Question About Selling

[spi]

The Electra is a simple circuit so it’s going to command simple circuit prices.

How will someone who is looking for an Electra Distortion suss out that’s what you are selling?

Agree with all the stuff you said but this point I'm not sure of.

I think most people don't know or care what an Electra distortion is, nor do they shop specifically for one.

Lovepedal has a lot of success at selling these circuits at high prices, and from what I gather on mainstream guitar forums, a lot of people believe these are amp simulators.

I don't see any mention of Electra on the Speaker Cranker page, but I do see how "notes will blossom and bloom with rich harmonics and responsive, tube-like sag"

If the circuit does what people want I don't think they care what kind of circuit it is. And I don't know if there's any correlation between price and circuit if your marketing can overcome it.

 

[Big Monk]

The recipe, if one exists, for selling pedals without an established reputation, is as follows:

1.) Impeccable aesthetics both inside and outside the enclosure.

2.) VERY high quality packaging. Like take what you think is good from a branding and packaging standpoint and level that up. Packaging is the first thing people see. It matters more than you think.

3.) Have tons of models available and be prepared to sell higher volumes at lower prices.

No one in this thread will agree on some of the minutia like copying trade dress, labelling controls, promotional language, etc. but those rules above will set you on the right track.

If you stick with it there will be very frustrating times but also lots of improvements in process and a crash course in consumer psychology.

 

[jdduffield]

No one in this thread will agree on some of the minutia like copying trade dress, labelling controls, promotional language, etc. but those rules above will set you on the right track.

Well, regardless of what others think I really appreciate the advise!

As far as the recipe is concerned, I still have work to do, especially on 2 and 3. I can do it though. I’m building up and stocking inventory and working on packaging ideas. (Still brand new to this. I built my first kit only a couple years ago. But I have time to try things and see what works.)

As far as the controls and branding are concerned, I can see both sides. In fact, I have some Behringer and Warm Audio stuff in my studio. (Love the WASP!) But I also have some whimsical and artistically original stuff. (Love Walrus’ art.)

I will say that there is truth to users wanting what is intuitive. In my day job, I’m a front end web developer, and have learned the value of not keeping the user guessing. Maybe with pedals I can experiment with a middle ground, like the Thneed, for example, has the “unless” switch. Like, what is that? But the other knobs are clearly labeled intuitively. (It’s fun though. I like it!)

One thing to consider is I’m not trying to go big time with it. I’m happy to build small batches and keep up with my bills, support my family, and keep the business running. I have no plans of making it my full time job right now, just a side hustle for now and then someday retire into making it my main source of income above the retirement checks. Something where I work on it from home for 30-40 hours a week instead of taking a job at the post office or something.

 

[falco_femoralis]

Well, what I do is build pedals for myself so I can achieve the ultimate toan, and sometimes I'll make some circuits I know will sell well. I make each one high quality and I don't half ass anything. Then, if I'm bored with a pedal or it didn't work with my setup, I can list it and sell them as if they were meant for market.

But even then, I try to know my audience. Most people who are willing to buy a DIY pedal are either doing it because they're brave or the pedal is cheap. But I always check the value of similar pedals on the market, and I price mine accordingly, depending what is available and the quality of my pedal vs others. Some of them sell for much more than others because of this. Now, I'm talking about clones here of course.

It's difficult trying to value an original design because there is nothing to compare it to. Both the buyer and seller have to come up with a price out of thin air. That means it's up to you as the seller to explain what the pedal will do for the buyer. Tell them how it will make their tone feel or how it will sound. It's even harder to do this with an electra circuit as they are so ubiquitous and unoriginal.

Look at how other companies got their starts - modifying existing designs. This way, a buyer can get the best of both worlds - something they are familiar with, and something a little extra.

Either way, I wouldn't fret too much about the short term. Perseverance is the key to getting the price you want. I'll leave a pedal on the market for at least a month before reevaluating its price point. And even then, I might not touch it. You are just waiting for the right buyer to come along and sometimes it takes time for that audience to materialize.

 

[JTEX]

I admire the small one-man-show builders who manage to make pedals and sell them into such a saturated market and somehow still pay themselves fairly for their work. I briefly made pedals and got out of it when I saw how much work they were -- even though they sold well at a price well above the average. I think one thing small builders can do better than the big firms is offering a direct communication line with the end user, taking special requests, questions, basically being flexible, easily reachable, and of course, knowledgeable about what you build. See where the users are (forums, social media groups etc) and participate in that. Maybe make some good demos, a decent website, show some sort of track record in building interesting stuff. Establish trust, basically.

 

[sticky1138]

I consistently sell pedals $150-180 each, pre-Reverb fees and taxes. I will pretty much never let anything go for less than $130, otherwise it's not worth the effort. If your main goal is to make money, the trick is to focus on builds in the sweet spot where rarity, demand and low parts count intersect, as others have mentioned. Unobtanium '60s silicon fuzzes and RATs with flashy mods do well for me.

It took me a couple years of laborious reputation building to make it to this price point, first selling in the $80 range to build up reviews and a following. Many of my customers now are repeat buyers familiar with my (alleged) quality and customer service, and that's how I'm able to charge this much.

That being said, even at $180 a piece, which I humbly guess is not the norm, it's not a viable "career" at this scale when factoring all the time that goes into that one sale. It's just a side gig for me because a) I'm addicted to building, b) beer and/or partscaster money, and c) It's hella fun. But it is also, to an equal degree, a huge pain in the ass.

 

[vigilante398]

...taking special requests...

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.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

Off the top of my head I can't think of too many overhyped/scalped reverb pedals. (Not talking about vintage rack gear)

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.

I can’t think of too many discontinued reverb pedals at all from otherwise still-existing brands. Only one I can think of is the Digitech Polara (and hardwire reverb, which is the same pretty much), and that was only discontinued due to legal stuff with the lexicon algorithms when digitech was bought out, and no longer under the same brand umbrella as lexicon. That one goes is pretty hyped tho, and does sell for a good amount these days.

 

[owlexifry]

 

[szukalski]

That's a slippery slope. Standardizing things helps save time and parts costs, modification and customization will eat up your time.

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.

Anyway, the point is to think about how easy you can make your life for fun and profit.

 

[Big Monk]

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.

Anyway, the point is to think about how easy you can make your life for fun and profit.

It can sometimes be a contentious topic, but honestly, going to either full or partial SMD and eliminating offboard wiring was the greatest thing I ever did.

Another thing that was pivotal, and at first glance seems counterintuitive, was to stop trying to offer vast control sets, custom builds, etc.

This is the circuit I build. You can buy it and it sounds good.

Psychologically speaking, I think most people actually prefer that. I this people think it’s sus (as the kids say) when you bend over backwards trying to give them what they want.

Most people seem to want/desire YOUR specific sound with the minimum amount of controls to get it.

 

[giovanni]

It can sometimes be a contentious topic, but honestly, going to either full or partial SMD and eliminating offboard wiring was the greatest thing I ever did.

Another thing that was pivotal, and at first glance seems counterintuitive, was to stop trying to offer vast control sets, custom builds, etc.

This is the circuit I build. You can buy it and it sounds good.

Psychologically speaking, I think most people actually prefer that. I this people think it’s sus (as the kids say) when you bend over backwards trying to give them what they want.

Most people seem to want/desire YOUR specific sound with the minimum amount of controls to get it.

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!