Pedal Builders: Are effects your full time job?

[The Great Waldo Pepper]

banned of brothers

bearded too?

[amp_surgeon]

I started out as an electronics tech a looong time ago, and eventually became an engineer, first in aerospace and eventually in consumer electronics. I switched to software in the late 80's when I saw the bottom falling out from under the electronic engineering job market. Everyone said I was crazy. They said that computers were basically toys and game machines. The only people who seemed to really know better were the creative types; musicians and graphic artists. My first programming gig was writing MIDI software. I took a 30% cut in pay to make the move. Within five years I saw some of my old EE buddies serving fast food and working at 7-11, and my salary had tripled.

Now I work for a big game software publisher as a core audio technology programmer. That's the gig that pays the bills. I never stopped working with electronics, though. Troubleshooting a broken circuit is like doing a crossword puzzle - just a really fun kind of brain teaser. Designing and building a circuit is satisfying in a way that software development will never be. I guess every guy has an "inner craftsman" that just wants to be able to hold the fruits of your labor in your hand and admire it.

When I started making pedals to sell a couple of years ago I honestly thought it would someday become a full-time gig. I've played with the numbers many times, though. I would have to ship a LOT of pedals to make enough to replace my current income. WAY more pedals than I could possibly build by myself. Even now, I only personally build about 10% of the pedals I ship. I'm still doing 100% of the inspection and testing, though. After catching a tech passing stuff that was out of spec I'm just paranoid about shipping a broken pedal.

In order to make the jump and quit my day job I'd have to invest a lot of time and money into developing enough products and hiring enough people to increase my production capacity to the point where I could afford to do it. The hardest part, for me, is that I'd have to lease manufacturing space and stop working at home. I just don't have enough space for the number of assemblers I'd need.

I love working at home. Having to go to a factory every day would suck some of the fun out of it.

[Sir_Dr_Lawyer]

Olde tyme thread! Pedals have been my full time job since December 2009. I have 1 full time employee, 2 part timers and my wife helps with what she calls the "lady bits" (putting the parts on enclosures) when we are real busy. I was working as a graphic designer and tour manager simultaneously for the first few years of Eqd. The $ was good but the hours sucked. I think I slept for about 30 hours between 2006-2009. I definitely made the right choice quiting everything else but no one told me how much office work was actually involved with running a full time business. Sometimes I feel more like a book keeper/secretary/collections officer. It's nice when the only thing I have to do is work on new circuits though

[jnepo1]

Great thread!!!

[Hiwatt Bob]

alot of people ask me, "hey hawanna, we know you are a DJ, but tell us which is your real job?"

[YOUTUBE]M-6k-8GgtsM[/YOUTUBE]

[macadood]

cool thread i've always been interested in this and no one would ever answer me didnt know there was a thread dedicated to it

 

and nice video hiwatt bob

[erksin]

"It is a thing like pain in ass, no?"

[Hiwatt Bob]

"It is a thing like pain in ass, no?"

i love that he uses "Tequila" to demo it--

[IndyGuitarist]

Full time for me, plus it allows me to be a stay at home dad. I hire out bits and pieces depending on how busy I am -- I have a couple of guys who I totally trust who help me catch up on pedals when I'm behind. I actually enjoy writing my books more than assembling pedals all day though -- that tends to seem too much like factory work so I design the pedals, have a fellow in Washington who builds them, sends them to me, I double check everything and test each and every pedal before sending them out the door. It's quite a bit of fun when things are running smoothly.

Wow, what a memory blast.
So much I've learned since 2005, about life, business, and myself.

[Bobby D]

"you can play guitter with it too, it's FUN!"

love that dude

[humancertainty]

Thanks for bringing this back, Rev.

[Harry_Manback1]

Excellent bump - fun read.

[ShortScaleMike]

I have a day job as an Electronic Design Engineer, I design and test cutting-edge 3D Graphics Chips for mobile devices.

 

MadeByMike.co.uk is my second job. It helps a little with the economic situation here in the UK at the moment, and to be honest has also satiated a lot of my desire for gear since I build my own pedals now, and have found a guitar and amp setup I am really happy with (Jaguar/Mustang into Marshall 6100 if you're interested). Currently I build on the weekends and some evenings when I'm not doing other stuff. It's a tricky balancing act to balance the day job, the pedals, my band and having good time to spend with my girlfriend, but I'm hyperactive so the Energy to do all this stuff has never been a problem for me.

 

Some things, such as making pedal demos have obviously suffered though since I don't have the time these days. One day I'll maybe try to make a go of going fulltime on the pedals, but I would have to change a lot about the way I work to move from a second job to principle form of income. I currently have a 4-6 week waiting time on average and my order list stays a pretty constant length, only spiking occasionally. Many of my builds are custom work. If I was to go fulltime I'd have to also produce large quantities of standard pedals to sell direct or via dealers.

 

Going full-time obviously involves a great deal of effort, pain and business stuff not a lot of builders want to deal with. I think it's a nice dream for a lot of people, but the reality can be quite daunting.

[RoboPimp]

It's a dogs work

 

[OXFUZZ]

It`s all that`s keeping me above water..... and just barely.

[RoboPimp]

[cmog]

I work full-time for MI Audio and have for three years now. I started making pedals but now build the two amps in the line - the Revelation and Megalith. I also have my own business on the side, cubisteffects, where I repair/mod/circuit bend pedals and synths. This is becoming more and more popular and I hope I can do my own thing full-time one day.

But I've seen first hand at MI how tough it is for Mike to run a pedal business - especially in Australia where we are so far away from EU/US. I'm glad I just build and don't have to deal with distributors/stockists/suppliers etc.

[devi]

Yup... since 2003.

In 2003 I lived in the backroom of a house full of hippies.

In 2004 I lived in my parents guest house (makes them sound rich... the "guest house" was really just a one room thing in the back yard in a suburb outside a suburb).

In 2005 I got my first apartment by myself until I fell in love some stupid girl.

In 2006 moved out to the west coast and sustained a living for my girlfriend and myself for a few years till the bitch left me in 2009.

Have been living in a nice sized place by myself since... finally bought a car... got some business projects I have to funnel money into, but definitely getting a house within the next two years I hope.

I figured I'd explain all this via my living situations just to give you an idea of the kind of upward movement a one-person pedal operation can achieve over a certain amount of time.

This has proven to be the same kind of upward movement for other friends of mine who've gotten into the industry after myself, Malekko being a big-achiever... Dwarfcraft and Fuzz Hugger being along the same level as myself.

Honestly it's hard for me to imagine the industry ever -not-having room for anyone who wants to get in on the action. I've been constantly amazed at the love that can go around regardless of everything that is already out there.

The trick is you really have to be committed to the craziness of the industry, which pretty much amounts to dealing with the best and worst of retail situations... customers... and the endless hours of circuit design, production, and business management that only someone certifiable would be willing to explore on their own at first.

It's a living.

[Brian Marshall]

The trick is you really have to be committed to the craziness of the industry, which pretty much amounts to dealing with the best and worst of retail situations... customers... and the endless hours of circuit design, production, and business management that only someone certifiable would be willing to explore on their own at first. It's a living.

This is the truth... Since I left my old job back in 2005, the biggest thing I realized was that I could make my company weather just about any storm if I had the will to do so. Even if today was bad tomorrow will be better. Don't spend your time thinking of "backup plans." If you do, you are far more likely to explore easier, yet far less enjoyable opportunities.

[wilsoneffectsll]

It's been part time for me ever since I've started. Although in the last year it's pretty much become a full time job once I get home from my day job. Although I work all the time I really don't consider the pedal biz a job as it's something that I really enjoy doing. I hope to one day do it full time as that would be a dream come true.
I operate as a one man operation. When I get really busy it can be sort of overwhelming at times as I do everything from etching the boards to prepping and drilling all the enclosures but I like it like that. Maybe one day the wife will help out. (Yeah Right!!!)
Good thread by the way. I've enjoyed reading it and would love to hear more about how other builders got it to the point of it being their full time job.

[Brian Marshall]

It's been part time for me ever since I've started. Although in the last year it's pretty much become a full time job once I get home from my day job. Although I work all the time I really don't consider the pedal biz a job as it's something that I really enjoy doing. I hope to one day do it full time as that would be a dream come true. I operate as a one man operation. When I get really busy it can be sort of overwhelming at times as I do everything from etching the boards to prepping and drilling all the enclosures but I like it like that. Maybe one day the wife will help out. (Yeah Right!!!) Good thread by the way. I've enjoyed reading it and would love to hear more about how other builders got it to the point of it being their full time job.

 

 

Man, i dont even etch prototypes anymore. I remember doing it. the mess, the smell, the destruction if you spilled that stuff anywhere.

 

I think we had our first boards outsourced in 2005. It was quite the investment at the time, but it freed me up to take care of other things. Even at the small scale we are at there's no way we could operate using handmade boards.

 

When you can afford it, id definitely recommend having some boards made.

[orourke]

Fascinating thread!

[THAT4301]

You can get boards fabbed ridiculously cheap these days even on the scale of singles.

[devi]

 

Man, i dont even etch prototypes anymore. I remember doing it. the mess, the smell, the destruction if you spilled that stuff anywhere. I think we had our first boards outsourced in 2005. It was quite the investment at the time, but it freed me up to take care of other things. Even at the small scale we are at there's no way we could operate using handmade boards. When you can afford it, id definitely recommend having some boards made.

 

 

This. A million times this.

[wilsoneffectsll]

Man, i dont even etch prototypes anymore. I remember doing it. the mess, the smell, the destruction if you spilled that stuff anywhere. I think we had our first boards outsourced in 2005. It was quite the investment at the time, but it freed me up to take care of other things. Even at the small scale we are at there's no way we could operate using handmade boards. When you can afford it, id definitely recommend having some boards made.

 

 

I've often thought about it at least for a few of the more popular pedals. Any recommendations as to where to get them done and what requirements there are file wise?

Thanks by the way.