Pedal Builders: Are effects your full time job?

[phishmarisol]

Just wondering how many guys out there are relying on effects for their entire income. Not thinking of making a go of it, just curious.

[kmcypress]

I'm not a pedal builder/seller but my guess would be that it depends on the amount of business they are getting. My guess that people like Mike Fuller and Analogman are able to have full-time jobs. Just a guess...


I'm curious too..

[phishmarisol]

Well I assumed that Analog Mike and Z Vex both do it as their only source of income...more curious about some of the smaller guys.

[Marcus Dahl]

No. I do other things too. Play music and odd and end jobs for other people along with building effects. I got tired of the rat race. I watched for a long time with my father. I got into it for a while and decided it wasn't for me.

[duderanimous]

I wish effects were my full time job 'cause they don't let me drink beer at my "real" job

I build because I enjoy creating something that others really enjoy and helps them be more creative musically in return. The feedback I get from people who buy my pedals and can't believe that they can get what I make at a reasonable price is really cool. Oh, and to fund my guitar habit too

[zachary vex]

it's been my full-time job since the day i built my first zvex pedal. i didn't have any choice... i was out of a job. i'd been working as a recording engineer, and the studio where i worked closed to move... they didn't open again for a year, and by then, i was doing better with pedals than i'd been doing with local recording, which was dying because of home studios.

much like anything in life, you have to take risks if you want to get something.

[Brian Marshall]

As of last april i have been full time.

[doug deeper]

ive been full time since june.
and its does the job

[McFuzz Maker]

Originally posted by zachary vex [/ much like anything in life, you have to take risks if you want to get something.

 

 

yeah. i read a little about Mr. vex in analog man's book. killer book BTW.

its been a little over 2 1/2 Years for me now ful time. its tough sometimes. still gig 2 nites a week too though. most of the time.

[Guest Anonymous]

Kinda the same story for me as Mr. Vex... although I had a job... working at Subway making sandwhiches for the University of Texas kids at lunch. *vomit*

Fortunately I had the support of my family during the first year of business to help get the company off the ground (by giving me a place to stay while I built up the business)... so although I've been doing nothing but E13 for two years now, I truly have been on my own two feet since October 2004.

devi-

[dot-dot-dot]

Nope; it is a hobby that brings in a little bit of gear money.

[Aster Blistok]

i would like to ask do majority of full time job pedal builders work alone or have manufacture with hired assistants?

[Guest Anonymous]

Originally posted by Aster Blistok i would like to ask do majority of full time job pedal builders work alone or have manufacture with hired assistants?

 

 

I currently work alone but am a hop, skip, and jump away from hiring help.

 

devi-

[McFuzz Maker]

all alone here. i drill my boxes, populate my boards, Etch my own boards,stuff the boxes. test, write the promos & blurbs , inventory control,market & ship.. i have an Lockheed EE friend[she's a Rocket Scientist] that helps me with board layouts and other problems.And i have a local screener. Plus i build for Tonefactor [Hellbilly-Squeeze Factor-Hellbaby]as well as PedalworX stuff. .. i dont trust anyone to hel;p me right now. most "helpers" dont give a damn. plus i cant afford it .

[Brian Marshall]

Originally posted by Aster Blistok i would like to ask do majority of full time job pedal builders work alone or have manufacture with hired assistants?

 

 

It's just me for now, but hopefully after i move back to portland, my wife will be doing all of the non building parts of the biz.... books, website, and other stuff.

[Dave Fox]

I quit my day job of 16+ years to do Foxrox full time. It was in april of 2001. At the time I was gigging 2-3 times a week, working the day job which required late hours and traveling, and I was starting to build Captain Coconuts. So I was busy all the time.

My wife made it clear that something had to go.. you know how women are, I couldn't argue with her. We have two kids and they weren't seeing enough of me. So I quit the band, that would free me up on the weekends. But it still wasn't enough and I wasn't about to stop making Captain Coconuts, they were selling faster than I could make them. So I risked everything and quit the day job and got back in the band before they could hire a replacement.

Now I make pedals and play guitar for a living. And I'm a Mr. Mom half the time. I sleep late, stay out late, do whatever the hell I want. I always hated having to deal with a "real job". I'm working with a factory owned by my old Crest Audio buddies and if all goes as planned, they'll be pumping out Octrons and all of my future pedals.

[Euthymia]

Euthymia Electronics is my fulltime job, but that includes amp repair as well as building the pedals.

I also pick up the occasional consulting gig laying out printed circuit boards for other manufacturers or doing my old job, computer network engineering.

It's all me; my girlfriend help me set up my accounting system.

[incubass]

Originally posted by Dave Fox I quit my day job of 16+ years to do Foxrox full time. It was in april of 2001. At the time I was gigging 2-3 times a week, working the day job which required late hours and traveling, and I was starting to build Captain Coconuts. So I was busy all the time. My wife made it clear that something had to go.. you know how women are, I couldn't argue with her. We have two kids and they weren't seeing enough of me. So I quit the band, that would free me up on the weekends. But it still wasn't enough and I wasn't about to stop making Captain Coconuts, they were selling faster than I could make them. So I risked everything and quit the day job and got back in the band before they could hire a replacement. Now I make pedals and play guitar for a living. And I'm a Mr. Mom half the time. I sleep late, stay out late, do whatever the hell I want. I always hated having to deal with a "real job". I'm working with a factory owned by my old Crest Audio buddies and if all goes as planned, they'll be pumping out Octrons and all of my future pedals.

