Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: Bainzy on March 21, 2006, 11:02:18 PM
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What do you guys think of this :?:
Some guy has asked me to build him a boutique TS-808 clone, and he's paying me a bit of cash on top of the parts cost for labour/time etc. I'm thinking this might be a good way to save up for the parts to enable me to build an AMS Neve 1272 preamp, as I'd be doing something I'm pretty good at and something that I enjoy too. The amp mods probably wouldn't earn me that much and they would take quite a lot of time and shipping costs that would inevitably have to be passed on to the customer. I could do effects pedal mods, but then I'd have to buy lots of pedals or borrow them just to figure some out - the only great mod I've got at the moment is an MT-2 Metalzone mod, not really enough to start a business on.
If it were you, would any of you guys consider ordering a pedal to be built by me? The wiring would be first rate inside, I'm not sure about what paint jobs I'd do but there'd be a wide range of true bypass effects that clone loads of great sounding pedals or improve them. The cost would be cheaper than getting a premade boutique pedal from indyguitarist/BYOC/keeley etc, about £50 for most pedals and a bit more if there were quite a few more parts than usual.
Looking at the PCB's available from Tonepad, here's the kindof stuff I'd be able to do:
Ampeg Scrambler
AMZ Mosfet Booster
AMZ Overdrive Pro
Big Muff Pi
Blue Clipper
Blues Breaker
Boss CE-2
Boss DS-1
Brian May's treble booster
DOD 250 Distortion
DOD 280 Compressor
Easy Face
Electric Mistress
Flanger 301
FSH1
Fuzz Face
Green Ringer
LPB1
MXR Blue Box
MXR Distortion Plus
MXR DynaComp
MXR Envelope Filter
MXR MicroAmp
MXR Noise Gate
MXR Phase 45
MXR Phase 90
NeoCtavia
Offboard wiring
Orange Squeezer
Pulsar
Purple Peaker
Range Master
Rat
Real McTube
Rebote 2 Delay
Rebote 2.5 Delay
Rebote Delay
Red Ranger
Ross Compressor
Ross Phaser
Sans Amp GT-2
Small Clone Chorus
Small Stone Phaser
StereoMicroamp
Tone Bender MKII
Tremulus Lune
Tube Screamer
There's quite a few guitarists around school, and the guy who I'm making the pedal for is friends with a lot of them. Hopefully if he likes the pedal he'll spread the word around and I could get a bit of business going.
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If you were ever to make a true bypass wah with an adjustable volume boost I'd buy it for sure.
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Wah pedals would be pretty hard to make, due to the complex rocker mechanism and large chassis. If you've got a wah though, it wouldn't be hard to mod it so it has those features - I can show you how if you like.
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I'd definetly be interested in your pedals :).
Just out of curiosity, could you build valve overdrive pedals?
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Probably - it'd be a lot harder though. I'm not thinking about opening a full scale business lol, I'm just trying to formulate some ways of doing a bit of work I enjoy to save up for this Neve preamp. I kindof envisaged the main bulk of my work would be for people at school, but if you guys would be actually wanting some that'd be great too - I'd have to deal with that in the Seconds Out section though if I did go down that route. I'm just brainstorming right now and trying to see if this is really a good idea - I've yet to think of many downsides to it, hopefully a discussion on it will highlight all the relevant aspects of it.
For example, which do you think is a better idea:
1. Building pedals, investing in them really with my own money, and then trying to sell them, or:
2. Making them to order, and starting work once money is received.
Option 1 would cut out lead times and let people try/hear the pedals, but option 2 would reduce the chance of me being stuck with pedals nobody wanted and wouldn't necessitate me spending money that I don't have yet.
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i would buy trillions of pedals... after hearing your hazard phase...
DO IT!!!!!!!
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:lol:
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first few would be:
fuzz of some kind
chorus of some kind
MXR bluebox :twisted:
then who knows
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oh yer! forgot to add phaser in there somewhere as well,
oh and a noise gate
and a tube screamer would be cool...
what the hell ill just take one of each
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i'd buy your pedals fo'sho' man. sounds <<AWESOME!>>
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oh yer! forgot to add phaser in there somewhere as well,
oh and a noise gate
and a tube screamer would be cool...
what the hell ill just take one of each
rotflmao :lol:
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Yep, I'd want a distortion, a Tube Screamer, a delay, a chorus, a phaser, a flanger at least. I think you'd get a lot of business with the prices you're quoting.
Personally I'd do option 2 first and see how it goes. If you get a lot of demand/sales, then make a load.
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:D i count 48.... 48x50=£2400
could i get a discount on that for buying in bulk? maybe pay in installments?
(ok just so you dont get the wrong idea im still actually joking)
EDIT: yer go with option 2, then 'option-1-ify' your most popular ones.
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:lol: I'd need around £400 for the Neve so I'd probably have to sell at least 20 pedals. Whether I could sell that many locally in 1-2 months, I'm not sure - I'd have to be pretty persuasive!
crispsandwich - I think it's probably best that way too - it's the safest option I think. Since I'm doing this as I'm short of cash, having unsold stock would be really really bad.
