Gerlt Technologies makes hundreds of customizable rack effects, at prices comparable to guitar pedals.  It's time to dump that pedal board and get Your Tone off the floor!

 

 What We Do

You know them as guitar pedals

We build them as rack effect modules you can customize to get Your Tone

Put several rack effect modules into a 3U rack enclosure

Connect power and audio on the back like guitar pedals, adding connections for remote switching

Add a remote footswitch unit to turn rack effects on and off

Add as many rack effect modules, enclosures, and third-party products as you like. Plug in your guitar and amp. Rock it! It's that simple.

 

Quick Hits:

  • Check out our GT Effects Overview to see why we do this

  • Check out our Compares To charts to see the full list of effects we offer

  • Follow the menus from Products, to Modules, to Modules By Type to get a list of our effect types.  Select any effect type to get a list of all our effects of that type.  Select any effect to get full information including pricing.

 


 

Hello Effects Fans!

 

I hope all is going well for you!

I’m back in the USA now, after a lengthy time away.  I’ve taken a bit of time to survey the post-post-COVID business climate and think about our next steps.   As is often the case, there are conflicting signals to sort through.  I won’t bore you with all the details.  The result is that I think the time is still not right to resume normal operations. 

One of the primary reasons is personal.  About a year ago I jumped into a really fun, non-work opportunity that took me out of the USA for most of the past year.  I will be out of the country again most of the coming year before things settle down to a new normal for me.  It’s a lot of fun, but wasn’t really part of any plan I had, so I need to adjust my plans.  I’m not able to operate Gerlt Technologies while I’m away, so the shutdown will continue for probably another year due to that until I can get my personal and professional plans realigned. 

Beyond that, the post- post-COVID situation is still unsettled.  I expected a period of ripple effects from COVID shutdowns, supply chain problems, and other world economic and political events that impact our business.  I’m starting to think those ripples aren’t going to die away and return us to something similar to the world we knew before 2020.  If some of those changes become permanent, much work and difficult decisions may be necessary.  At the moment, the parts I couldn’t obtain are now available, but some others are now unavailable.  Costs are both up and down for components, but shipping costs are now a large and growing portion of component cost and would probably force a general price increase, an action I’m very reluctant to take.  In a market that is difficult to read, it is difficult to justify additional investment.  As long as we remain cautious, we can continue to wait for time and change to bring about a better situation, even if it takes a while.

In the meantime, I will have some time to work on the less exciting “internal stuff” that is necessary to the process of building and delivering our products.  Our internal processes are a bit messy as a result of rapid product line growth, shutdown of some suppliers and vendors, and other reasons.  If we were to resume taking orders, these problems would quickly tangle up our operations.  So while we have “quiet time”, I’ll work to clean up some of those issues so we’ll be better positioned for the future.

I hope to also be doing some of the fun work, such as completing some new products, or at least moving them further along, and possibly some marketing events.  So keep an eye on us while we work through some of the issues that are holding us up at present.  I’m not sure exactly when I’ll return from my next sojourn, but it will likely be about this time next year when I pop up and take another look around to see how it looks.

Until next time,

Bill Gerlt

President, Gerlt Technologies

Dallas, Texas

21 June, 2023

 


 

   

Hello Effects Fans!

If you like chorus effects, then you are probably well aware of the famous Roland SDD-320 Dimension D rack chorus.  When it was in production back in the 80’s, it seemed almost everyone used it live and/or in the studio.  Many are still in use today, although they cost considerably more than most pedals and sometimes need some service to return them to top operating form.  In 1985, Boss released the Dimension C DC-2 Chorus pedal.  It was very similar in design and sound, but came in the normal Boss pedal format – sort of the “little brother” to the rack version of the circuit.  Used ones in good shape fetch stiff prices.  They went out of production in 1989, but have recently been revived in the Boss Waza pedal line.  Today we announce our Stereo Chorus module, which compares to these great chorus effects, most closely to the Boss Dimension C DC-2 pedal.

Both the SDD-320 and DC-2 are simple to operate.  They have push-button settings.  The DC-2 pedal had four of them.  No knobs, no options – just 4 well-chosen presets and an on/off stomp switch.  The cool thing about these chorus units is that they are “motionless”.  If you are used to more common chorus effects, you know that changing up the standard Rate and Depth controls will give you variations in the “wobble”, from subtle thickening to wild and spacey “seasick” motion.  Motionless chorus doesn’t do that.  It operates by having two separate delay channels out of phase with each other.  The effect is much more subtle, but very pleasing.  Pleasing enough to be an “always on” effect.  It’s almost like two chorus circuits in one effect, making for a complex and (sorry!) more expensive circuit to build.  At first you may think the presets aren’t working if you haven’t used a motionless chorus before.  But listening more carefully, you’ll “get it”.  Some think it is the ultimate in chorus, avoiding the over-the-top settings.  All presets are extremely usable.  If you like the bigger and wobblier chorus, or a more Leslie-like rotary speaker feel, there’s nothing wrong with that, but this may not be what you want.  If you want that subtler, always-on, thickness and depth, this design delivers like no other. 

Our implementation stays very close to the DC-2 design, using the same MN3207/MN3102 BBB/clock chip pairs.  The elaborate filtering and companding in the circuit design can result in a relatively low-noise chorus effect.  We use toggle switches instead of push buttons, giving you 6 presets instead of 4, with 4 of them being identical to the originals.  We also offer up standard Rate and Depth controls instead of the toggles if you prefer to dial in your own settings.  Or if you can't decide, you can have both the toggles and the controls and switch between them.  The circuit has a number of transistors and diodes in the control portion of the circuit that are not in the audio path.  They aren’t special in any way, but some of them are now very expensive and difficult to find.  We use better and more affordable parts for those instead, with no impact at all on the tone of the circuit.

Like the DC-2 pedal, you can run the module in mono or stereo mode.  Some feel that stereo mode makes the motionless chorus seem bigger, but you still won’t get anywhere near the wobble or separation of other chorus designs.  That’s just not what this chorus does, thankfully!  Not only is it good to have a great variety of effect choices, it’s good to have great choices!

You can see the details about our Stereo Chorus at: Stereo Chorus.  Or look for it in our list of modules in the Chorus section, along with our great VibraChorus configurations, Small Chorus, and Black Pearl chorus modules. 

BTW... For those of you who have used Search on the Home page of our website, you’ll find the results are displayed much better now.  They used to be displayed at the bottom of the page, which made them difficult to find.  Now they are at the top, easily seen, like they should be.