A rose by any other name.....

[ddj3891]

I am curious as to the etiquette of naming pedals. It seems that part of the fun of building is coming up with a fun name for it, but something seems wrong about building a pedal from someone else's design and not using the name they chose for it. Is it wrong for me to build, say a Hiptser by Madbean, and name it (insert catchy fuzz pedal name here)?
Thanks,
Curious Noob.

[m-Kresol]

That's totally ok. You don't need to put a name on it. not even labels of any kind. This is totally your choice.

If you want to sell it though, it's another thing, but those are DIY projects anyway and not made for commercial use. But if you build it now, put a name of your choice on it and replace the pedal with another and sell this one, that's ok too as it wasn't like a batch of pedals built for sale. that's basically this thread: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=4171.0

[matmosphere]

I don't think it's wrong. A lot of these projects are based on exuding pedals already. Like the Slow Loris is a clone of a Rat, or the Hipster is based on a Fuzz Face. I think part of the fun of building these is giving them a fun name. It seems less common with designs that are completely original but not all the time. I haven't seen many Arcadiator builds that aren't called an Arcadiator but it's already suck a cool name wht would you change it.

Like it says above, though selling is a totally different world than just making something for personal use. There is some etiquette that should be observed when selling stuff. There are a few good threads about that topic already.

[selfdestroyer]

Over the years I have seen some of the "boutique builders" give out a schematic but ask that you do not name your pedal the same as the retail one. And I think its a good reason why.. If I took that schematic and made a really crappy build and stuck their name one it, other people might assume that the build they are looking at is from the boutique builder and not some hack like myself. It could put a bad taste in someones outs or prejudgment on a retail pedal.

I like giving my clone pedal a little homage to the original by using a font that is close to the original or a funny play on words, but it would never be mistaken for an original.

People love a good wacky name.. Be original, have fun with it.

Cody

[nocentelli]

Over the years I have seen some of the "boutique builders" give out a schematic but ask that you do not name your pedal the same as the retail one. And I think its a good reason why.. If I took that schematic and made a really crappy build and stuck their name one it, other people might assume that the build they are looking at is from the boutique builder and not some hack like myself. It could put a bad taste in someones outs or prejudgment on a retail pedal...

Or if someone makes and sells a clone that is slighty wrong and doesn't sound like the OG: I imagine there might be a few non-DIY-savvy people who throw a few quid at a cheap "clone" (there seem to be hundreds of them on EBay for not much more than cost plus a couple of beers) so if they loved it they would splash out on a Real One for kudos. In the past, builders have stepped in on a thread to correct a dodgy schematic, presumably only so people would not breadboard the wrong thing and conclude it was crap.

The actual name of a pedal is the only thing a pedal "designer" can actually protect from an intellectual property point of view, so selling a clone with the original name is a problem, but building your own called whatever you like is fine as far as I can see.

[stevie1556]

I think naming a pedal is the hardest part!

Also, from what I've seen by looking and studying schematics, is that most pedals are a 90% clone of another that's already on the market.

My view is, name it whatever you want, but if selling commercially then in the pedal listing mention what it is based on.

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

[mark123]

... from what I've seen by looking and studying schematics, is that most pedals are a 90% clone of another that's already on the market. ...

I was just talking about this.  Are there really any new ideas?  One common emitter transistor circuit is the same as any other with maybe a resistor or capacitor value tweaked. 

I'm not cutting down any builders though, I see the similarities but I can also appreciate when someone takes the time to tweak a tone stack or squeeze a bit of smoothness out of a gain circuit. 

Back on topic: I like the names people come up with, especially the humorous ones.  One fine example: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=21607

[Drew Hallenbeck]

I like the funny ones too so naturally I hit the link above and......
It's one of my builds!
I'm glad some folks found it to be as funny as I did. The guy I built it for absolutely loved it too. (He came up with the idea to reference Tom Selleck's mustache so I won't take all the credit but I did find the graphic and come up with the name)
Coming up with interesting names/graphics is almost as much fun as building the effects in the first place. So yeah, have fun with it!

[Willybomb]

It's a good question.

For me, a lot of my builds are multis so calling it a PlexiGainKlon... isn't probably that bad an idea for the most part, but a simpler, somewhat related, name is easier for reference purposes.  A few times in the past I've referenced the source pcb or design in the artwork for my multis:

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=21840.msg215150#msg215150
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=15890.msg150320#msg150320
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=18020.msg173204#msg173204

Single pedals I *usually* use the PCB/schematic/commercial name and effect type.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=22011.msg216884#msg216884
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=18724.msg180364#msg180364

That to me feels like the right thing to do - I can't go claiming I designed the circuits imo, but these boxes are my implentations on it.