Making some pedals illegal?!

[Vince]

What's to be made of this?

http://www.effectsbay.com/2014/05/fcc-regulations-for-pedals/


''Anything with a charge pump -- yup, all your Klones.

Anything that requires a clock chip to produce the effect -- analog octave down, bucket brigade delay/chorus/vibrato, etc.

PT2399 delays and other digital delays -- so far as I can tell, everything involved in making analog delay pedals, with one notable exception, is now in violation. That exception is tape delays. I'm sure we'll all be thrilled to go back to THAT technology.

Anything with tap tempo.''

[IvIark]

I'd say that it is becoming less and less attractive to sell products in the US if something like this is going to be rigourously implemented.

It amazes me how some government departments seem to utterly embrace the idea of returning to the dark ages over something so innocuous, and make it increasingly more difficult to do business in their country.  And even more amazing that they are allowed to do so.  What happened to "a government of the people, by the people, for the people"?  Someone must truly believe that the public need protecting against charge pumps.

Having said that we've got the EU who are equally retarded so no doubt we'll eventually get something similar, like the curved/straight banana directives.

There's a lot of people who need to justify their 100k a year jobs I suppose.

[Beaker]

I've carefully read this through, and quite frankly don't know wether to laugh or cry. It just shows to me the way the wind is blowing, and who has the ear of policy makers these days.

The bit that amazed me was the section that says essentially "battery powered means exempt, wall wart powered has to comply".

What this is all about is eliminating all electromagnetic "pollution", in every frequency band that can be sold off for billions of dollars, for use by mobile phone, wireless internet, and future tech industries. If it means cracking a few heads, so be it.

It's the 21st Century equivalent of Scottish and Engilsh "Lords", evicting "squatters" and tenants from "their" land in the Highlands because they "polluted rivers and the land". Of course the real reason they shipped them all off to the colonies, was that they wanted pristine wilderness for hunting and fishing rights.

EHX might be a giant in the pedal making industry, but compared to Google, Apple, Microsoft etc. rate no higher on the business food chain than a wood louse.

[IvIark]

I'm just amazed they can't find anything better to do with their time.  I can think of thousands of things that they could be doing which would be far more helpful to a much greater number of people.  The fact that my suggestions may not be quite so profitable probably explains their priorities.

[Vince]

I agree with all the above.

Behind every stupid 'regulation' is a greedy, useless twat with a job to justify.

Words can be very clever and I'm sure people will find ways around it all....

[dbat69]

And then the lawyers (solicitors) come in to bleed em dry pushing the cases to silly extremes.  The little people will always loose out - big corporations will monopolise and subdue.
I think I'm having a bad day

[Silver Blues]

What the actual fuck.

World just gets dumber and more ridiculous with each passing second. The logic behind that whole thing is just not there. How does the frequency of something's EM radiation determine whether or not it's digital? Why does battery power vs. AC power make any difference? Why in the world would they pick 9kHz as the ceiling, not even halfway through human hearing range...?

[rocket88]

i read the whole thing at work today, and i'm just completely shocked. ignoring the fact that i think the fcc is completely useless and shouldn't exist anymore, and the removal of censorship, this is completely out of their jurisdiction. i mean, aren't they the federal communications commission? if so how in the world does a simple effects pedal play into communication through broadcast?

this kind of stupidity and abuse needs to be fought, otherwise its just going to continue because no one stands up. i do applaud Mike Mathews for presenting what happened, and creating something to inform the rest of the community to prevent it from happening to everyone. it makes me sad to say i'm an american with dumbasses in power that come up with retarded laws like this.

[Geiri]

I'm sorry, I didn't read all the replies so if I'm repeating something, sorry.

This is bad news for US people but I've had some research done for me. People outside US are fine and don't have to worry. Why?

We can just slap a CE sticker on the product and it'll be fine as long as you're selling it yourself. If you have resellers, it's their responsibility to have FCC approval of your product.

