Crazy Tube Circuits White Whale Junior

The White Whale Junior is a fully analog spring reverb and amp-style tremolo pedal from Crazy Tube Circuits, built around a real three-spring tank. The maker calls it "possibly the world's smallest (15,4 × 8,3 × 6,8 cm), fully analog, real spring reverb and amp style tremolo"¹. Where most reverb pedals model springs digitally, this one has actual springs inside, mounted to the pedal's baseplate: Guitar.com's reviewer described it as "the pedal is the tank, with the three-spring Accutronics assembly mounted to the baseplate"².

It is a scaled-down member of the White Whale family. The original White Whale and the later White Whale II came first; the Junior keeps their spring assembly and tremolo character in a smaller, simpler box¹.

Real springs and tremolo in one pedal

The Junior's reverb is not a simulation. It uses the exact same three-spring reverb assembly found in the larger White Whale models, and it drives those springs with a dedicated analog power amplifier rather than feeding them directly from a low level signal path¹. Crazy Tube Circuits says the driver circuit is voiced to recreate the subtle saturation characteristics of a tube power amp and output transformer, adding depth, warmth and musicality as the springs are pushed harder¹.

The tremolo sits after the reverb in the signal path, following traditional brownface and blackface Fender amplifier architecture, so the reverb decay pulses along with the dry signal¹. Delicious Audio describes the result as a compact analog three-spring reverb with tremolo⁵. MusicRadar's reviewer found the pedal succeeds "in bringing classic 50s and 60s tones to the modern pedalboard"⁴.

Tremolo and reverb each get their own soft-touch bypass footswitch, so the two effects can be used together or independently³².

The controls

Six knobs cover both effects, with the reverb side taking four and the tremolo side two¹²:

Power and connections

The Junior runs on a 9V DC center-negative supply with a 2.1mm x 5.5mm plug, drawing a maximum of 110mA; the supply is not included³. MusicRadar lists the same figures⁴. Connectivity is simple: input, output and power jacks, all top mounted, which helps on tight pedalboards⁴³. Both effect sections use click-less, relay-based true bypass switching³.

How it differs from the White Whale and White Whale V2

The Junior is a deliberate distillation of the bigger pedals. Compared to the larger White Whale, MusicRadar's reviewer notes "there's no harmonic trem mode, and the Dwell times are streamlined to a single pot"⁴. Guitar.com's Richard Purvis adds that on the Junior "the effect order is fixed at reverb first, the tremolo only has one mode instead of three (a sort of optical/bias hybrid)" and the reverb length is fixed².

The original White Whale is now discontinued and sold as old stock, and the White Whale Remote switching unit that works with the V1 and V2 does not apply to the Junior⁹¹⁰. For players who want digital flexibility rather than real springs, Crazy Tube Circuits also makes the Mirage dual reverb workstation and its compact Mirage Junior sibling.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com rated the Junior 8 out of 10, calling it "an impressive pedal that successfully distils the essence of the full-size White Whale into a significantly smaller unit"². MusicRadar's Alex Lynham found it a compact, amp-like tremolo and reverb pedal that brings classic 50s and 60s tones to the modern pedalboard⁴. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson described it as a feature-rich yet pedalboard-friendly, all-analog amp-type tremolo and three-spring reverb, designed and manufactured in Athens, Greece³.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions