Pedal Pimpery

[juansolo]

I'm not sure I should stick this in build reports as it'd be cheeky. Also as I'm mainly servicing the UK/EU, it's probably irrelevant here also.

But I thought I'd put it up regardless to show some of the stuff Cleggy and I have been up to (along with Jason as PCB wrangler), all in an effort to get the pedal fund back into the black since EHX effectively killed the Klone market.

So we've come up with a few standard pedals that we're offering for sale... Again, very low key and certainly not commercial, but needs must.



First thing you'll notice is no bewbs! We've gone all minimalist on the designs, because quite simply, I ain't arty. Also the rubber mixer knobs have been replaced with much more expensive metal ones. So people can feel the quality Yeah baby!

Gut shots and explanations of the pedals in this link (and the link that follows it if you click on the pedals): http://juansolo.co.uk/stompage/stock.html

[pryde]

Hey those are nice but bewbs are always best no matter what 

Good price as well on these. I recently have been pushing a "stock" pedal but tough market for sure with not much sales yet. Possibly I'm overpriced or it just sucks, not sure 


 

[juansolo]

I genuinely have no idea whether I'll sell any or not. Will be interesting to see what happens...

As for price, without going full on commercial with the flowery advertising that requires and aggressively pimping them, that's as much as I'll get. As it stands, it hasn't exactly cost me a great deal to get to this point. All the bits to make them I wanted anyhow. The new opto switch more geared to how I build, the new muff boards, they're all things I'll use. Likewise the booster is something Cleggy actually did about 12 months ago that we'd forgotten about and the Jumbo Tonebender was a Grind job anyhow.

[m-Kresol]

They sure look great and anyone who knows a little about building/electronics will appreciate your wiring!
Did you advertise them anywhere, where people outside our community will see them? Wish you all the best with your endeavour.

[juansolo]

Stuck 'em on Facebook and will stick them on a local forum shortly when I figure out the best method of pimpage there.

[blearyeyes]

Regardless of what it is, I like Big Omar.

[pickdropper]

I bet you'll sell some, especially if the word gets out.  That seems to be key with these.

They look to be built very well (no surprise) and are priced well.  I bet you'll shift a few.

I've thought about doing some 1590a runs in a similar manner, but the lack of time has prevented it.  One of these years.

[playpunk]

Look awesome! I like the stripped down look


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[matmosphere]

They look great. Hope you guys get some interest.

What's the tsm680?

[HamSandwich]

Lovely.

WHERE can I get that big knob on the big omar?

[lincolnic]

Lovely.

WHERE can I get that big knob on the big omar?

My thoughts exactly, but I'd like to know where the small knobs came from as well. I'm willing to bet they're related!

[SmoothAction]

I also don't like rubbers or bewbs, I'm a booty enthusiast.

Solid work.

[juansolo]

I bet you'll sell some, especially if the word gets out.  That seems to be key with these.

They look to be built very well (no surprise) and are priced well.  I bet you'll shift a few.

I've thought about doing some 1590a runs in a similar manner, but the lack of time has prevented it.  One of these years.

You should absolutely make it so. Indeed I could put you in touch with a guy who is a total 1590a whore (in the nicest way) who'd buy anything you'd build him

[juansolo]

Lovely.

WHERE can I get that big knob on the big omar?

My thoughts exactly, but I'd like to know where the small knobs came from as well. I'm willing to bet they're related!

I strongly suggest not searching for big knob on the big omar Certainly not at work anyhow.

But yes, they're from the same range from CPC in the UK. Made by Cliff Electronic Components

Big Omar: http://cpc.farnell.com/cliff-electronic-components/fc7234/knob-kmr35-blk-md-6mm-spl-18t/dp/SW05314
Standard: http://cpc.farnell.com/cliff-electronic-components/fc7230/knob-kmr15-blk-md-6mm-spl-18t/dp/SW05311

They look great. Hope you guys get some interest.

What's the tsm680?

Tis a different take on a muff. Lotsa mids, more fuzzy distortion than fuzz, really quite aggressive. It's been kicking around for a while now, the best one to build is probably the v2 on Grind's UltraStoner PCB if you want options with it. It's in the docs.

We've simplified both the US and the TSM here because I wanted to concentrate on what I thought they did best. So the US uses 6 async Ge clippers and has the filter cap in place on the 2nd stage clippers, giving it that soft fizzy/sludgy thing. The TSM doesn't have the extra filter and uses a pair of LEDS, so it's hard and loud.

Big Omar, for those interested, is a charge pumped FET booster. But it's based on the Baby BoobTube, which in itself was based on the first stage of a VOX AC15 amp. Unlike SHO's and the like, it runs flat out all the time and the knob just controls the volume at the end. It's amazingly close to the valve effect sonically and can be used as a pseudo dirt channel on a single channel amp (how I've always used my Baby Boobtube), after a fuzz to give it some more oomph, or as a really nice sounding dirty booster.

As alluded to before, Big Omar is a rather infamous British porn star with a large knob... As FET boosters tend to be a play on that sort of thing (the Super Hard On springs straight to mind), and we put a large knob on ours, ours is Big Omar

[LaceSensor]

Really nice work John et al

£75 for a custom Muff is pennies really.
I barely build anything for sale these days but when I was more actively engaged I could clear a couple G a year which was a nice holiday
So as a hobby, its worth doing I suppose. The after support is something people dont consider, either in their costings, or in their actual availability, particularly with complex builds.

Not to be a cynic, but if you want to do this for a living, or at least partial, the PCB design and sale side of things seems to be much more accessible once you get over the burden of actually learning the CAD and designing something people want to build.

The other side of the coin I guess is, in my opinion, to just make "one" design, and go from there. The intelligent thing Juan has done here is base almost all of the line on one board - same drill holes, etc. makes production easier. My friend who runs Stone Deaf seems to be having some good success now. While I think his marketing and ad copy (particularly proof reading) is at times atrocious, he seems to have done it right by starting with one obsolete design, modernising it, with a captive market, and using that to expand. I am referring to the PDF-1 (Maestro Parametric Filter "clone") which he has started the business with. Now has a line of 4 amps, cabs, and about 8 pedals, with a lot of good press at NAMM this year. Its taken...8 years...

Anyway, rambling now
TL;DR - get a real job