Tech 21 Richie Kotzen RK5 v2 Signature Fly Rig with Brett Kingman

[@JTroskaTV]

The rock band on the Norwegian Breakaway cruise ship used these in the Sid Norman Pub. I had no idea I was listening to SansAmps. I was just impressed by the quality mix and reasonable volume. After the show, I checked out the stage setup. No guitar amps. A couple of these red FlyRigs, XLR out to the desk, driving little speakers suspended from the ceiling. If more bands sounded that good, I’d go to more shows.

[@jonmessenger5621]

Thank you Sir for doing this great video of the RK5 V2 pedal and unleashing its fury. You always do a fantastic job of showing all the features of any of the products you test. I appreciate your honesty and your thoughts of each unit you demo. Keep up the great work. Stay safe and may God bless 🙏✝️

[@khund03]

Brett is an awesome presenter, and Tech21 continually makes great stuff!!! \m/

[@Leo_Safko]

Yup I already have their Steve Harris and Geddy Lee pedals. Amazing stuff!🤘

[@BrotherTimothyClark]

I was talking with Brett about where he set that compressor, sounds great and it's not even up all of the way. I'm impressed but then again, it's a Fly Rig and they have totally revolutionized my tonal approach. I have v1 of the original and cranking those mids up all of the way, turning that plexi on low with level up lows at 12, tone open, sansamp drive up a good bit, slapback delay and no reverb. Just beautiful. If the Lord sees fit, I would love to get an RK5 V2 but, only if this is the will of God. My Fly Rig 5 V1 is definitely good enough. That compressor sounds amazing though. It's quieter then my Wampler Ego Comp. And that's saying something. Nocked it out of the park Andrew. Great job. My track I'll Fly away has the Fly Rig running into my amp, and my track Moses spoke to the Lord is direct into my interface if anyone wants to check those out.

[@richardlynch5632]

VERY usable tool indeed 😎👍 Smaller and dare I say...better sounding than my pedalboard. Can still hook up my Mel9 with it as well. 😎👍 Price is remarkable for all that's included...😎👍 Thanks Brett😉😎👍🤣 😎👍❤🖖

[@Premium_Gate_Trading]

What a sound 🔥

[@superblondeDotOrg]

A lot of RK's personal tone comes from picking with his thumb and fingers..not a pick.. and this does influence sound in a signal chain since a pick has much higher attack peak than a thumb.

[@Leo_Safko]

Great review! Now I want one...lol

[@coffeerocker1429]

Thanks Brett. Im late the party on this too but soundsthe goods to me. Cheers for review. I would be exceptionally interested in hearing your opinion on comparing this with FM3, and HX stomp. The RK 5 seems like a great option to avoid selection choice paralysis of those units

[@o_o231]

I'm buying this right now. Gonna go look for one XD

[@luisgoregonzalez7394]

La distorsión OMG está basada en un sonido británico o Américano? Y por qué suena con tantos graves?

[@damimeyer]

Really nice demo. I have this fly rig and an old Mesa cabinet. I run the flyrig directly into the PA for rehearsal, but do you know if I can plug it into the cabinet at the same time for my sound on stage?

[@Tech21nyc]

You could plug directly into a cabinet, but you wouldn't hear anything. You need to provide power to the speaker, either with a power amp or an amp head (preferably thru the effect return to bypass the amp's pre-amp section).

[@toneranger]

Hi guys, I just gigged with my Cali for the 1st time, no amp, what a fantastic pedal, I just ditched the Headrush MX5 as it sounds shit and takes too much time. #FlyRig sounds amazing a couple of tweaks of the knobs. I would now like to upgrade to the #5 V2 primarily for the dotted 8th ( #genius ! ) and the FX loop, and of course the tuner but how can I run FX like Tremolo etc. in the loop and also use an amp as a monitor on stage while using the XLR out to the desk. I downloaded the V2 manual and saw the 4-cable diagram but it doesn't show FX in that loop. Thanks for making my life easier and my live sound much better, less gear carted to gigs is more fun in my world 🍷👍🏻

[@Tech21nyc]

To add an effect like tremolo etc., you would run the Fly Rig's efx send to the input of the amp. You would then route your amp's efx send to the tremolo or any pedal you want in the loop and send the output of the tremolo to the Fly Rig's efx return. You then take the Fly Rig's 1/4's out and send that to your amp's efx return. The XLR output will have everything included in the output signal including your amp's preamp section and tremolo. If you look at the Block Diagram in the Fly Rig 5 manual it is a little easier to understand.

