I have the “I ran out of parts and money” blues

swelchy

swelchy

Well-known member
Been in a rut the past two weeks trying to complete some builds and some I didn’t have ic, transistors or film box caps to finish…. I let my caps stash get too low and now I need to buy 20-30 of a bunch of values to stock back up… I have a great stock of pots,resistors, switches,knobs,enclosures,diodes but dang I need to drop a big order on caps to get back to having everything I need to build… bummed till I can place an order… Then… there’s the wait 🤣
 
My sympathies.

I have about 10 PCBs on hold because I'm too broke to order enclosures. I'm also missing single components like uncommon dual gang pots or ICs that are only available in another country or continent.

Sourcing my own components was the biggest undertaking of the last few years. I've spent a ton of money, I have boxes and bags everywhere and I only have a couple of underwhelming builds to show for it.

I've run out of steam. Just the idea of having to put together another cart big enough to justify shipping and import fees makes wanna holler.
 
I'm waiting on someone to have Lumberg jacks in stock. I found some at Love My Switches (or whatever it's called) and finally bit the bullet and ordered a bunch - their shipping to Australia is high so I chose the cheapest option and by christmas I'll be building again. All the places I normally order from are out of stock indefinitely it seems. I like using 1590B enclosures and Lumbergs make it easier than most.
 
HamishR said:
I'm waiting on someone to have Lumberg jacks in stock. I found some at Love My Switches (or whatever it's called) and finally bit the bullet and ordered a bunch - their shipping to Australia is high so I chose the cheapest option and by christmas I'll be building again. All the places I normally order from are out of stock indefinitely it seems. I like using 1590B enclosures and Lumbergs make it easier than most.
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That's part of the reason I came up with my template/system for using Switchcraft style open jacks. Not so much the cost of the Lumbergs but inconsistent availability.

Genuine Switchcraft J11's aren't exactly cheap either but the quality is up there. I kinda feel like they are overkill for my own use. I'd definitely use them if I was a gigging musician or was selling my pedals (I don't do either).

I've been toying with some less expensive open frame jacks, like the Neutrik Rean jacks. But found that they actually don't work as well in a tight 1590B build because of the way the tip ring is inset in the wafer. The dimensions are just a mm or so off from the Switchcraft that its easy to ground out against the enclosure.

So the last batch of jacks I got I decided to try another cheaper brand, I got some GLS Audio jacks. I've read some mixed reviews but I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality. And they have a little extra bit of fiber wafer that extends past the tip/sleeve rings so that can snug up against the enclosure with no ground out issues. I'll probably buy them again when I run out.

Not sure if they are available in OZ or not....

GLS.jpg
 
HamishR said:
I'm waiting on someone to have Lumberg jacks in stock. I found some at Love My Switches (or whatever it's called) and finally bit the bullet and ordered a bunch - their shipping to Australia is high so I chose the cheapest option and by christmas I'll be building again. All the places I normally order from are out of stock indefinitely it seems. I like using 1590B enclosures and Lumbergs make it easier than most.
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I had a place in Germany. Hate to think of shipping down und but if you’re interested ping me.
 
andare said:
My sympathies.

I have about 10 PCBs on hold because I'm too broke to order enclosures. I'm also missing single components like uncommon dual gang pots or ICs that are only available in another country or continent.

Sourcing my own components was the biggest undertaking of the last few years. I've spent a ton of money, I have boxes and bags everywhere and I only have a couple of underwhelming builds to show for it.

I've run out of steam. Just the idea of having to put together another cart big enough to justify shipping and import fees makes wanna holler.
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EU? I found raw 1590B on Amazon for €6-7 each. They’re not high quality but good enough to do the job.
 
szukalski said:
EU? I found raw 1590B on Amazon for €6-7 each. They’re not high quality but good enough to do the job.
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I've used the "Dairtek" brand enclosures from Amazon and they're decent. In fact, I'm in the middle of watching the paint dry on one of them now 😄
 
szukalski said:
EU? I found raw 1590B on Amazon for €6-7 each. They’re not high quality but good enough to do the job.
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Yes but shopping from any EU country to Poland is 14 euros with DHL.
Musikding is out of painted 125B, so is Retroamplis in Spain. Local shops are out or TME and Mouser are twice as expensive.
Tayda seems the way to go cause they can also drill and print but I can only afford one order because of the shipping fees so I have to wait until I have all designs ready.

As I said I'm broke and it's gonna be a nippy winter in Poland for obvious reasons...
 
I hope huddling over a soldering iron can provide at least some warmth! I don't envy you. I have experienced how cold it can get in Europe and it's fun while you're a tourist but to live in the cold would get old very fast. It's starting to warm up here down under after a very mild winter.

I have loads of Switchcraft 11 and 12 Jacks but can't be bothered grinding out parts of the enclosure to fit the. I have plenty of tolexing of amp cabs to do in the meantime. I hate doing the tolex more than any other part of building an amp so it's probably a good reason to do it instead of piking out and building pedals. Actually it's the only part of building amps I dislike.
 
I feel. I’ve got a good backlog of parts, but I’m a student and don’t have a schedule conducive to working a job rn— I’ve tried but nobody wants to hire for the hours I have available. I’m able to make some money on the side by dogsitting, but I’ve only had one gig with that in the past few months, and I ran that little bit dry on art supplies for my sculpture class. I’m critically low on caps, and pretty low on most other parts too. Hopefully there are some paid studies on campus I can participate in soon— I used to get emails about those somewhat often, but I haven’t been contacted about more than one or two in the past 2 years, and I wasn’t eligible to participate in either of those.
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
I feel. I’ve got a good backlog of parts, but I’m a student and don’t have a schedule conducive to working a job rn— I’ve tried but nobody wants to hire for the hours I have available. I’m able to make some money on the side by dogsitting, but I’ve only had one gig with that in the past few months, and I ran that little bit dry on art supplies for my sculpture class. I’m critically low on caps, and pretty low on most other parts too. Hopefully there are some paid studies on campus I can participate in soon— I used to get emails about those somewhat often, but I haven’t been contacted about more than one or two in the past 2 years, and I wasn’t eligible to participate in either of those.
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Maybe you can sell pedals for money? I know, easier said than done
 
andare said:
Maybe you can sell pedals for money? I know, easier said than done
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I’ve tried, but found that unless I’m building a batch of the same pedal, it’s hard to do much more than break even. People on Reddit and Facebook were going absolutely crazy for my “oops! Wrong-808” build though, and seemed that a lot of people wanted one for themselves, so I might make a few to sell when I have the money to order more of the printed enclosures from Tayda and the knobs from Thonk. Only concern there is that I’ve heard of Roland being quite litigious— I don’t think there should be any problem since I’m really only taking inspiration from the aesthetics of an 808 drum machine and as a functional art piece, it should be protected as creative expression (plus behringer straight up copied the exact UI design and everything else about it with no issues), but I’m just a kid in college, so if I got a C&D, even if it’s completely unwarranted, I don’t really have any way to fight it.
Perhaps I’m overly cautious, but maybe I’m not
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
I’ve tried, but found that unless I’m building a batch of the same pedal, it’s hard to do much more than break even. People on Reddit and Facebook were going absolutely crazy for my “oops! Wrong-808” build though, and seemed that a lot of people wanted one for themselves, so I might make a few to sell when I have the money to order more of the printed enclosures from Tayda and the knobs from Thonk. Only concern there is that I’ve heard of Roland being quite litigious— I don’t think there should be any problem since I’m really only taking inspiration from the aesthetics of an 808 drum machine and as a functional art piece, it should be protected as creative expression (plus behringer straight up copied the exact UI design and everything else about it with no issues), but I’m just a kid in college, so if I got a C&D, even if it’s completely unwarranted, I don’t really have any way to fight it.
Perhaps I’m overly cautious, but maybe I’m not
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That was a great idea you had. Maybe it counts as parody like what Weird Al Yankovic does.
 
andare said:
Why?
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Regulations around packaging and recycling. As a business you have to pay for recycling of any packaging or electronics which you sell. Germany has relatively low thresholds where you’ll be audited for this at least.
 
Germany is OTT! If you buy so much as a replacement bolt for a worn one on your car, for example, it's gotta be in the car's logbook.


As for @Bricksnbeatles "Oops... Wrong-808" ...

a10eXYkl.jpg



Can Roland issue a Cease&Desist? They could try but it would fall apart in court:

- The stylised "S" is not a stylised "R" — Roland cannot begrudge other people/companies using two lines to make a letter.

- "Wrong-808" — NONE of Roland's products are specifically named "Wrong-808". Roland does not have a monopoly on the number "808" and if they did they'd have gone after Ibanez a long time ago because Ibanez has a LOT more money than one student named Mr Simms.
Bricksn could easily defend that the number does in fact make reference to the Tube Screamer, and even then, Ibanez couldn't come after Mr Simms for the number alone, but...

- Colours — Roland doesn't have a monopoly on sequenced bars of colours. If you manage to mix some paint to the exact shade of Tiffany Blue, and paint your house or car in it, Tiffany's isn't interested. Start selling jewellery in Tiffany coloured boxes that say "Tifanny" and the brand-lawyers of Tiffany & Co are going to get to work on a C&D order, especially if they can prove you have the exact paint-code for "Tiffany Blue".


Grain of salt: I'm not a lawyer, but I know an IP lawyer and if I'm still betting...
I bet there is nothing litigiously wrong, from Roland's POV, about the "Oops Wrong-808" pedal.
From Ibanez's point of view, there probably IS something wrong with using the word "Tubescreamer" on an effects pedal that shares the numbers eight, zero, and eight. Would Ibby issue a C&D?

PS:
Trademark evolved out of "passing off", passing off being a long-established iconic symbol or other identifying thing about a company that may not be Trademarked but is so well established it is synonymous with the company: Simms vs Roland — would people mistake the two companies' undertakings?
Registered design rights and copyrights tests whether it is original ... number of shades, tones etc — if Roland can prove that the sequence of colours is well-established enough that a consumer might mistake Simms Sounds' undertakings for Roland's and that.

Roland might not win in court, but might still initiate an action as a way of bullying/intimidating knowing Simms doesn't have the financial resources to pay the lawyers to fight it in court. Between mutually big companies, often these sorts of suits are settled outside of court, even if after initial litigation has started.
If Roland won, as unlikely as that would be (if lawyer-fees on both sides was irrelevant), Roland would get damages — so how much profit is Simms making on this "Oops..." endeavour? A handful of pedals worth how much? At what point would it be worthwhile for Roland to seek damages, maybe if Simms Sound was selling 100k of these pedals?

TR-808 vs TS-808:
The TR-808 was launched in 1980, the TS-808 beat it by one year when it launched in 1979 — to the best of my knowledge there's been no litigation between Roland and Ibanez over the similarities in product-code numbering.



Back to the topic at hand, out of money and parts blues... I need enclosures and jacks. A LOT of those and potentiometers two, too. Spent all my savings (and then some) on other parts just to get some boards populated. So, yeah, I have those blues...
 
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