Introduction - Pedal Parts Plus

[tickfawriver]

Hi everyone, I am Randy Landry the new owner of Pedal Parts Plus. I want to say hello to everyone and provide some info on where we are as a company, where we plan to go, as well as answer any questions. To give a little information about myself, I am an electronics technician by trade and worked in the oil field most of my career. In 2007 I started building delay pedals for harmonica players, that business has grown to include an offering of 12 pedals and 2 amplifiers. The company is Lone Wolf Blues Co and I only offer products to harmonica players. I did try a couple guitar versions of pedals but they never got any traction so I decided to stay focused on harmonica effects. In February, I was contacted by Connie, who I am sure a lot of you know, about the sale of Pedal Parts Plus and I decided to purchase the company.

We began operation in May and it certainly was not without some problems, but we are fast learners and hard workers and we are improving weekly. Our powder coaters' are now putting out top notch work and drilling has devised a system for getting those problematic IN and OUT jacks to line up. Our UV Printer has been serviced (not a small task) as well as our CNC which was torn down and new bearings installed, currently we are building much needed jigs to replace the old ones. We started with a huge backlog of orders and the need to get our equipment up to par made it worse. Currently we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, the backlog is getting smaller and the quality is improving. To those who have patiently waited for us to get your order out I offer up a big thank you.

At the time the company was purchased we were advised to discontinue one-off work because it was not profitable, we elected to continue to offer this service but it will come with a price increase. I know that this is not what our customers want to hear but it is the only way we can continue to accept orders of less that 10. For those who order 20 and more you will find very little change.

One or our goals is to offer a speedy turnaround on orders, we want orders that involve drilling, coating and printing to be out the door in less than a week. Although we are not yet there we are striving to make it a reality. Another goal is top notch quality; I cannot guaranty that we will be the cheapest but we will be the best.

We also have a graphic designer on staff and can now offer graphic design service. We have a new website being built that will include projects, templates and order history, it will be simple, functional and effective.

Learning to meet the high demands of boutique guitar effects builders has been very challenging, the demand for perfection is high. Unfortunately we have had some failures to date, but this has only made us more determined to perfect our services. We have also had success in several areas and we will continue to build on this success.

I invite everyone to give us a shot at your projects, if not now, keep us in mind for future projects.

Best regards,
Randy Landry

[wavley]

Welcome!

Nice to see pedal parts plus back!

[italianguy63]

Well Randy-- I fired PPP as a vendor some time back due to poor customer service.

Since they have new ownership, I will try another project with you in the future!

M. Chiampi - GDMC

[Kipper4]

Welcome Randy.
I saw mixed results from a search here for PPP. Not having purchased from you (uk resident)
I should reserve judgement.

I hope you prosper and make yourself a valid contributor to the forum.
Best foot forwards.
I wish you the best.
Rich

[LightSoundGeometry]

ppp has always done me right. I dont really order very much from anyone, a little here and there, mostly small bear, blms, ppp, mammoth and tayda. I will not buy directly from china like some do with ebay and ali x.  each place has a few items I get, For example most of my switches and enclosures come from blms and active parts from the bear. I havent placed a ppp order in a few months because I still have some of that wonderful wire left to use !

I love your wire, no one can touch it. best thing to do in my opinion is, to not overcharge for shipping.

[Ice-9]

Hello Randy Landry and welcome to the forum, I do hope things go well and you get up to speed and quality quickly. I will check out the PPP site soon.

[tickfawriver]

Thanks for the welcome.

It is not our policy to mark up shipping, the cart uses real time rates but sometimes there is a glitch and the customer is overcharged and when this happens we refund the difference, this occurs maybe once a week. There is a set amount of insurance that comes with shipping and when more is needed it is only 99 cents per 100 dollars.

I can understand the mixed results, there are things that go on that is not evident; such as a rush in orders causing delays, contaminated powder causing redos in powder coating, CNC loosing it's mind, printer bed out of level and then there is misinterpreted expectations, new employees and mistakes; we have experienced all of these the last few months. We are becoming more experienced and learning to deal with these things quickly and effectively, for example, we are adding a quality check after drilling is done and we added a heavy duty dryer in line with the powder coating air supply. You can be sure we are not perfect, but you can also be sure we are trying. I would imagine that the previous owners experienced some of the same issues.

" I love your wire, no one can touch it. best thing to do in my opinion is, to not overcharge for shipping. " This is good input, thanks.

The new site should be up in about a month, I will post to you guys when it is on line.

In the future I will come to you guys and inquire about products we should or should not carry.

Randy

[bluesdevil]

I hate to say it, but I quit ordering from PPP years ago because shipping costs were just too high for me. Early on the shipping was "readjusted", but later orders were not.
Would like to go back and give another chance with new ownership.... good luck!

[Ben Lyman]

Welcome, I look forward to checking out your site, I could never figure out how to navigate it before, with all the "select enclosure" and select "paint option" and... 
You're going to change all that, right?

My 2 cents:
Check out BLMS prices and s/h costs, then try to compete.
It's the only place I ever go for the particular items they carry.
But then... I don't mass produce either

[bluesdevil]

My 2 cents:
Check out BLMS prices and s/h costs, then try to compete.

GREAT example! BLMS has definitely got it right.

[dbp512]

My 2 cents:
Check out BLMS prices and s/h costs, then try to compete.

GREAT example! BLMS has definitely got it right.

Now I could be wrong, but doesn't BLMS use the same quality enclosures that Tayda has? If memory serves me well, the enclosures I got from them had "B+" stamped into the inside of the lid, while my Mammoth and PPP enclosures didn't. I think Mammoth would be a better comparison, since they also powdercoat in more than cheap-feeling black and white. 
 
I order most of my enclosures from Mammoth, all during their various sales. I've only ordered from PPP once, for some special colors that no one else offers. I was rather disappointed in the brushed denim finish, since it didn't really look very brushed at all, and it felt like I paid $5 for a splotchy transparent blue (but the others were all very nice). Also, I've been hesitant to order any of the custom colors, because I've read that while they look nice, they aren't worth the pricetag. That being said, I plan on ordering from you again, once I have a few circuits I really like and want to put in nicer colored boxes than I typically get.
 
One request, if you decide to have sales for holidays or whatnot, could it not be how it used to be: i.e. a few boring colors, and only in one one size enclosure (and "there are only a few, so once we sell that number, the price will go back to normal"). Honestly, at that point I'd rather the company just not have a sale.

[SuzukiScottie]

Greetings!; I'll certainly give your site a peruse when I next need to make an order.

Good luck! [emoji2][emoji1303]


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[amptramp]

Always good to see a vendor come back from the brink.  It is also nice to see that quality is expected to improve - most companies start with a given quality level that deteriorates over time.  We welcome anyone who reverses that trend.

[Bret608]

Welcome Randy! I just placed my first order with you all since you took over the business, and can't wait to see how it turned out (looks like it's en route). I will say the service has been excellent so far. Your machinist Nicholas in particular really went the extra mile to follow up with me and walk me through how to produce a more accurate drill template for my project. This was especially cool considering I typically just place small orders for my one-off, personal projects. What kind of a price increase are you considering for one-offers like myself? 

It's cool that you're in Hammond now. Although I've lived up north for many years now, I am originally from LA and even went to college at SLU for a time. I have eaten crawfish while sitting on a boat in the Tickfaw River! Good times...

[tickfawriver]

BLMS will be a tough competitor, being one guy with no overhead   

Tayda of course is in Thailand where their parts cost pennies and their labor is even cheaper, but hey, the world is getting smaller and this is what we have to compete with these days.

We will take a look at the brushing technique and keep it in mind that it needs to be aggressive.

Some colors require two coats and take twice as long to apply; a base coat, a top coat with cleaning in between, these are our custom colors. The premium colors are priced higher then standard because the powder just costs more.

I do not mean to justify, just provide some information for better understanding.

Thanks for the feedback,
Randy

[nosamiam]

I had a couple of unsatisfactory experiences with the previous owners and stopped using them. The turnaround times for finished & drilled enclosures were just too long. These were small runs and I don't run a big business or anything. But two months was just too long.

I'm glad to see the business under new ownership! Next time I need to order enclosures it will definitely be from you. Welcome!

[desmondtencents]

Made my way to this post from a link over at the Madbean forum.

I can completely understand the need to increase prices to cover the labor involved in "one-offs"
The thing that bummed me out was that I would have to pay a standard paint charge of $8.95 for a white 1590B

Do you think it might be possible to stock a few "standard" enclosures in "standard" colors for a bit less $$
I'm thinking 1590A, 1590B, 125B, 1590BB and offering white, black, red, blue and yellow. Maybe even adding some green, orange and purple. If you have the shelf space to stock them, they could be done in batches of at least 20 to make it worth your while.
I'm sure this wouldn't make sense for some of the more unique colors/finishes. But for some basics, I think they'd sell fast enough to justify it.....?

Just a thought. Like I said, I understand you have associated costs in running your business.
I'm sure the good people of the DIY community will continue to support you as long as you're providing good products and services.
Glad to hear about all of the things you're working on and your commitment to improvement!

[flanagan0718]

Hello Randy,
    First off welcome! I remember ordering my first parts for an A / B switch (my first build which I dare not open in fear of what I might find) from PPP. I had the best experience with Connie and had several more over the years. I can honestly say that I never had a bad experience and was always happy with what I got. My powder coating was always beautiful (even on the B-stock stuff I ordered) and the drills always looked good to me. It's sad, to me, to see Connie go...but it's good to see a breath of fresh air in the "industry".

     To me there are really only 2 things that IMO I would change ASAP. First and most importantly, the web site. It sounds like you have great plans already and are working it right now. That's great! The old, dare I say ancient, format of it very cumbersome and difficult to navigate. That's one of the reasons I hardly ever order form PPP and Small Bear. The websites are terrible. The second thing is the shipping charges. Offering the USPS Flat Rate packages or first class would certainly help both parties, I think.

     Other than that keep up the good work. I've seen some of the screen prints and powder coats that you and your team has put out. They are beautiful! The parts are priced pretty competitively and with that selection of enclosures you can't go wrong.  Like many here I order frequently from Lawrence (BLMS) but he doesn't offer the colors or all the sizes you do. If i need something like a 1590J or something painted, I know where to go. Thanks for inroducing yourself and updating us.

-Mike-

PS/ Make sure the Jolly Ranchers stay too!   

[vigilante397]

Commenting partially just to receive notifications and partially to say welcome I never used PPP in the past, but I'm getting a little more serious and would like something a little nicer than Tayda's black and whites. Looking forward to trying you out

[Jamforthelamb]

Hello Randy,
I, like many others mentioned, have always used PPP for nicer enclosures etc on builds. Been using the site for a long time, and personally never had any issues, but I'm also a "just for myself" builder.
Good luck on God bless on your new venture! You'll see another order from me before too long!
-Kevin