Yestergear: Guitar gear from days gone by

With so many gear heads firmly stuck on vintage gear there is a wealth of information praising the great gear from the past.  What about the stuff that either has no love from the vintage world, isn’t quite vintage yet, or just plain old got bypassed for the next thing.  That’s where I come in.

I intend to make the Yestergear post a semi regular (at least once a month) occurrence. Each post will focus on a piece of gear from our guitar playing past.

Today's gear is the Roland DEP 5.

One of the first Multi Effects units on the market, The Roland DEP 5 was a landmark piece of equipment. With chorus,reverb,delay, and EQ you could dial in two effects at one time.  Presets could be stored and called up again via the front panel , momentary footswitch (to scroll through presets) or MIDI.  There were several algorithms offering series and parallel routing combining reverb or delay with the chorus in various configurations.  All of this was then run through the EQ section to tailor the sound even further.

This unit was a breakthrough for guitarists. Now one rack unit could handle multiple effects settings.  By today’s standards this looks like a kindergartener’s rack effect buck back in the 80’s this unit was in high demand.

I never did get one but man I had GAS for one for a long time. They can still be had on Ebay.  As of this writing there are a few with a buy it now price anywhere from $100-$200