Benson Tall Bird +

The BRAND NEW Benson Tall Bird + Spring reverb & optical Tremolo outboard unit! Just released, and hadnwired right here in Portland, OR. Spring driven reverb and Optical Tree (choose between “classic” and “Harmonic”) foot switchable with the Benson classic Tall Bird preamp circuit. In Green Tolex with checkerboard grill and gold piping.

-Includes Footswitch and Cables

Back in 2023 we were approached by The Beach Boys to create a limited edition reverb-tremolo unit called the Surf’s Up, based on the classic Fender circuits with some upgrades, which was exciting because it allowed us to slay some dragons in the form of abiding tech problems with that type of circuit. The Surf’s Up project ended but the journey was far from over.

After the dust settled, we realized the dragons could be deader, threw out the 60s schematics and performed a ground up redesign of how WE would achieve the classic sounds with even more versatility and lower noise…and also have regular AND harmonic tremolo in one unit. After trying a few things out we settled on a path that eventually led to the Tall Bird Plus!

Highlights include:

• Independent Wet/Dry Controls — The dry path can push into wide-open, console-style distortion; the wet path can slam anything downstream.

• Size Control — Inspired by the Chimera amp’s bass knob, it goes from cavernous to vintage-tight.

• Reverb Section — EL84-powered, feeding a spring tank capable of classy shimmer to wild chaos.

• Tremolo Circuit — Harmonic or Conventional tremolo modes, hand-tuned LDRs, and an ultra-wide sweep via a custom 3-pole oscillator. Possibly the only tube powered optically driven harmonic tremolo on the market.

• Low Noise The gain staging has been carefully implemented for low self noise

Every parameter is designed to go to extremes—the Tall Bird Plus is capable of a huge range of classic spring reverb and tremolo sounds, as well as boundary pushing settings to satisfy the most curious of players and sound creators.