I have great boxes, when do you know when to start selling

[mojotron]

It wont pay the mortgage just yet though.

Marty - nice www site - I may need your ears later...
I switched companies about a year ago and fortunately, now, I have a decent day job that gives me a lot of time to venture on to stuff like this. So hopefully, I can have enough flexibility to keep both jobs going through this.

[mojotron]

I have a couple skateboard shops.
Good marketing of your boxes is about 75% of the sell.... "ass ripping fuzz from hell"... backordered by 6 weeks and/or opening up an real operation.

Hope that helps.

I got a laugh out of that - but it's very true... Actually all of this does help, a lot, I have to stop thinking so much in terms of these being an engineering exercise and think of things in terms of what I would have been into when I was say.. 18. Actually, back then I had one of those original RATs - sounded like crap for the fusion stuff I was into at the time - I hate to admit it but but all my friends liked it so I used it all the time....  :oops:

[mojotron]

Pride has always been a part of being a guitarist(again, sadly).

True! Fortunately, along the way I have had the opportunity to grow out of that - I think....

However, YOU also want others o ask your customers about your pedals. If I saw the ZVEX SeekTrem at a show, I'd inquire about it.  ... finding a nice person who owns a decent-sized autobody shop...

Good idea - actually, my brother is an abstract artist - needs exposure - I may get him to do some stuff for me... but there are a lot of body shops that might really get into this....

Good luck (and I actually mean it)!

Thanks, I think I waited until now to start getting serious becasue there is really a community now - what a huge asset!!

[ryanscissorhands]

Wow, you actually read the entire post. . . sometimes I get the feeling that some of my longer ran--err, posts are skipped over due to time constraints.

[bwanasonic]

I would put a high priorty on building a reliable product. I would want to have  a good number of units *in the field* with different players and different setups before I started to pedal my pedals.  A cool paint job and name might get you in the door, but a high *field failure* rate will sink you pretty fast (and will make third party retailers/distributers unwilling to carry your product).

Kerry M

[ErikMiller]

Welcome to the addiction.

The key ingredients for success are going to be different for everyone, as is the definition of the word "success."

One of the big rules for Euthymia pedals is that they have to excite me, both sonically and visually. I've had to set aside more than one design because I realized it just wasn't special enough yet. They have to turn me on, and even after building all the Crucible Fuzzes I have, every time I plug in the guitar to do the final testing, I always wind up playing longer than I thought I was going to because the thing inspires that in me.

And I am of the belief that the tools of the musician's trade should be visually inspiring as well as sonically. Of course, "inspiring" is a subjective term, and there is room for the baked enameled, silkscreened pedals I produce AND the hand Sharpied pedals some other people produce, just like some people think it's coolest to play a flametop Les Paul, when the next person would much rather have a no-name part-o-caster with vintage punk rock stickers all over it. They are both inspiring, but in different ways. Ask yourself who you are trying to reach.

The visuals are part of what people buy, despite what some may claim. An engineer friend who does some consulting for me always squawks lightly when I tell him that I sell the pedals partially by describing their insides. He thinks it should all be about how it sounds, that how I did it should be of nobody's concern but mine. But we all want to know how many horsepower our car has, how many pixels our monitor is capable of displaying, whether we actually use that information or not. Some people will want the pedal that has a germanium transistor (or RC4558) in it for that reason primarily, and there's nothing wrong with that. If it makes them happy, they are getting their money's worth. So far, each of my products has a model designation that in some way describes what's under the hood. Because it's fun to know that.

I find it easiest to figure out what I would want to buy and build that. I'm still working on stepping beyond that paradigm. To this end, I give musician friends, repair clients, whomever, demo units and prototypes to try.

Based on what you're telling us, I think you'd find a market for your pedals. Anything with half a dozen knobs that actually do something to the tone is going to have appeal. Mine are not like that. My first two models had two knobs, the third has three, and the next one is probably going to have one. That's because to me, stompbox=simplicity. If I want to fiddle, I turn to my rackmount stuff. Also, there are already other builders who probably do the zillion knob stompbox thing better than I could.

Financially, I'll second what has been said about having another revenue stream (or two) for a couple years while you establish your brand. My other stream is amp repair, which is quite complementary. Uses a lot of the same tools and industry contacts.

Good luck!

[Paul Marossy]

I'll bet you a nickel that Zvex wouldn't have gotten a second glance from the average joe when he started out if he didn't have awesome looking boxes.

Maybe. Until someone heard the Fuzz Factory.  :wink: