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When Sebastian Jensen and Lars Dahl established T-Rex in 1996, little did they know that over a decade later they would be one of the most respected and popular guitar effects manufacturers in the world.

Thanks to a relentless striving for products that exceed the expectations of the buying public time and time again, T-Rex has built a reputation for excellence in its native Denmark, across Europe and beyond.

MD and driving force behind the organisation Steen Meldgaard joined T-Rex in 2002, pulling the disparate parts of the company into a coherent whole that has since gone on to achieve a punch way beyond its modest size. A small operation, with only seven full time employees, T-Rex has nevertheless built a large fanbase that is steadily growing.

“The last three years have been really good, as well as fun,” says Meldgaard. “We have been constantly growing. The three partners, Lars, Sebastian and I, have managed to organise the company so that the strong points we each have are brought together – we are greater than the sum of our parts. Lars and Sebastian run the development department, and we have invested heavily in research and development. It’s where we spend the most money; I’ve isolated our developers so that they can really concentrate on putting the best products together.”

The efforts of the three directors was rewarded in 2007 with a Gazelle award, an annual prize given to the fastest growing companies in Denmark. Furthermore, a buoyant guitar effects market looks set to ensure that the company will continue to grow throughout 2008. “The market is growing well,” continues Meldgaard.

“I believe there are some key brands and producers, and a lot of smaller companies that assemble pedals on their kitchen tables. We’re moving up the league, becoming a better-known brand, and I believe we’re known for high quality, good tone and fair prices.”

The nature of the effects market has suited T-Rex’s progression thus far well; the many smaller manufacturers in both Europe and the US have meant that companies keen to innovate and provide quality products soon rise to prominence amongst both their peers and the gear-hungry public.

“If you look at the US market, you can see maybe 100 or 150 pedal producers,” says Meldgaard, “but they are all very minor companies and they all make distortion pedals. I think it’s good, they are creative people, but they never get any further than that. We try to do the difficult pedals, and have spent time doing delay and modulation, reverb and chorus pedals.”

The dedication to getting the tougher pedals right has reaped its own rewards; the extremely popular, best selling Replica is a world class unit that has made its way onto the pedalboards of those in the know.

“The best selling product for us is the Replica, which is recognised as probably the best delay pedal in the world. Our power supplies sell very well, and we have recently launched a pre-amp overdrive that is programmable, called Spin-Doctor, which is quite revolutionary. It is the biggest and most expensive product we have made. It’s a flagship model for us, and it has recently shipped to the UK. The Spin Doctor has the works: double tubes, programmable, speaker emulator, a wonderful rich tone.

"It’s been difficult, it’s taken us a long time to put together, but it’s really outstanding. You can go on the internet and find the schematics for a distortion pedal and then assemble it, but it won’t move you. You have to do what we do, listen to the musicians, then make the pedals far beyond their expectations.

“In the future, you will see constant growth from T-Rex,” concludes Meldgaard. “You will see a complete line of guitar pedals, a small line of bass pedals, and accessories around the pedals like pedalboards, power supplies and cables. We set our goals three years ago to have a varied product line, and we are achieving that. Our focus remains to be one of the best pedal brands on the market.”