That's a slippery slope. Standardizing things helps save time and parts costs, modification and customization will eat up your time. When I first started building seriously I only had one model, but I offered it in a bunch of different finishes, so even though the PCB was the same I was putting it in a dozen different enclosures every month, so I spent too much time finishing boxes and it eats into profits.
To be fair though, might that be because the increased r&d to design a reverb pedal typically result in it being available for longer? You don’t really see limited run reverb pedals the way you do with 7-component overdrives; if you’re gonna go to the effort of designing an original* reverb pedal (which is going to be most of them, unless it’s just a bog standard belton brick device), you’re gonna make damn well sure you’re producing it for as long as the demand is there, and then some.
Spot on. My day job is helping people build SaaS, Ie. how to operate at scale, and standardisation is king. Any customisation is done through features you can omit for lower offerings. Kinda like building a PCB that you can build multiple pedals on.
I agree with this. I think choice paralysis is a problem and people try to stay away from too many choices (sometimes subconsciously). I tend to avoid restaurants where the menu is more than two pages!
I should have mentioned that I build mostly just populated PCBs, not pedals, so it's easier for me to offer some simple customization, such as, for instance, no pin headers for those who prefer to solder their own wiring, or a different input Z that involves just swapping a resistor. Pedals are harder.
Yeah, I actually agree with this. I wasn’t planning to release an Electra topology pedal, and wanted to release a modified Klon instead. The problem for me was that I wanted to “start simple” because I was learning DipTrace and how to place a PCB order, etc. It was more about “got to start somewhere” for me, but also I was encouraged to release it by someone who bought a prototype and really liked it. My point is that I’ll be building better, more complex circuits in time. (Although, simple as it is, the circuit sounds great!)
I completely understand this. From start to finish, there is so much involved. I thought the same thing, questioning if it is worth the effort. I mean, it is like two worlds of disciplines… the outside enclosure and the inside circuit. Then, the business side and shipping, etc. not worth it unless you sell a bunch at a good price. My hope is to increase earnings in time and keep it manageable and interesting along the way.
