legal help wanted! Got a cease and desist call from Dunlop!

[Speeddemon]

good points, and I'm all for protecting what's yours.

That's why I asked on HC in the first place whether I was harming any trademarks and such.

Maybe I'm nitpicking here; but the original guys that founded MXR in Rochester, NY, made the brand famous by making classy, durable designs.
Now due certain events the name gets sold and Dunlop starts making the same pedals, only inferior in some ways (PCB mounted stuff, different/cheaper components, stuff like that).
One could argue that Dunlop is still riding on the goodwill that the original MXR Innovations once created in 10-15 years.

But I digress....

[Dragonfly]

One could argue that Dunlop is still riding on the goodwill that the original MXR Innovations once created in 10-15 years.

...but Dunlop paid lots of $$$ to purchase that "goodwill"...

..i'm sure youre aware of that....


best of luck with the redesigned boost !

Andy

[Ge_Whiz]

Could we please stir this thread up again? My hamburger is not quite sufficiently flame-grilled... :wink:

[Speeddemon]

I have to go eat in a sec. let's leave it in this calm water.

Anyway, current working title of the boost:
Clean Sanchez.

I like it. I liked Myclone Amp too, but I'm not sure whether that name is passable.

[sash]

do you enjoy your ride to the bottom at my expense?  you did NOTHING NEW.  accept it.  your copy of the MXR pedal is completely unoriginal.  i have no apologies to make... i have affected modern music.  you have irritated everyone.  what does that make you?

Hey look at me, I'm Zachary Vex and I'm a big fancy pedal builder, I've affected modern music with my overpriced pedals and I really love myself...




:evil:

[RDV]

Gee, I kinda like him too, so he's in good company.



RDV

[Mark Hammer]

do you enjoy your ride to the bottom at my expense?  you did NOTHING NEW.  accept it.  your copy of the MXR pedal is completely unoriginal.  i have no apologies to make... i have affected modern music.  you have irritated everyone.  what does that make you?

Hey look at me, I'm Zachary Vex and I'm a big fancy pedal builder, I've affected modern music with my overpriced pedals and I really love myself...

:evil:

Like they say, "It ain't bragging if you can back it up".  Zach CAN.  He's also tired of rehashing the story for those who have only recently dropped in, so I suggest you take a few minutes out of your day, head to a bookstore that carries Dave Hunter's recent guitar effects book, and read the interview with Zach that details quite nicely all the many painful, costly, and dedicated steps that have led up to those "overpriced pedals".

Do NOT confuse the actions of individual artisans with those of conglomerates.

[Karmasound]

do you enjoy your ride to the bottom at my expense?  you did NOTHING NEW.  accept it.  your copy of the MXR pedal is completely unoriginal.  i have no apologies to make... i have affected modern music.  you have irritated everyone.  what does that make you?

Hey look at me, I'm Zachary Vex and I'm a big fancy pedal builder, I've affected modern music with my overpriced pedals and I really love myself...




:evil:

hee hee your registered just to say that. thats so transparent., and cute.

[eh]

clearly, that dunlop ripoff was a ripoff.
however, this case makes me wonder about more vague cases - where do one draw the line between creativity and theft?

since im new here i thaught i´d tell you guys a little ´bout my self. im no guitarist, im more of a synth guy. i mostly make various noise makers. and tiny synthesizers.

however, last summer i made a step sequencer controlled filter / wha and trem pedal. they also had 2/6/8 steps and some other features. i wouldn´t wanna be called a thief. am i? considering i hadn´t seen a zvex seekwha before i made my pedal, where does that put me? am I being creative, or a thief?
I put a lot of effort down making these pedals, and they still aren´t really finished.

I am currently unemployed, and I´d love to make a living of my pedals. My opinion is, using someone elses pcb is theft- is using the same schematics theft? or using a different schematic, for basically the same result? Behringer, are clearly stealing boss / elektroharmonics lines.
Is that because the way they sound, or the way they look?


[btw, i didnt realize electroharmonics was shortened eh. so is my name, no stealing intended ]

[eh]

and btw all europeans doesn´t hate america and all americans aren´t fat and trigger happy. europe is not a country, washington and washington state aren´t the same place. calm down guys, stick to discussing do-it-yourself stomp boxes.

[sash]

do you enjoy your ride to the bottom at my expense?  you did NOTHING NEW.  accept it.  your copy of the MXR pedal is completely unoriginal.  i have no apologies to make... i have affected modern music.  you have irritated everyone.  what does that make you?

Hey look at me, I'm Zachary Vex and I'm a big fancy pedal builder, I've affected modern music with my overpriced pedals and I really love myself...

:evil:

Like they say, "It ain't bragging if you can back it up".  Zach CAN.  He's also tired of rehashing the story for those who have only recently dropped in, so I suggest you take a few minutes out of your day, head to a bookstore that carries Dave Hunter's recent guitar effects book, and read the interview with Zach that details quite nicely all the many painful, costly, and dedicated steps that have led up to those "overpriced pedals".

Could be, but that's no excuse to insult a fellow pedal builder by saying that he achieved nothing and that he's irritating everyone.

[DiyFreaque]

On the topic of new designs, I believe on the 'top level' of things, everything that will be invented has been.  Everything after is really just a permutation of those top level ideas.

Examples of what I consider to be 'top level' are (but not limited to):

Distortion effect (nonlinear waveshaping):
Daddy of the Big Muff, Fuzz Face, name yer poison etc.

Time based effects:
Reverb, echo, chorus, flanging, doublers, dopplers etc.

Filter based effect:
Wah pedals, phase shifters (all pass), auto filters, EQ, etc.

Dynamic based effect:
Compressors, tremelo, boosters, etc.

Don't know what ring modulators, aural exciters and octave boxes would fall under, but that's the drift (and I'm sure I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before).

So, when someone says 'build something new', I think the implication is to come up with a new way of doing the above, a new control scheme of doing the above, and/or a wonderful mix of one or more of the above into something rich and strange.

I was a guitarist, now I'm a synthesist (I was taken in that direction by the thrill of stompboxes, BTW), so I might suggest to anybody who is wanting to go into uncharted stompbox territory, a zillion ideas could be had by looking at what analog modular synthesizers do.

My case in point:  as I understand the Seek Wah, you have eight pots that you adjust for certain a certain depth of wah, and the control cycles through those eight (or how ever many) settings in order to control the wah filter.  Cool idea indeed putting that into a stompbox.

If I am understanding this effect correctly, this would be absolutely nothing new to a modular synthesist (Buchla did this kind of thing in the 60's), and really is a very basic patch.  Take a step sequencer, program the pots, run the CV either directly or through a lag circuit, and control a VCF with it.  

With a modular synth, it would be just as easy to control anything else with that patch - resonance, amplitude, frequency of LFO's, waveform, delay time, whatever is voltage controlled.  Hey - want to spice up a ring modulator?  Control the VCO with a setup like that.  

So, there's the rub - think in modular terms and then think how you would like to put that in a stompbox.  There a zillion modular synth schematics out there - all they need is a stompbox to live in.....one that doesn't look like it was built by MXR, obviously  

Take care,
Scott

[Peter Snowberg]

That's it....... the end of this thread.


The stupidity and selfishness in here is just about enough to make me quit.


Sash, whoever you are.... please get a clue.  :roll: By stealing a circuit and the look of the box it is placed in for commercial sales (even only a single unit), nothing is achieved. Your kind of 'input' is not appreciated or welcomed. You sound like a spoiled little child and obviously don't understand. I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain it to you.

We're talking about fairly "cut and dried" things here. It's already been explained by experts and at least one lawyer.

If you steal trade dress, the holder of the rights can take legal action.

Don't steal trade dress for anything you want to sell. OK? It seems so simple to me.....

:roll:  :roll:  :roll: