My First Production Pedal?

yazooligan

yazooligan

Well-known member
I’ve been building for a few years now, and after finding some circuits I really love and receiving some interest from some local shops, I’ve decided to take the dive into producing my first small run (50 to 100 units) pedal for wide sale. I’d like some advice in this arena since while building isn’t new to me, starting a business is and I want to make the most of it.

I’ve had an idea for a pedal that nails a certain era of tones for a few years now, and I think I’ve landed on a circuit to make my own to get there. I’ve reached out to someone who does PCB design to provide me with Gerber files from my schematic, and I have a control layout and some artwork designs in mind. I also feel like I have a good angle for marketing this pedal but I guess we’ll see, lol.

Anyway, just thought I’d ask for any suggestions or advice from those of you who have been down this road.

Thanks, folks!
 
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Cool, wishing you all the best of luck and that an A-list artist picks up your pedal.



Some reading material...



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tracing pedals since 2007
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tracing pedals since 2007
www.freestompboxes.org www.freestompboxes.org

I think Tornado Alley FX is gone, but I copied some info:

Posts from February 2017 on tornadoalleyfx

1 post published by tornadoalleyfx during February 2017
web.archive.org web.archive.org
“WORKING FOR EXPOSURE” BY TORNADO ALLEY FX
I’d like to talk about one of the many pitfalls I came across when trying to run a business in amps and pedals. Exposure. People offer it to you like money. However, unlike money, you can’t spend it. Exposure doesn’t pay the bills let alone pay for the next build. I’ve never ever had anything I’ve ever done “for exposure” actually pay a dividend by resulting in a future sale. To be frank, anyone that offers you exposure for your work A) doesn’t have the money to pay you what you’re worth B) doesn’t value your work as they would their own C) knows that you have no idea what exposure is worth. Possibly all of the above.

That doesn’t mean you can’t do things for exposure. It just means you have to be smart about it. Insist on getting something in return other than just exposure. If you’re working, they’re working. If you’re spending money, they’re spending money. Never ever trade your hard work or money for simple exposure alone. The person offering you that is offering you something you could get for yourself if you’d just network better.

Most importantly, you should have an idea of what the exposure they’re offering you is worth to you. Make clear to yourself what your expectations are for the exposure you’re gaining. You expect paying customers, not tire kickers. You know what your side of the investment is, make sure you’re earning that back.

My answer to the debate over exposure is that it isn’t nearly as important as a good reputation. Some (not all) of the most successful people in the business are some of the people I think the least of. I’d rather have the reputation. This guy does quality work. This guy went above and beyond to make me happy. This guy answered my questions. He picked up the phone. He answered his email. Those things spawn good word of mouth and repeat business. That’s exposure you don’t have to buy just by doing things you should be doing anyway.
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TIPS FOR STARTING PEDAL CO
https://www.reddit.com/r/diypedals/comments/2kbr7w


GRAIN OF SALT:
www.harmonycentral.com

MOSFET transistors on a Big Muff?

Can it be done? I mean I know it isn't like the stock BC550 transistor having a Base, Emitter, and Collector with the MOSFET pinouts being Source, Gate, and Drain. If it is possible then how would I go about putting in 2N7000?
www.harmonycentral.com www.harmonycentral.com


A BUSINESS BASIC:
AmateursPros
No workflow focusFOCUSED ON WORKFLOW


'TIS WHAT IT IS
https://www.reddit.com/r/diypedals/comments/n9l2lk
my_biggest_mistakes_since_going_full_time/
Justus-Gash


SOME REALITY
www.ultimate-guitar.com

$20 Worth of Parts? The Math Behind Rising Pedal Prices

Are pedals getting more expensive because of greedy pedal makers?
www.ultimate-guitar.com www.ultimate-guitar.com

TIP FROM A PRO

Building Pedals for Fun and Profit – Mission Engineering

missionengineering.com missionengineering.com



Saving our own for last:
DESIGN MARGIN

What's Design Margin?

Design margin, simply stated, is the difference between a design working and a design not working. So why do we want design margin and how much is enough? We can build a circuit, have it work fine and think that we're done. Then we build 10 more and surprise, surprise, half of them don't...
forum.pedalpcb.com forum.pedalpcb.com

PEOPLE WHO SELL




Also check out some TalkBass threads for Fuzzrocious (60-hour weeks are not sustainable), read about Peter at VFE's journey...


