Jack White’s Third Man Hardware and Donner tease new effects pedal collab

Here is a guitar effects pedal news story from straight out of left field: Third Man Hardware, that’s right, the music gear wing of Jack White’s growing entrepreneurial interests, is going to release a stompbox designed in collaboration with Donner Music.

There are precious few details. The pedal was announced via a teaser on the Instagram pages of both respective brands, with an invitation to their followers to share their expectations of what it might be. 

Okay, we’ll join the fun – it looks like it will be yellow. That’s on-brand for Third Man Hardware. And, well, what else can we say? 

Ordinarily, fuzz, octaver, or some kind of pitch-shifter would be the sort of effects we would see in a pedal from Third Man’s lineage – these are all integral to White’s electric guitar sound. The hashtags, however, suggest at something different. “#NewSoundscapes”? Could this be a reverb/delay? Maybe we are reading too much into it.

Either way, with NAMM 2024 just around the corner, it looks like we will find out sooner rather than later, and with Donner specialising in super affordable guitar gear – its Arena 2000 amp modeller and guitar multi-effects pedal is retailing at just £249 right now – this could well go similarly easy on the budget.

The new year has already brought us some pedalboard delights in the shape of the U2-inspired MXR Joshua Ambient Echo and EarthQuaker Device’s Blumes, which voices its superlative Plumes overdrive pedal for bass guitar.

Yes, these are exciting pedals but they’re business as usual, the sorts of things we might have seen coming. Jack White’s Third Man Hardware teaming up with Donner Music was definitely one we did not have on the 2024 bingo card (what would be on that card? More TS clones, more phasers and vibes probably).

If that is as surprising to you as it is to us perhaps it shouldn’t be. Third Man Hardware has a reputation for collaboration, notably with Gamechanger Audio and Coppersound, and most recently with MXR on the Double Down pedal. Why not hook up with a brand who brought us a Dumble-inspired overdrive that retails for £39 on Amazon? Jack White is taking the sound to the masses. 

There is no date, no countdown. Just look at that picture above – that’s all we’ve got. Not even a complement of dials to speculate over. But follow Third Man Records and Donner Music on Instagram for further news and we’ll bring you more details of what this pedal is when it drops.