German music retailer Thomann has modded a large collection of guitar pedals for remote usage over the web. This is the genuine hardware retrofitted with digipots & streaming audio I/O –

A pedal is first deprived of its shell, pots and switches. The pots are measured to see what they do (whether they are linear, logarithmic, etc.) and replaced with digital pots and switches.

Then, for reasons of shielding, the original housing is put back on. Everything is recognisable as a pedal again, but now, instead of pots and switches, ribbon cables hang from the orphaned holes.

This ever-growing Frankenstein is mounted on a rack drawer, which houses not only the power supply but also a mini-computer specially developed for this purpose, per pedal.

Plug into the pedals here. And yes – you may have to wait for the guy in front of you to finish playing Stairway. Learn more @ Thomann’s blog