Members n!k Posted January 1, 2012 Members Share Posted January 1, 2012 I want to take a moment and reflect on my years at RonSound effects. I started doing this about 17 years ago, back in a time when custom and boutique pedal builders were practically unheard of. My vision at the time was to make available, at a more reasonable cost, repros of some of the most popular and hard-to-find effects. Starting out with little more than corner of the bedroom I shared with my wife, I built RonSound to the slightly larger version it is today, housed in my garage. It's always been just me doing all the work with my wife helping out with labeling and graphics on older painted units. I did it this way because I cared about every pedal that went out the door and couldn't see myself having to worry over a unit someone else had built, wondering if it was going to be OK when it reached it's new home. Today, RonSound faces a bigger challenge. Pedal builders are crawling out of the woodwork everyday offering their own spin on pedals and, despite prices that often greatly exceed mine, enjoying better sales than I ever did. When I find out "X" is charging $300 (or more) for what turns out to be a slightly modified copy of a Tube Screamer or Marshall Guv'nor, and getting it, my heart sinks just a bit more. Some of you probably know about a recent debacle, where a "builder" bought cheap pedals from China, modded the circuit board slightly, repainted the housings, then sold them for much more than the original price while claiming to have built it by hand in their basement. Again, enough people bought into to make it a worthwhile endeavor until the truth came out. I have never hid the origins of any RonSound pedal nor made any claims as to any of them being my original circuit design. I'm 45 now and as I sit here in my garage on New Year's Day morning, typing this newsletter and looking out into my work area, I remember all the good times I've had with RonSound. I've met a lot of people I would've never met otherwise and made friends all over the world. A few brushes with fame, never enough to make a difference. A lot of interesting repair work on pedals I might have never got the chance to see, many other benefits. It all comes at a price, though. My garage is filled with projects that I would like to see completed. Vintage and modern guitars, amps, and pedals fill all available spaces. There's a huge stack of populated circuit boards for pedals I want to build for myself and some close friends and family. It all comes to this: effective today, Jan. 1, 2012, RonSound will no longer sell pedals in an ongoing basis. I'll still be available to do repairs, custom pedals and even the current production stuff if asked, but I will be limiting the amount I build at any time. If you stay subscribed to the newsletter I'll be sending out announcements that I have completed a batch of pedals and they will be available on a first come, first served basis. You can also watch my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=851944311In closing, thank you to all of you for being my customers and friends. I hope we can work together in the future. I may be back when things clear up. So long and thanks for all the fish Bummer. When I had my Polychorus and vintage Bass Micro Synthesizer go down in one week Ron's advice and schematics helped me get them both going. Too bad he feels like there's not room for him right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members arthurdent'd Posted January 1, 2012 Members Share Posted January 1, 2012 that sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dolf Posted January 1, 2012 Members Share Posted January 1, 2012 Didn't he not fill months and months worth of orders, amounting to basically stealing customers' money? Because then "closing shop" is kind of par for the course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted January 1, 2012 Members Share Posted January 1, 2012 the Freekish Blues ongoing abortion claims another casualty... thanks TGP {censored}ing assholes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TomCTC Posted January 1, 2012 Members Share Posted January 1, 2012 Take a dip into boiling hot chocolate custard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nightraven Posted January 1, 2012 Members Share Posted January 1, 2012 shame, he recently sold his Electro-Harmonix collection as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members arthurdent'd Posted January 1, 2012 Members Share Posted January 1, 2012 http://www.ehx.com/forums/viewthread/5019/P15/ so he did sell it to Vincent Gallo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deeohgee Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 thanks Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LSDis4me Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 I guess that means that my Trem-o-matic in the Spam thread will be worth 3x as much next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members erksin Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 thanks Ken That guy gets way too much credit. How many pedals do you think he actually sold anyway? I bet its waaaay less than you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lotlizard Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 I believe we may be witnessing a leveling off of the "cottage" boutique market and industry. Established boutique brands - guitar builders such as Suhr - have enough capital and accounts receivable business to weather the current economic downturn as well as production snags. Unfortunately, a number of small gear builders seem to have recently folded for a variety of reasons. I hate to see that as someone building equipment as a sideline would probably much rather do that for a full time gig rather than what he (or she) is doing from 9 to 5. For a one (or two, or three, etc.) man operation, one hiccup can end a business venture. Also, I believe consumer confidence in making online purchases from small builders may be shaken due to recent upsets and incidents, so this may be one of several upcoming "closures" the market sees. Personally, I'm refraining some sending in a deposit or payment on anything that isn't available for immediate delivery. A KoT may be the only exception I make to that rule, but the ordering model for it is consumer friendly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Urinate Forever Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 I hope he'll still mod big muffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dcooper830 Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 I had a bad experience with Ronsound. I sent him a couple pedals to work on and it took 5 months to get them back. Granted they're better than before.. (mostly)... but if I hadn't called him on the phone repeatedly ... I still wouldn't have them. He never responded to emails and was unfriendly and short on the phone. No wonder he didn't do much business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Urinate Forever Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 ey cooper f u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Warpsmasher Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 Blaming the likes of Freekish seems a bit of a copout, and a denial of his own shortcomings. There is just as much innovation and cool new stuff claiming the market as there is cloning and modding of old stuff. Stiff competition is stiff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members triviani Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 Kinda BS to blame it on the freakish thing.. By the time that stuff happened they should have already consolidated their business into something more serious. BUt there is a lot of competition, and people is not expending on pedals as they did before. Maybe they needed a bit more of marketing, involvement on forums to promote their stuff, videos on youtube.. and yap, fancy designs do help to sell pedals, specially online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members n!k Posted January 2, 2012 Author Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 involvement on forums to promote their stuff Bar none? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SnorkelMonkey Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 market saturation'd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hivedestruction Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 Bummer, I have a Hairpie '75 that I really consider to be the best sounding Big Muff I've played to date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members triviani Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 Bar none? I said involvement, not spamming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 Kinda BS to blame it on the freakish thing.. By the time that stuff happened they should have already consolidated their business into something more serious. BUt there is a lot of competition, and people is not expending on pedals as they did before.Maybe they needed a bit more of marketing, involvement on forums to promote their stuff, videos on youtube.. and yap, fancy designs do help to sell pedals, specially online. I disagree I myself would not consider making pedals for any type of real profit because of the current climate where way overpriced rehashes and exploited dirt cheap rehouses light up the leotarded likes of the tgp lawyer brigade and there snooty scicophantic worship. Sounds like this guy didn't want to put up with it either at 45. Freekish was the final turn in the Emperor's New Clothes tale of why TGP folks that really believe their own self serving tripe need to be ignored for the betterment of the spirit of music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nightraven Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 it's so easy to become a pedal manufacturer today and i don't even blame Sean from Lovepedal for his pretty average marketing skills. so many suckers out there will buy absolutely anything he craps out. same goes for BJFE and same thing with D*A*M except D*A*M actually makes nice sounding pedals.how to become an overnight guitar pedal success: design a TS-808 copy, design original artwork for the enclosure, make friends with one of the high-profile users on the forum with your main account and send him your pedal to stick on his board in the post-your-board thread. if it's flashy enough it'll generate the buzz and if not just rinse and repeat until people start noticing. quicker way is to get a professional grade recording or video done with the pedal by somebody with good chops and it'll go viral. then when people want to buy it you have to do the mystery wait-list business with a fresh TGP account and just an e-mail address/PM box. even if the pedal is just priced at $200 you'll make a solid profit for a TS copy and still keep your day job. i really think that guys like Toneczar with 3 year waitlists have a whole bunch of stock already built up and are partying in the Caribbean with the occasional replying to customer support e-mails.boutique guitar pedal makers that i like right off the top of my head: Devi Ever? yeah, she gets some hate around here which is completely just because her internet personality is so annoying, but she does boutique the way it seems RonSound thinks it should be done you get pedals that sound and look original and when you compare your toys to the average guitar player on the street you'll be cool. all of that and without the TGP-style BS around buying the pedals! pedals are pumped out properly and the ILF scene gives much more of an impression that you're paying for the sound of the effect than the faux-mojo and hype compared with what you would for some of the expensive 'corksniffer' {censored} that is built the exact same way.Jeorge Tripps is cool as well - from basement tinkerer to designing them for Dunlop. this is what people should strive for, no? but i wonder what his pay-cheque is like compared with BJFE's.it's just ethics. some of these 'boutique' builders are sleazy and that's what's ruined the game for RonSound i guess. i think it's just the TGP clowns that have ruined the pedal scene for me at least. there are fraudsters all over the place but i still find it weird that they get so much success from the big internet Dumble-sound sausage fest./2 cents it doesn't bother me so much anymore ever since they banned me on TGP. it's more fun to sit at the side-line and enjoy the time we're in right now where most of the guitar playing lawyers haven't caught on that vintage stompboxes are far more interesting than the boutique {censored}.here's a fun read from one of the bigger cynics i've seen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TomCTC Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 i really think that guys like Toneczar with 3 year waitlists have a whole bunch of stock already built up and are partying in the Caribbean with the occasional replying to customer support e-mails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fruvai Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 how to become an overnight guitar pedal success: design a TS-808 copy, design original artwork for the enclosure, make friends with one of the high-profile users on the forum with your main account and send him your pedal to stick on his board in the post-your-board thread. if it's flashy enough it'll generate the buzz and if not just rinse and repeat until people start noticing. And yet George Tripps is a cool builder He did the exact same thing as above (albeit before the advent of the Internet). All he did was take classic pedal designs (DM-2,Ross Compressor,Octavia etc.),slightly tweak them and use true bypass. Jeorge Tripps is cool as well - from basement tinkerer to designing them for Dunlop. this is what people should strive for, no? but i wonder what his pay-cheque is like compared with BJFE'sI wouldn't be surprised if he makes more than Bjorn - the real money maker from BJF pedals is Harri who is the main distributor and owns Custom Sounds&Mad Professor /2 cents it doesn't bother me so much anymore ever since they banned me on TGP. it's more fun to sit at the side-line and enjoy the time we're in right now where most of the guitar playing lawyers haven't caught on that vintage stompboxes are far more interesting than the boutique {censored}. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCmnnCXfzbk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nightraven Posted January 2, 2012 Members Share Posted January 2, 2012 And yet George Tripps is a cool builder He did the exact same thing as above (albeit before the advent of the Internet). All he did was take classic pedal designs (DM-2,Ross Compressor,Octavia etc.),slightly tweak them and use true bypass. Tripps did it 15 years ago when nobody else was doing it. top build quality and low prices. you'd expect that by now quality would be better and prices lower but the exact opposite has happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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