Songworks Little Lanelei Reverb Pedal

Brain power is not needed to operate this pedal; however, I did get my pedal modified where an extra pot and knob were added to increase and open up the amount of reverb. My pedal is 3 knobs.

I had this pedal modified because I was not satisfied with the sound. Before the modification I rate it a 3 or 4. It was extremely weak. I had to crank the knobs to the max to get noticeable effect or obvious amount of reverb. If I cranked the pedal I would also get feedback. I liked the feedback but not in correspondence to the amount of reverb. <P>

After the modification, I rate the pedal an 8. An extra knob was added to open it up. I am now happy with the wet sound I am getting but now the pedal does not feedback. This can be a good thing depending on the player. The pedal still lacks a more subtle tone though. <p>

Average rating of a 6-7 <p>

I am working with a Standard American Telecaster ('99ish), heavily modified Billm Blues Junior (larger cab, bigger reverb tank, bias adjustable, C-Rex speaker) and a few pedals including a Boss DD-20 and OCD. My amp's ruby reverb tank is better in comparison.

This is an inconsistent pedal. You can dial up the same settings 3 times and get 3 different sounds. The pedal also lacks an input for a power supply. I would not gig with it. Lastly, if you drop this pedal you might be in for it. I might keep it for recording but I'm looking to sell it.

PLEASE READ! <p>

Customer support is what influenced me to write a review. Read the other reviews as well. I am just confirming what others have said.<p>

If you pay Tris from Soundworks, do not expect to get a timely response. Do not expect to get your product in a fair amount of time, even if he makes a promise or you have already contacted him. Do not be shocked if you pay Songworks and never receive goods or services. I only got my modification done after countless emails, calls and FACEBOOK messages to Songworks and Tris. <p>

My short story: I contacted Tris via email regarding a reverb modification. He confirmed and accepted my request so I sent his the pedal and money in March. I did not get my pedal back until July. I believe I would not have received it unless I harassed the other guy at Songworks and Tris.

This pedal is unique, cool, fun to have and maybe record with but it is not worth the money or the hassle. If your amp's reverb is not cutting it and you don't like digital, invest in a reverb unit. If you are interested in this pedal, get it on Craigs or Ebay. <p>

This pedal has potential and can be useful, but I my amp's reverb is fine for now.

I loved this unit. Very easy to use. No way I could bet a bad sound out of it.

Great! Did what I needed it to.

It took a tumble on the floor and stopped working.

I e-mailed Tris and he said to send it to him to look at. So I did. That was seven months ago. I have tried politely to keep in touch. He has only made one attempt in that time period to contact me. I have sent numerous e-mails and had started calling to leave messages but no answers. I had left my contact info in the shipping box in case I had to pay extra for anything but he has essentially refused to contact me. My wife bought this as a Christmas gift for me and it had served me very well. Working or not it is still my property and refusing to give it back is theft in my opinion. I encourage all who have had issues with his service to contact their Better Business Bureau and let them know your story immediately. I will continue to contact him more frequently. Hopefully things will change but judging by others comments here it doesn't sound like it. Tris, if you're reading this please just give it back. Working or not!

Nice product! Terrible service!

2 knobs = very easy.

The reverb that this pedal produces is very nice, but it in no way deserves the hype that the Songworks website suggests. You can not get a super-saturated surf reverb from this pedal. It is a subtle reverb, never over-the-top.

This pedal does have one big problem, it is a tone-sapper and I mean bad. It even sucke tone in bypass. I ran it through a true-bypass box and found this pedal to be completely unusable. In bypass, it sucks all the life and tone from your signal. It has the same problem when engaged, it sucks bass and lowers the signal level considerably.

I really wanted this pedal to work for me, but I've spent much time and money to get a great tone with my equipment and this pedal will only make your tone suffer.

Looks well made.

I emailed Songworks regarding the problem and they emailed me back quickly. They suggested I swap the gain pot out for a 1 meg pot. I tried this and noticed that the pot I removed was already a 1 meg, so obviously the problem still existed.

As I said, I really wanted this pedal to work for me. I hate digital reverb and this seemed to be a great solution. I ended up getting a Fender tube reverb reissue which is a different beast, but there are no compromises with this unit. I replaced the tubes with new JJ's and it sounds great. The Fender can be subtle or completely washed in reverb. GC sells the Fender Reissue Reverb unit for $350.00 new, so watch out for eBayers selling used units for that much.

2 knobs and a switch. Don't get easier then that. To get the desired amount of reverb I was I have to get the knobs up pretty high around the 2 o'clock range or better. Don't think the store I bought it from had the manual for it. Oh is has a plug for a remote foot switch if you want to set it on top of your amp.

