Jack White’s collaboration with JHS is both a studio effect for your pedalboard and a stompbox for the studio!

The new Troika is, we’re told, a result of the coming together of “the thundering minds of JHS Pedals and Third Man Hardware”, and its makers tell us that the idea arrived “like a chariot over the Russian tundra!” To put that in more mundane terms, it’s the latest in a line of collabs by the hardware offshoot of Jack White’s Third Man Records with various respected pedal manufacturers. To date these joint ventures have included the likes of Gamechanger Audio, Eventide and Critter & Guitari, and the standard has been of a premium, in terms both of quality and looks.

I also have great respect for JHS Pedals, whose stompbox catalogue is one of considerable quality and originality across the board, and spans a huge price range, from the sub‑$100 3 Series all the way up to the Neve‑channeling $449 Colour Box. Combining a preamp, EQ and distortion, that pedal did something rather special: essentially, it took a little slice of console‑bound studio hardware, and transposed it straight onto the pedalboard. Sure enough, although allegedly unexpectedly for JHS, producers quickly found uses for it far beyond processing guitars...

Overview

The new Troika is perhaps the closest cousin of the Colour Box we’ve seen so far. Reportedly based on a Japanese boutique unit that White came across online, it may appear to be a guitar pedal — and, indeed, it can be — but the spiel very much leans into its wider potential. “The Troika is more than a pedal,” say its developers. “It’s a pro‑audio studio device, designed to work with microphones, guitars, or any instrument you want to use.”

Accordingly, the combi jack/XLR input socket can cater for mic or instrument sources, the mic input impedance being 1kΩ, and the instrument one 500kΩ. Note, though, that you can only change the source type using an internal DIP switch, which is accessed by unscrewing the bottom of the chassis. I couldn’t help but wonder if this function might have been made available on external switches, or through plugging in a jack. But in practice it took me no time at all to change the setting, and it certainly encourages you to choose an application (instrument or microphone) and stick with it. A second DIP...