ZVEX Invetobox

[soggybag]

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=658092

Has the guy lost his marbles or is he so far out there I just don't get it?

[soggybag]

Oops looks like someone beat me to it in the members forum.

[MmmPedals]

OH MY!?! i am speechless.

[Mark Hammer]

Here's the thing.  Suppose you make your living off a few relatively simple circuits.  There's a few things you can do to assure the viability of your product line.  One is to make it hard to decipher such that no one can replicate it.  You can do that by erasing part identifiers.  You can do it by encapsulating the board in epoxy.  You can also try savagely going after any and all cloners.  None of that seems to be sufficient to preclude cloners and pirates.  After having considered all options, it seems to me that Zach did some out of the box (but not out of the 1590B box! ) thinking, and came to the conclusion that the best way to protect a circuit is to have it not be any particular circuit.  And that is what the prototype seems to be: no circuit in particular.  One of the smartest moves I've seen any boutique builder take in a while.

[anchovie]

Looks like a great way to avoid warranty claims! 

"Mr Vex, my pedal doesn't work."

"Really? Well, you built it!"

[Quackzed]

I think he built this thing for ... us? 

[DougH]

The "open source" thing is not new in the pedal world. Joe Gagan was doing this 10 years ago, releasing schematics of his commercial products so people could build their own. Not that he was a model of business success, but it had nothing to do with that.

[jkokura]

It reminds me of nothing more than a boutique version of Line 6's tonecore pedals - drop in different module for whatever effect you'd prefer, using the same body to house whatever effect module you like. What it has is the sheer adjustability and individual tailoring that Line 6 can't compete with, at least not at the price they want to sell you gear at.

Zack's idea is pretty cool. I imagine it won't be long before someone's piping up about how to do something similar for themsleves here.

Jacob

[AudioMime]

I love that thread on Harmony Central. It grew about 30 pages in two days.

[puretube]

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=658092

Has the guy lost his marbles or is he so far out there I just don't get it?

It`s "Invent-O-Box",
not:
in Veto
or:
in VetRo...   

[DougH]

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/fxbus/fxbus.htm

[T1bbles]

Line 6 tone cores sucked, completely bombed, and they cost no more than £40 a pop. That breadboard-in-a-box is over £150 and even then all you can use it for is a bloody volume control!

I'm a big ZVex fan, but this is just a bit silly isn't it? Biggest rip-off since the EHX Signal Pad.

[puretube]

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/fxbus/fxbus.htm

Nice example for the difference between a virtual web-paper,
and real-world hardware-box...

[Ry]

Line 6 tone cores sucked, completely bombed, and they cost no more than £40 a pop.

I can't disagree with the cost, but I quite like the Verbzilla and a couple of the other time-based ones...and they are still for sale all over the place.

[soggybag]

It's a pretty weird move. Then again can't fault the guy for making his vision happen. It's obviously something that was not calculated to make the most money. Though he's not losing money at $300 for the basic thing. I really like the idea that it invites the DIY crew to come up with modules that can be plugged in to it. I just doubt it's really going to take off at that price.

I'd really like to see the guy branch into a BB sized box. I think he could do something great with one of those.

[Jarno]

IMHO, the guy needs to develop new signature circuits instead of relying on YASHO (Yet Another Super Hard On). A more realistic pricepoint would help as well.

That modular system by RG looks great, I didn't realise he already had PCB layouts and all for this project. Looks like a great idea, try some different envelope followers/detectors and some filters easily, hmmm..

[DougH]

Line 6 tone cores sucked, completely bombed, and they cost no more than £40 a pop.

I can't disagree with the cost, but I quite like the Verbzilla and a couple of the other time-based ones...and they are still for sale all over the place.

Not sure what "sucked" and "bombed" means, unless it means they aren't selling well. I wouldn't know about that but overall I think they are a fine product. I don't have a lot of use for the pop-in modules though. I bought one separate but am not going to do that again, and don't see much advantage to that unless you're just really broke or something. I'd rather have them all ready to go at all times rather than having to swap them around.

[DougH]

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/fxbus/fxbus.htm

Nice example for the difference between a virtual web-paper,
and real-world hardware-box...

See, that's the funny thing about DIY, Ton. People take these "virtual web-papers" and make "real-world hardware-boxes" from them, themselves! Cool innit?

[T1bbles]

Line 6 tone cores sucked, completely bombed, and they cost no more than £40 a pop.

I can't disagree with the cost, but I quite like the Verbzilla and a couple of the other time-based ones...and they are still for sale all over the place.

Not sure what "sucked" and "bombed" means, unless it means they aren't selling well. I wouldn't know about that but overall I think they are a fine product. I don't have a lot of use for the pop-in modules though. I bought one separate but am not going to do that again, and don't see much advantage to that unless you're just really broke or something. I'd rather have them all ready to go at all times rather than having to swap them around.

Yea, sorry about the poor vocab, I was very tired.

I meant that the whole swapping out modules thing just didn't work, it was useless! (that's the sucked part)

And it wasn't hugely successfull; I don't know one person who ever bought one, or even considered it, people just didn't seem interested, and I know a few Line 6 whores too (the kind who go Guitar -> L6 Pod -> L6 Spider), even they didn't pick up on it. (that's the bombed part)

Sorry about the confusion

[DougH]

And it wasn't hugely successfull; I don't know one person who ever bought one, or even considered it, people just didn't seem interested, and I know a few Line 6 whores too (the kind who go Guitar -> L6 Pod -> L6 Spider), even they didn't pick up on it. (that's the bombed part)

Well now you do, because I've bought quite a few them as others on here have done as well. 

I think they sound great and am very happy with them overall. But I agree that I don't find the "modularity" aspect all that useful. I've seen a lot of "modular" products come and go over the years, starting with MPC guitars back in the 70's. But none of them have really caught on on any large scale that I have seen. Putting my "engineer" hat on, I think modular stuff is a cool idea. But putting my "musician" hat on, not so much. One size just does not fit all when it comes to sound, which is why I've never been too interested in multi-fx. For me, individual pedals on a pedal board are about as "modular" as I want to get. But as I mentioned in the members section thread, kudos to Zvex for giving it a try.