Building and selling guitar fx pedals.

[Elessar [Sly]]

I haven't started a business making and selling pedals, but I know a couple of people who do independantly. They make a fair amount from it, but it hasn't REALLY taken off. I would say market them just under what everyone else is selling the similar models for. People want to feel that they are getting a good deal on something decent, and with a lot of contact from the seller/ good contact. Knowing someone who could do design work for them will come in handy.

[JonVengeance]

What you should do is make a few and send them around the forum to hype them up. Then collect down payments and take a bunch of pre-orders. Deliver a few and then make excuses about how hectic your life is. Promise to make good on the orders and then disappear.

That's the business model everyone else uses on these gear forums.

[ovid9]

I don't build pedals. The only guys I do know who build pedals are on this board and do it partially for fun/partially to make a bit of cash from it.

The "boutique" pedal market is almost saturated with builders. Lots of guys making solid stuff, a few unique brands such as EQD that are relatively new but really pretty big, and then some of the guys like Keeley or Analogman who have being doing it for quite a bit and are really well known.

There's nothing wrong with having big aims and dreams of being able to to make it your living. I wish you a lot of luck with that and hope it happens. There's just a ton of competition out there. I know there's anywhere from decent to hilarious markup on pedals (Devi Ever broke down her costs/labor time on her average pedal and even when selling them at $55 she was still averaging about $20/hr profit on them. Obviously it varies by the complexity of the pedal some.)

The only way to find out though is to give it a shot and having this board as a resource not only of potential customers, but potential demo guys and stuff, never a bad thing.

But yeah, I'm with Jon. Take a few grand in preorders, get a couple done, freak out and disappear.

[Elessar [Sly]]

There are certainly some of us on here that do demo's of pedals for a couple of boutique companies. I'm sure a couple of youtube demo's/ clips and written GAB reviews would help a little.

[Steveijobzz]

I started building pedals and stuff on the side to make some easy cash during the school year.

I don't want to discourage you but here are a few pointers to keep in mind:

-You need to brand yourself. People need to know that they have one of YOUR pedals. Not just a generic knockoff. Labeling, logos, and artwork are key.

-Don't sacrifice customer service (see Titan thread)

-Don't get in over your head (see Titan thread). I got super backed up on work this summer because I work for the power company and we had a huge storm and I was working 12s and 16s. Sometimes life catches up to you temporarily.

I haven't sold very many pedals on here. Sometimes forums (especially new ones like this) can have a pretty slow classified turnover rate. I usually mostly do local stuff. Ovid has two that I made and paul88x has a WIIO that I made and I just did some repairs on Y0UNGBL00D's Big Muff.

I wish you luck and if you need any more help/tips/advice shoot me a message.

[clipless bumper]

you can easily have $50 in a pedal - between a high quality housing, good switches and jacks, boards, components, etc.
Then you have to have the equipment to put them together properly (ok, this part isn't too bad).
Then, getting them to look 'professional' - not stickers, or sloppy handwriting - can add even more dollars.
Packaging and shipping are additional costs - lets say out the door you are $75 into each pedal - and this doesn't even begin to count all your labor.

Lets say you can crank one out every hour (you would really have to have your system down, especially if you are handwiring everything).
Let's say you work 20 hours a week - that's 80 pedals a month. $50 - $100 profit on each one and you are at your goal.

Now - can you actually SELL 80 pedals a month???
(4) every day, (5) days a week?

Seems highly unlikely - unless you can get hooked up with a nationwide chain, create a LOT of hype - work through all the upfront costs/creative (which could take months)


Seems like a tough road - but people have done it.
Fulltone started this way, FoxRox, Keeley, Analogman, etc.
but then again - the market is somewhat saturated now also.

