T-Rex Engineering
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| T-Rex Engineering ApS | |
 |
|
| Type | Limited Liability Company |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder | Lars Dahl-Jorgensen and Sebastian Jensen |
| Headquarters | Vejle, Jutland, Denmark |
| Key people | Lars Dahl-Jorgensen, Sebastian Jensen, and Steen Meldgaard Laursen |
| Area served | Global |
| Industry | Guitar effects |
| Products | Alberta, BassJuice, Bloody Mary, CompNova, Dr. Swamp, FuelTank, Michael Angelo Batio, Mudhoney, Møller, Replica, Room-Mate, Squeezer, ToneTrunk, ToneTrunk 68, Tremster |
| Slogan | "Our goal is to aid them in reaching their goals" |
| Website | http://t-rex-engineering.com/ |
T-Rex Engineering ApS is a manufacturer of hand-made electric guitar effects pedals.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Founding
Based in the town of Vejle, Denmark, T-Rex Engineering was founded in 1996[1] by friends Lars Dahl-Jorgensen and Sebastian Jensen.
[edit] MIDI years
The duo were very interested in the MIDI standard and wanted to develop MIDI Controllers.
Their first product was the T-Rex BigFoot MIDI footboard, followed by the T-Rex Mac1 MIDI-to-analog controller.
[edit] Guitar effects pedals
However, popularity of rack-mounted MIDI controllers was declining, and by contrast popularity of effects pedals, or stompboxes, was on the rise. So Lars and Sebastian decided to focus their attention on developing a line of effects pedals for guitarists.
Their aim was to produce professional quality pedals at a moderate price point and using vintage aesthetics for the chassis'.
The first line of guitar effects consisted of 4 pedals. The Alberta, Mudhoney, CompNova and Tremster. The Alberta, intended mainly for blues players, offered vintage tube-like overdrive. The Mudhoney was a muddy distortion pedal. The CompNova a compressor. And the Tremster was a vintage-sounding tremolo pedal. Of these 4 pedals, the CompNova created the most buzz; and was hailed by some as one of the best compressors available in stompbox format.
After these initial 4 pedals came the Replica delay pedal, their most coveted pedal to date. Built with various components including medical device components.
Their sixth pedal, known mainly for being their first mis-step, was the BetaVibe chorus pedal. Released in 2003, the BetaVibe's sound was considered sub-par compared to the rest of the line and was ultimately discontinued.
A new company logo was introduced in 2005 to better fit the vintage feel the company was going for. Made to look like the logos of the 50's and 60's, it resembles the Esso logo. It replaced the company's original logo, which featured the silhouette of a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur.
[edit] New management
In 2002 the company was joined by Steen Meldgaard Laursen as a managing director, and Lars and Sebastian became Development Director and Production Director respectively.
Hitherto there had been little or none marketing effort. Laursen, determined to introduce T-Rex products to new markets, took the product line to the 2002 Musik Messe expo in Frankfurt, the first introduction many outside Denmark had to the company.
[edit] Amplifiers
In 2004, T-Rex introduced the BigTone series of guitar amplifiers. Hand-made, like all their products, these amplifiers strived for vintage looks and tone and were aimed at tone purists. The power stage corporated EL84 EH power tubes.
The BigTone series consisted of 4 products. A 45 watt head, a 30 watt combo with 2x12 inch Alnico speakers, a 2x12 cabinet, and a 4x12 cabinet.
The production of the BigTone series has since been terminated.
[edit] Distribution of third party products
Alongside its product development, T-Rex Engineering offers Scandinavian distribution of products for GeorgeL's (cables, plugs, and strings), Exar (handmade effects pedals from Poland), Pedaltrain (pedalboards), and Arkay strings.
[edit] Replica
Their most famous model in production, the Replica, is a digital delay pedal. The Replica is used by a number of popular artists, including Pete Townshend[2], Carlos Santana[3][4], John Mayer[5], Steve Morse, and Gary Moore[6].
The Replica has been awarded Guitar Player Magazine's Editor's Pick award.[7]
The Replica provides up to 2000ms of studio-quality digital delay at a 200kHz sampling rate by routing input signals directly in and out of RAM via two 24-bit A/D/A converters. The converter chips were designed by Burr-Brown.
Its connectors consist of a guitar input, a direct output, an output, and a MIDI input.
Its controls consist of four knobs — Echo, Repeat, Level, and Tempo. It also has two footswitches — On/Off, and Tap Tempo; and two miniswitches — Brown, and Subdivision.
The most novel feature for a delay in its price-range was the Tap Tempo footswitch. With it the player can tap the delay tempo with his foot. A rate LED provides a visual pulse the delay is operating at, and a Subdivision miniswitch causes the Replica to generate quarter-note triplets of the selected delay time. The pedal can also be syncronized to an external timekeeper via a MIDI connection.
The pedal can be made to mimick the sound of older delay equipment by engaging the Brown circuit which enables a high-cut filter which muffles the sound.
The Replica can also be used as a studio processor. The input sensitivity can be switched between +4 and –10 decibel. Finally, it provides a built-in AC power supply, which negates the necessity of either a battery or an external power supply.
[edit] CompNova
The CompNova is a compressor. Its name, a portmanteau of Compression and the feminine form of the latin word Novus, denotes new style of compression.
It's designed to compress the input without changing the timbre of the sound, thus attempting to achieve transparent compression.
Although it lacks the big star-studded repertoire of users the Replica has garnered, Paul McCartney is said to own one[8].
Its connectors and controls consist of input and output, one on/off footswitch, and three knobs — Comp., Level, and Attack.
