Selling pedals as a “side hustle” vs simply enjoying the hobby.

I have always tried to approach building as a hobby more than anything else. The allure of making money off of it is hard to ignore sometimes, but ultimately the grind to get there doesn't feel worth it for me and where I'm at. I have and do sell pedals from time to time, but that's relatively infrequently, and as others have mentioned it's generally just used to fund more component purchases in the future.

Aside from the occasional commission from a friend or stranger on the internet, I pretty much build each pedal for fun and for myself first and foremost. If I wind up not really digging the pedal itself, I'll post it on Reverb and link it on my IG too. More often than not though those pedals will just sit there, but it is cool when a random person on the internet decides to buy one out of the blue. I've been thinking about taking some of the pedals that I'm not personally a fan of and seeing if my local shops would be interested in selling them, but even that feels like too much of a "hustle" for me haha. We'll see though, it also couldn't really hurt since they're just sitting in my closet anyways.
 
Seems like someone (not volunteering.) could create a "collective" web site for builders to post their pedals. Kinda like our Build Reports thread, do some linking, tagging and Instagramming to get some traffic and provide an easy path for individual builders to, at the very least, make a little dough form pedals that are just gathering dust.

just thinking about it makes me tired... time for a nap...
 
Robert said:
In a lot of cases quirky things like that are because they were present in the pedal they cloned (*were inspired by) and it blindly made it's way into the new design despite other circuit changes nulling their purpose.

This is the one little snippet that I see quite often and it throws me for a loop every time.

Capacitor > Resistor > Capacitor with no other connections in between. I've also seen the inverse of this, Resistor > Capacitor > Resistor.

I can't wrap my head around why this is done... Chuck says it's probably a copy/paste job, and I certainly can't come up with a better explanation.

What bothers me is that I've seen this done by reputable builders, one who I believe is an EE... If anyone has an explanation I'd love to hear it.


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Sort of topical since they're being reissued ... I used to see this a lot when people would poorly copy elements of the Marshall pedals with the "fx loop"
 
I've never really made any effort to try and get into selling stuff beyond just shouting out to a few friends that I'd be down to make them something and that's usually benefitted both of us. I get to try something new, make a few spare bucks to finance a next build, and they generally get a good deal on a good pedal.

That said money-wise I have actually had a lot better luck with *trading* pedal builds than selling them. If I put together a build and list it at even 100 bucks (which I think is relatively fair, but I dunno) I get ZERO bites whatsoever 99% of the time. Lately things have seemed so slow that it feels like I don't even start getting much honest interest until I cut price all the way down to like 60, 70 bucks. BUT...I've traded for stuff that's valued right around my asking price plenty of times.

Obviously that's quite a bit more hassle added but if I build something, trade it for a pedal or something worth $100ish, then turn around and sell that pedal for $100 bucks or so...I'll generally still come out ahead vs dropping my price low enough to just sell my pedals outright. Of course that is not really sustainable in any "business" sense but when it comes to acquiring and moving gear around it works okay for me...
 
KR Sound said:
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I saw this in r/woodworkingconfessions in Reddit today and it kinda hit home. No matter what hobby I start, and believe me I have way too many, part of me always thinks, “hey, I could probably make some money doing this.”

I’ve taken a different approach to pedal building than I have with woodworking, watch making, cast iron and lantern restoration, and others, and build what I want for now. If my friends want one, I’ll either give them to them or they’ll offer to pay for parts and a bit extra, which is always cool.

But now, word of mouth is starting to spread, “Hey, Kenny makes pedals now, you should get one.” And the messages start coming in. I’m not actively pursuing them. So I sell one or two a month which covers the cost of other builds which is nice. But I’m suppressing the urge to start a micro-brewery so to speak, because for one, I don’t have the time, and two, there are so many out there (IPAs taking over!) that already have and own that space.

Anyway, just thinking out loud. What are your thoughts or approaches to this?
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The amount of money I've been "sinking" into this pedal stuff is considerable. It'd be nice to make some back. However it requires doing really good and reliable work and I still feel I'm not here yet.

A former bandmate was over buying a bass from me and I let him play through my diy fuzz collection. When I told him how much I wanted for one of them he bought zero haha. Things is I almost spent more money in parts to build my two-footswitch Fuzzrite than I sold him the bass for (used Harley Benton).
I mean a Switchcraft jack now costs more than a 3pdt footswitch here.

If I was able to order printed enclosures I'd consider building PCB based pedals but as it stands I don't think anybody would buy my blank pedals.
 
andare said:
The amount of money I've been "sinking" into this pedal stuff is considerable. It'd be nice to make some back. However it requires doing really good and reliable work and I still feel I'm not here yet.

A former bandmate was over buying a bass from me and I let him play through my diy fuzz collection. When I told him how much I wanted for one of them he bought zero haha. Things is I almost spent more money in parts to build my two-footswitch Fuzzrite than I sold him the bass for (used Harley Benton).
I mean a Switchcraft jack now costs more than a 3pdt footswitch here.

If I was able to order printed enclosures I'd consider building PCB based pedals but as it stands I don't think anybody would buy my blank pedals.
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I think that having some kind of design, even if it's rather basic knob labeling, is pretty much needed if you're going to be selling them. Have you tried the Sunnyscopa film-free waterslides? If you have access to a laserjet printer it's one of the best ways to easily and inexpensively create pedal designs. the biggest cost for them is the time and care it takes to apply them, but that's just kind of what we do when building pedals anyways.
 
peccary said:
I think that having some kind of design, even if it's rather basic knob labeling, is pretty much needed if you're going to be selling them. Have you tried the Sunnyscopa film-free waterslides? If you have access to a laserjet printer it's one of the best ways to easily and inexpensively create pedal designs. the biggest cost for them is the time and care it takes to apply them, but that's just kind of what we do when building pedals anyways.
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No printer available unfortunately. I have an old inkjet printer that probably won't even start because i used non original ink.
 
You could think up some other cool way to "label"

Just brainstorming here...

Metal stamps
Stickers
Dremel tool
Paint (think JAM pedals)
glued on artifacts like bracelet charms
Beads
Ransom note labels from magazine clippings
Braille
Drill holes to spell letters
Make your own knobs out of objects that imply function


Take a walk through a craft store

Ask some children for ideas (seriously, they have no fear)
 
I definitely have to fight the urge to turn any hobby into a job. This comic is me exactly. I go from "This is fun and enjoyable!" to "I'm filing articles of incorporation!" in matter of hours :ROFLMAO:

In this case I'm years away from having the skills/knowledge/following to consider launching a real business, so that keep it light.
 

The Fisherman and the Executive​

A powerful executive was walking along the beach in a small coastal village, taking a much needed vacation. It was his first in more than 10 years. He noticed a small boat with just one fisherman pulling up to shore. Inside the small boat were several large fish. The executive complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied, “Not very long.”

The executive then asked, “Then why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?”

To which the fisherman responded, “I have enough to support my family.”

“But what do you do with the rest of your time?” the executive asked.

The fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos.”

The executive quickly interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard and can help you. You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat. With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would then of course need to leave this village and move to the big city and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The fisherman then asked, “But how long will all this take?”

To which the executive replied, “Twenty, maybe 25 years.”

“And after that?” the fisherman asked.

“Afterwards? That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the executive, laughing. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You could make millions.”

“Millions? Really? Then what?”

“Then you could finally retire and move to a small coastal fishing village! There you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you would sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”
 
SlowAudio said:
I definitely have to fight the urge to turn any hobby into a job. This comic is me exactly. I go from "This is fun and enjoyable!" to "I'm filing articles of incorporation!" in matter of hours :ROFLMAO:

In this case I'm years away from having the skills/knowledge/following to consider launching a real business, so that keep it light.
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This is exactly what I tend to do also. I get excited, look for the domain name, start thinking logistics, then I just end up forgetting about it when I see all the competition and how much better they are and how much more they have invested in it.

When I first got my planer, I started making hardwood cutting boards from cherry, maple, and walnut milled locally. I made about 20 of them for Xmas presents for friends and family. I started thinking that I could make these in the evening, and set up shop at farmers markets and Etsy, but there’s no money in it when you include time and how cheap others are selling for, unless you have a team to make thousands. And it’s so monotonous- cut, plane, cut, glue, plane, sand, route, sand, sand, sand, oil. So anything woodworking is strictly for myself and family. I have built some commissioned furniture pieces, and I quoted it so high so I either wouldn’t waste my time or I’d make what my time was worth. They gladly paid and were extremely happy to have handmade, “heirloom quality” pieces.

I’ve had several friends tell me already to drop some off in local music and guitar stores, which would be a good way to sell ones I don’t use maybe.
 
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