[Dickarms]

thinking about it realistically (see above post by mamberg) and making something DIFFERENT and USEFUL wold be the key.

anyone can use quality stuff
anyone can make a tubescreamer

are the circuits you plan on cloning unique, not readily available, or flawed in some way? other than the price difference, what would make someone want yours over the original?

building pedals is a lot of fun, but i would start hobby and see where it goes.

[Steveijobzz]

thinking about it realistically (see above post by mamberg) and making something DIFFERENT and USEFUL wold be the key.

anyone can use quality stuff
anyone can make a tubescreamer

are the circuits you plan on cloning unique, not readily available, or flawed in some way? other than the price difference, what would make someone want yours over the original?

building pedals is a lot of fun, but i would start hobby and see where it goes.

I think an important aside to this is that building a pedal or two can be fun. But when you have a pile of pedals sitting that are half done/not working/need to get drilled/etc, it can REALLY pile up. Also the more work you're willing to do, the more profit you'll bring in, but the more time and effort it will take. I learned this when I started etching my own circuit boards. It's a HELLUVA lot of work. There's nothing more mentally draining than knowing you have 5 different circuit boards to etch.

[Steveijobzz]

On the other hand, hearing how satisfied somebody is with their pedal/mod/whatever is one of the most rewarding feelings in the world.

[Dickarms]

my big muff works like a charm btw! too bad the keyboardist is using it...

[Steveijobzz]

my big muff works like a charm btw! too bad the keyboardist is using it...

Good to hear

What are you doing letting a keyboard player use your precious effects though?

[mac1215]

my big muff works like a charm btw! too bad the keyboardist is using it...

maybe someone could build you another one

[Dickarms]

because synth through a muff is a big part of what we do.
i have a civil war muff. want to get some more fuzz flavors in though. wish i hadnt sold my fuzz factory.

[Zozobra]

From the collective experience of others the way to do this is to make a batch and sell that batch. Can't afford to front a run of 10 pedals? Then don't get into it as it rapidly becomes more ballache and stress than its worth. Don't ever attempt to sell something you haven't made yet unless you're doing it purely for fun, in which case have no more than one customer at a time and explain that it will take some time and of course charge appropriately for it.

Its a saturated market which is very hard to crack. I've contemplated doing it many times. I've prototyped things that would sell and every time I have stopped before trying to build up an inventory to sell. Simple reason: it won't ever replace my day job and it will suck all the fun out of something I enjoy.

I could make some kick ass amps and pedals to sell but there is just no point. Every small builder fucks up at some point and it turns ugly. This has been seen time and time again and it will continue until the sun dies. What I do is make things for my own fun and I flip them on when I get bored of them. So long as I get back what I put into it I'm happy. As a hobbyist my time is only worth the high price of nothing.

[GuitarBilly]

Say I had a couple of sought after and discontinued expensive vintage effects, and was interested in making updated high-quality copies and/or variations of said boxes. The copies/variants I see of one box go for anywhere from $100-$200 with working originals in the $250-$450 range depending on condition, and the only two modern copies/variants of the other go for $250-$350, and I've seen working originals listed as high as $600-$900 dollars.

If things went well after I started with those two pedals I would branch out to offer other copies/variants of popular vintage fx with high quality components, with a focus on quality and versatility. Is this something I might conceivably make a living off of. With time and effort put into growing the business is the profit margin enough on pedals that if I do a decent amount of business, enough to keep me going full time, I could look to make it a main income in the $4000-$5000 per month range? I have someone else who would be able to work with me, and create unique art for the pedals, we'd split work on internals, and I'd handle networking/marketing via social media and online outlets.

Any of you guys ever do this? Are you still? If so what are the roadblocks and what worked for you?

If you are asking if this is a viable business model, yes it is, there are several small builders making a living building pedals. Now whether you can be successful with it will depend on your ability to run a small business and take the necessary risks. But then again, that applies to just about any business model.

[Skylark44]

Check out the forum at www.freestompboxes.org , (if you haven't already)...I'm a member there too. The guys there are very knowledgeable, friendly, and helpfull.