Boutique Pedal Manufacturers Are Feeling the Tariff Pinch

While I feel you reap what you sow, it's sad when others get caught up in the results.

That being said, many American businesses have been short sighted and we've been in a long decline for any type of physical manufacturing. Relocating manufacturing plants, fabs, and knowledge overseas for decades in search of easy profit margins at the detriment of long term stability and ability to weather a storm such as this.

Can Americans rebuild a strong manufacturing system again? Yes. Can we rebuild and restart it quickly? The answer to that remains to be seen, but I do not hold out much hope given the current political climate.
 
It's not about pedals, but it is a deep dive into what it's like to try to manufacture a product in the US.


TL;DW The expertise just isn't here for some things any more. Even if we wanted to train new workers, the people who knew how to do certain manufacturing processes are retired or dead.
 
Aleph Null said:
It's not about pedals, but it is a deep dive into what it's like to try to manufacture a product in the US.


TL;DW The expertise just isn't here for some things any more. Even if we wanted to train new workers, the people who knew how to do certain manufacturing processes are retired or dead.
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I was just going to link this, I watched it last week. Crazy how their shipment from india turned out to be a drop ship from China. I also did not know about the issue with grill scrubbers.

Stuff like that just makes me think of the companies decades ago who moved their production overseas to combat the fading post war economy, rather than having the perspective to save and plan for the future. But I guess the 20th century was a crazy time
 
After looking at Bob's donation record in view of his total lack of awareness regarding the orange guy's tariff plans, I think it's time to introduce him to Tablebeast*. Then our new neurodivergent member can ask Bob why the f### he doesn't publish Mouser BoMs for all *his* pedals.

* Check out https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/mouser-boms-with-better-parts-quality.26393/ if you haven't seen it

Edit: fixed typo...
 
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Its a thing.

I've said in the past that I've got a personal connection to Mr. Keeley - in that he grew up with my cousin. On my mom's side.

I love my cousin. He's a great dude, has led an interesting life. He's a meteorologist in Oklahoma, which means that he's got a particular interest, expertise, and experience with tornados.

He and his wife are lovely people. But they're also lifelong republicans that supported Trump the last few election cycles. And, even with all his experience with the weather and atmospheric studies...he doesn't believe that manmade climate change exists.

That said:

Supporting and donating to Trump is one thing. That's a particular social contaigon that I can understand to a certain extent.

Senate campaigns outside one's state, unfortunately, indicate that this guy has been sucked into the vortex of the right wing grifter's disinfosphere.

Which is a frightening place that I dip my toes into every so often just to see what the particular psychos who want to murder me believe is true this week.

But I also kinda get how people fall into these traps. Ya know. Cause everything is kinda shitty. One just, with endless futility, hopes that people can see through the bullshit.

I'm an optimist. Really. Except I'm not. To simultaneously quote the senator from Iowa and Nathan Explosion:

We're all going to die.
 
I mean, he was announcing for years that he wanted to do more tariffs, particularly on China, so one shouldn’t have been surprised that there’s more tariffs…
 
Stickman393 said:
6Its a thing.

I've said in the past that I've got a personal connection to Mr. Keeley - in that he grew up with my cousin. On my mom's side.

I love my cousin. He's a great dude, has led an interesting life. He's a meteorologist in Oklahoma, which means that he's got a particular interest, expertise, and experience with tornados.

He and his wife are lovely people. But they're also lifelong republicans that supported Trump the last few election cycles. And, even with all his experience with the weather and atmospheric studies...he doesn't believe that manmade climate change exists.

That said:

Supporting and donating to Trump is one thing. That's a particular social contaigon that I can understand to a certain extent.

Senate campaigns outside one's state, unfortunately, indicate that this guy has been sucked into the vortex of the right wing grifter's disinfosphere.

Which is a frightening place that I dip my toes into every so often just to see what the particular psychos who want to murder me believe is true this week.

But I also kinda get how people fall into these traps. Ya know. Cause everything is kinda shitty. One just, with endless futility, hopes that people can see through the bullshit.

I'm an optimist. Really. Except I'm not. To simultaneously quote the senator from Iowa and Nathan Explosion:

We're all going to die.
Click to expand...

The worst part about this is how caustic American politics has become. We are being propogandized to want to murder each other over stuff that can be solved by earnest dialogue and good faith cooperation. I'm trying to stay optimistic in thinking most people would be willing to do that if we could only dismantle the propoganda outlets and use reason and critical thinking.

Nah, we're boned.
 
bean said:
The worst part about this is how caustic American politics has become. We are being propogandized to want to murder each other over stuff that can be solved by earnest dialogue and good faith cooperation. I'm trying to stay optimistic in thinking most people would be willing to do that if we could only dismantle the propoganda outlets and use reason and critical thinking.

Nah, we're boned.
Click to expand...


TL;DW Probably less than 10% of people believe what we are told 50% believe. You're much more likely to hear the extreme positions of the opposition and not the much more common and moderate opinions.
 
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