Selling diy boxes???

[csj]

I live in a small town and am on pretty good terms with a guy who sells a VERY expensive TS808 clone (it's identical to it except for 4 parts changes which I'm sure numerous builders on this site have done on their own already)... it goes for 100,000 yen on the japanese market (around $970 US) and they can't get enough of them. The domestic market is kind of drying up for him but they go for outrageous prices elsewhere.

It's a good pedal I'm sure but it seems more like just pressing the right emotional buttons to create a buzz . Getting to the big time seems more about creating  the buzz. Once the buzz gets going it takes on a life of it's own. How do you get the buzz going?
Other than salesmanship e.g.
"I only use silver solder and carbon comps"...
"My components are better than the other guys"...
"God has blessed me with an ability to hear things that an ordinary person can't hear" (I kid you you not - this is what he says)
...it just seems like dumb luck.

The pedal gets into the hands of some session guy who holds it up during an interview, the thing gets printed, people read what their hero uses and off  it goes. The BBs spread the word. More buzz. Big name players catch on, order 20 of them etc. More buzz. More orders. More buzz. More money
So a guy goes from pouring concrete at a construction site to building TS clones for arena headlining guitar gods. It can be done. I've seen it with my own eyes. The elusive dream can be realized.

One thing about this has always left wondering. Why doesn't the Guitar God have a tech around who says "Hey, _____ ... it's just a TS808 with 4 parts changed."

As for myself... I've been an air traffic controller for 20 years and it's too late to do anything else. I'll stick it out and just keep pedal building as a cruel hobby; I'll be happy just to get Aron's NPN booster working :wink:

[runmikeyrun]

I have a webpage floating in cyberspace that occasionally someone stumbles across.  It has descriptions, pictures, and sound clips, and prices.  

I don't try to tap into the $300 boutique market.  I'm going for the Sam Ash level buyer and offering most of them for about $100, a little more than a boss pedal but for handmade pedals in some really unique enclosures (i'm using an old civil defense geiger counter for my latest) people get a cool lookin pedal along with a good sounding pedal.

I don't build circuits that are direct ripoffs from schematics, whether mass market or from you guys.  I will sometimes start with a basic design but by the time i'm done with it, it is a whole other animal so i really don't feel like i'm ripping anyone off since i've put a ton of r+d into the circuit.

My cheapest pedal is only $60 but that is a very simple pedal with only a pot, jacks, switch, and capacitor.  However, materials are about $30-$35 with the enclosure, knobs, and by the time you figure in paint, graphics, etc it's really not much of a margin.  

My deal is that i make guitar pedals, but i play bass.  So what am i going to do with all of them??  

[brett]

Hi.  Mystory is still evolving.  I've made about 20 pedals for myself (distortions, compressors, octaves, ring modulators, an envelope filter, a phaser, a noise gate).  Then I took a couple of pedals into the local music shop to show them what I do.  I was surprised to find that they wanted to sell my pedals.  Anyway, I've built 4 that are in the shop and I'm making another 4 at the moment.  But I'm finding out that *it's a LOT less fun making pedals for other people*.  Starts to seem like work.  And when I calculate the profit, it's dismal.  Maybe $50 per box for 2 to 3 hours work.  I get paid more than that for my easy desk job (which I'm supposed to be doing right now!).  I think once I've made enough for a new guitar (say $500) I'll give this up.

Anyway, the shop doesn't seem to be selling too many of my pedals (none so far!), so I guess I needn't worry about the workload and how to spend the excess money.

The moral to this story is not to go looking for a job if what you really want is a good hobby.

[Oliver]

HI,

this is an interesting discussion.

I build a Rangemaster as my first selled Pedal. I build it for myself but
i cant use the Sound for me - its to sharp for my taste.

I sold it on Ebay for 35.- Euro (with 20.- Euro Parts and about 2 hours of work its not much, but was ok)

In my opinion cloning or not is difficult to go trough, its like writing a song.
Some notes and chords can be similar to other songs, or the rythm.
You cant forge the wheel new but you can tweak it  

And if someone says, that cloning is bad - look to Fulltone.
The Fulldrive is a Tubescreamer (OK with few other parts, but i can do that too and call it my coin)
The DejaVibe is likely to the UniVibe i think..
The Soulbender Fuzz is Copy of the Colorsound Tonebender  :wink:
and so on
And think about the Fulltones FAT Boost  

So i salve my conscience and make existing circuits more versatile
and tweak them a little bit and think thats OK.

Sell ON!

Oliver