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unsold stock wouldnt necessarily be bad- ebay my friend, ebay.
also, i reckon 20 pedals in 1-2 months from local people and forum interest would be pretty doable... although, right now, i have no cash lol....
would you make them in future after you get your neve?
P.S what the hell is a neve
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the only problem here is that you'd be making replicas of existing pedals. putting one together for yourself or a few mates is hardly going to draw much attention, but selling them on the internet as exact replicas throws up all kinds of legal problems. what i think you should do is pick a small number of pedals, probably the ones you have the best understanding of, and using what you know as a basis redesign the circuit. then you could say for example "imagine the creamy gain boost of a tubescreamer combined with the brutal fuzz of a big muff! well her it is! the muffscreamer!!!"
making exact replicas just puts you in an awkward position if anyone takes offence. what if i started making Warpigs? i imagine Tim and the boys would be round like ligtning to show me just what a muffscreamer should sound like!
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P.S what the hell is a neve
LMAO +1!!!!
nawww 20 would be easy... yu just need a snappy name. like bare knuckle effects pedals
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I'm not a big effects user, but I'd be interested in a delay and a chorus at some stage, for sure. I could do my own paint job--in fact, that'd be fun for me to design.
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I agree with Crispsandwich and also echo the points made by Blue. I'd keep it as a kind of cottage industry. The list is attractive and I am sure you will get enough orders to achieve what you are trying for and hopefyully you will get enough orders to enable you to work on other projects.You have a very bright future I reckon.
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half agree with blue half dont- as long as he doesnt advertise them as replicas, so if he just comes up with his own name, and advertises them like the BYOC pedals- just calls them clones, then he should be alright. especially if its really small scale.
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I'd be willing to buy 1 or 2 :)
I'd want a Tremolo and (possibly) a Phaser :)
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Dude, if you can mod my Wah and build me a custom Tubescreamer to my exact spec. And possibly a phaser, I'd be all over it.
Andy!
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Andy - I could easily do that.
I'd definately want to do it more as work for a few mates as opposed to a small business selling exact replicas. Most of it would be just getting the boards (or making my own if they're not available to buy) and the parts, and putting them together for people that aren't technically minded or don't have the time. Whether I'd do it after I got the Neve, I'm not sure - I'm hoping the album I make with the Neve will be a good source of income instead. I'm also making a 5-6 track demo CD that I know quite a lot of people would buy anyway, the proceeds of which are all going to my Neve savings.
This is a Neve 1272:
(http://www.seventhcirclestudios.com/SCA/images/N72_Small02.jpg)
I need to get the kit for this with the correct transformers, plus a power supply and then I'll be rackmounting it. It's a microphone preamp used in the consoles of top studios, and features on many classic recordings. I need it to get a more 'professional' sound to my recordings, as it will really help my albums seem more credible when I start distributing them.
I'm not sure whether I'd 1) assemble and polish the steel chassis' and apply decals, 2) paint them with hammered paints (I don't know if I could use normal car spray paint, they're not as durable from what I've experienced) and decals, or 3) leave them for people do paint and have fun with their own design. It'd be a 2 minute job unassembling and reassembling the pedals to remove the parts from the box, and you wouldn't need to unsolder and resolder anything.
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I've been toying around with ideas for some decals to put on the pedals
to make them a bit more interesting, how about something like this, and calling them 'Nuke Pedals' or something...:
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I like Zvex's designs, pictures of cats and beetles...it's not what you'd expect. The nuke sign is OK, but it seems a bit cliched...not so individual, if you get what I mean (no offence meant)
Why don't you silkscreen black and white photos of dead celebrities on to them? I think that would be cool, 'Dead Celebrity Pedals'. I'm serious...
As an aside, a friend of my bassplayer has apparently started making pedals too. He tweaked an Ampeg Scrambler so that the octave up feature descends after a preset amount of time. It certainly sounds interesting...
I think the problem with those kind of off-the-wall FX is that they are so individual that you can't use them too much. Invariably they are often the more expensive pedals, so it's hard to justify spending so much on a pedal with limited use. For instance, I love the sound you can get from a Zvex Seek Wah - it sounds incredible. But I couldn't use it repeatedly, maybe only once a gig or something, just because the sound is so distinctive. So I'll probably just end up getting another standard wah instead, because the sound of a wah is so typical within rock music that it's ok to use it multiple times during a gig; the Seek Wah is so original in sound that you couldn't get away with it.
The pedals I want to see are pedals that have a great and useful main use, but with the ability to do something wierd and out of the ordinary at the flick of a switch. :)
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I would say build to order. It's less risk for you and it will give your pedals an exclusive vibe.
Can you tell me more about your Metal Zone mod?
And question 2: I have a Danelectro Rock-a-Bey. It's a dual pedal with an echo and an overdrive. The echo is great but the overdrive isn't. It's supposed to sound like a hot tweed and is very similar to the overdrive on my Hot Rod Deluxe amp. Could you modify the overdrive in the Dano pedal? Maybe with an original TI chip that was in the old TS-808.
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I like Zvex's designs, pictures of cats and beetles...it's not what you'd expect. The nuke sign is OK, but it seems a bit cliched...not so individual, if you get what I mean (no offence meant)
Why don't you silkscreen black and white photos of dead celebrities on to them? I think that would be cool, 'Dead Celebrity Pedals'. I'm serious...
As an aside, a friend of my bassplayer has apparently started making pedals too. He tweaked an Ampeg Scrambler so that the octave up feature descends after a preset amount of time. It certainly sounds interesting...
I think the problem with those kind of off-the-wall FX is that they are so individual that you can't use them too much. Invariably they are often the more expensive pedals, so it's hard to justify spending so much on a pedal with limited use. For instance, I love the sound you can get from a Zvex Seek Wah - it sounds incredible. But I couldn't use it repeatedly, maybe only once a gig or something, just because the sound is so distinctive. So I'll probably just end up getting another standard wah instead, because the sound of a wah is so typical within rock music that it's ok to use it multiple times during a gig; the Seek Wah is so original in sound that you couldn't get away with it.
The pedals I want to see are pedals that have a great and useful main use, but with the ability to do something wierd and out of the ordinary at the flick of a switch. :)
I love the Dead Celebrity idea. Kicks ass!
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Yeah I agree it is a great idea but the actual image of the celeb may be copyrighted- I am serious.
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Yeah I agree it is a great idea but the actual image of the celeb may be copyrighted- I am serious.
Yeah, I thought that too...I still think it would be cool to have a pedal called The Hepburn, The Jimmy D, whatever...
If you were an organized outfit - and I'm speaking hypothetically cos this would be long winded - you could hire lookalikes and take photos of them, and name the pedals obliquely a la Bareknuckle...for instance, 'The Slowhand' - it's obvious who the pickup references but it's not a copyrighted name so it's useable.
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Yeah I agree it is a great idea but the actual image of the celeb may be copyrighted- I am serious.
Yeah, I thought that too...I still think it would be cool to have a pedal called The Hepburn, The Jimmy D, whatever...
If you were an organized outfit - and I'm speaking hypothetically cos this would be long winded - you could hire lookalikes and take photos of them, and name the pedals obliquely a la Bareknuckle...for instance, 'The Slowhand' - it's obvious who the pickup references but it's not a copyrighted name so it's useable.
Yeah thats also a good idea.
For a british sounding overdrive "Hatchett Harry" would kick ass :D Thats probably copyrighted though as its on lock stock.
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I would say build to order. It's less risk for you and it will give your pedals an exclusive vibe.
Can you tell me more about your Metal Zone mod?
And question 2: I have a Danelectro Rock-a-Bey. It's a dual pedal with an echo and an overdrive. The echo is great but the overdrive isn't. It's supposed to sound like a hot tweed and is very similar to the overdrive on my Hot Rod Deluxe amp. Could you modify the overdrive in the Dano pedal? Maybe with an original TI chip that was in the old TS-808.
The Metalzone mod doesn't use clipping diodes, instead it uses cascaded gain stages so it sounds a bit more like a high gain amp (think Boogie). It also removes some of the nasally mids, and I could install a new ultra-bright (any colour) LED too.
I might be able to mod your pedal's overdrive into a TS-808 (or similar), but I'd need to see a schematic first before I gave you the go ahead. I'd like to keep actual business out of this thread though, as it's not in good spirit to do any sort of advertising (direct or inadvertent) outside of the Seconds Out board, this thread is just to see what you guys think, so PM me if you're serious in going about getting mods done.
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Thanks for the info.
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:D Hi Bainzy i have a question....
Can you make a pedal / Box / Rackmount that can be plugged directly into a desk recording unit. I want a Valve unit like a PodXt / Tonelab type unit but with 1 great natural overdrive sound that`ll go right up to high gain type levels, Mesa Boogie type sound.
:D 8)
Not quite sure what the Neve unit actually does ?
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You'd be best off getting a JMP-1 Marshall preamp for something like that - it's got all the features you described and would sound much better than anything I'd be able to come up with.
A Neve preamp is the section in a Neve studio recording console that the mics are plugged into, and amplifies and colours the sound before it goes to tape. Neve is the name of the company (AMS Neve). What I'm building is one in rackmount form, that I can use in front of my Boss BR1200CD to get a more studio-like sound for recordings.
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:D Thanx for the quick reply !!
:D 8)
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i'd buy one of those phasers if i wasnt so skint.
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Yeah I agree it is a great idea but the actual image of the celeb may be copyrighted- I am serious.
Yeah, I thought that too...I still think it would be cool to have a pedal called The Hepburn, The Jimmy D, whatever...
If you were an organized outfit - and I'm speaking hypothetically cos this would be long winded - you could hire lookalikes and take photos of them, and name the pedals obliquely a la Bareknuckle...for instance, 'The Slowhand' - it's obvious who the pickup references but it's not a copyrighted name so it's useable.
What about dead serial killers lol? I'll have Ted Bundy Wah!