haven?t even bothered with the remote switch.

I didn?t get a manual with mine and when I emailed Tris he got one to me right away. He seemed genuinely happy that I liked his pedal.

I just plain love it. Also the mermaid is very cool.

Plug-and-play. Two knobs. Very self explanatory. Sounds great on any setting. Can get feedback at extreme settings.

Absolutely the best outboard reverb on the market right now. Especially designed for those of us who are in love with our small boutique class A amps, but wish we had some reverb occasionally for depth. You do need the footswitch (included in price) to prevent "boings" but, hey, it's essentially a big spring, what do you expect?. Mine is on whenever the amp is on, I love the tone THAT much. True bypass means completely unaltered signal when off. When it's on, you don't lose any nuances of your guitar...just great reverberation. Completely silent, hum/hiss free operation. What else do you need?

Not sure here. It does have a metal chassis, but I feel like the switch is a bit, well, light. It's constructed well, I just don't have confidance that it would take much abuse. I plan on keeping the spring box out of stomping range, and only using the footswitch on the rare occasion when I might turn it off. I don't think it would be very expensive to replace the switch.

Tris is great
Answered all my questions via email...and told the truth!
Ordered through ebay, but Tris drop ships for the company I ordered it from. It was here in less than a week after auction end.

I don't write many reviews. It has to be something very special for me to want to put my 2 cents in. This is a special piece of equipment, and a MUST if your amp doesn't have reverb. I'm a little skeptical of boutique effects. Sometimes wonder why they are worth so much. This is worth every penny. This rates right up there with my favorite musical purchases which include my Ultrasound acoustic amp, Yamaha P80 digital piano, and Keeley compressor. You will NOT be disappointed with this pedal.

Absolutely nothing to it. One gain control & one reverb output control.
LED indicator lets you know it's on.

You're not going to find a better spring reverb unit out there, period!
It sounds nearly identical to the internal reverb on an old Fender amp.
The BEST thing about it is how quiet it is! You can hardly tell the
darn thing is on! True bypass switch is a plus. It doesn't load down
your guitar signal or color the tone whatsoever. I'm using it with
some old Fender tweeds and a '63 & '65 VOX AC-30. Outrageous!

So far, so good.

Haven't had to call them yet.

You really can't go wrong with this thing. It's not cheap but at
least it's made in the USA! Quality worksmanship inside as well.

There's 2 knobs -- gain and reverb. It doesn't get any easier to use than that. It only takes a couple of seconds to dial in a great reverb sound. If you want to take down some of the ringing of the pedal, there's an internal trim pot. I opened up the pedal just to see what it looks like inside and saw it. If I wanted to take down the "Boinginess" a hair, I could. Tris inlcudes an external switch box with an 8' foot cord. This allows you to put the reverb unit on top of your amp and switch it remotely. It plugs in to the front of the unit. If you can plug a 1/4' jack into something and can hit a switch with your foot, you can use this. It's a reverb -- pretty much you turn it on and keep it on.

The manual is a one-shetter that's basically an overview of the philosophy of the pedal, as well as an instruction sheet. Expalins everything well.

Amazing. It sounds like great vintage spring reverb. Very quiet -- absolutely no noise (other than the reverb). I'm using it with a Songworks Vintage 50 amp (birhtday present, too)and it seems like a match made in heaven. It totally nails vintage reverb sounds. I don't play rockabilly, but it's very easy to get a great rockabilly sound. It does not sound like anything digital. True bypass keeps the signal pure when it's not on.

You can work with it to get some cool feedback if you turn both dials up high enough -- out of the range where just about everyone would normally use it and set the gain on your amp. You can use this to your advantage if you set it to that level, cut it off and then turn it on to when you want the effect.

It's built like a tank. All steel. Knobs are the old chicken head style and feel like they're on there for good. Built really, really well.

