Commercial Build vs DIY Build

The average pedal buyer (i.e. people not on this forum) isn’t ever looking at pedal guts to assess quality.

They’re saying to themselves:
“Well, I could buy from Boss, who have sold millions of pedals over 40+ years, and don’t seem to be on the brink of bankruptcy due to constantly returns of defective merchandise”
-or-
“I could buy from some rando on Etsy who likes to boast about only using solid wire bent at precise right angles, whatever that means…”

🤷‍♀️
 
Cybercow said:
Marketing mostly.

Still marketing.

This also falls under marketing.

Pretty sure it's still a marketing thing.

I've seen a lot of shoddy soldering in commercial pedals. I believe it comes down to marketing.

None of the above. It comes down to marketing.

When the DIY build gets "marketed" it turns into something at the commercial level.

Has anyone mentioned marketing yet?
Click to expand...
I work in marketing, and as a graphic designer have the ability to make really really pretty things. I’ve also fallen into product design things before and the last build of a small batch of things I sold were beautiful wee things that looked amazing and I was designing in quicker assembly process timing and automating some things - (I still sold them at a price that ignored any design time and paid me way way below minimum wage for assembly - so I’ll not do that again…)

So yes, marketing is great- and can get you a long way - what I think the difference is though is electrical engineering chops - I can bodge together things, I can work out what to fiddle with on a breadboard to ‘tune’ a circuit (though knowing what to aim for would be marketing again) - but a lot of the time I don’t intimately know what I’m doing… other people do - and for me that’s the difference.
Some things you just look at and go “yeah I just need to pay you for your work so I can enjoy this thing”.

Mind you that doesn’t answer the original question as there’s some DIY folk on here and elsewhere who know their stuff more than most.




But yeah, there’s also a correlation of brilliant engineers seeming to have awful understanding of design and brand and marketing …
 
jimilee said:
An accountant.
Click to expand...

⁉️

2e027ca900bcbd1c8b12c0f778f22f13.jpg





LukeFRC said:
I work in marketing, and as a graphic designer have the ability to make really really pretty things. I’ve also fallen into product design things before and the last build of a small batch of things I sold were beautiful wee things that looked amazing and I was designing in quicker assembly process timing and automating some things - (I still sold them at a price that ignored any design time and paid me way way below minimum wage for assembly - so I’ll not do that again…)

So yes, marketing is great- and can get you a long way - what I think the difference is though is electrical engineering chops - I can bodge together things, I can work out what to fiddle with on a breadboard to ‘tune’ a circuit (though knowing what to aim for would be marketing again) - but a lot of the time I don’t intimately know what I’m doing… other people do - and for me that’s the difference.
Some things you just look at and go “yeah I just need to pay you for your work so I can enjoy this thing”.

Mind you that doesn’t answer the original question as there’s some DIY folk on here and elsewhere who know their stuff more than most.




But yeah, there’s also a correlation of brilliant engineers seeming to have awful understanding of design and brand and marketing …
Click to expand...
There are some excellent examples of Enginurding chops out there in the Pedal Industry, to be sure...
And yet still plenty of successful Pedal Companies without engineers at the helm — for example Eerth Quicker Devised's Jammy-Still-Whelp "designs" surekuts that are then "corrected" in the Boneyard by CBD. 🤷‍♂️
 
Feral Feline said:
⁉️

2e027ca900bcbd1c8b12c0f778f22f13.jpg






There are some excellent examples of Enginurding chops out there in the Pedal Industry, to be sure...
And yet still plenty of successful Pedal Companies without engineers at the helm — for example Eerth Quicker Devised's Jammy-Still-Whelp "designs" surekuts that are then "corrected" in the Boneyard by CBD. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
If Stillman or Wampler or Scott or Ackerman had engineering degrees and/ or student loans, their wives probably would have made them quit screwing with pedals out in the shed and go get real jobs.
 
For me its comparing apples to oranges.

In my mind it should be DIYFY, Do It Yourself For Yourself. When I build something, be it a pedal, amp, or anything else I'm building it because I get a joy from the process of building. Saving $$$ isn't a consideration. At nearly 60 years old my time, to me, is simply too valuable to waste on something I don't enjoy. I never build with the intention of selling. Rather I build it for myself or someone in particular.

For the record I fall under the category of one who sources the parts and spends a considerable amount of time on the artwork. I take my time assembling the circuit board, verifying each component's value prior to soldering it in. My failure rate so far (knock on wood) is zero on initial power-up. If I were to sell my one-off pedals, even at top boutique prices, I'd be making only a few dollars an hour, far below the poverty level.

I'd like to point out that while DIY is often handmade, handmade is not necessarily DIY.
 
GAStan said:
Do It Yourself For Yourself
Click to expand...
That's a good point.

I do sell some pedals to make room for the next ones I want to build, but all the decisions that go into my build process are based on what I want for myself and what makes the work enjoyable. That ensures that my operation would never be a viable business, and is definitely distinct from a commercial operation.
 
Definitely a curse, because (to clarify*) I'm not getting my own builds built let alone finding yet more time to build for others.



*After re-reading my previous post, I realised it could be misconstrued to mean "I'm so busy building for friends I don't have time for my own builds."
 
Feral Feline said:
Definitely a curse, because (to clarify*) I'm not getting my own builds built let alone finding yet more time to build for others.



*After re-reading my previous post, I realised it could be misconstrued to mean "I'm so busy building for friends I don't have time for my own builds."
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. I'm on my own waiting list right now
 
Feral Feline said:
Definitely a curse, because (to clarify*) I'm not getting my own builds built let alone finding yet more time to build for others.



*After re-reading my previous post, I realised it could be misconstrued to mean "I'm so busy building for friends I don't have time for my own builds."
Click to expand...
Well....you should just find the time! All the fancy influencers on LinkedIn, motivational speakers and blogs say you that if you sleep only 2 hours a night and work 7 days a week, 365 days a year, you too could possibly be successful! Just sayin'

Back on topic, if you are getting that many requests, clearly you are bringing something of value to the table and they realize it.
 
CheapSuitG said:
Well....you should just find the time! All the fancy influencers on LinkedIn, motivational speakers and blogs say you that if you sleep only 2 hours a night and work 7 days a week, 365 days a year, you too could possibly be successful! Just sayin'

Back on topic, if you are getting that many requests, clearly you are bringing something of value to the table and they realize it.
Click to expand...
I'm already averaging between 2 and 4 hours per night... S'TRUTH!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top