[@JoeServia]

Is there a separate video showing how to do this?

[@toneranger]

@@Tech21nyc thanks for the detailed explanation guys. Since I posted the original question above I have added the V2 and it's fab, I love the dotted 8th, the delay sounds amazing on both versions, though I prefer the drift control on V1. A couple of things, please add some mod, at least chorus,. The biscuit tin style case is nice visually but not practical, the lid falls off in the car, and trying the get the power supply cable in is a bit of a struggle, just sell it with a decent gig bag with space for a couple of pedals and a power supply. Great job #Tech21NYC team, Thanks

[@Tech21nyc]

@@toneranger Thank you for the kind words and suggestions. It just so happens we do have a fab gig bag available on pre-order in our Reverb store: reverb.com/item/66393624-tech-21-fly-rig-gig-bag

[@Tech21nyc]

@@JoeServia There is not, but if you follow the above instructions and diagram, you should be able to do it. If you'd like more detailed assistance, don't hesitate to contact us directly: [e-mail]

[@DKinMN]

Is the compressor toggle independent of the boost? Or is it only engaged if the boost toggle is also engagedm

[@Tech21nyc]

The Comp button replaces the Boost function. The same is true with the Fuzz button. When depressed the Fuzz replaces the OMG section.

[@DKinMN]

@@Tech21nyc that's a sort of bizarre design choice. Compressor and Boost are not often thought of as an either/or on a board.

[@toneranger]

Hey guys, I just got the Cali, fantastic. Could you teIl me if this V2 RK5 has cab sim on the jack out, as I would like to add external reverb and modulation FX but I can't do that from the xlr out. PS : I would buy this RK5 V2 if it had the send and return like the standard v2 has.

[@Tech21nyc]

Thanks for the kind words about the Cali. As long as the SansAmp section is engaged, the cab sim is present in both outputs.

[@toneranger]

@@Tech21nyc fantastic, thank you guys. heads-up #weddingbandguitarists big sound travelling light

[@jalaskabtu]

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[@TBX819]

...what da signal chain for the review here? :-) I could imagine that there is a danger one has to find extreme level settings to get a real clean tone on the same audible volume level (loudness) out of it compared to the many overdriven tones. So clean-clean is too quiet in a show setting. The same tendency could be part in the PL1 (Wasser & Feuer) as I figured out, as a producer at least. WASSER tends to break into overdriven results espescially with the comp reacting pretty level wise (so not in all means compressing wise only) there before reaching the FIRE Level, already set to a 1/4 or so in terms of the knob action on the device. I know its analog. But Imagine a player who needs high volumes in clean settings to deliver sections of a subtle guitar sound not bartok pizzicatoing along the way. Fenders do great that way. Im an intuitive guy, maybe there are some secrets here and there regarding digging deeper a bit. I have surely been too long in the universe of digital Emulations using patch levels controlling overall loudness, of course...

[@Tech21nyc]

Unless I missed it Brett didn't seem to mention his signal chain though it sounded like he was going straight into his interface. When recording, clean and distorted parts are usually recorded independently on separate tracks. Channel switching is usually for live settings. These are signature pedals and are designed to the artist's particular specifications and their individual approach. This is not to say that you can't achieve a good clean tone and distortion tones at relative volumes by using typical unity gain setup procedures. Our Fly Rig 5 with pre and post boost option might be a better fit for your application. If you want to take the modeling approach, our PSA 2.0 in conjunction with a Fly Rig or other effects pedals would be a good option as well.

[@TBX819]

@@Tech21nyc why NOT building a LOOP into PSA 2.0? Latency induced modulation gear in series is a very old problem. Thx!

[@Tech21nyc]

@@TBX819 The concept for the pedal was to be small and pedalboard friendly. Adding a stereo (series or parallel) loop would mean a larger format pedal that would occupy more pedalboard real estate. Most modulation and time domain effects that would go into an efx loop like reverb and delay are effects that have a dry through. If concerned about latency you should seek out pedals that have an analog dry through like Strymon, Source Audio etc... This is the same way our Fly Rig series work. For effects like flange and phase most players prefer to run those effects in front of the amp (SansAmp) like EVH did.

[@TBX819]

Thx again!'I use an AXE FX. Always Glad to put it in parallel as possible into a head or so. I can choose if I run it in Input or return WITHAMP. Nice option to have maybe in v3.0. Best regards

[@TBX819]

@@Tech21nyc okay. What is the overall physical in to out latency of the Flyrigs?