So a couple of weeks ago I bought a Malekko Spring Chicken after missing out on the normal ones, then the limited editions-- they released another limited edtion, so I took the plunge.
The reverb itself is very nice indeed-- as the name implies, it's a spring reverb pedal, and it has a really good response-- when you attack harder, you get the boinginess that you would with an actual spring, and it sounds really nice and smooth. Plugged into a 70s Champ, it sounds very similar to SRVs version of Little Wing.
Now for the downside-- although the reverb level can be set anywhere from 0 all the way to 'way too much, entering self-oscillation' territory, once the control is set above 10 or 11 ('o'clock), it's really too much to be used normally, and would be only used for an effect, rather than as a staple of my sound. Because of this, the only useable range for me, is up to 10 'o' clock, which just seems a little...... wasteful to me :) Also, once it's up past 10, it starts to get rather noisy (a hiss, rather than hum), even when there is no input connected to the pedal-- Malekko tell me this is due to the IC that they used 'Belton Brick', which isn't their own design, so unfortunately there is no way round this. However, as reasonable reverb levels, the noise isn't an issue-- my amplifier makes more noise than the pedal does.
So to conclude, it's a really great sounding reverb, the unit looks pretty good (brused aluminium box, blue decal, single knob on the front, dwell knob on the side (a set-and-forget thing really). The noise is a bit of a pain, but I can live with it for my application, it's just a bit of a downer on a pedal that cost £160-- i'm undecided yet whether to keep it, but I think i'd like to try out their Chicklet pedal, which Malekko designed their own reverb emulator for, and i'm told doesn't have the noise issue of the Spring Chicken. Fortunately 2nd hand prices for the units seem to hold their value pretty well, so if I do decide to change, it shouldn't hit the wallet too hard!
