Jack White’s Third Man Audio has linked up with French pedal specialist Anasounds for the La Grotte – a stompbox that ends his lifelong quest for the perfect analog spring reverb.
After the firm gained huge prominence in the American market, White purchased one of Anasounds’ Elements spring reverb pedals back in 2021 and it was love at first riff.
A desire to collaborate with its makers on a new design – springing off the Elements’ successful template – has resulted in La Grotte, which comes with some major differences to further its tonal goodness.
A mechanical reverb at its core, a three-spring tank is combined with a warm preamp for “a distinct sonic personnalité”. Interestingly, its two-band EQ affects only the reverberated sound, with independent volume settings for dry and wet sounds completing its left-field tweakability.
Two years after his inital Anasounds purchase, White sent off his first draft for La Grotte, and little has changed in the back and forth between the two firms since.
Some fine-tuning was needed to find the right tank and get the right frequencies to shine, with all involved careful not to trigger the spring sound when turning the pedal on. An anti-pop system was the solution, fading the reverb in and out when activated.
Thinking of iconic spring reverbs from Fender and Roland, White deemed a built-in preamp a necessity. Consequently, White and Mancini leant on Anasounds’s expertise, with the resulting circuit offering plenty of headroom but still with the ability to get dirty when pushed.
Players who don’t vibe with White’s preamp sweet spot can find their preferred setting by toying with the pedal’s internal trimpot.
Where the Elements was designed for better highs, La Grotte aims for deeper lows, and the best possible signal-to-noise ratio. It has true and buffered bypass modes, with the reverb trailing off naturally when the buffered mode is used.
A pad allows players to adjust the input level from 0dB to -10dB for those wanting to use the pedal as a studio outboard unit, and the preamp’s “massive volume boost” will “help your tracks come alive”.
The minds behind the La Grotte have extended its application beyond just the electric guitar, too. Its input and output impedance also works with synth, an active bass, and even brass instruments so that musicians of all kind can “benefit from the added soul of an analog spring”.
“It's been a lifetime searching for a small real spring reverb that could be used a stompbox on stage or in the studio,” Jack White reveals.
“The hang-up is that you normally have to use really long springs to get a good sound, making the unit too large. With the La Grotte pedal, it was the addition of the third spring that really brought this sound alive and gave us the ability to have that long decay from a real spring in a small box.
“In addition,” he concludes, “the built-in drive/boost feature you get from the Dry knob is very impressive in how it elevates the signal you are sending to the springs.
Third Man Hardware is no stranger to collaborative releases, having worked with CopperSound Pedals for the Triplegraph digital octave pedal, and budget-friendly firm Donner for the floor space-saving Triple Threat.
The standard La Grotte edition of the pedal will cost $299, a limited-edition, yellow-heavy housing rising to $349. It will be available exclusively from Third Man's Reverb shop.
Visit Anasounds and Third Man Hardware to discover more.
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