Black Mountain + Third Man Hardware Roto-Echo Delay

The Roto-Echo is a delay pedal built jointly by Black Mountain and Jack White's Third Man Hardware, and its defining feature is a roller wheel you work with your foot. Instead of bending down to twist a knob mid-phrase, you roll the wheel with your shoe and sweep a delay parameter in real time while you keep playing¹.

The pedal is an analog-style delay: the signal path combines digital delay processing with analog circuitry, built around the PT2399 echo and delay chip, a part widely used for warm, gritty repeats that emulate classic analog delay tones¹. MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley called it "an analogue delay like no other," noting it is compact, roughly the size of a typical Boss pedal, yet carries an integrated roller wheel².

The foot-controlled wheel

The pedal is built around hands-free control of the delay while you play. Its enclosure has the same dimensions as a regular Boss-style guitar pedal, and it is built to handle full body weight on stage, so the roller mechanism on top is meant to be worked with a foot under real stage conditions¹. The reviewer at Pedal of the Day praised the smoothness and flexibility of the unit, and hoped it is not the last roller-inspired creation from Black Mountain and Third Man overall¹.

You assign the wheel to one of three parameters using a three-way toggle switch³:

Gearnews illustrates why that matters in practice: you could be running the Roto-Echo at a slapback 30ms setting just thickening up your sound, then roll the wheel with your foot and push it out to long 600ms repeats without interrupting your playing⁴.

Delay time and sound

The delay time range is reported two ways. Pedal of the Day lists 60ms to 588ms from the PT2399 chip¹, while Gearnews, MusicRadar and Premier Guitar all describe short 30ms slapbacks up to about 600ms repeats²⁴³. Both accounts cover the same practical territory: quick slapback thickening at one end and longer, more spacious echoes at the other.

The repeats themselves are described in consistent terms across the press. MusicRadar points to the PT2399 chip "supplying warm gritty repeats"², and Pedal of the Day says the chip delivers "warm, gritty echoes from 60ms to 588ms, emulating classic analog delay tones"¹.

Jack White and Third Man Hardware

Third Man Hardware is Jack White's gear outfit, and the Roto-Echo is a collaboration with Black Mountain Designs³. White is quoted on the pedal itself:

Jack White, quoted on the pedal¹

The connection runs deeper than a signature finish. Third Man Hardware also released the Troika Delay with JHS Pedals in November 2025, a studio-grade delay designed so White can use delay on his voice without the noise, volume drops and loss of clarity that vocal delay normally causes⁵. The Roto-Echo is the guitar-focused side of that interest in delay.

Versions, power and build

The enclosure has the same dimensions as a regular Boss-style guitar pedal, and it is built to handle full body weight on stage¹. That build standard matters for a pedal with a foot-operated roller on top: it is designed to be stood on and worked during a performance rather than treated gently.

Physically, it is the same size as a regular Boss-style guitar pedal, and it is built to handle a player's full body weight on stage, which matters given that the design invites you to stand on the roller wheel while playing¹.

What reviewers said

Published coverage has been positive about the concept. Pedal of the Day's reviewer praised the feel of the wheel and hoped the idea has a future¹:

Pedal of the Day, 14 September 2025¹

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