Stompbox kits are expensive

[Adey]

Hi there, i was looking at BYOC and was surprised at how expensive the kits are.

I havnt found any kit sites from the UK though to compare prices, but i just though that un-assembled parts would be cheaper than one already built buy BOSS or Junlop or whoever.

 

Am i missing something?

[Belva]

I've noticed the same thing. BYOC seems to be the highest price of them all. Some are cheaper, but not by much. I don't think it's the price that most customers are looking at. Being able to mod something during the build is one factor. But, as with most DIY projects, satisfaction of a job well done and the fun factor are the major motivations. I have more $$ in my homebuilt guitar than it would cost to just buy a nice one. That ain't the point of it.

[Adey]

Yeah, i guess thats it. I would love to do some stompbox building, having the satisfaction when its first plugged it in etc, but with the prices im just gonna end up buying them.

I still wanna build an external cab though, i KNOW thats cheaper than buying one

[cx04332]

I just ordered a kit from runoffgroove. I figured the time saved not having to research and run down parts made the kit a better value than the individual parts.

[Belva]

 

I just ordered a kit from runoffgroove. I figured the time saved not having to research and run down parts made the kit a better value than the individual parts.

 

That sums it up pretty well. I'm thinking about putting a reverb stompbox kit in my amp. In that case I'd save money because no box is needed.

For people who have done a few kits I can see getting individual parts. After all, you'd have some xtras already in your pack rat stash.

[tedmich]

the cheapest part of the stompbox Mfg. is the labor; either a mechanized SMD machine or a child labor solder monkey in the third world. You are supplying this labor in a kit thus the price is still pretty high.

 

Also the makers are greedy!

[Belva]

If you add in your labor on any project, the price gets exorbitant. Plus it gets cheaper when you do multiple units by making all your cuts, bends, etc. at the same time.

[StompBoxLover]

these kits are not expensive, have great components and sound, well let's just say bye-bye BOSS etc.

 

Fuzz Factory 27 EUR + enclosure

 

Tremulus Lune 29 EUR + enclosure

the main reason to build a stompbox yourself however is NOT the seemingly lower price, but the full control about the components you use. I often use caps/diodes/transistors from my own stash instead of the ones supplied with the kit.

I enjoy building a stompbox - not as much as playing them - but still, I find the act of soldering to be very relaxing (might be the soldering fumes )

[WRGKMC]

parts bought wholsale at low cost is how they're able to keep the cost down too. When you buy in lots of thousands, what might cost here for $10 each are only a few cents to others. Add an assembly line wave soldering, computer diagnostics to troubleshoot bad units, and theres just no way you can build anything at the cost of the manufacturer.

 

It didnt used to be that way. When I first got into electronics there was actually room to make a decent living at doing repairs at component level and the work was actually fun. But thr repacability factor has always been there, much of it coming from the military. If they had say an electronic failure on say a missel launch, They would just put a new board in vs troubleshoot the board. Swapping tubes was simular followed by plug in transistors, then IC packs. They were expensive enough in the beginning to warrant replacement. Eventually, the cost of chips pancaked, and then board swapping or units containing boards were the norm. Companies could then set up centralized repair centers and send the boards there to be troubleshot and repaired. They even set up time limits on the repairs so the time it takes to repair remains profitable.

 

I know this is a long cry from the original post. But its not profitable for a company to sell small quantities of simple components. Most guys who build buy in bulk, scavange old units, buy at auctions, etc, then only buy the parts they might be missing when they have to.

[AMZ-FX]

Part of the cost is support. Lots of people will attempt a kit with a minimum of building skills and need some hand-holding to get it finished; that's time and money for the kit supplier, but worth it to those who are just getting into the hobby.

 

regards, Jack

[wwit]

My take on it is that its all relative. Whats a value to some can be a drop in the bucket for someone else or a fortune for another.

 

If money is the only issue then I guess Behringer is a good bet for pedals. But if your someone like me that likes to tinker with stuff, has good mechanical/soldering skills and limited electronics knowledge, then BYO kits may be a fun progect more than a money saver. Essentially your paying an upcharge in kit form for the parts plus someone elses know-how. I cant design a pedal from scratch, so I have to pay for someone elses time to do that for me.

 

And I would rather plop down $65-75 bucks and learn a few things and use that pedal build as a confidence builder before biting the bullet and buying and trying to build a $500-$1000 DIY amp kit.

 

But after learning enough about it, there are plenty of scematics available online for free and if you want to spend the time reseaching parts and do all the legwork yourself , then the cost could be more than halfed.

 

A couple of the biggest money savers for DIY builds are cables and speaker cabs. You can build the best cables for easily a 1/4 or 1/5th of what it cost to purchae ready made and still have the best of the best quality. Speaker cabs can be built for less than $75 for a 2x12 in materials(not including speakers) if you have some basic woodworking tools and skills.

