Rigged – Upsilon Acrux’s Pedalboards of Destruction

The pedalboards of the madmen in Upsilon Acrux are designed to inflict maximum sonic mayhem, and not slick, pretty, or subtle effects. Even the guy on the Rhodes keyboard can make his instrument sound like a terrifying attack on the senses.

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I’m a big fan of amp sims and all-in-one effects units, but this is a completely different art form. Having a real world pedalboard has real life advantages and challenges. The tactile control option is one reason many choose this route over a sim or multi-fx, and many just prefer the sounds of analog circuitry. For this band, I would imagine it’s both.

Check out their insane set up in the video below (apologies for vertical video). The players are Paul Lai and Noah Guevara on guitar, and Patrick Shiroishi on Rhodes piano.

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As Editor-in-Chief of Gear Gods, I've been feeding your sick instrument fetishism and trying unsuccessfully to hide my own since 2013. I studied music on both coasts (Berklee and SSU) and now I'm just trying to put my degree to some use. That's a music degree, not an English one. I'm sure you noticed.

Latest comments
  • Bleh.. old original lineup was the best. After paul went rogue with a bunch of kids, the band was never the same. Just paul lai and friends.

  • u know the old original lineup was in 97 right? w/ Tom Cutler, Jesse Klecker, Muir Tennerstet, Cameron Presley and myself and we had vocoder and did more kraut than prog. Every album has had changes of players , very rarely by my own choice. It’s hard work w/ no pay. Maybe listen to this album if u can, there are no kids here and honestly it’s different music played by different fuckin amazing players as it has always been. Life is change.

  • Paul has held it down longer than anyone else out there. Most bands give up, soften, or change to the newest micro genre trend or whatever. 20+ years, shits still pissed, fuck em all… proud of you dog

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