Hobby ∞ Craft ∞ Career

fig

fig

Village Idiot
A selfie if you will. A superficial self-E(xamination) of your involvement in this activity.

Not meant to pigeon-hole anyone as even in my brief involvement I've seen folks seemingly switch categories ;)

Me? Hobby...though I have come to truly appreciate and admire the craftsmanship involved with this activity on many levels. My strategy has always been to be the "dumbest person in the room", and I have truly achieved that amongst all of you.

Do you see yourself shifting / evolving from one category to another?
I'd like to be considered a craftsman at anything, but hobbyist I am.
 
This is a really great post!

I think my answer has changed since I started building effects back in 2006, back then I was too poor to have nice stuff and was always fixing things to keep them going, so pure necessity.

In 2009 it changed from necessity to a hobby that turned into a tone quest and fresh pedals to accompany my new amp build. Then it morphed into building and starting "Flabby Choad" Studios in my basement. Staying to my DIY roots but branching out past pedals, into microphones and preamps and splitters and routers and what not.

In 2017 I had my studio, my studio pedal board, my amp rack and was working on songs with people and then my wife said its time we moved. So we up and moved. Smaller studio, whole new set of ideas and wants. I sold almost all of my commercial gear and went the path of DIY. Then I started this whole painting thing and then the youtoob thing.

My involvement went from necessity to hobby to madness to obsession to my whole second life. At the end of the day it is still my hobby but I spend all of my free time doing it and I am glad I do.
 
I started building for a school project in 2013 and haven't been able to stop. It started as a combination of curiosity and not being able to afford things, and then people started offering to buy my builds so I've had people funding the hobby more or less from the beginning.

I think I'm at the "craft" stage now? I accidentally stumbled into a niche in 2020 and have been trying to keep up ever since, which entailed setting up an LLC and buying a bunch of WAY too expensive tools.

I keep getting asked if I'm planning to quit my day job and do this as a career, as my 2021 pedal-related income exceeded my total income in 2019, but I like my day job and I'm afraid of risks. If I was a young single dude I would absolutely go for it full-time, but I have a wife and kids that depend on me for support, so I like having a steady paycheck and benefits, so the hobby money is just a "nice-to-have" second income.
 
Unquestionably hobby over here with no intentions of professionalism. I started building pedals due to my lutherie activities. Sort of an "I already have an iron, might as well get better at soldering" kind of thing. I've wanted to build instruments since I was in high school and this hobby supports, informs, and inspires the craft I'm aiming to master.
 
I built my first about ten years ago and then that was it till about two years ago. I started with Vero builds and then discovered premade PCBs and ran with it.

Through grad school I always had jobs that required manual labor and basic building skills, but after school I sat around in offices talking to people all day. I have been bored out of my skull ever since and spent a lot of time trying various hobbies that required using my hands to make things. I did modeling for a bit and then discovered blacksmithing and that took over.

About two and a half years ago the forge I was a member of burned down (not our fault! It was a neighboring fireworks show) and I had to find something else to do and I got back in to pedal building. I did a few Vero boards then discovered this place and ran with it.

It's a hobby. I've sold a handful of pedals but only to friends and family. I've given away more than I've sold. I just need to do something with my hands. Something physical where I can see the results and improve on them. I don't mind selling pedals, but I don't want any expectations. The idea of me having customers whose timetables and desires are put on me seems miserable and would suck any fun I get from this hobby.
 
I am a hobbyist full on, born out of a desire to test a lot of different circuits w/o paying commercial prices. I build for myself and I’m not fancy, so neither are my pedals. So long as they make the sounds and are built to last, I’m happy. I have sold a few that I didn’t get along with, but never had any delusions of grandeur ab making a ton of money off it, Just enough to recoup parts cost and if lucky a few bucks more to toss at the next project. It is deeply satisfying to me to build a real, tangible, functional thing, something I hope I can pass onto my kids who are more concerned with “virtual” building at this point, whether it be a pedal, an instrument, or even just a wooden picnic table.
 
It's a distraction for me. I wouldn't even classify it as a hobby. I started 15 years ago with headphone amps, then hybrid amps, a few tube amps/preamps/speakers here and there and then started pedals a few years ago. I've never built a guitar amp yet, but have all the stuff to do it. In fact, I don't even have a pedalboard put together, although I do own a classic Pedaltrain. I usually build a pedal, play it by itself for a bit, then up on the shelf it goes.
 
I started building in May of 2020. I had been wanting to do it for ages and ages. I spent most of the last decade in academia, and barely picked up a guitar. In 2019 I got a Les Paul, and slowly started getting back into it. By May 2020 I had a lot of free time on my hands (…) and finally started to get into it. One pedal led to another, and so on. I too, like others, built the stuff I wanted to try but couldn’t afford. Then I found out about Big Muff’s, and am basically obsessed.

I don’t think I would ever turn it into a career. Firstly, I hold myself to my standard. If it looks ugly but plays great, I’m happy. I don’t want to worry about quality control…it would take the fun out of it. Secondly, there are a billion different pedal “brands” out there. The last thing anyone needs is one more pedal builder. There are only so many old DOD’s to be remade…
 
The hobby has taken me with a vengeance at this point. I got into it after needing a volume pedal to sit in my effects loop to drop the volume, and now it's a way to enjoy all the varieties of pedal experimentation without having to pay €300 for a €60 pedal.

My aim is to turn it into a craft, get cleaner builds and up my graphics game. Then the plan would be to do small runs of pedals which are either sought after, or I think are must-haves, register a business here in Germany, and try to make a little gear money. I don't/can't compete with the day job, nor do I want to turn it into something I despise, but if I can get some money to spend on more blackjack and hookers whilst honing my skills.. I'm all for it. (Plus tax write-offs in Germany would mean I can build for even cheaper!)
 
Hobby here, don't aspire to make it anything more. I sometimes share builds that don't work for me with friends whom they might, and occasional build a pedal to send a friend I think they would like. I've had people request builds and insist on paying something on occasion, that money just goes into more builds to play or share.
 
One thing that endears me to the craft is that there is a community of sharing and helping others. On top of that, it's something that can be done into an older age. I don't think I could be doing guitar setups past 60 years of age, fret leveling and polishing would kill me.

We are in what I think is still a golden age of pedals, we can still get germanium and the old-style components semi-easily, DSP is there to tinker with, UV printing, access to global supply chains.. it's a builder's paradise.

Then you throw in the fact that there are still "original builders" around, who honed their skills in a time before 3PDT, sharing what they've learned. It's a great time to be building.
 
Diynot said:
@szukalski golden age indeed now that we all need the tube amp “feel/tone” out of those transistors at the front end of the solid state amps we’ll all be playing soon now that tubes are dying……again🤣
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Mine started as a way to create and find something I had lost. I built guitars, amps, pedals, sold a few. Didn’t really like (selling for me) it but I found I wanted to do more. So I started a company that launches next month. All profits go to cancer research there have been some really great people that have encouraged me along the way (most probably don't even know it.) so thank you! I don’t pocket any money from the project and the goal is to raise awareness and obviously money for research. I really didn’t want to start a company to do this but with the tax law changes there was no way for me to do it other than this way. This year is Play for P.I.N.K. Should it be a success there are other organizations I would love to work with. I owe a lot to Make a Wish, Camp Sunshine, Give Kids the World, and BCRF.

Anyways I consider this a hobby that may have run wild… but I already have a career so… it’s not that.
 
thewintersoldier said:
I give you guys credit who want to turn it into a craft or a side hustle. I get quite a few inquiries on Instagram to do custom work or a duplicate of what I post. I can usually tell within a few mins whether or not I'm gonna build for them. I set the price and time frame and make them commit to the design and take half up front. Even then it's still a hassle but I do it usually for people who are pretty cool. I can't imagine sucking the fun out to do runs of pedals just to deal with tire kickers. I'd rather do builds for friends or people who appreciate good work and pay appropriately. I'd probably do like @Betty Wont and just build and sell it if it's not for me and secure the bag.
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This and the idea of having any sort of guarantee on my boxes makes me want to throw up. If I give it to you and you break it I don't have to fix it.
 
I was unhappy with guitar techs so I bought a soldering iron and fixed loose jack wires, rewired my Strat for different pickup configurations etc. What was I gonna do with a soldering iron in the closet? I started building the pedals that I wanted. Much like I learned Polish while living in Italy so I moved to Poland to use the language.

I got really excited with the hobby a couple of years ago but I had some financial setbacks and I had to stop. I'm still trying to procure all the components I need but it's been tough. Many are not available, I've had to buy from many different vendors and I still don't know what to do about the enclosures. I live in Europe so every purchase from outside the EU comes with enthusiastic shipping costs that are getting harder to eat as the cost of life has increased a lot here in Poland. Oh, there's also a war next door now.

I want to build some pedals to make music but I also want to continue making more because making things with my hands is fun and electricity is so groovy.

 
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