Like I said, this was given to me as a birthday present. From what I understand Tris was great to deal with and everything arrived on time. Everything arrived in working order right out of the box and was packed really well. I sent an E-mail asking about getting another one of the little bags that comes with the amp so I could put the pedal in it and I had an answer in like an hour. If something happened with the pedal I don't doubt Tris would help.

I know it was ordered from the webiste, so I'm assuming that was the price paid.

The only reason why I'm raitng a no opinion is because nothing has happened with it and I haven't had to get it fixed, but I'm sure it would be fine.

I play blues/classic rock, as well as contemporary christian with my church praise band. It's a great match for both. It doesn't sound the least bit digital, which to me, is worth it's weight in gold. It's built like a tank and sounds great. It's right around the same price as a EH Holier Grail, so to get the real spring deal for basically the same money as that pedal is a great value to me.

Only thing I might change would be to put the input jack in the front. With it in the back, you lose about a foot of chord with it doing around the back. Of course the flip side to that is the cord could come out really easy. Who knows.

Not much to it, but gives you what you need. Two white chicken head knobs: one for gain and one for amount of reverb. I found it very easy to get a good sound with the Reverb knob down (@ about 8 to 9 o'clock) and the Gain knob up (@ about 3 to 4 o'clock). Unit has stomp switch on top, but you really should use the remote switch it comes with because it has a real spring inside that can start vibrating easily if upset.

I own a Fender Tweed Twin replica amp that does not have reverb. Since I got my Songworks unit used and did not pay a lot, I was not expecting too much--I mainly wanted a bit of decent analog reverb in a pedal with a low amount of noise.

Well I was pleasantly surprised. After about two minutes of tweaking, I was able to get a reverb to rival a blackface Fender. Together with the tweed amp it is a KILLER! The pedal is very low noise and has a nice warm realistic spring reverb sound to it. Far, far better than ANY other outboard pedal I have ever used to simulate reverb, and much warmer than a digital rack unit. This thing was MADE for use with tweed Fender amps!

I will not rate this category because I have not owned it long enough. But it feels very solid and high quality (like a slim "brick"). All controls are dead silent. Since I am the second owner and it looks and functions like new, I suspect it is an easy 10.

I also cannot rate this category because I have not had to contact Songworks. But anybody who makes a reverb pedal of this quality and with this good a sound must know what they are doing and appreciate their customers.

This pedal is easily a 10 all the way. It is WAY better than I had hoped. It may be tough to use in an environment where there is lots of ground instablility, but for my use (home recording and small gigs) it could not be a more perfect product.

What a killer pedal, Songworks. Great Job!!!!!!

Easy as breathing...unless you're a mermaid.

This sweet little pedal far exceeded my great expectations for it. Really, I can't tell you how happy I am with it. It's absolutely pure, deep, luscious and true reverb-no noise or artifacts, and no infringement on the tone of good amps and guitars...NONE WHATSOEVER! A lot of pedals falsely make that claim, but this one deliver on the promise. Sounds incredible with single coils and humbuckers. I've used it with an old Rickenbacker (40s) amp that has, of course, no reverb of its own, and it sounds great. My THD Univalve now has a whole new dimension of sound possibilites. I've been using a TC Electronics G Major for reverb until now, and I had thought its Spring Reverb patch was pretty good. But the Lanilei blows it right out of the water! This is no exaggeration. The G Major sounds much more like an effect added to the original sound (with quite a bit of noise, too), but the Lanilei sounds soooo natural, like it's integrally designed and built right into the amp-a quality the reverb on my Fender Deluxe Reverb has. All pedals should be this good at what they do. Can you tell how excited I am? Do yourself a favor and buy one!

Not much to go wrong, seems to me. I'm not big on the tech side of stuff, but I'd say simple equals reliable. Hope I'm right.

No idea, but my guess is that whoever would build such a damn sweet pedal and then draw a swimming mermaid playing a guitar on the case...well, such a person must be intrinsically good and funny and would probably love music and life. I'd trust such a person to help, with reason, if I had a problem with something of his that I bought.

