Premier guitar Bill Finnegan article

[culturejam]

Can we come up with a theory why guitar pedals built on a card table sound better?

Because Klons were built on a card table. Nuff said. 

[jimilee]

I'd like to know how this whole lady needs money he gives her a klone to sell is working out.

[Clayford]

I would design him a 1590BB though-hole Klon PCB gratis....<snip>

You've on rev 4 now aren't you?

/ducks

[Clayford]

I'd like to know how this whole lady needs money he gives her a klone to sell is working out.

Well Jimi, when a man gives a woman money or objects worth money...

[juansolo]

BTW, I'm a licensed engineer and project/discipline manager -- you'd be surprised how many decent engineers can't put a coherent sentence together or organize their work.  Smart as whips with the calculations and such . . . but common sense often eludes them (i.e., can't see the forest through the trees).  A good PM is essential in most cases to bring a project to fruition and ensure budgets are met.  So if the guy realized what he wanted but was incapable of doing all of the circuit design himself, what is so bad about reaching out to others?  And try hand building 8000 of anything . . . day after day, week after week . . . I know I'd get sick of it after awhile for sure.

I may waffle a bit here, please feel free to ignore me.

When I started doing what I used to do as a job (building large scale computer systems), I used to meet with the internal customer, discuss their requirements, come up with a design, agree it, plan it, get the kit in, organise the networking, install and test all the infrastructure up to app level, organise the app teams, test the systems then put them live.

Then someone in their wisdom seemed to think we needed project managers to do the organising for us who had no experience doing any of the above. Thankfully I managed to train a couple of them who I preferred to work with who were ex-techinical staff so it wasn't too bad with them. But by god, when you got a non-technical PM it was a nightmare. What I'm saying is that PMs are all well and good, but it helps if they have a grounding in what they're managing. Likewise it's handy if your tech staff know how to organise their ways out of a paper bag. If you've only got staff that can do one or another then you're screwed.

But I do understand what you're saying. I, for my sins as a nerd/geek, have little to no social skills. I can however organise things and deal with things logically. That tends to be what we're good at. Coping with pointless things like smalltalk and reading people's emotions aren't really our strong suit. I am going off topic here... But if Bill is ill equipped to market his property, how hard is it to find a partner that isn't? Moaning about it doesn't get anything done.

As for repetitive work. Again, you'll find there are people out there that are actually good at that and like it. Assembly lines, warehouse jobs, things like that. Some people actually like work that they can switch off and do. Why he took a task on himself that involved this rather than employing someone to do it for him is his choice. I'm not going to feel sorry for anyone that chooses to make their own life miserable. Do something about it.

It comes down to this. The whole situation is his doing. As described in the article, he has complete control over everything. He didn't have to do anything the way he did it, he chose to do it that way.

...and this is the rub I suppose. There are people here who have an insight into the pedal industry. They can see what an opportunity he still has 15+ years on with this pedal and he's just choosing not to do anything about it but moan about how hard done by he is. Sure he's not exploited what he has as well as he could have, but he still could. There's still a lot of value in both the pedal and the brand he's (unwittingly?) built up. Which is why people like me think that he's his own worst enemy. If he needs help and hasn't got it by now, then he's screwed. Go and do another job and just step away from building pedals. But he keeps popping up every now and then and reminding people about Klon... Then he does nothing. It's madness.

[juansolo]

I'd like to know how this whole lady needs money he gives her a klone to sell is working out.

Well Jimi, when a man gives a woman money or objects worth money...

Balls deep one would assume. Or as has been speculated, an ex-wife...

All that article did was make me want to build a clone.
Sorry, Bill.

Same here. If I would solder a Klon board every day for a year, and leave the boxing to someone else, I think I should be able to acquire a nice little nest egg...... Any takers? Juan? I can probably do more than one a day on weekends.....

Paul

I may be doing something like that shortly for a small run of Klones    I need some capacitor money and some powder coating gear.

[Fastocker]

It comes down to this. The whole situation is his doing. As described in the article, he has complete control over everything. He didn't have to do anything the way he did it, he chose to do it that way.

