Small Bear...Seriously seriously NOT impressed

[gtr2]

I've placed orders from EVERYONE of the major suppliers.  Everyone has a mistake once in a while, some more than others.  Small bear is the pioneer of pedal building supplies and I'll continue to support him where possible.  Regardless of where you buy you should double check values anyways.  I'll check at least one resistor or cap in every pack I get from anyone.

Josh

[aziltz]

I prefer small bear actually.  its mostly because I order in larger quantities, usually 10 or 25.  for my largest orders, turn around time is about a week and I'm talking $250.

For boxes I go with PPP.  Unfortunately, to have things drilled and powder coated takes about a month, but they do good work and have excellent quality control now.

I haven't ordered from Mammoth in a while, but may go back now that they have BYOC drill patterns.

i guess I should have mentioned the number 1 reason I go to small bear is that, whenever I email them, I get a direct answer withing 24 hours, from Steve himself.  I've asked them about new parts before and they've added them, even thrown in a price break at my request.  This in my opinion, overshadows all the little things that might pop up.

[pickdropper]

I've ordered from all the major contenders as well (although have more years of history with Mouser) and have had particularly good experiences with Small Bear, Mouser and Pedal Parts Plus.  As I mentioned in another post, my experience with Mammoth was mixed, but I may give them another shot for things other than enclosures.

I agree that it would be nice if small bear labelled the bags, but more for checking the order in quickly than anything.  When it comes to building circuits, I always check every component before I solder.  It takes more time to build, but it saves a lot of headaches troubleshooting.

[JakeFuzz]

My experiences with SB have been very good. Some of their stuff is a little pricey (3pdt, SM caps...) but there isn't a single store that carries as much general and obscure pedal specific parts as Steve. I agree their shipping takes longer than most and they don't label stuff. They have only made a mistake on one of my orders and it was resolved very quickly. I have contacted them numerous times and they always respond within a day. I had a question and Steve actually called me to explain why something was the way it was, he is a super cool, genuine dude. You can tell the guy lives for his business and he loves pedals which is good to know. He also has the best variety and good prices on gain matched germanium transistors, I've bought many sets from him and never been dissatisfied. I try and get the majority of my parts from Tayda and my enclosures from PPP but I always end up at SB for something.

[DutchMF]

Analogy time:  You go to Burger King and order your cheeseburger with extra cheese, no pickles, extra mustard, easy mayo, half the lettuce, and extra tomatoes, and the top bun toasted, one or more of those changes is not gonna happen.  If you order 30 cokes, 25 cheeseburgers with everything, and 40 large fries, you are probably going to get exactly what you ordered.

I have to go with Timbo on this: If you're asking for trouble, you are gonna get trouble! Don't get me wrong, I can't look in anyone's pockets or time-schedules but for most of us, this is just a hobby, right? If I can't solder this weekend, I'll do it the next one! Sure, there will be people on this forum that build pedals for a living, but what's that gonna be, 2% maybe? Don't want to offend anyone, but I imagine I could spend my time waiting for an order working, or maybe writing a new song for my band (or finishing the Mouser ordering info I'm working on for this community.....  )

Should start a new thread: What do U do for a living and what kinda music do U play with your band? Me, I'm a designer/engineer in HVAC, and I play really raunchy bar oriented R'nR, all originals.... I will start that new thread!

Paul

[Jargo]

copy mine from here...I've been an audio engineer for 17 years (Live and Studio) and currently work in Post Production full time at a major TV network. I still mix/produce and master, but now with the FT gig I can take it easy more and pick and choose which gigs (and artists) I'd like to work with. I don't play in any bands but do mess around on the guitars and other instruments if I'm co-producing or playing on something.

My latest production is my son Paolo, who is at this point 1 year old, so I don't get too much time (except late nights) to build and play. Most of the times it's mostly building.

I like Smallbear - but there is a learning curve!

[madbean]

I don't have much to add, except that SB, while not perfect, has come a long way in both its offerings, efficiency and over all customer service. Steve really listens to feedback and has made a lot of effort over the years to get those orders out fast and complete. It's pretty tough when you are building project to project and having to order parts to complete them. For me, it doesn't matter so much how long it takes to get here because I generally order stuff that I know I will use down the road, but don't necessarily need right away. I really like SB and I like to support it with my money, too. Steve gets a lot of credit in my book for making DIY pedal building so popular.

