The Gamechanger Audio Light is a spring reverb pedal that takes a different route to the classic spring sound. Instead of reading the spring with a traditional transducer, it uses extremely sensitive infrared optical sensors aimed at different points of the spring, detecting subtle movements on the spring's surface as sound waves. Gamechanger Audio says this lets the pedal pick up a much wider range of frequencies than a conventional spring tank. Guitar World called it a design that "pushes the boundaries of spring reverb"1.
The pedal was designed by Gamechanger Audio engineer Teodor Kerimovs, and the final production version was released in March 2021, after an extra year in development. The first batch of 1,000 units went to retailers who had supported the pedal's preorder campaign1.
How the optical sensing works
A normal spring reverb tank drives one end of a metal spring and picks up the vibrations at the other with a transducer. The Light keeps a real spring, but instead of a conventional pickup it watches the spring with infrared optical sensors directed at different points along it. Those sensors detect the subtle movements on the spring's surface as sound waves travel through it, which Gamechanger Audio says allows the pedal to pick up a much wider range of frequencies1. For a player, that means the spring's character is captured more completely than a standard tank can manage, while the spring itself remains the heart of the effect.
Modes and controls
The Light offers six modes: optics, sweep, tremolo, reflect, feedback and harmonic1. The core reverb parameters are all adjusted with dedicated knobs:
- Dry
- Spring
- Optical
- Tone
- Control
- Drive
- Gate
There is also an assignable expression pedal input, so a separate expression pedal can be used to control a parameter of your choosing1.
The Light uses a high-quality buffer bypass rather than true bypass1.
Availability
The pedal was available at release for €289, which Guitar World gave as approximately $3501. Gamechanger Audio has since built on the Light with other reverb designs, and the pedal appears in the site's wider guide to reverb pedals.
Videos
Andertons Music Co
Pete Thorn
Gamechanger Audio
Sources (1)
- Gamechanger Audio's hugely innovative Light Analog Optical Spring Reverb pedal is finally available, Guitar World, 2021-03-03