I was looking for a reverb to go with my Bluesbreaker RI and Soldano Decatone head. I found this unit in a shop in Baton Rouge and it sounded real good on a Dr. Z combo. So I took it home found a spot for it on my pedal board and everything was groovy. Being last in a long chain of pedals didn't do anything to help the sound of the reverb. Even with high end true by pass pedals. But it did what I wanted and gave me some real reverb when I needed it. After year or two it just sort of stopped sounding good. The reverb got real weak and you had to crank the knobs all the way to get a useable amount. But even worse the tone of the reverb got real "HOLLOW" like something was missing from my tone. It was like my more then decent amps got turned in to little transistor radios...with reverb. Well ya can't have that can you? So off it came and was left to set in the pedal grave yard of my garage. After about a year I tried to use it again just to see how it sounded and it was pretty bad. What the hell I e-mailed Tris at Songworks and told him of my trouble. I got a reply the next day saying he could fix it if I sent it to him along with 10$ for return shipping. I said cool, boxed it up, included a money order for the 10$ and mailed it off. After a week or so I started sending e-mails to see if it had arrived. No reply. No big deal..a few more weeks passed and a few more e-mails and finally I get a reply that he indeed had the unit. So I ask when can he fix it? Hummm a few more weeks and no reply. Finally I get a e-mail that he's gonna repair it in a day or two. Ok no big deal. It's just a reverb pedal right. Ok a few more weeks pass and it doesn't show back up at my house. Now I start calling and getting no answer to the number on the website. But I leave a few messages and my cell number. So I sort of forget about it and figure it's just gone for good. What the hell one day the cell phone ring and I answer it and the Voice asks to speak to me. Sounds like a bill collector and I'm about to get pissed that they got my cell number when the voice says "Hi this is Tris from Songworks." I about faint cause that's like the last person I expected to call me. Tris tells me that the unit it repaired and he's gonna ship it to me and apologized for taking so long to repair the unit. Yeah the dude has been having a tough go at it lately and he is a one man shop. He wondered way I wasn't cussing him out like everybody he must have called. I said I was from the South and I don't get excited over stuff like that. If it was a guitar or amp that I paid a few $1,000 for I might get stired up, but it was just a little pedal. Nothing to lose your religion over. We talked about the type of sounds we liked and what other equipement I used. He was very nice and seemed very sorry for taking so long to fix the unit.

A few days later it showed up and it sounds GREAT! Lot's of ((((REVERB)))) and that "Hollow" sound was gone. Here comes the 10 cause it now has more reverb then I can use. The feedback thing bugs some people but I think it's cool. It's a real reverb unit. If the stage is vibrationg to much it feedsbacks some and you have to turn it down a little but that's how i know the joint is jumping. I like it better then the reverb in some of my old Music Man and Fender combos. Fa True No Lie. So yeah if you got to have everything yesterday then Tris may not be the guy for you if you have a problem but the guy is busting his hump to stand behind his products. Oh and I felt bad cause he sent me a $10 bill back with the unit. Damn he didn't charge me nothing.

It seems dependable enough. Gig without backup. Had a problems like I said but it's fine now. Tris will do what he can to get it up again if I have a problem. But I ain't gonna die if it stops working or lose my gig either.

See the above rant. Tris is OK by me.

I play a lot of Blues Funk R&B Classic Rock Jazz and Country. Over 30 years of picking on guitars. Lot's of Strats, a Les Paul Standard, PRS C22 some others. Big Jimi Head! I like other stuff too. I like the high gain stuff the Soldano does but missed reverb. Except for my old Roland GR1 Synth every digitial effect is used for fish bait. That was one of the things that made me get it in the first place. You can kick it and it makes that "THUNDER" sound like a Fender amp would. Maybe that's how I broke it.

Not easy to adjust and sound is unpredictable. Disappointing.

Sometimes great and sometimes it SUCKS! Not sure what the problem is, might have been able to fix it if I'd ever heard back from anyone.

Since sounds varies, it is not dependable. It's good for practice maybe but not a show. Looking to sell mine.

Worthless and full of excuses!!! Can't get any response e-mail after e-mail and when I finally do it's to tell me his hard luck story. Sounds a little too much like "the old dog ate the homework routine." Questions still unanswered.

Not worth the time cash and energy. I'm done with Songworks products!

Easy to use. 2 knobs: Gain and Reverb. The knobs don't do much, but they're easy to use. There was a paper describing the unit, but it was inaccurate. Said to open up the unit to find a trim pot to adjust feedback, but there was no trim pot. Unit was not user friendly to open up.