 

 

That's a great story man!

[LongJohnny]

I quit my engineering job about 4 month ago, and have been working on my business for about 2 years total. I have another job, plus I am going to school to be a pharmacist.

I am not the kind of person that likes to work for large companies, which I have done for the last 6 years. I have the taste of owning my own business, and I like it.

I do build pedals and mod them for local people, but most of my income in my business comes from local shops that I make rounds of every week. I thought I was mainly going to be selling to the "net" or HC, but that is not the case.

I do have a helper, that does my domestic shipping, and I handle international orders.

Cool thing about when I get done with Pharmacy school is that I will buy my own pharmacy, as opposed to working for someone else.

As Zac said, you have to take risks in order to reap rewards.

John

[doug deeper]

Originally posted by Aster Blistok i would like to ask do majority of full time job pedal builders work alone or have manufacture with hired assistants?

 

 

im working alone at the moment.

but im "training" a couple dudes at the moment.

[ToadWorks]

My story is similar to Z - I got laid off back in 2001 and I started building Mr. Ed pedals in my garage.

However, about a year later I got offered another IT job, so I moved to San Diego and worked full time, then I came home every night to work full time on ToadWorks.

When I moved back to San Francisco it was the same situation, I worked full time as the IT Director for a software company, but I couldn't keep it up, so we hired a couple employees, and they worked full time, and I worked part time at ToadWorks in the evenings.

And then the company I was working for went under, the assets were sold, and I was out of a job, so I said screw this, it's time to do ToadWorks full time.
So, we moved someplace cheap (Spokane, WA), and ToadWorks has been my full time job for almost a year.

I still get calls to do IT work, so every couple months I'll fly down to the Bay Area to do some consulting for a week - it takes me away from ToadWorks for a week, but the money I can make in that amount of time pays the bills for 6 months, so I can't pass it up.

[Speeddemon]

Originally posted by dot-dot-dot Nope; it is a hobby that brings in a little bit of gear money.

same here.

Since I'm still improving my skills (soldering, painting) I wouldn't want to dive in fully (yet). Also, the market for 'boutique' stuff in Europe is way smaller than in the U.S.

Even if I'd become a fulltime pedalbuilder, I'd still have to rely on social security/wellfare...

[Marcus Dahl]

Well, I got the idea to do this back when I was working in a factory building dehumidifiers and airconditioners. This was about 7 years ago. I got layed off, and sat around the house drinking coffee and building prototypes. Then I started working for a guitar shop and saw how all of the localo guys were trading pedals all of the time. Even coming back a week latter and buying the same thing they had before. So two of the guys that I worked with had me build them some pedals. They wanted me to start building them. My wife decided to build a house out in bfe and I quite my job at the guitar shop to over see the consturction of the house. This was because my job was an hour and a half one way. So I started building pedals when I wasn't over seeing the construction and playing out on the weekends. It's something I really enjoy doing even though it's part time for now. That's all I pretty much do is play music, build pedals, and guitar tech ever once in a while for some of my friends. I'm happy.

[Bruce Bennett]

I'm always torn between doing this full time and just keeping it small time. the expendable capital has never really been there to ramp it up much further.

I started building my first pedal design in "95 while I was still working on the Warrior Instruments line up.

Glad I did! cause just 3 years later, I was out on my butt with no job and a brand new house payment.
But the pedals really didn't make me much "real" cash.. just enough to eat on. So I started Bennett Music Labs as a prototypeing shop for other companies. which paid the bills for a few years, but it never really got where I wanted it to be.

Now I work as a luthier, full time for a local music store and I build Custom Guitars, Pedals, Amps and Speaker Cabs whenever I can find a few spare minutes.

I'm totally Slammed in work, Plus I get a regular paycheck.. so It must be all good.

it would be nice to just do one thing though. My problem ( I think) is, everything i do, is at just about the same skill level. So I can never decide which one to do full time? Plus I get bored easily..

and Now! I currently, am sitting on 3 opportunities from MAJOR companies.. but alas, "Fundage" is the problem again.
I swear , one of these days, I'm gonna meet someone with the capital AND they won't be thinking so "small time"... then we'll see what occurs.

[Marcus Dahl]

Originally posted by Bruce Bennett I'm always torn between doing this full time and just keeping it small time. the expendable capital has never really been there to ramp it up much further. I started building my first pedal design in "95 while I was still working on the Warrior Instruments line up. Glad I did! cause just 3 years later, I was out on my butt with no job and a brand new house payment. But the pedals really didn't make me much "real" cash.. just enough to eat on. So I started Bennett Music Labs as a prototypeing shop for other companies. which paid the bills for a few years, but it never really got where I wanted it to be. Now I work as a luthier, full time for a local music store and I build Custom Guitars, Pedals, Amps and Speaker Cabs whenever I can find a few spare minutes. I'm totally Slammed in work, Plus I get a regular paycheck.. so It must be all good. it would be nice to just do one thing though. My problem ( I think) is, everything i do, is at just about the same skill level. So I can never decide which one to do full time? Plus I get bored easily.. and Now! I currently, am sitting on 3 opportunities from MAJOR companies.. but alas, "Fundage" is the problem again. I swear , one of these days, I'm gonna meet someone with the capital AND they won't be thinking so "small time"... then we'll see what occurs.

I'm in kind of the same boat as far as expanding capital. I like being small, but would like to have enough work to be busier than what I am. I've got plans in the works to cut my line back, get a good web site, and find the money for advertising. Wish me luck.