Hope I'm not ruffling feathers...

[eldanko]

I wrote a blog post today about how to shop for pedals from independent builders. Hoping I didn't ruffle any feathers by doing so, but I do feel like most of the ideas lean towards a "substance over hype" mentality.

Here's a link: http://www.danekinser.com/?p=629

Would love to hear if there are things that you guys think should be added/subtracted.

Edit: Looks like our own Cortexurizer has already seen my post on Facebook and befriended me. I love this community. 

[electrosonic]

At first I thought you wrote "defriended"

Andrew

[bcalla]

I'm just relived that you didn't use one of my pedals for the "NOT THAT" photo.   

[pickdropper]

I didn't find anything in there that was particularly offensive.  I highly doubt any Boutique manufacturer is going to raise their hand and say "I believe in lousy wiring and you've offended me."  Then again, I've been wrong about things like that before.

I am curious how many retailers will take the time to open up a pedal, take a photo and send it to you.  That would certainly be great customer service, however.

[jimilee]

Cool blog Dane! How's the music biz treating you?

[eldanko]

I didn't find anything in there that was particularly offensive.  I highly doubt any Boutique manufacturer is going to raise their hand and say "I believe in lousy wiring and you've offended me."  Then again, I've been wrong about things like that before.

I am curious how many retailers will take the time to open up a pedal, take a photo and send it to you.  That would certainly be great customer service, however.

I appreciate you looking it over! The idea of asking for the gut shot is more geared towards people buying straight from a builder. My hope - and this is where I'm probably wrong - is that pedals being sold by retailers have achieved a level of quality where a gut shot is no longer necessary.

[eldanko]

Cool blog Dane! How's the music biz treating you?

Hey thanks for asking! It's funny... I probably had 5 total days off in December... now I've got 5 total dates on in January! Definitely dead season at the moment. Guess I have no excuse to not be building more pedals, right?

[jimilee]

Cool blog Dane! How's the music biz treating you?

Hey thanks for asking! It's funny... I probably had 5 total days off in December... now I've got 5 total dates on in January! Definitely dead season at the moment. Guess I have no excuse to not be building more pedals, right?

Probably get you through and keep your piece of mind. :-D

[Ettore_M]

Nice blog, Dane! It was a really nice read! 
It's not offensive at all!
I enjoyed it and it made me understand even better how important is the build quality and end-product reliability of a pedal we build for other people. That's for me too. I try to do my best every time I build something. I admit that I don't use the best quality parts as, at the moment, they are too expensive for me. But I know they're crucial for the reliability of the product.
And as you said, it's a learning process. If someone that has a build from my too-noob building days had a complaint for the guts, I wouldn't think a moment to make it from the start. No expense for the customer too. 
And I really respect the builders that behave that way too. 

Hector

[juansolo]

My before and after pics are better Scary that It was brought to my attention at the weekend that I've been building pedals now for five years 



Nothing wrong with that blog at all.

[Cortexturizer]

Fantastic blog post, and a very useful one at that! I'll be sure to share with some friends that are not that technologically savvy but love pedals and are not that scared of buying DIY stuff. I have to steal some of the company's time tomorrow and run through your blog some more 

[pickdropper]

I didn't find anything in there that was particularly offensive.  I highly doubt any Boutique manufacturer is going to raise their hand and say "I believe in lousy wiring and you've offended me."  Then again, I've been wrong about things like that before.

I am curious how many retailers will take the time to open up a pedal, take a photo and send it to you.  That would certainly be great customer service, however.

I appreciate you looking it over! The idea of asking for the gut shot is more geared towards people buying straight from a builder. My hope - and this is where I'm probably wrong - is that pedals being sold by retailers have achieved a level of quality where a gut shot is no longer necessary.

No problem, Dane.  It was a good read.

There are some known boutique builders that have some fairly lousy wiring and have made it to retail.  It must not be causing too many problems, I guess.

[neve1272]

was a great blog post
sure am glade my builds dont look like spaghetti.....more like birds nest
juansolo i always like  looking at your builds
i start off trying to do neat build. lately end up getting frustrated half way and just cram it in

[atreidesheir]

It was a good source of info for less technical minded pedal buyers.

[juansolo]

I'm actually putting off posting up a recent build as it looks more like the one on the left than the one on the right. It's just one of those layouts that makes it impossible to do neatly. Then I made the cables too long because I expected for some of the pot wiring to be wrong (long story), and it wasn't this time... Pretty it ain't. When the knobs turn up it'll get posted for completeness. But its not one I'm particularly proud of the insides of. I should probably goop it...