<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[The Gear Confessions]]></title><description><![CDATA[Gear Confessions]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:41:05 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.thegearconfessions.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Wrapped: Frank Ritchotte on the Helix Stadium Launch]]></title><description><![CDATA[The last few weeks have been stressful for Frank Ritchotte. As the man who oversees production, global distribution and support for Line 6, a new product release like Stadium is daunting. He's been here before, but that doesn't make it any easier. ]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/frank-ritchotte</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6944c3a0af6ab01fbdd27b02</guid><category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 24 Dec 2025 17:00:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_bb8588848d554a6391cd82962fadc656~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_876,h_540,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Long Game: Inside the Mind of Eric Klein]]></title><description><![CDATA[The story of Helix Stadium isn’t just about gear. It’s about the way Eric Klein’s brain refuses to stop working. His fingerprints are all over the Helix family of products, and now, the company’s new flagship-in-waiting: Stadium.]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/eric-klein</link><guid isPermaLink="false">690d5ef7f3693488c110f6aa</guid><category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:35:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_e02961c6d18e40158163c3a19fd085e3~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_911,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Avalanche: An Interview with Tony Kunda from Case Study Effects Co.]]></title><description><![CDATA[The mountain may have triggered an avalanche — but Tony Kunda learned to thrive in the chaos. And he’s loved every minute of digging his way out... one pedal at a time.]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/tony-kunda</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d35c4aff6f8e8dc0ceaf2f</guid><category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 26 Sep 2025 16:00:51 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_7297c6a2b70d48adb49604bd06c58bd5~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sweet As Honey: A Pick Maker's Guide ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Rick Calhoun is from Taylorsville, North Carolina — born and raised. “It’s the typical southern small town,” he says. “People wave to...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/honeypicks</link><guid isPermaLink="false">623dfc9c3a763fa2ba3566f7</guid><category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 29 Mar 2022 13:55:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_5766d65bba44426184b7a8b85853ae5a~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Where the Light Is: An Interview with Pedaltrain's Jim Colella &#38; Friends]]></title><description><![CDATA[Jim Colella finds himself seeking refuge among the towering and densely-packed oak, maple, ash and walnut trees that jut from the earth...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/pedaltrainpedals</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6206aa855eae3f94a42bcab1</guid><category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2022 16:47:21 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_26bc4962a85245f79920822b95e18429~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ICONS: Yoshi Ikegami Talks Tonebender Collaboration]]></title><description><![CDATA[High atop the ever-growing mountain of stompbox manufacturers stands BOSS, alone at the summit. The Japanese juggernaut inarguably lays...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/tonebender</link><guid isPermaLink="false">60ee6b4d1b89d6001512eb22</guid><category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 16 Jul 2021 15:58:52 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_dee5b0cead9d415c89bdeff93ec651bf~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_664,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Kicking the Door Down: An Interview with Neural DSP's Doug Castro]]></title><description><![CDATA[Doug Castro  is a firm believer in splashy first impressions. “When entering a new space that’s dominated by well-established and respectable players, you must make one hell of an entrance for people to notice and take you seriously,” he says. “Kicking the door down is more likely to work over quietly entering the room.” Enter the Quad Cortex, the Neural DSP titan touted as the most powerful floor modeler on the planet. “When we started conceptualizing Quad Cortex,” Castro continues, “there...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/quadcortex</link><guid isPermaLink="false">60ca0256d689970015470c46</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 18 Jun 2021 15:56:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_99e7969748d64038a7811c634589e7d4~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[10 Years of El Capistan: An Interview with Strymon's Pete Celi ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Believe it or not,  Strymon Engineering’s landmark delay pedal, the El Capistan dTape Echo, recently celebrated its 10th birthday. “Time flies,” says Strymon co-founder and sound designer Pete Celi. “It really doesn’t seem like that long ago, but I think El Capistan has aged well — probably better than I have.” Of course, when the El Capistan launched back in June 2010, Strymon was just finding its footing as a brand. “The possibilities were endless,” he recalls. “We were excited by the...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/elcap</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6019de4a5708180018811f77</guid><category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 05 Feb 2021 16:55:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_27ef160a39594b57a218da2d472e915d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Spaced Out: Exploring Blackhole with Eventide's Christian Colabelli]]></title><description><![CDATA[The new Blackhole pedal from Eventide is a universe within a universe. And no, that’s not marketing-speak — it’s how Eventide product...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/blackhole</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6012d79a65b34700178d6cd0</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 29 Jan 2021 01:18:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_037c4fc9712a41a0889c412055ccb3cc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[TACTILE (R)EVOLUTION: Pedals that break the mold]]></title><description><![CDATA[Mass-produced guitar pedals  date back to the late 1970s. To be clear, there were earlier designs that cemented the basic form and...