For entertainment and cautionary tales read about Devi vs Josh; Devi vs Aen; Devi-forever Smashing Bumpgan; also Creepy Uncle BudWah-scam; Josh & DIY; Creamy Dreamer JAM; The Joyo f Freaky Blooze; and many more storied ...




As many do, I thought I might start up something on the side — but decided to keep it a hobby.
 
My 2¢ worth:

Building a pedal is easy. Building two pedals is easy. Building 50 pedals is harder. One thing that you really need to look at when you're scaling up for production is manufacturability. Most pedals can be built fairly cheaply, so the most expensive part of the pedal is going to be your time. When a layout is being done, it's important to design it in such a way that it can be assembled as quickly and easily as possible so you aren't spending hours doing offboard wiring for every single unit. Things like PCB-mounted pots, short wire runs, and grouping pads for tidier offboard wiring may take an extra few minutes during layout, but spread across 50-100 builds the time savings is going to be huge.

When I first started selling pedals I did the math and figured out I was making an average of $5 an hour. Part of that was because my prices were low, but the main factor was that it was taking me too long to build each pedal. Now between a well-laid out PCB, pre-assembled boards from JLC, and pre-finished enclosures from Tayda, it takes me less than an hour to build a pedal from start to finish. My day job shuts down the office between christmas and new year so I ended up with about 10 days off total, and in that time I was able to build 112 pedals. Obviously it took a lot of planning and a large investment in materials, but it all comes down to planning.

I always spend the most time talking about having a well-designed PCB because in my opinion that's the most critical step, but there are of course other considerations as well. Some things I recommend you think about before taking the leap:
  • Who is going to be building these? Some small builders contract out the labor to companies like Cusack (@StompBoxParts) and I know they are able to do full turnkey service, i.e. you send them the design and they send you finished pedals.
  • If you're going to build them yourself, make sure you budget EVERY PART. PCB, enclosure, jacks, switches, pots, knobs, LED, wire. You need to know the cost of every single part that goes in the pedal, and you'll need to keep enough stock of everything.
  • On that note, you'll need to have a place to put everything. A computer desk in a corner of a room is plenty for building an occasional box, but 50-100 pedals' worth of parts take up a fair amount of room.
  • PACKAGING. This one is huge because it gets overlooked so often. How are the pedals going to be packaged? What will the boxes look like, and where will you get them? How much will that cost?
  • Sales: where are they going to be sold? Are you going to try to go through a distributor, or go direct? If you're going direct you'll need to have some form of eCommerce site set up. Reverb/Etsy and eBay are of course options, but that will eat into a big chunk of your profits because of their fees. If you're going through a distributor it will save you a lot of logistical headaches, but that will of course also eat into your profits because they will get a wholesale price so they can make a profit selling your pedals.
  • Logistics. If you sell 50-100 pedals, you have to be able to ship 50-100 pedals. I recommend everyone get a shipping label printer ($100 or so). I live half a mile from the local post office, and everyone there knows me by name (Dylan is my main dude though) and knows they will see me 2-4 times a week.
Anyway, lots to consider, sorry to blast you with a mess of information. I started really slow and accidentally went straight off the deep end with my "business" so I've learned a lot from others and the rest I've learned the hard way. I hope there was at least something valuable in there, and feel free to hit me up if you have any specific questions.
 
The one thing I’ve learned more than anything from my charity pedal gig is the market it saturated. Unique/original circuits are critical. Pay to play seems to be a big thing when it comes to demos, advertising, or articles. Don’t let anyone stop you. Keep goals realistic and keep at it. You never know who will reach out to you.
 
Lots of great advice here! I'll add to some points that have already been said.

I would say be cautious of doing a huge run, I'd start with a feeler run of 5 unless you have a lot of capital you don't mind sinking into something that may not come back for years depending on how sales goes.. I find that in my experience it starts SLOW and you will have a full time job in content creation unless you want to pay directly for a lot of advertising so people know you exist. You said you can build pedals so I assume you'll be doing it yourself, so I'd build a small run, try to market it and see if there is a market for your brand/idea before you commit a lot of resources to it.