[nickeroo]

these kits are not expensive, have great components and sound, well let's just say bye-bye BOSS etc. Fuzz Factory 27 EUR + enclosure Tremulus Lune 29 EUR + enclosure the main reason to build a stompbox yourself however is NOT the seemingly lower price, but the full control about the components you use. I often use caps/diodes/transistors from my own stash instead of the ones supplied with the kit. I enjoy building a stompbox - not as much as playing them - but still, I find the act of soldering to be very relaxing (might be the soldering fumes )

 

 

+1. If you are in the UK I would go with Musikding. I gig with their pedals quite a bit. Very fast shipping and helpful. Double check your order on arrival though! I've had one or two things not right with mine in the past (missed out or duplicated or whatever).

[Adey]

these kits are not expensive, have great components and sound, well let's just say bye-bye BOSS etc. Fuzz Factory 27 EUR + enclosure Tremulus Lune 29 EUR + enclosure the main reason to build a stompbox yourself however is NOT the seemingly lower price, but the full control about the components you use. I often use caps/diodes/transistors from my own stash instead of the ones supplied with the kit. I enjoy building a stompbox - not as much as playing them - but still, I find the act of soldering to be very relaxing (might be the soldering fumes )

 

Awesome, thank you!

 

You guys raised some good valid points too about mass producing units being cheaper to make etc.

[normh]

A lot of the cost that you think is expensive is the etching of the circuit boards and the insertion of the posts in point to point builds. This takes time. Another factor is that this is a niche market. Niche marketing means premium prices.

 

I hear a lot about low part costs. That is unadulterated hogwash. Premium quality parts from a local retailer do cost. My last parts purchase for a project was $30. I had to pull the parts myself and I only walked out with a handful of resistors and capacitors. The difference here may be that I prefer to use precision parts and the cost is higher for a 1% resistor versus a 10 or 20% resistor. It costs more for mica and tantalum capacitors than it does for ceramic and electrolytics. With electrolytics, it costs more for a 5% tolerance than it does for a 20% tolerance. It costs more for a circuit board with thicker traces than it does for thinner traces.

 

In the wayback machine, I built all my test equipment from Heathkit. The cost of the various kits was about 1 1/2 times what it would have cost to buy the equipment from Techtronics (High quality & high cost). In building the kit I learned every component in the gear (a lot in an oscilloscope). I had the additional advantage that if the piece of equipment malfunctioned I knew how to repair it.

[Myramyd]

I think if you are in the UK, they may be more than here in the US, not sure.

 

Having built about 8 BYOC pedals now, I have to disagree about them being "expensive" compared to Dunlop/MXR/Boss etc. I think you have to compare the pedals to the prices of the boutique market. Take the OD2 for example. Any handmade version of that pedal painted to look pretty would fetch around $300 easy. I use that pedal endlessly and $99 was a bargain if you ask me, compared to a Fulldrive 2 or something similar.

 

You have to keep in mind that the quality of components are better than the mainstream manufacturers and that often you have more options to make the pedal sound better than the original.

 

"Expensive" is a pretty relative term. I've been pricing some pedal builds from scratch and they average out to $45-60 USD once you add up enclosure, jacks, etc., even for simple builds which still isn't cheap by any means. If you aren't excited by building pedals yourself and are primarily trying to save a buck they I would try pawn shops or eBay rather than building. It's the experience along with the ability for customization, not the price.

 

BYOC has excellent support and very fast shipping. I feel good giving them their $30 profit or whatever it is. I also own my own business and that kind of markup is more than reasonable IMHO. I prefer to support BYOC over some huge conglomerate any day. What do you think the markup is on a $125 BOSS pedal? A lot more than $30.

[Slikviq]

+1 on the byoc stuff, their documentation is far better than other places and they have fast shipping with great customer service.

Let us know how long that olc kit takes to come in, and how accurate everything is.

[Adey]

 

I think if you are in the UK, they may be more than here in the US, not sure. Having built about 8 BYOC pedals now, I have to disagree about them being "expensive" compared to Dunlop/MXR/Boss etc. I think you have to compare the pedals to the prices of the boutique market. Take the OD2 for example. Any handmade version of that pedal painted to look pretty would fetch around $300 easy. I use that pedal endlessly and $99 was a bargain if you ask me, compared to a Fulldrive 2 or something similar. You have to keep in mind that the quality of components are better than the mainstream manufacturers and that often you have more options to make the pedal sound better than the original. "Expensive" is a pretty relative term. I've been pricing some pedal builds from scratch and they average out to $45-60 USD once you add up enclosure, jacks, etc., even for simple builds which still isn't cheap by any means. If you aren't excited by building pedals yourself and are primarily trying to save a buck they I would try pawn shops or eBay rather than building. It's the experience along with the ability for customization, not the price. BYOC has excellent support and very fast shipping. I feel good giving them their $30 profit or whatever it is. I also own my own business and that kind of markup is more than reasonable IMHO. I prefer to support BYOC over some huge conglomerate any day. What do you think the markup is on a $125 BOSS pedal? A lot more than $30.

 

 

/nutshell

 

Thanks guys