BINGO!  It's his deal -- he can run the show however he deems fit.  Why does that seem to offend so many?  Don't want to deal with it?  Don't buy the pedal -- period.  He's doing it the way he wants -- why do some feel the need to trash that?  And I don't necessarily see much whining in what he says -- he's saying what he feels . . . often in a classier manor than many of his detractors.  It's just seems like kind of a torch and pitchfork crowd scene sometimes . . . maybe people just get bored and edgy during the winter and need somebody or something to pick on, I don't know.

I kind of like his approach -- I'm currently trying to bring a vibe pedal to market in small quantities and I never imagined how much time and work it would take (financial, legal, time constraints, product development, outsourcing manufacturing that I can't do in house, etc.).  I've had more unsolicited advice on how to do things than I would ever ask for.  But I'm the only one that knows exactly how I want the product to look and sound and I don't want to give up control of that.  And I don't want to quit my day job either, so the process will be slow and quantities will be limited.  They'll either sell or they won't -- I'm not worried either way.  But I'm not really willing to give up total control of the final product yet . . . so in a way I can see how/why Bill does some of the things he does.

And the snarky speculation about his dealings with the single mother are puerile . . . . come on, gentlemen, let's raise the bar a tad.

[slimtriggers]

I'd like to know how this whole lady needs money he gives her a klone to sell is working out.

Yeah, that's what I don't get.  He knows building them is like printing money, yet he can't put 2 and 2 together.  I agree that he needs a partner that's savvy in business strategy.  I think he deserves his success, but if he loses everything due to lack of vision it's his own damn fault.

[madbean]

I would design him a 1590BB though-hole Klon PCB gratis....<snip>

You've on rev 4 now aren't you?

/ducks

Meaning what exactly?

[atreidesheir]

I think people should focus on something besides the single mother aspect.  It was simply the explanation for why new Klons are showing up on ebay from time to time, if he is not actively producing for customers. 
I thought the interview was interesting.  He is very eccentric.  I am still dumbstruck by his claim that he had a tiny profit margin. 

[madbean]

BINGO!  It's his deal -- he can run the show however he deems fit.  Why does that seem to offend so many?  Don't want to deal with it?  Don't buy the pedal -- period.  He's doing it the way he wants -- why do some feel the need to trash that?  And I don't necessarily see much whining in what he says -- he's saying what he feels . . . often in a classier manor than many of his detractors.  It's just seems like kind of a torch and pitchfork crowd scene sometimes . . . maybe people just get bored and edgy during the winter and need somebody or something to pick on, I don't know.

I completely agree....no one in entitled to a Klon or KTR and he can do things however he wants. But, there's nothing wrong with people making observations on his practices and critiquing them in the context of the pedal industry. People do this in all industries. Not that it should get personal, because it should not. I definitely got a little incensed after reading the article but yeah, klon derangement syndrome. It's a thing.

[culturejam]

He's doing it the way he wants -- why do some feel the need to trash that?

Nobody would be able to trash his business practices if he didn't make them public. He's posted many many times on TGP about how his business operates, and obviously he's not shy about doing interviews.

If you make your private situation public, you can expect that people will comment on it. In fact, that's the whole point of going public: to stir up commentary and create buzz.

For example, why mention the card table at all? Is it really relevent? Of course not. It's a detail thrown in to lend more credence to the small business / regular guy angle of the marketing. He obviously wants us to talk about that, or else he wouldn't have mentioned it in the very public interview.

And his plan worked out masterfully.* We're all passionately debating about his business and his product, which gives a level of exposure you can't buy for a million bucks. Well played, Finnegan. Well played.

* Almost masterfully, I should say. It would be masterful if had any Klons to sell...unless he has a warehouse full and is ready to launch. That would be awesome.

[madbean]

Looks like the TGP is already locked. This whole thing pretty much followed the playbook.

[culturejam]

Brian, when are the Card Table boards shipping?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

That GIF would have been priceless if you could have photoshopped Bill's face over the Genius pic!