CopperSound Pedals and Jack White (in collaboration with Third Man Records) Third Man Coppersound Triplegraph

The Third Man Coppersound Triplegraph is a digital octave pedal designed by CopperSound Pedals and Jack White, in collaboration with White's record company Third Man Records¹²³. Instead of conventional stomp switches, it is played through three large telegraph keys, the Morse-code-style levers you would find on an old telegraph, sized for the foot. The left key triggers an octave down, the right key an octave up, and the middle key activates a killswitch or an auxiliary effects loop⁴¹.

Under the keys, the pedal runs on a high-power DSP Blackfin Processor, and CopperSound says the octaves track seamlessly with zero latency⁴¹. The high and low octaves can also be triggered in parallel with the dry signal when the octave keys are pressed independently, so a single chord can carry your original note plus both octaves at once⁵. It sits in the octave and pitch pedal family, but its key-based triggering sets it apart from knob-and-switch octave boxes.

The keys: octave down, killswitch, octave up

The playing surface is three proprietary, foot-sized telegraph keys⁷. Each key has one job:

The keys are composed of custom stainless steel and aluminum components, built to withstand operation by hand or foot⁴¹. That matters for how you play the pedal: in momentary mode, the keys let you trigger effects much faster with your hand or foot than you could with regular switches, since a light tap on a lever is quicker than a full stomp⁸. Guitar World described the result as "three large and elaborate piano pedal-esque footswitches, controlling an advanced DSP unit that offers a perfectly tracking lower octave, upper octave, and a kill circuit to cut out the dry signal"⁹.

Kill mode and Auxiliary mode

The middle key behaves differently depending on which of the two modes the pedal is set to²⁶¹.

KILL mode turns the middle key into a momentary killswitch. Press it and your dry signal is removed, leaving a fully wet octave up, octave down, or both⁴¹. CopperSound describes it as a way to create fully isolated octave sounds, which is useful for sudden drops into a bass-register line or a shrill octave-up stab without the original guitar note underneath.

AUXILIARY mode opens up the pedal's send/return jacks. You connect one or more of your favorite effects in parallel with the octaves, and the middle key then triggers those effects alongside the octaves in momentary bursts⁴¹. A fuzz or filter sitting in that loop only sounds while the key is held, so whole chunks of your signal chain can be switched in and out mid-phrase.

Each octave also has its own Loctave toggle switch, which selects whether that octave triggers in latching mode, where it stays on until you press the key again, or momentary mode, where it sounds only while the key is held⁴¹.

History: from a custom Telegraph Stutter to the Triplegraph

The collaboration began in 2016, when CopperSound optimistically dropped off a custom, one-of-a-kind Telegraph Stutter pedal for White at Third Man Records headquarters³. The Telegraph, CopperSound's stutter and kill switch pedal, was the seed of the idea; the original version has since been discontinued, though elements of it were retained when CopperSound later launched the Telegraph V2¹⁰.

From that starting point, the two parties worked for four years on what became the Triplegraph⁵. Although the design is built around the Telegraph pedal concept, the octaves themselves were completely designed and coded from scratch⁸. The finished pedal, released in October 2020, was the first Third Man pedal designed and engineered from the ground up with Jack White, rather than a mod of an existing design⁸.

White used the Triplegraph himself, in the studio during the recording of "Help Us Stranger" with the Raconteurs⁸.

Editions: Standard, Limited and Anniversary White

The Triplegraph has shipped in several versions.

Both editions come with a custom designed 130+ page book documenting the collaboration, designed and photographed by CopperSound¹.

Both the Standard and Limited editions came with a custom designed 130-plus page book documenting the entire collaboration, designed and photographed by CopperSound¹.

What reviewers said

The Triplegraph is a digital octave pedal designed by CopperSound Pedals and Jack White³, and Third Man describes it as a clean-tracking octave pedal with seamless zero-latency tracking, over four years in the making⁴¹.

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