Anyway, although I do mention SB a lot in the project docs, it's not through any formal affiliation. Rather, it is very convenient and usually well stocked. Steve is familiar with a good number of the BOMs for projects here, so if you have specific questions about parts for one of the MBP projects, he may have an answer. At least, that is something you aren't going to get anywhere else

[pryde]

I am a SB fan as well. I am fairly new to building and have only ordered from Steve (5 or 6 times now) and my orders have been perfect. He has returned e-mails very fast and has been VERY helpful with all my questions. I plan to do business with SB for all my future builds if he has the stock. I do it for fun and don't care about a few extra bucks for this kind of service.

It kinda sucks having to sort resistors but there are websites that make it very easy and fast to do.
Here is the one that I use:
http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/resistorcalculator.php

[sam_c]

I am in the uk so I wont be ordering from smallbear anytime soon.

But the parts I get from CPC/farnell (similar to mouser) are never labelled on their packaging.  You can cross reference the codes from the order sheets and label them up that way but I think it takes me just as long to actually get out the DMM and measure the parts and label them correctly.  

I have had a few bags of resistors that were incorrect and also some box caps that had larger dimensions than the ones I ordered.  I never bother to get them exchanged, just keep them and order some more parts next time.

I have ordered quite a few parts from Dr Tweek recently. The service is top notch there.

[TNblueshawk]

After reading all these, I too have ordered from SB and will continue to do so. I had a few orders wrong but they corrected it. The shipping time is the one thing that bugs me though.

But, my opinion is that they should label their stuff. It is just good business sense to do so. If they can't take the time to label due to cost, then I would have a minimum order for resistors. With caps, especially for a noob, we all know how hard those things are to read when you are not sure what all the numbers mean. Noobs are people too 

Honestly, if Steve could speed up that shipping part, it would go a long way I think. Just my opinion though...that and a quarter will get you a 5088 I guess 

[junkemail86]

I've also had some slow orders from SmallBear, I usually go elsewhere (Mammoth, etc.) when I'm in a hurry for the faster turnaround time.  I am fine with SB's prices being a bit higher because I understand that it is a specialty supplier with some odd and useful pedal parts.  My main complaint is the 3PDTs.  I have heard that Small Bear doesn't want to deal with people just buying switches or whatever, but $8.50/3pdt seems insane to me.  Can't he just bulk buy from a place that sells them for ~$3 each, sell them for $5 and still make a good profit?  That way you wouldn't need to always order from a second supplier if you are starting out and working on 1 project.

[madbean]

My guess on his 3PDTs is that as probably one of the first suppliers to offer them in quantity some ten years ago, he probably paid a much higher price to stock them than other suppliers are paying now. But, that's just speculation. I totally agree $8.50 is way out of line with what competitors offer. I actually got my current supply of 3PDTs through a group buy over at BYOC last year.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

Nah, your experience is legitimate. I think you should write a (polite) email and share your experience. Businesses shod always appreciate feedback from their customers. I believe Smallbear is one like that.

Jacob

Also, sorry guys for the novel. Didn't intend that one to be so huge. Just kept continuing my thought.

I agree, you should at least state this to them nicely like Jacob said. Maybe they'll take your suggestions into consideration.

[sockeye]

I for one have placed many orders through Small Bear and Steve has always done me right. I am a very happy repeat customer. I do get most enclosures and 3PDTs from PPP, but when I need a few of these transistors, a couple of those caps, and a few of those photocells, I go straight to Small Bear.

[r4ndy]

Futurelec, Smallbear, Mouser and Ebay here - oh, can't forget the forums 

Smallbear has been great for me as a hobbyist. When I ventured off to Mouser, like other I ended up with some caps that won't fit in a pedal enlcosure, much less the board I bought them for 

SB is definitely not the speediest or the lowest cost, but the selection is great and geared for pedal builders, so the ordering takes much less time.

OP - do yourself a favor and buy a resistor pack on ebay if you plan on building more pedals. I got 20-30 values in good supply labeled and ready to use. I did the same with other part groups from futurelec. The futurelec caps weren't marked, but it is easy to cross-reference. A few plano boxes and some masking tape and you can get pretty organized in an afternoon.