Jack White’s Third Man Hardware has partnered with fellow effects firm Anasounds to produce the La Grotte spring reverb pedal, which will let players “benefit from the added soul of an analog spring”.
Over the years, Third Man Hardware has developed a reputation for masterminding some eccentric and unique stompboxes, many of which have been designed as part of cross-brand collaborations.
In 2019, Third Man and Gamechanger Audio released the Plasma Coil Distortion/Octave pedal. More recently, White’s firm took a budget-friendly turn by creating the Triple Threat multi-effects pedal with Donner.
Now, Third Man has put out a new analog spring reverb that has been designed in conjunction with Anasounds – another firm that matches White’s penchant for out-there pedal designs, as evidenced by the modular Full Story fuzz and Spinner expression pedal.
As such, a humble spring reverb might at first seem like a fairly tame attempt from the two firms. However, this isn’t your standard spring reverb pedal.
As Anasounds explains, the La Grotte is the result of almost four years of collaboration between the two parties, which first began when White got his hands on an Anasounds Elements reverb.
From there, the prospect of a signature pedal that could both solve some problems associated with standard spring reverbs and deliver some extra sonic features was discussed. By NAMM 2024, the final version was approved.
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The final La Grotte features three genuine springs that provide the reverb tones, as well as a specifically engineered built-in preamp that offers plenty of headroom but can still tap into the grit and dirt of White’s typical sound.
Though the preamp was fine-tuned by White in the studio, an internal trimpot can further crank or dial down the gain for greater flexibility. Other controls to tweak the tone include Low and High parameters for adjusting the frequencies, and Dry and Wet knobs for controlling the preamp gain.
As for the springs, three shorter units have been used as opposed to one long spring, which is usually required for similar reverb effects pedals. This means the pedal is a bit more pedalboard-friendly, but can still deliver those authentic mechanical reverbs.
“It’s been a lifetime of searching for a small real spring reverb effect unit that could be used as a stompbox on stage or in the studio,” White says. “The hang up is that you normally have to use really long springs to get good sound, making the unit too large.
“With the La Grotte pedal, it was the addition of the third spring that really brought this sounds alive and gave us the ability to have that long decay from a real spring in a small box.
“In addition the built in drive/boost features you get is very impressive in how it elevates the signal you are sending to the springs.”
The standard La Grotte will be available for $299, while a limited-edition version that arrives in a different finish will go for $349 exclusively from Third Man's Reverb shop.
Head over to Anasounds and Third Man Hardware to find out more.
