Hmm.... New Business Idea...

[Bainzy]

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.

[_tom_]

If you were ever to make a true bypass wah with an adjustable volume boost I'd buy it for sure.

[Bainzy]

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.

[crispsandwich]

I'd definetly be interested in your pedals :).

Just out of curiosity, could you build valve overdrive pedals?

[Bainzy]

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.

[sambo]

i would buy trillions of pedals... after hearing your hazard phase...

DO IT!!!!!!!

[Bainzy]

:lol:

[sambo]

first few would be:

fuzz of some kind
chorus of some kind
MXR bluebox  :twisted:

then who knows

[sambo]

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

[indysmith]

i'd buy your pedals fo'sho' man. sounds <<AWESOME!>>

[Bainzy]

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:

[crispsandwich]

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.

[sambo]

: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.

[Bainzy]

: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.

[sambo]

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