Used Caroline Meteor Lo-Fi

Handcrafted in Columbia, South Carolina, the Caroline Guitar Company Météore (pronounced may-tay-or) Lo-Fi Reverb is a beautifully gritty, unconventional reverb pedal.

While most modern reverb pedals strive for pristine, ultra-clean studio-grade reflections, the Météore takes the opposite approach. Inspired by the raw, industrial acoustics of the Paris Métro's Line 14—with its sleek platforms of glass, steel, and tile—it is designed to add gorgeous, low-fidelity digital artifacts, warm analog grit, and cavernous space to your signal.

The Preamp/Drive Innovation

The standout feature of the Météore is that it keeps your dry signal path completely analog and pure while routing the wet signal through an integrated overdrive stage.

This allows you to play a perfectly clean guitar line but have the trailing reverb tails sound distorted, gritty, and warm. This design is perfect for shoegaze, post-rock, or adding a dark, vintage "small amp pushed to its limits" character to your ambient pads.

The Icon-Only Controls

In classic Caroline fashion, the pedal face features stylized, retro-sci-fi icons instead of standard text labels. Here is what those controls actually do:

• Level (top left - vertical bars icon): Controls the overall mix and volume of the reverb effect. Note that Caroline pedals are known for having a ton of output on tap—this pedal can get very loud if you want it to.
• Attack (top right - space invader / mask icon): Sets the amount of gain in the pedal's preamp. Turning this up drives the reverb signal into a rich, saturated clipping.
• Regen (bottom left - dual recycle arrows icon): Adjusts the regeneration (decay) and feedback overtones. Turning this up extends the length of your reverb trails.
• Size (bottom right - expansion arrows icon): Sets the initial acoustic space and character of the reverb.
• Dark/Bright Toggle (center switch): Quickly shifts the overall EQ profile of the reverb from a dark, warm, murky space to a bright, shimmering, tile-like presence.

The Footswitches

• Bypass (left): Standard true-bypass footswitch to engage or disengage the pedal.
• Havoc™ (right): A momentary switch that overrides the circuit. Holding this down sends the pedal into infinite, cascading self-oscillation, runaway feedback, or a crushing collapse (depending on where your Size control is set). Releasing the switch immediately drops the reverb back down to your current Regen setting, making it an incredible tool for dramatic performance swells.

What to Expect

If you are looking for a standard, polite hall or plate simulator to sit quietly in the background of a mix, the Météore might be a bit too wild. It has a built-in pre-delay of about 120ms that gives a distinct slap-back/spring-like pop before the wash of the reverb blooms. However, if you want a highly interactive, character-rich tool that can go from a classic spring-style drip to a wall of beautiful, fuzzy, ambient chaos, the Météore is one of the absolute best in its class.