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!

Today the message is unpleasant.  After figuring how to deal with some of our government’s policy decisions for the past several years, I must finally admit defeat.  It is not feasible to continue operations with the latest round of policy changes.  As recently as a few days ago, I thought it might work out.  Then I was hit with business-ending tariff charges, with more to come.  To be clear, it isn’t just these new Trump tariffs that have beaten me.  Biden-era tariff changes and policies were also difficult to survive.  The cumulative effect is too much.  

As an entrepreneur I take calculated and managed risks.  Sometimes it works out, and sometimes I seem to be shooting at my own feet.  But I can’t survive an economic nuking from my own government.  It’s not just a political disagreement, or differing opinions, theories, or expectations.  It’s a matter of undisputed facts, real dollars.  Gerlt Technologies’ “Game Over” criteria were met this week as those facts became crystal-clear.  I don’t like politics and refuse to take part in it, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Gerlt Technologies will no longer take new orders for our effects.  We do still have our popular 3U Pedal Racks available until our inventory is depleted.  New tariffs on metals will make them too expensive to restock, so get ‘em while we’ve got ‘em!  I have a handful of new modules that I’ll be completing soon.  I’ll still announce them when they are finished, just ‘cause.  We were already contemplating thinning out some of our guitars, amps, pedals, and maybe some components and other gear that have somehow quietly filled up all our available space over the past several years.  We may add some listings for those on the site or perhaps on Reverb in the coming months.  Keep an eye on us if you are interested in some lightly used gear in great condition.  I expect and plan this shutdown to be permanent, but maybe I’ll pop up and take a look around in a couple of years if enough major changes take place in government policy after the mid-term elections.   

It has been a lot of fun!  I enjoyed meeting thousands of you along the way – always the best part of any adventure.  Thank you all, and all the best to you and yours!

Bill Gerlt

President, Gerlt Technologies

26 August, 2025

 

New Module: Teledrive

Published: 30 September 2018 30 September 2018

 

 

We’re happy to announce the addition of the Teledrive module to our product line.  The Teledrive compares to the Nobels ODR-1.  The Teledrive is a transparent boost to mild overdrive, similar in function (but not design) to other transparent overdrives such as the Klon Centaur or Maxon GT 820.  It is probably at its best pushing a tube amp into breakup. 

The ODR-1 was originally a German pedal, but is now produced in China.  The current Chinese version is very similar to the original pedal circuit.  The originals were inconsistent in the transistors and op amps that were used.  In addition to these minor production differences, one production run had some controls connected incorrectly, causing a significant degradation in tone.  The pedal was produced for quite a long time, but didn’t achieve widespread fame, possibly due to the inconsistent performance.  But some people, particularly in the Nashville “in crowd” discovered that this pedal could be outstanding if you got “a good one”.  It has apparently been a contributor to the Nashville “more Telecaster” sound for some time.

The pedal went out of production for a while, but is back again.  The unusual op amp has been replaced with a standard 4558D op amp, very similar in sound to the original.  The transistors still seem to be of various types, but again, still very similar in sound and feel to the original.  Oddly, though produced in China, the new pedals still use through-hole components instead of surface mount – nice.

The circuit is fairly transparent, but maybe tuned for brighter instruments, such as the Telecaster.  With other guitars, it can seem a little bassy unless you dial the tone up a bit.  Mostly though, it just gives you more of what you’ve got, nice for pushing a tube amp a bit harder.  Both the original pedals and our Teledrive can pick up a bit of noise with the Volume and Gain up, along with the Spectrum dialed to the treble side.  That’s true of most boost and gain pedals, though.

We added a couple of options, you can check out on the Teledrive page in the Overdrive modules list.  One is a Bass Cut to handle what some might consider a bit much bass.  Another is the Plus option, which like the Plus version of the original pedal provides a switchable boost that increases gain and tweaks the tone range to have a bit less bass.  The original circuit uses silicon clipping diodes, which can put a bit of compression on the tone.  If you want to trim the gain and compression slightly, we allow clipping diodes choices so that you can try red LEDs or other clipping configurations. 

If you are looking for a boost or transparent overdrive, something similar to the Unicorn or GT 820, check out the Teledrive.