Third Man Hardware in collaboration with Black Mountain Third Man Roto-Echo

The Third Man Roto-Echo is a delay pedal built jointly by Third Man Hardware, Jack White's gear operation, and Black Mountain Designs, announced in late August 2025¹². What sets it apart from most delays is its Freewheel Technology: a roller wheel on the pedal that you work with your foot, so you can change delay time, feedback, or blend in real time while you keep playing, with no need to crouch down and turn knobs mid-song³¹.

It is an analog-style delay built on a PT2399 echo/delay chip, the same chip family behind many compact warm-sounding delays, with delay times running from 30ms slapback up to roughly 600ms¹²⁴. MusicRadar describes the result as "warm gritty repeats" from a pedal about the size of a typical Boss compact².

Freewheel: a delay you adjust with your foot

The core idea of the Roto-Echo is hands-free control. A built-in expression roller sits on the pedal where you can reach it with your foot, and a three-way toggle switch assigns it to one of the three main parameters: delay Time, Feedback, or Blend⁵¹². Delicious Audio describes the feature as letting players "adjust on of the delay parameters (Time, Feedback, or Blend) with their feet in real time"³.

In practice, that means the kind of moves you would normally need an expression pedal or a free hand for: sweeping the feedback up for building repeats, pulling the blend down under a vocal passage, or bending the delay time for a pitch-warp effect, all without stopping playing. Premier Guitar frames the design as built for the stage, with "no need to crouch down or dial knobs mid-song or rely on presets"¹.

Jack White, whose name is on the Third Man side of the collaboration, is quoted on the pedal's purpose⁵:

Jack White is quoted on the pedal itself as saying the Roto-Echo is like having an engineer operating the knobs for you while you play⁵. That idea is the point of Freewheel Technology: instead of crouching down or dialing knobs mid-song, you adjust one of the delay parameters, Time, Feedback, or Blend, with your foot in real time¹. A slider switch on the pedal chooses which of the three the roller wheel controls².

Controls and what they do

The pedal is designed as a performance instrument rather than a preset machine: the point of the wheel is live, real-time adjustment while you play¹.

Sound and circuit

The Roto-Echo is an analog-style delay using a PT2399 echo/delay chip, a design choice that shapes its repeat character. MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley describes it as "a PT2399 echo/delay chip supplying warm gritty repeats," and notes he would "bet good money the circuit was all Third Man/Jack White, gritty, warm analogue delay"². Gearnews likewise calls it an analog-style delay running from short 30ms slapbacks to long 600ms repeats⁴.

The delay range puts it in compact-delay territory rather than looper or long-ambient territory: enough for slapback, rockabilly slap, and medium repeats, not for the multi-second washes of a big digital delay⁴¹.

Power, bypass, and build

The Roto-Echo runs on 9V DC with a center negative plug, the standard pedalboard arrangement, and takes its power from a typical pedalboard supply⁵¹². It is true bypass, so the dry signal passes through untouched when the pedal is off, a point Premier Guitar, MusicRadar, and Delicious Audio all confirm³¹². Delicious Audio also notes the enclosure is built tough enough to handle full body weight and that the pedal fits standard pedalboards³.

Versions and price

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