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Henretta Engineering Guitar Effects - anyone heard of them?


BruceM

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I ran across Henretta Engineering while poking around on various websites yesterday. I was intrigued by the pedals and designs. So today, a little idea hatched in my brain and I emailed Kevin, the owner. Here's a teaser from his response to my email. I can't wait for the 4-3-2-1 party on Nov. 2!

 

Thanks for writing, Bruce.
 
It just so happens that I’m in the middle of making a huge 20-pedal multi-effect unit as a demo piece for Capitol Guitars in St. Paul.  I should have it done before your event on November 2 and would be happy to let you intercept it before I bring it over to the shop.
 
Sincerely,
 
Kevin Henretta
Henretta Engineering LLC
 
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Interesting. That‘s kind of a pedal board in a box thing. Who needs programming?

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46 minutes ago, HAMERMAN said:

Not the same model but here is a gut shot of a multi effect Henretta for anybody that is curious like I was:

 

https://reverb.com/item/2116969-henretta-engineering-the-console-hand-made-custom-multi-effect-unit

It's an interesting concept. He'll build any effects into an even smaller board. I like the six space unit. I'll be curious to try out the effects on the big board and try to settle on six that I like. I'll likely buy from him, as he's kind enough to let me take home the gigantic demo board he's building for someone else. 

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And here's another excerpt from our email conversation. I like his response to this email from me:


That's awesome news, Kevin, and thanks! I'm the guy in my group of friends that's kind of anti-pedal board, but not anti-pedal (more for the sake of stirring the pot), so my friends will freak out when they see a 20-pedal  multi-effect pedal demo unit. I can't wait! LOL.
 
Let me know when you've got this one done, and I'll come over and check it out.
 
I'll start a thread on the HFC today, and display this conversation. You should see some traffic immediately, I'd guess. I did a search there yesterday to see if there had been any discussion of your products, and I didn't see anything. 
 
This will be fun, and I really appreciate it.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce
 
 
 

Kevin Henretta [email protected]

12:44 PM (3 hours ago)
 
 
cleardot.gif
to me
 
 
I’m also surprisingly not a huge pedal guy myself.  I’m not into the whole culture of it - two of big boards in front of you with tons of mishaps waiting to happen.  That’s why my product designs are the way they are with the minimalism and focus on utility.
 
Here are some photos of the beast in production.
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Those remind me of the big multi-effects pedals that boss made, like the ME-50. Lots of discrete effects stuck together.  Somehow visually and internally I find that easier to deal with than the AXEFX or other units where you can't just look at the thing and know exactly what it's doing.

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that's an interesting way to showcase all your products - looks like fun.  it's an interesting option to have him build a 3 or 6 pedal 'fly rig' personalized for what you want/need.  while a software-driven rig is more flexible, it's just easier imho to look down at knobs and just twist them rather than scroll through menus and screens trying to find the parameter on the effect that needs tweaking.  now if i could get all my Wampler pedals integrated into a single box like that I'd be pretty happy but it would be bigger than my Holeyboard.

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Kevin is good people.  He sold me one of his "Green Zapper" mini pedals at cost of parts years ago when he first released it.  He asked for guesses as to what song inspired the product and I got it right with Inca Roads.  The GZ is a tiny (like 2"x2") DOD 440 variant. 

As for the Console project(s), I dig the idea, but wish there was a few patch points between sections, like a couple instances of normaled jacks that can be routed straight thru unless they're patched before or after a different section.

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1 hour ago, soli'd said:

As for the Console project(s), I dig the idea, but wish there was a few patch points between sections, like a couple instances of normaled jacks that can be routed straight thru unless they're patched before or after a different section.

I'll show him this when I stop by to pick up the demo. Who knows? He seems very flexible so far, and his designs for the enclosures are certainly flexible.

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I heard from Kevin today. He's not going to have everything done on the demo unit by tomorrow, but he is planning on stopping by the 4-3-2-1 party and bringing what he's got done. He said most of it is functional. I think it's great that we'll get to meet him too!

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The pedal board was smoking last night! Oh wait, that was the guitar players. The pedal board was not literally smoking.

I didn't get a chance to play through it in a band context, though. Could some of you guys who tried it out give us review of which effects you liked from the board? Hopefully I'll have it through Tuesday's group session, and I can give it a whirl.

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@BruceM thanks goodness its called the CHORD BLASTER! I though it said and still think it looks like CHOAD BLASTER. LOL 

 

Correction: There IS a Choad Blaster! 

CHOAD BLASTER overdrive/distortion/fuzz

CHORD BLASTER overdrive/distortion/fuzz

Same as the Choad Blaster but with a friendlier name.

 

$145.                                      

 

price includes USA shipping

A unique circuit configuration with two individually voiced gain controls make the Choad Blaster an extremely versatile and musical pedal for guitar or bass.  An internal trimmer fades between distortion and fuzz sounds.  This pedal will not squash your dynamics.  Your attack comes punching right through as the Choad Blaster adds gritty harmonics.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I wanted to give a final shout out to Kevin at Henretta Engineering. He let me keep the board for 2 weeks, and I put it to good use at various band practices.  He runs his business on the side out of his house, and as always, I'm rooting for the local guy to do well!

Here's the list of effects that are in the running for my own personal custom pedal board (blasphemy!!) which I'll be ordering sometime over the next few months. All of these got good reviews from others that tried them as well:

Golden Years - Phaser
Emerald Prince - Preamp
Choad Blaster - Overdrive/distortion/fuzz
Pinkman - Dirty Boost
Orange Whip - Compressor
Red Brick - Delay
Crimson - Tremolo
Black Hole - Chorus/Vibe

It's very difficult to narrow it down!

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