Good sound for what it does: MILD REVERB, NOT SURF REVERB. The promo says it's good for surf. This is just simply not true. Maxed out it's about equal to a Fender reverb on 3 or 4. But if you turn the Reverb and gain all the way up, it feeds back with single-coils. With that said, the reverb that is has does has a good tone. I bought it for some surf stuff that I do. I'm selling it since it just does not do this well at all. False advertising.

So far so good, but it uses a + tip adaptor. Since I use Boss and I banez effects, my adaptor won't work for this unit. It drains betteries VERY quickly so you really need an adaptor.

I called and emailed and have recieved no response. Terrible and unprofessional. F-

To sum it up: If mild reverb is what you're after, this might be the ticket. If surf reverb is what you crave, look elsewhere. Good tone. No customer support.

knobs need to be turned right up to get the effect. the first 2/3rds of the pots travel do very little. feedback problems can and need to be addressed though.

it wont saturate like stated on the website (even with the trim pot maxed out) but to it's credit, what reverb it has is VERY nice.

for subtle reverb i'd give it a 10. for reverb as described on the songworks website i'd give it a 0. math done above.

needs opening, checking, fixing, testing and assembling properly.

absolutely appalling. it took 3 months to arrive AFTER it was payed for. emails were sent again and again and again with no response. emails lost, specific, simple, repeated questions avoided. i eventually started typing in CAPITALS and sending multiple emails containing threats to get a response. to this day the questions are still unanswered. really awful.

i bought this unit new direct from songworks but the state it arrived in made me think it was second hand. the box was scratched/chipped, the tank was bent and knocked about, there were wires that needed re-soldering, bad connections, earthing problems etc etc. pretty much all the components are cheap and its all thrown together badly. pretty nasty really.

i only wanted very subtle reverb which was very lucky. if i had wanted reverb as described on the site, i'd rather have cut my losses ($199) than try for a refund.

sorry songworks but you messed up this time. dont take peoples money if you can't deliver.

Couldn't get any easier--2 knobs--Gain, which controls the amount of reverb & Reverb, which seems to me to function like the Mix knob on old Fender tanks, controls the dry-to-wet signal ratio. I know there's a short manual, but the guy I purchased it from didn't include it. Don't really need it, though. Tweak it enough, & you'll get what you're looking for

I use this with my '64 Princeton (6G2 circuit). Play a '52 Tele exclusively. It does feedback when the controls are dimed--Reverb knob in particular--but I'm going to try placing it away from my amp to see if makes a difference. To my ears, it's the most natural & familiar sounding reverb I've heard outside of a Fender tank or the onboard 'verb on a blackface Fender. However, as far I can tell--you won't get that dripping, "boingy", cavernous, ultra-Surf music sound like you would if you had a Fender all the way up. But if you're looking for authentic spring 'verb for your tweed or brownface amp--you'll get it. How many people crank the reverb on their amps all the way anyhow?--maybe if your Dick Dale. If that's your favorite sound, you might want to get a tube reverb tank instead. I've always kept my reverb at '2' or '3' on my previous amps, ala Roy Buchanan, so I'm happy with it.

Seems about as solid & reliable as they come. Obviously, Tris builds great gear & takes a lot of pride in what he makes. I don't care for using effects pedals as it is, but this would be the one I'd use for a gig--no backup necessary.

The guy I bought it off of had told me before I purchased it that the pedal was only working with the adapter, but not the battery. I emailed Tris, inquiring about the problem & asking if I could send it out to him for repair--he sent me 2 emails within the 24 hrs explaining what the problem might be & letting me know that I was better off using the adaptor anyway, since the pedal would eat batteries pretty fast. Even though I bought it second-hand, he didn't hesitate to respond--that's customer service & a man who stands behind his products!

I got my Princeton a few months ago & it's become my Fender amp soulmate, but I was still missing that touch of reverb I've had in all the other Fenders I've owned. I considered buying a vintage tube tank but they were all about the price I paid for my amp! Even the Fender reissue was too steep for my budget. I'd been looking around at various pedal reverbs & had read about the Little Lanilei here on HC a while back. I didn't want to go the digital route, so after much thinking & shopping around I finally snagged one. I play "roots" music--blues, country, soul, rockabilly, '50's R'n'R, etc.--this pedal fits the bill. I'd definitely buy it again if it was stolen & can't wait to use it with the tweed amp I'm going to be building soon. Some people may desire more reverb than this unit puts out, so this isn't the be-all end-all pedal for everyone. It's perfect for my applications though, & it has a real Accutronics spring tank in it! Big thumbs up from me...

Very simple to use. Two 1/4" jacks in the rear: one in, one out. Can be used with a 9V or a DC power supply. The DC input is the 1/8" male type. Foot switch in the center of the unit, on/off. Also can a remote foot switch can be used.

