Redemptionist EVR (aka RED EVR

RED EVR Gallery

In 2009, when I was officially starting my career as Shun Nokina Design, I designed the "Redemptionist," commonly known as "RED." The design was inspired by the intensely smooth and dynamic sounds of Brett Garsed and, at one point, Allan Holdsworth. The treble was kept under control, maintaining a smooth sound at all points, with only a slight change in the flavor of the high-mids. The gain ranged from clean to high gain to suit all Jazz, Fusion, and Shred genres. The low cut was controlled so that it would not affect the texture of the distortion at any point, and so that the "audibility" could be adjusted to suit the playing environment. That was the concept.

(09' SND Redemptionist: Since then I have been fascinated by Scandinavia, so the motif is the flags of the Scandinavian peninsula. 15 years later, EVR was realized based on my experience of living in various Scandinavian countries.)

In 2014, the Leqtique brand released the RED, with a major overhaul of the circuitry and a redesign to accommodate a wider range of music. Compared to the original SND RED, it lost some of its intense smoothness, but it expanded the treble range as much as possible while still achieving a sensual tone. As a result, it was the most versatile pedal in the Leqtique lineup, and is suitable for a wide range of genres, including pop and rock. During the five years it was manufactured and sold, it was the brand's best-selling overdrive/distortion pedal, second only to the MAT and 9/9.

Now, the design of the 2025 Redemptionist EVR (aka RED EVR) began with the idea of ​​first cloning the Leqtique RED in EVR format, then adding something extra. In a modern music scene that focuses more on high frequencies, the idea of ​​adding something extra just to the treble control was something that crossed my mind during the design process. To be honest, the balance of the Leqtique RED was already at a point where it was impossible to tweak any further, so this was quite a difficult problem. In the end, after tweaking various points in the circuit, I brought in only the filtering ideas (ratios) used in the SND Red. Although the sound itself is completely unrelated, I managed to maintain a smooth tone while slightly raising the treble range and center of gravity.

My design concepts often aim to create products that specialize in a particular genre, but the RED EVR is extremely versatile, and it allows you to experience the common EVR format, so it's a great choice as your first EVR pedal. Or, for hardcore users, I hope you'll enjoy this ongoing part of the 15-year-old Red lineage.

Shun Nokina

About the "EVR" concept

Since 2019, I have been based in Europe and have been involved in the design of several pedals, but the Leqtique pedal line has essentially been on hiatus without releasing any new products. However, by temporarily moving my base to Iceland in 2024, I was able to gain some wonderful inspiration, and have continued to design all of them as an updated package called "EVR."

"EVR" is the Icelandic word for Europe. The letters strongly evoke the idea that the pedals embody the inspiration and experiences gained over many years of traveling and living in various parts of Europe. The Leqtique pedals originally embodied a strong desire for Europe, with their vibrant paintwork and dark sound, but now they are more clearly embodied as a more real-world experience.

Leqtique pedals, which have not received an update in 15 years, have been completely redesigned from the ground up, including the housing, all components, and concept. For example, the housing, which was previously a one-piece machined aluminum body, has been redesigned from a standard "box" design with a wide tolerance range, but has been completely redesigned specifically for the Leqtique EVR pedal. By rethinking the advantages of a one-piece design, the previously aluminum-only construction has been divided and integrated into three sections: a functional aluminum base case, a non-magnetic stainless steel cosmetic layer, and individually machined parts. This paradoxically addresses the design diversity and consistency of a machined housing while addressing the limitations of material choices. As a result, most of the case, which was previously painted with acrylic paint, has been replaced with anodized aluminum, achieving unprecedented durability. The stainless steel top layer significantly improves the pedal's overall rigidity, and from a cosmetic perspective, the shine of the stainless steel adds a deep, three-dimensional feel to hand-painted pedals. In addition, for ideas that are difficult to produce even with a multi-axis CNC machine, the solution is to create individual parts and then integrate them. In particular, the internal parts, which the team calls the "slider," are deliberately produced in a different color from the pedal concept, and the Gavitt cross wires that have been used since the brand's early days are individually shielded, elevating Leqtique's characteristically neat wiring from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.

Meanwhile, the power section is undoubtedly the most important aspect of a pedal's core design. I'd been using battery snaps from Keystone, a leading brand, for many years, but the highest-quality version was discontinued, and this was the area I was most concerned about... However, when rebuilding everything from scratch with the EVR concept, I wanted to mount the battery itself as a section, rather than using snaps, which could break over time. This ideal was realized in this pedal. Keystone's "Model 91" has not changed much in materials or design from the vintage type, but in terms of firmly holding a 9V square battery and outputting a strong power signal, combined with the separately designed VPTP circuit board, it has evolved to a far higher level than the original Leqtique pedal format.

The majority of these updates are related to the "interior of the pedal," and while the aforementioned high-quality components are often ignored while playing and enjoying the pedal, the question "why?" was one of the driving themes behind this update package. My answer is that the poor accessibility from the back cover was a major factor, so I spent a considerable amount of time thinking about and designing the back cover and fixing mechanism. Ultimately, I evolved the traditional four-point Phillips head screw system into a fixing mechanism with two small carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide knobs manufactured in the UK. These small knobs have enough torque to tighten or loosen with your thumb, but for those with limited access to the interior, the slits are sized to fit coins or picks, so you can tighten them further.

This is the easiest design to open and close the inside of the pedal to date. This is my final answer, coming from someone who has been obsessed with the inside of the pedal. Future new Leqtique pedals and updates to previous models will include many internal trimmers, etc., so I believe this update will undoubtedly have great significance. It also sends a strong message: "Try opening the inside of the pedal from time to time. You will undoubtedly love this pedal even more." Each of the custom parts and secret parts collected from all over the world has its own story... (See blog for details later)

*Leqtique original RED instruction manual