I was just doing the math on a pedal I sell, and on the surface it seemed like a solid hourly wage, but then I really did the math on the actual hours I spend and all the smaller costs that add up and the hourly dropped in half.
Get ready to tell a few people no every week to sending them a free pedal. I've found it's not worth it to send out freebies. I do cut smaller content producers a healthy discount if they are really interested in something and want to make a video or share it with their audience though.

Big Monk said:
Don’t forget to save for taxes.
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dear god this, the taxes hurt, it adds up fast.
 
A note about taxes - sales taxes in particular. If you are requires to collect and remit to your gov’t, bear in mind that money ain’t yours. I used to be self-employed (not pedals, but still). Consider keeping a separate bank account (or envelope or sock under your mattress, whatever) for the sales tax you collect and hold and then give to the gov.

Also have some fun for cryin’ out loud!
 
This is all great stuff! Thanks so much for taking the time to share! I’m getting pretty excited! Feel free to critique my plans as I go here.

My day job is three 12-hour shifts a week, so I have four consecutive days off which allows me a fair amount of time to work on the pedal business.

jcrhee said:
Also, charge what you feel is appropriate. I hate people who think all pedals should cost $50 because the parts are "cheap."
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For sure. I’m going to price them based on what makes sense based on profit and my labor time. Definitely not cheap but not crazy expensive either. In line with the current boutique market.

I only have one circuit planned so far, and I’ve chosen one that both meets my tonal/functional criteria and has a relatively low parts count to help optimize build time and keep the initial investment lower, as well as trying to avoid circuits with harder to find components. I’m not designing the PCB myself at this point, but I have someone working on it for me who does good work. The current plan is to use 125B enclosures with top mounted jacks and PCB mount pots, as well as a relay built into the PCB so it takes up most of the enclosure, and the only off-board wiring is the jacks and SPST footswitch. Maybe he can work the footswitch into the PCB. Hmmm.

I plan to do all the wiring/packing/shipping myself. I currently do my own drilling and artwork but for this project I plan to have the UV printing done by Tayda. Maybe the drilling too depending on how the numbers shake out.

I still haven’t worked out exactly which packaging I’m going with but I do have ideas in mind, and I’m pretty happy with the typical white corrugated carton with sticker label on one end and an ink stamp on top. Bubble baggie on the inside? I’m definitely open for o suggestions on these. Small Bear doesn’t have any stock left and ULINE is the only other one I can think of. I keep all my boxes in a big box, but I immediately forget about the packaging when I get a pedal, so I’m not that interested in making a statement with my packaging.

I’m not sure about how to serialize the pedals either. I’d rather not do the sticker on the bottom if I can avoid it. Maybe a sticker on the inside? Hand numbered with sharpie?

Return policy will be comparable to other brands like Wampler, EQD, JHS, etc.

Keep the thoughts coming, folks!
 
Laundryroom David said:
A note about taxes - sales taxes in particular. If you are requires to collect and remit to your gov’t, bear in mind that money ain’t yours. I used to be self-employed (not pedals, but still). Consider keeping a separate bank account (or envelope or sock under your mattress, whatever) for the sales tax you collect and hold and then give to the gov.

Also have some fun for cryin’ out loud!
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Copy that. I’m not sure how it will affect me since I’m in Tennessee but I will certainly do the due diligence and find out.
 
Big Monk said:
It’s why it’s important to get pedals into the hands of real players.

At the simple mention on TGP of my impending line, plus the intro thread, I’ve got dozens of requests for free shit in exchange for BS benefits.

I’m not opposed to the idea of free pedals to worthwhile people but they do come out of the woodwork quick.
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I have players in mind to send it to for both feedback and demos, but I also went to film school and can make a pretty decent video myself, so I’ll be doing that too.

Other than a couple folks who I would tell “just keep it if you fall in love with it/want to share it with your audience”, I don’t plan to offer any freebies whatsoever.
 
Big Monk said:
Here’s the deal and I’m sure someone who’s been doing this for a while (@vigilante398) AND has a full time job could back me up:

1.) This won’t be my full time job. I’m trying to use the profits to invest in home stuff and projects, pay off cars, finish my student loans, etc. I can see how the exposure modeL works for full timers but even then, it seems this exposure completely swamps them and they end up with huge wait lists.

2.) As stated above, exposure can swamp you. It’s not a rare thing to see someone who gets on That Pedal Show and then is crying about working 16 hours a day trying to keep up.

I’m not giving things away for free and it’s not because I’m a curmudgeon. It’s because I have a carefully planned business launch and monthly build queue lined up and I don’t need the exposure because I make my living at my day job.
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Seems totally reasonable. Knowing your limitations is key and having the image of never being in stock is not good either.
 
Big Monk said:
Here’s the deal and I’m sure someone who’s been doing this for a while (@vigilante398) AND has a full time job could back me up:

1.) This won’t be my full time job. I’m trying to use the profits to invest in home stuff and projects, pay off cars, finish my student loans, etc. I can see how the exposure modeL works for full timers but even then, it seems this exposure completely swamps them and they end up with huge wait lists.

2.) As stated above, exposure can swamp you. It’s not a rare thing to see someone who gets on That Pedal Show and then is crying about working 16 hours a day trying to keep up.

I’m not giving things away for free and it’s not because I’m a curmudgeon. It’s because I have a carefully planned business launch and monthly build queue lined up and I don’t need the exposure because I make my living at my day job.
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When I was first ramping up I had a guy explain that he had a website where he did reviews of pedals and that he's kind of if a big deal. He was all but asking for a free pedal. I gave him a 10% discount. He did write a review though, and it ended up generating a lot of sales for me. I've sent him a couple pedals free-of-charge with the understanding that he would write a review and then send it back. He has asked to keep one pedal because he enjoyed it so much, and I agreed because he has helped me a lot because his niche as a reasonably well-known reviewer lined up with my niche as a builder (tube preamps for bass) and he has helped turn people on to my pedals.

Outside of that guy I have had others ask for free pedals, and I explain that I don't do that because I'm a one-man shop doing everything myself, and on top of that I feel like my prices are pretty reasonable for the product I'm offering.

This is also not my full time job and I doubt it ever will be, but in 2022 my gross income from pedal sales was about 2/3 what I made at my day job, which is nice. My day job gives me benefits and a reliable income, and affords me the free time to pursue my hobby, which pays for itself and gives some extra cash for fun stuff.

Pedals will never make me rich, but I feel like I have a pretty good life.
 
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2.) As stated above, exposure can swamp you. It’s not a rare thing to see someone who gets on That Pedal Show and then is crying about working 16 hours a day trying to keep up.
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Man, whoever is complaining about sitting at home and making guitar pedals is being a HUGE baby! I'd kill to have that life. I worked 7 days a week for over 3 year, now that's draining. I get that could become quite monotonous, but there are WAY worse jobs than sitting at home with my dogs, listening to music, and soldering the same wires over and over again.
 
This is also not my full time job and I doubt it ever will be, but in 2022 my gross income from pedal sales was about 2/3 what I made at my day job, which is nice. My day job gives me benefits and a reliable income, and affords me the free time to pursue my hobby, which pays for itself and gives some extra cash for fun stuff.
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You're a smart guy
 
Tons of great information in this thread. I wanted to toss in a few other things that I've experienced from being involved with a decent amount of small businesses as they've started even though none of those have been pedal related. Although with the quick note some of this might be looking far too forward, but it never hurts to know!
  • Lawyers are as important as accountants when it comes to paying less in taxes. It's never too early to meet with either. The way you formally structure your enterprise (even the state that it is registered in, too) has a giant impact on what Uncle Sam takes, and that kind of advice is sometimes outside of the purview of accountants, especially the tier of them that I would, personally, end up going to when starting a small business. This is also especially important if you're close to being bumped into a higher income tax bracket.
  • When doing the math of your own hourly pay, don't forget to factor in customer service. Every email, question about shipping options, return, etc, takes up time that needs to be valued. It is also one of the cheaper roles to outsource early on.
  • You eventually might qualify for small business grants and tax credits on the state and city level. They're worth taking advantage of so long as they're not more work than it's worth to apply for them.
  • Cover your IP bases eventually. Not meaning circuitry here, but trademarks. You might think, "who cares?" but trademarks are as much a protection against being sued from other parties for infringement as they are a way to make sure you're not being imitated. The former is more valuable most of the time for small outfits.
  • Make sure your web presence follows standard accessibility guidelines. Small businesses are an increasing party in these kinds of lawsuits because settling can be cheaper than getting representation. I personally believe it is also the right thing to do, but judgement out of the picture: it is a very easy and very cheap problem to avoid.
 
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