Not much more I can add. The Lanilei serves up reverb and hits it right out of the park. She's a one-trick pony, but she turns that trick with pride...and perfection.

This is an update to my first review. The reason for the update is that I had some problems with getting enough gain when in my effects loop. Tris Modified my unit AT NO COST, by putting in a BOOST pot. I get all the gain I need now... I can now get deep deep fender reverb tank out of this little puppie. Very authentic! Springs! A+++ Tris

Ease is a 10... a breeze...

Not a lexi.. yes a great SPRING sound for you traditionalists!

No breaks yet... build out of hard gauge steel

Absolutely spectacular... tris worked with me and put up with me when some of my problems were not even his ... (my effects loop had a bleed). Can't say more about the courtious support

This pedal is very easy to operate...only 2 controls. Problem is when you are always on the verge of feedback once the gain or the mix is up past 12 o'clock position

Big disappointment...to get any significant reverb out of it you will always be on the verge of, or actually feeding back. As a comparison, I compared it to a Fender tank unit. I could not achieve the amount of reverb that the the Fender unit provided with its Dwell and Mix settings only on 3 or 4 until I went past 1 o'clock on the songworks box. Unfortunately past 1 o'clock had a continuous feedback squeal. Songworks apparantly is aware of the feedback problem...why not perfect it before release??

You can't consider this device reliable with the feedback problem that it has.

2 knobs. Gain, and Verb (this is a dry/wet mix knob). Pretty straight forward.

I did find some significant issues with placement though. Initally I placed after my preamp and in the effects loop.... Then to the power amp. My preamp does not have an attenuator on the effects send.. so it can send pretty damn hard. With this high send level i found.

1. bypass volume much above effect on! (yes the true bypass works.. this is logical).
2. The effected signal quite week on verb (it appears that the box was working so hard dealing with the high signal.. that it over drove the effected signal) Again logical. BUT NO OVERDRIVE DISTORTION from the box!!!! wow!

My next move was to put it in my chain BEFORE my preamp (an before 2 of my 3 distortions). Normally I WOULD NOT DO THIS, cause I like verb pretty clean, same as echo/delay.

1. because the input level was where it was suppose to be... It sounded wonderful..

True bypass, little to NO NOISE. REALLY UNEFFECTED tone, both engaged and not engaged!

Has the sound of a spring verb... a little twang too. It does not have the controls of a digital verb (like depth or distance, eq bright or dark). You get just plain old spring verb sound. VERY VERY BEAUTIFUL spring verb sound!

I actually am very fond of digital verb and delay, but for guitar... this spring verb sound is so authentic. It is really quite perfect.

So don't buy this if you want really long lexi tails.. you will not get them. You will get classic fender sounding beach/blues verb.

Tris has really outdone himself.

we will see..

very sturdy machined box, with custom parts. Most impressive. I absolutely love the fact that tris throws in an 8 foot external switch in free.. Just incase you're afraid you might get the spring sound when you engage the effect. I do not use it.. but a truly classy touch.

We will see,

Email support on purchase was very good!

If you're looking for classic spring verb that is noise free... this is it!

This pedal is very easy to use. There are two knobs (gain and reverb); I turn both to around 1:00.

The sound quality is very good. The original tone is preserved, when the pedal is on, and there is also a true bypass. The reverb is not as deep as a tube unit. But it's great with other pedals.

The pedal seems solid. The footswitch isn't that tough, but I really don't use it (I leave it on all the time).

I've never dealt with them, but I hear they are good.

If you have a amp that doesn't have reverb, and reverb isn't your main effect (e.g. you play with a little distortion), then this is a great choice. It's better than any pedal I tried, including the Boss unit. It might not be as good as a tube unit or a unit, but it's not nearly as expensive or as awkward to use.