The Comp. knob controls the amount of compression, the Level knob provides output level adjustment, and the Attack knob adjusts both attack and threshold.
The CompNova accepts both an external 9v power adapter, or a 9v battery.
[edit] Alberta
The Alberta is an overdrive distortion pedal made to mimic the sound of the classic Ibanez TS-808 tube screamer pedal of the late 70s. That pedal was made famous by countless musicians, mostly in the Blues and Rock Music genres.
The name of the pedal is a popular American female name. It follows the tradition of the Blues world of associating pieces of music or equipment with women or unrequited love; in the vein of B.B. King's guitar, Lucille.
Carlos Santana is said to own an Alberta[9]. He, along with Stevie Ray Vaughan, and many other popular guitar players, made the sound of the original TS-808 pedal famous.
Its connectors and controls consist of input and output, one on/off footswitch, and three knobs — Gain, Level, and Tone.
The Gain knob controls the amount of distortion, the Level knob provides output level adjustment, and the Tone knob offers pre-distortion tone-shaping in a standard capacitor loaded potentiometer style, commonly found on guitars and distortion pedals. It works as a sort of adjustable high-cut filter.
The Alberta accepts both an external 9v power adapter, or a 9v battery.
[edit] Tremster
The Tremster is a tremolo/vibrato pedal designed to mimick the sound of tremolos in vintage tube-driven guitar amplifiers.
Its name is a portmanteau of Tremolo and Speedster.
Its connectors and controls consist of input and output, one on/off footswitch, three knobs — Volume, Depth, and Speed, aswell as one miniswitch — Mode.
The Volume knob controls the output-level of the effect, the Depth knob controls the gain-range in which the effect fluctuates, and the Speed knob controls the speed at which the effect goes from low-gain to high-gain. The Mode miniswitch switches between Vibrato and Tremolo mode.
The effect works by constantly fluctuating from a low-gain to a high-gain setting, generating a tremolo or vibrato effect on the sound.
The on/off LED light on the pedal fluctuates to visually indicate the speed of the effect.
The Tremster accepts both an external 9v power adapter, or a 9v battery.
[edit] Room-Mate
The Room-Mate is a tube-driven reverb pedal. It can both be used for guitars aswell as line-level studio equipment.
Its name is intended to convey both the pedal's function of imitating a 4-wall enclosure, or room, aswell as it being a musician's friend or bedfellow.
Its connectors and controls consist of mono input, stereo output, one on/off footswitch, three knobs — Mix, Level, and High Cut, and one rotary switch — Mode.
The Mix knob provides a means of balancing the dry and wet signals, or pre-effect and post-effect signals, the Level knob controls the output-level of the effect, and the High Cut knob allows the user to roll off treble to mimick vintage-style reverb effects.
The Mode switch switches between the 4 predefined reverb modes: 1 – Classic plate – vintage medium plate reverb; 2 – Warm hall – bigger sound, natural warmth; 3 – Bright hall – detailed highs; 4 – Chorus with Warm Reverb – sweeter effect aimed at acoustic guitars.
The pedal features a window through which its 12AX7 tube can be seen, illuminated by a red LED.
While the on/off switch is true-bypass, the stereo output is buffered. The buffering of the output is intended to avoid ground-loop hum.
The dry signal, or pre-effect signal, is forked out from the pedal's input, and bypasses the 24 bit A/D converter completely before the mix control and tube-driven output stage.
The pedal comes with its own 12v wall adaptor, which has universal power plugs and works with an AC range between 110 and 230 volts. It can be replaced by any 12v adapter that has a proper connector and yields atleast 300mA. An internal power converter increases the current from 12 volts to 300 volts.
[edit] Full product listing
[edit] Guitar effects pedals in production
- Alberta overdrive/tube screamer.
- Bloody Mary metal distortion.
- CompNova compressor.
- Dr. Swamp distortion.
- Michael Angelo Batio custom overdrive.
- Mudhoney distortion/fuzz.
- Møller overdrive.
- Replica delay.
- Room-Mate tube-driven reverb.
- Tremster tremolo.
[edit] Bass effects pedals in production
[edit] Other products in production
- FuelTank power supply.
- ToneTrunk 55 GigBag pedalboard.
- ToneTrunk 68 GigBag pedalboard.
- ToneTrunk HardCase pedalboard.
[edit] Discontinued products
- BetaVibe digital chorus pedal.
- BigFoot MIDI board.
- BigTone T212 cabinet.
- BigTone T25 Combo amplifier.
- BigTone T412 cabinet.
- BigTone T45 Head amplifier.
- Mac 1 MIDI to analogue controller.
- Purist Bass pre-amplifier.
[edit] References
- "Company Info", on company website.
- "a T-Rex story", on company website.
- "T-Rex featured in Young Guitar Magazine, Japan", on company website.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ It is not clear what year the company founded. While company brochures give 1995 as the year of T-Rex's founding, the company website alternates between 1995 and 1996.
- ^ See Pete Townsend picked the T-Rex Replica on T-Rex's official site.
- ^ "Carlos Santana Spreads the Gospel of Tone" by Darrin Fox, Guitar Player Magazine, June edition 2005
- ^ See Santana still plays the T-Rex Replica on T-Rex's official site.
- ^ See article on T-Rex's official site.
- ^ See article on T-Rex's official site.
- ^ Guitar Player Magazine August issue, 2003,
- ^ According to T-Rex's website
- ^ See "Meeting Santana in Hamburg" in this article on T-Rex's website.
