Members gambit Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 i need a career change, and pedal building seems to be a decent business to get into.. so where do i start? books, equipment, tutorials, any parttime courses particularly useful for a complete novice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrChrisos Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 First, you need to find some cartoonists to paint your pedals. Then, now this is the important bit son, you're going to need to go on the Joyo website... Stick with me. You'l be aaaaalright. (Start with BYOC for your skills, then onto FSB, you'll be learning as you go. Start with clones and then modify them - as your confidence grows, get creative. I'm not a pedal builder, this is just what I'd do) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vince Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 If I'm honest, I think the people who have the most success in building pedals for a living, are those who have a crazy amount of electrical engineering knowledge. The ones who can see a resistor, capacitor or diode from 20 paces and tell you everything about it and what it would do to the circuit they are building. I'm all for people learning new things, but it just seems they have such an unfair advantage over the rest of us mere mortals that it would be daft to try unless you had that sort of knowledge as second nature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members arcaneaether Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members english_bob Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 Electrical / electronics engineering skillz Bull{censored}ting-people-with-pseudoscience skillz A good ear for toan An angle- something that marks out your pedlols as different from everybody else's Web design chops Props from minor internet celebridees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members english_bob Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 Start with BYOC for your skills, then onto FSB, you'll be learning as you go. BYOC stuff is fine for learning to solder (although TBH, so is making your own leads, and that's much cheaper) but it requires no knowledge of electronics and won't impart any either if you just follow the instructions. Any serious answer to this question is going to have to feature "learn about electronics. A lot" very prominently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrChrisos Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 i need a career change, and pedal building seems to be a decent business to get into.. so where do i start? books, equipment, tutorials, any parttime courses particularly useful for a complete novice? Ask Madebymike for work experience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onyxrhino Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 you know how pedal builders are always releasing a pedal "based on tones from Gilmour/Page/(insert miscellaneous dad rocker here)"? It's a sound marketing strategy, it immediately gives your pedal an identity, and a customer base, no matter what it actually sounds like. Maybe you fill the niche of making pedals focused on sounds of guitarists who have actually been relevant in the past 20 years or so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 not sure whether a startup as a pedalmaker is a good move nowadays, you will need to come up with a superior product (Strymonish), create a hype (ZVexish), a cunning and profitable business plan (freekish), a distribution network, and most important of course, you need the skills and expertise to build the darn things. A friend of mine started up a business a couple of years ago, building amps and pedals. He can keep his business running because he also does repairs, modding, services, custom jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members H.P. Lovecraft Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 and one of these dialed into your choice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cmog Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 i need a career change, and pedal building seems to be a decent business to get into... "Decent business" is an interesting choice of words. From a microeconomics point of view, it is a small, niche industry where competition has exploded in the past five years. You would be competing with many businesses/designers with impressive skill sets and tertiary educated expertise. Most of the larger boutique brands will tell you that making a go of a pedal business requires a lot of personal sacrifice to stay above water, let alone succeed. There are hundreds of business models that are more decent than building pedals for a living. Start it as a hobby, learn as you go and strive to build/design things that are new and unique. Focus on the knowledge first, and if a business comes from it one day - success! But moving into it as a career change puts a lot of pressure on a line of work already fraught with hurdles and hard roads. I moved from a chemistry research background to a builder at MI Audio as a career change. I now have a managerial role and was very fortunate to find a job at an established pedal business. But starting a business from scratch is definitely one that takes a lot of consideration, regardless of the industry. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gambit Posted August 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 oh yeah, this would definitely be a side project alongside my day job, but i'd like to get into it enough to supplement my income. i've got no delusions of grandeur about where i'm starting from. i just want to do it right from the get go and think some form of study/learning alongside the poking around with an soldering iron would be the way to go. also not bothered about building a company out of this.. or competing with Strymon if i can make a few cool pedals that aren't a rip-off, and that people want to buy i'll be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members renula Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 Make a delay based on your favorite dano, and I'll buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Naterel Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 You need spunk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dpizappi Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 oh yeah, this would definitely be a side project alongside my day job, but i'd like to get into it enough to supplement my income. i've got no delusions of grandeur about where i'm starting from. i just want to do it right from the get go and think some form of study/learning alongside the poking around with an soldering iron would be the way to go. also not bothered about building a company out of this.. or competing with Strymon if i can make a few cool pedals that aren't a rip-off, and that people want to buy i'll be happy. Clearly you know nothing about pedals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gambit Posted August 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 You need spunk i'm backed up with the stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gambit Posted August 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 Make a delay based on your favorite dano, and I'll buy it. i just bought another PB&J to mod and possibly rehouse if i can get enough skillz to put it together will probably start with something simple but i think it'd definitely be cool to offer some kind of PB&J oscillating fun in a sturdy pedal. people seem to like it going by the reaction to the vids i use it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hotmess Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 Do you have a couple thousand bucks saved up? Because that's what my overhead is looking like right now if I really want to get into it and start up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BR4D Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 You need spunk And a dapper wardrobe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BR4D Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 Do you have a couple thousand bucks saved up?Because that's what my overhead is looking like right now if I really want to get into it and start up. I would say that's an incredibly conservative estimate. That might cut it if you want to sell a dozen pedals on HC. It won't come close for any kind of serious distribution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lefort_1 Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 to reinfarce Brad, over the summer I bought up parts for about 20 pedals, including some amazing bro-deals on enclosures, etc.I'm about 2-grand into it, and I REALLY should have invested in a small pcb-CAD to make etch, not handwire. :closes doors before they open: ... and btw, I got some of those EE chops....that's not enough...biz-accumen is essential Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hotmess Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 Yeah, I'd say I'm safely $2,000 into it. Now, I hit a hurdle because it would have been enough to shell out some pedals, but I've had stuff robbed from me twice. First, it was a box of parts and tools. Then, it was my drill press. And of course, getting a girlfriend doesn't help. Do you have a girlfriend, gambit? If you don't, good, don't get one. You'll never get your money saved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members english_bob Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 And of course, getting a girlfriend doesn't help. Do you have a girlfriend, gambit? If you don't, good, don't get one. You'll never get your money saved. Girlfriends are expensive. You need a wife. She'll save all your money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woolyh Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 (Start with BYOC for your skills, then onto FSB, you'll be learning as you go. Start with clones and then modify them - as your confidence grows, get creative. I'm not a pedal builder, this is just what I'd do) +1 Do a couple of BYOCs first. You could buy a bunch of different PCBs and then source all the other parts in the UK to practice getting everything together yourself while saving some dollar too Also if you intend on selling pedals awesome graphics are a must Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sparkfriction Posted August 29, 2012 Members Share Posted August 29, 2012 maybe you can talk to other builders form the uk and work as a intern/trainee for a few weeks to see how it works etc. Sure you have to do stuff like... get the food for the co-workers, drilling holes, cleaning the workspace etc. as a free/cheap employee... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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