Sound quality is so subjective. To my ears this unit sounds great. I read some of the other reviews that say that there isn't enough reverb. I disagree. About 1/2 way up gives lots of depth and texture. Cranked to 10 on both knobs is the 60s surf sound. I wouldn't want anymore verb. I played thru a reissue Fender tank reverb and it had more verb than the Lanelei but in my opinion it was overkill. The Fender sounds fine, but its $400, big and heavy. Digital reverb: granted I'm an old dude but spring reverb IS the sound. I play an american strat with lace gold sensors to a black face bassman and the Lanelei is the frosting on the cake. It does not affect the tone and it is very quiet. Just bought an Epiphone archtop and the tone thru the Lanelei is killer. I would give this product a 10 for sound quality, (it probably deserves it) but then the quest for "the tone" has ended and what fun would that be!

This thing is built like a tank. I couldn't resist popping the thing open to check out the inside. Very nicely designed, solid solder contacts. I have only had the unit a couple weeks but I expect it will last many years. I'm not in a band, but I would trust this unit without a backup. Its solid.

Tris is very responsive and is a great guy. I have talked to him about his other products and he is very helpful. If I had a problem I have no doubt he would take care of it.

I play blues. Just got back into guitar after a 25 year break. Still have my Guild Starfire and Fender Bassman. The Lanelei is the reverb sound I always wanted. I love everything about this pedal, it even looks really cool. If it were stolen I would replace it a new york minute. I'm so impressed with it I'm going to buy the Rotary Wave from Songworks.

very easy to use - 2 knobs. one for gain, one for reverb. however, it's not that easy to get good sounds from it as the unit hardly has any reverb. you need to turn both knobs at least up to 1 o'clock to hear ANY reverb. this leads me to question - what is the range from 7 - 1 o'clock for???

i've been on a quest for some nice reverb to add to my non-reverb'd fenders (vintage princeton + super, pro junior) - mainly for use at home, but it would be nice to be able to use it with my band as well. i don't use any effects at home - just guitar-reverb-amp. when i heard about this pedal i thought this might as well be the ticket as everything sounds good about it (small, lightweight, analog ...).
i also thought that the description on the website ("Lots of big "lets go surf'n style reverb" with a choice of boominess if pushed too far. Or, how about a classic 1950s space alien movie where you will hear the best lost in space imitation since the 1960s? WOW!!!") seemed quite intriguing - unfortunately it prooved to be a load of b!"?$%&s.
the actual sound of the reverb-effect - once you get to hear it - is actually quite nice. but like i said, there's only reverb from 1 - 5 o'clock, and unfortunately it starts adding noise from 3 o'clock up - which also happens to be the most useable range of this unit. you also have to make sure to keep the unit away from your amp/speaker as it will start to feed back quite easily - especially on the higher/more useable settings.
i took it to rehearsal once - and, of course, it was completely useless, as you need noticeably more reverb in a band-situation than you'd need at home - and this unit doesn't have it.

here's where it gets ugly. i took this unit to my tech to see if he could get me some more reverb out of it. well, when i got it back he said he would have to completely rebuild it and that this unit was put together in a "love-less" fashion using the cheapest possible parts. i brought him my danelectro spring-king for comparison and he strongly advised me to keep that unit instead as it was of much higher quality. i'm not going to say it broke on me as i hardly ever used it ...
another thing worth noting is the lack of feet on the unit - can you give me a break? if you place this unit on the floor it will go wiggle about as it will rest on the 2 screws holding the batterie-department. at close to $200 new i would think a quad of rubber-feet would have been within reach.

i'm sorry tris, but i have to share this ...
over the course of 3 weeks i've tried to get an answer to two simple questions:
1. is it normal that my controls don't do anything until i reach 1 o'clock on the dials?
2. is it normal that the reverb-effect isn't very strong full-up even though your manual states otherwise?
i appreciated the fact that tris at songworks got back to me at all, even though i purchased the unit 2nd hand, but he only responded to me with further questions (how old is the unit? what amps do you use? is the internal trim-pot turned all the way to the right? is the gain-pot 250k or 1m? etc. ...). i answered all his mails promptly and still didn't get an answer to my questions ...i would have been happy with a simple "yes" or "no", but i have since given up.
i appreciated his attempt to help me, but he failed to give me any useful information.

been playing for a long time, mainly rock/pop/alternative. own/owned a bunch of amps and guitars - incl. a bf Fender Pro REVERB. i've compared this unit to most other reverb-pedals out there and frankly, i think the danelectro spring-king is much better value. i fell for the hype surrounding this product and i'm sorry i did. i should have listened closer to the negative reviews around here instead! unless you really only want/need VERY little reverb, my advice would be to look elsewhere.
anything i wish it had? yeah, REVERB!

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.

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!!!!!!