The Opposite of Pedal Industry Faux Pas

Wampler seems pretty cool. He's self published some pedal internals and mod books, I've seen him participate in threads on his pedals in fsb, and his videos are informative. He also doesn't try to hide the sources of his circuits, and doesn't use magic components.
 
Dave Barber has always been helpful & I own half a dozen of his OEM Pedals.
When I built the Barbershop way back around 2015, I was having problems biasing the j201's & Guillaume told me what measurements I needed to
get the right specs for the pedal.
Michael Ibraham of MI Audio is also very friendly & I own half a dozen of his OEM pedals.
 
The function fx guys (I think there are 2 of them, but it might be 3) are all active of the MBP forum, and participated in the zoom meeting last month.

What happened with them on FSB?
 
Robert said:
Didn't they eventually release it? Or was that a different one?

I never touched any of the functionfx stuff because of who they were, and it's entirely their business, but it seems appropriate that they should be open with the schematics... It'd be a bit hypocritical otherwise.
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One of the things I respect about you (and a few others) above some other vendors is that you buy the product and trace it. FSB has operated similarly in the past as well with the tracer's fund etc. etc.
It just hits different when you call someone out wanting the schematic because they've released a pedal. There are a ton of us that came up in DIY and I can't think of one that released a commercial product where the community so immediately insisted in such a manner.
 
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I would never ask someone for their schematic, that's just a bit rude. In fact, I don't generally pounce on a schematic when a manufacturer releases it....

But, I feel like if you're going to be actively involved in tracing/cloning other folks stuff that should go both ways. I posted the BuGGFX schematics shortly after PedalPCB became a thing... It'd just seem shitty not to.
 
EHX for re-releasing all those past flavors of Big Muff ... I always thought that was a no-brainer for them since boutique outfits were making money hand over fist overcharging for them. I wish Marshall paid attention and would do the same for their original pedal line.
 
ICTRock said:
One of the things I respect about you (and a few others) above some other vendors is that you buy the product and trace it.
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That's exactly what I tell people to do who ask me for proprietary schematics or help reverse engineering stuff: what part of the Y in DIY don't you understand? I think Robert's model is nearly perfect though. Whenever I finally get back into guitar playing I plan to buy several boards here, and presumably from a few others who merit similar respect as well.

On topic: Spencer Doren at 3Leaf/Pike Audio has done me several good turns and I've also had nice interactions with John Kallas, Southampton, FEA, and a few others. Pedal building is still new to me, but my list on the amps side would be quite long and is still growing.
 
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ICTRock said:
There are but so many hours in the day. I should shit on pedal companies less and do more research ...
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Long story short: Thomann put them in their online shop presumably too early, some people shared it on Instagram, Thomann took the listings down and Marshall have denied they exist at all but I know some people who have order confirmations with estimated deliveries scheduled sometime in winter iirc.
 
I designed a PCB from a schematic someone posted, then he emailed me badmouthing me that my component values were wrong.

I released another project based on a pedal by that same builder later and he emailed me again saying that my trace was completely wrong and was nothing like his pedal. Now.... at that point I hadn't even mentioned what the project was based on.

So if I hadn't named what it was, and the components were completely different, how did you determine it was based on your pedal? ... Something doesn't add up.
 
Years ago before I got into pedal building I had a Rockbox Boiling point and wanted to increase the amount of bass in it. It already had a low-end switch. So I emailed them and they told me which caps to change out and suggested values. I thought that was pretty cool.

In contrast there is Louis Electric, who builds amps. I really like Louis Electric amps. A friend of mine had a KR12 which stopped working. I had a look and quickly worked out that it was a 5E3 circuit which used 6L6s - I think they call it a Buster. The power resistor between the reservoir cap and the second filter cap had blown and I needed to know what value it was. They paint the entire board in red paint to obscure the parts values, which is a pain and just silly. Obviously I couldn't measure it and scraping off the paint (as gently as I could) removed the stamped value info too. It was one of those white square wire-wound resistors.

So I emailed them explaining what had happened and that we were on opposite sides of the planet so sending it back for repair wasn't going to happen. They wouldn't tell me the value of the part! Stock value in a 5E3 is 5K but they had changed so much stuff in this amp I wanted to know for sure. So I used a magnifying glass, different light angles and comparison with other resistors by the same manufacturer and thought I could discern that it was a 1K. So I emailed again and they said that they wouldn't confirm that it was a 1K but that it was an excellent guess and would work.

That's just dumb.

Then there's Graydon Stuckey from GSD Amplification. He is big in the Marshall 18W amp world and has a line of chassis, transformers and amps in that niche. I recently ordered some transformers from him - Heyboers made to his spec - and they are highly regarded, rightfully so. I had emailed him asking a few details and he was very forthcoming and friendly. He asked to see pics once I'd finished the amp and was very complimentary when I did. Overall it was a great experience.
 
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