In 2009 we set out to take the old and make anew. That was my vision anyway. I wanted to take some of those old stand by effects we are all familiar with and expand. I left NAMM that year seeing the stompbox world growing in sophistication and becoming much more competitive. Sure the original Prometheus which was kind of a big deal at the time, but already we were thinking of ways to improve it. It took a while to really turn any of this in to a tangible product.
We had one big problem. We needed to develop raw talent in to something more focused. There was a learning curve, not only in programming hardware and building more complicated circuits, but also in managing something as a collaborative project without one person getting sidetracked and behind.
Initially we started working on the Quasar DLX but ran in to another problem. There were so many ideas. Some of them kept changing. I was starting to feel like we were being a bit too ambitious. Like we were driving a 1975 Datsun on a Formula 1 race track.
So we took a break from the project Quasar, and started working on what would eventually become the Proteus. it took over a year from the initial vision, but it was obvious once it was complete that we had a big hit on our hands.
It was amazing to me how much that one pedal changed not only the direction we have taken since, but our mindset in laying out functionality for more complicated products. It’s nice to say things like “no limitations” but really I think all innovation and invention is born out of limitations.
Anyway, so here we are with 2012 winding down. We are very close to completing our next pedal in the DLX series, while we are also looking forward to the next.