Founding Father of ‘Boutique’ Industry Joins Visual Sound

After 30 years as a senior engineer and project manager for IBM, R. G. Keen, widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of the boutique effects and amplifier industry, has joined Visual Sound LLC as ‘Chief Engineer’ through his company, Keen Design.

When R.G. graduated from Oklahoma State in 1973 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, he dreamed of getting a job as an engineer for Electro-Harmonix. Unfortunately, they weren’t hiring at the time. So as a back-up plan, R.G. took a job as a power supply design engineer with IBM and ended up in various lead engineering roles with Big Blue for the next 30 years, while attaining a Master’s Degree in Computer Architecture at the University of Texas along the way.

But R.G.’s love for guitar amps and effects never went away. So, his passion became his hobby on the side.

In the earliest days of the Internet, R.G. began publishing his vast knowledge of musical electronics on the Web, first on newsgroups, then on his own site www.geofex.com. From his copious contributions on newsgroup and on GeoFex, countless do-it-yourselfers gained the knowledge needed to start making their own amps and effects.

Some of them even started cottage industry businesses making what has become known as ‘boutique’ guitar products. Though some may take credit for coming up with the knowledge themselves, companies such as Fulltone, Keeley, RMC, and others have benefited from R.G.’s advice freely given over the Internet, and by email.

R.G. Keen’s knowledge of musical electronics has also had a great impact on Visual Sound. In 1996, Bob Weil posted a question on a newsgroup to find out how to solve a problem with the Visual Volume pedal. Keen responded to the question with a long and detailed answer. This lead to further and more frequent correspondence over the years, eventually leading to Keen offering to do circuit board layouts for Visual Sound’s Jekyll & Hyde, Route 66, and H2O pedals. This informal collaboration (with Bob doing much of the basic circuit design and R. G. providing the troubleshooting advice and board layouts in his spare time), has now led to R. G. Keen coming to work (independently but in close contact with Bob) for Visual Sound, fulfilling his long deferred dream of working for a guitar electronics company

Look for many new things to come from the minds of Bob Weil and R.G. Keen in the future as Visual Sound breaks new ground with products that set them apart from all the rest, as innovators in the world of sound.

R.G. lives with his wife and many pets in Austin, TX.