To "get" the CE mark, you need to have documented your product but no one enforces it so don't worry, you can just slap it on and you're safe.

[IvIark]

Next time I sell a pedal I'm going to put a sticker on saying

"WARNING: Filled with lead and cadmium and other horrible shit that will kill.  Please do not consume"

[IvIark]

Silver Blues wrote

How does the frequency of something's EM radiation determine whether or not it's digital? Why does battery power vs. AC power make any difference? Why in the world would they pick 9kHz as the ceiling, not even halfway through human hearing range...?

Exactly.  The best thing is that they consider anything with a frequency above 9khz to be "digital".  WTF?  There are going to be a lot of pissed of analog delay owners on TGP who will want their money back  
At what point does someone who actually knows what they're talking about turn round to them and tell them they legislating around utter nonsense?

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so scarily ridiculous.  It honestly looks like laws that were written by an 8 year old in an "Enforce Your Own Silly Law Competition" which he won.

[Beaker]

As if pedal makers haven't had enough grief (although admittedly in some cases, self inflicted),from all the "I'm not buying that - it's not true bypass" numpties.

Can you imagine the chaos on the gear forums when pedals built with Sixties parts, to Sixties analogue spec, have to be re-designated as DIGITAL?

The horror, the horror.

[rocket88]

Mark, you do realize that here in the US, the great state of Florida was working on passing a law to allow people to carry concealed weapons in emergency situations, one of them being the Zombie Apocalypse......

Let me repeat that Florida wants to let people carry concealed weapons legally during emergency situations, one of them is THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.

I have no problem with people being able to own and/or carry guns, but to have a law that includes the zombie apocalypse is just so ridiculous, and hard to believe it's true, and it is.

On a serious note, I don't get what effects we in the US "need" to have tested and approved, especially since the majority of what we build is analog. Is it basically anything that has a charge pump, or modulates the signal, or anything that has an IC? Even though it's been said a few times, this is just insane and stupid.

[Beaker]

Sorry Mark, I was typing before your last post popped up.

Obviously both thinking along the same lines,

[Silver Blues]

IvIark wrote

At what point does someone who actually knows what they're talking about turn round to them and tell them they legislating around utter nonsense?

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so scarily ridiculous.  It honestly looks like laws that were written by an 8 year old in an "Enforce Your Own Silly Law Competition" which he won.

Tell me about it. There are so many laws written by people who have no damn idea about what it is they're legislating. We get a ton of that here in Canada surrounding firearms laws, I can't begin to describe the idiocy that procreates... it's really sad and so stupid it physically hurts.

[IvIark]

rocket88 wrote

Mark, you do realize that here in the US, the great state of Florida was working on passing a law to allow people to carry concealed weapons in emergency situations, one of them being the Zombie Apocalypse......

Yeah but that's some serious shit.  You've got to protect yourself against zombies man!

[rocket88]

Mark you're telling me. Take a look at what I found to show how serious the Zombie threat is over here.

No I did not photoshop this, it's 100% real.

[jaredcohen]

IvIark wrote

At what point does someone who actually knows what they're talking about turn round to them and tell them they legislating around utter nonsense?

Probably never. But at least there's some sort of comfort in that certainty, isn't there?  Fact is, our country (and the FCC in particular) has a long history of useless regulations which lack foundation.  We've got nothing better to spend our time on...

[Silver Blues]

rocket88 wrote

Mark you're telling me. Take a look at what I found to show how serious the Zombie threat is over here.

No I did not photoshop this, it's 100% real.

Can confirm, have seen this as well. Mossberg makes a lever-action 'Zombie Gun" as well. Like, really.

[IvIark]

Wow, some companies really do want to appeal to the lowest common denominator.  

But I suppose as long as your 9khz threat is taken care of then the zombie issue is probably next on their list.  I see an upcoming supertax on crossbows and machetes.