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/tactilerevolution</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5ff47ab1b4652f00171c93fb</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 06 Jan 2021 20:00:10 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_a8b947f991d6412da73986ffe0232c8c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Phantom Listener: Tom Cram of Spiral Electric Talks Surviving Lockdown]]></title><description><![CDATA[2020 was hard — this isn’t news. From the pandemic to political unrest, wildfires and murder hornets, everyone has felt it in some way....]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/spiralelectric</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5fd8cb3415953200174a8832</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 16 Dec 2020 16:08:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_e298e773a5f3402e8412385783a65d3a~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Collaboration Culture: Joel Korte on the Bliss Factory]]></title><description><![CDATA[Joel Korte and Zachary Vex  have an interesting relationship. The two first connected back in 2008, when the former was in the middle of...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/bliss-factory</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5fbf28e07730a50017e549f1</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 27 Nov 2020 20:12:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_b2976dc4eaf448618778cec158c4d603~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_800,h_800,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Can't Take A Joke: The Tone Sanitizer Story]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some people think Matthew Farrow is an asshole. They’ve told him as much via email and in social media comment sections, using phrases...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/tone-sanitizer</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5ec16304a997810017177d8a</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2020 16:00:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_7eac887887354aca86f3e69bd902d75b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_750,h_747,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Modeling for the Masses: Line 6 talks POD Go]]></title><description><![CDATA[In 1998, Line 6 launched the original POD  and ushered in the era of modeling for the masses. Today, the Calabasas-based company — acquired by Yamaha Guitar Group in early 2014 — estimates that well over 1.5 million units bearing the POD name have been sold throughout the world. That figure includes the original POD, and other bean-shaped devices like POD 2.0 and POD XT, as well as various floor and rack-mounted units like POD XT Live, POD HD500X and POD X3 Pro. But in 2015, Line 6 dropped...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/podgo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5ea8447ecc9a1a0017c91ac9</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2020 16:12:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_8106a2a648714716a3b341c17c88a383~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Feedback Loop: How Line 6 Embraces Social Media]]></title><description><![CDATA[Frank Ritchotte starts his day early. In fact, you may find him at the gym shortly after 3 a.m. — but by then he’s already spent a considerable amount of time on his phone. Such is the life of Line 6’s senior director of operations. He usually arrives to the office by 5 a.m., but not before he’s caught up on any messages from customers and browsed a sampling of select websites to get a feel for the recent Line 6-related activity. "Social media has come a long way, a shockingly long way," he...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/line-6</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5e46996f0e01ea0017c902be</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 17 Feb 2020 23:56:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_5caf3f9411c64f389b3b142aaff4bb09~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_630,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[From the Ground Up: An Interview with Line 6's Brandon Frenzel]]></title><description><![CDATA[Brandon Frenzel lives in two worlds. On the one side, he’s a Line 6 Product Owner, which means that he’s ultimately responsible for delivering quality products to the marketplace. “I think it’s a lot like an entrepreneurship role,” he says of the title. “We come up with an idea, get reactions from customers and then company funds us to build it and prove it out.” The cycle begins with Brandon (and those like him) identifying needs and opportunities in the marketplace and existing Line 6...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/powercab</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5e49a2340b4a4500186497ad</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 17 Feb 2020 15:41:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_22654d6fcaba4804be562c497081da95~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tech Talk: An Interview with Line 6's Eric Klein]]></title><description><![CDATA[Eric Klein is from a generic small town  in South Dakota. A blink-and-you-almost-missed-it kind of place where life and conversation circles around high school football rivalries and how the crops are coming in.  “Needless to say, being a music geek was" — he pauses for effect — “less than optimal, socially speaking.” His family moved from South Dakota to Arizona when he was sixteen.  “Getting to see live bands every weekend was life-changing,” he says. “There was one month in, maybe ’92,...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/hx-stomp</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5e4952cdc7c8410017bc7141</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 17 Feb 2020 15:41:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_a4ef52097b924627b378427a00ae61fc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_750,h_563,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Deadstock: An Interview with Dan Perkins from Couch Straps]]></title><description><![CDATA[Couch founder Dan Perkins has been making vegan guitar straps since 1999. Yes, you read that correctly — vegan guitar straps. “Vegan...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/couch-straps</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5e4a1f7ea0e9490017ed0195</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 17 Feb 2020 05:11:10 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/286ec4_19d06c2024a34ed5b779fe04bca734ae~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[MIDI Baby 3 Files]]></title><description><![CDATA[Thanks for checking out my MIDI Baby 3 Video on YouTube. Admittedly, this content is a bit dated now and the newest firmware is much...]]></description><link>https://www.thegearconfessions.com/post/midibaby</link><guid isPermaLink="false">5fd024f2067d7b00170e90b0</guid><pubDate>Sat, 01 Feb 2020 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://youtu.be/0-KTNBH8WXI" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Nick Rambo</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>