T-Rex is bankrupt.

[Highsmith]

I was under the impression they had carved out a respectable share of the market place.

Is the FX bubble getting ready to burst?

[Muadzin]

Without knowing any of the details could be any number of reasons. With guitar becoming a niche instrument more and more the market is shrinking, making it more competitive, too much competition of cheap Chinese clones, not enough innovation (when was the last time a T-Rex pedal made a splash?) or just plain poor business decisions and investments?

Like I said, I can't remember the last time somebody posted a thread here or elsewhere about a new T-Rex pedal. And in a contracting market of mostly older guys you gotta have something that appeals to the TGP mindset, something that looks new and shiny, makes them lose all common sense and want to buy it before the next new and shiny thing appears.

[Travis]

I think Muazdin makes some great points about the surge of low end Chinese clones and lack of innovation

Trex did make one thing that looked promising to me, their replicator tape echo.

Maybe that didn’t do too well and they probably spent a lot of money developing it.

I’ve wanted to try one since it came out but don’t want to pay $600 for one

[Mulekicker]

Weren't they also working on an Echorec clone? I'm sure developing that was a costly affair. I vowed never to buy a trex pedal after Mudhoney said they had to pay for a pedal called the fuckin Mudhoney. How can you charge them?

[Frank_NH]

I'm glad I'm just a simple hobbyist.  Making money in the pedal business is about as easy as making money being a musician...

[Marbles]

Yeah, I think all companies that build pedals that don't involve programming (or venture into modular synths) will follow the same route eventually unfortunately. Unless like mentioned before they add something shiny like, let's say, a Plasma beam.

Always sucks when a company goes out of business, but the golden age where someone could solder 3 transistors backwards and a sound came out (however useful) and sell it for exorbitant prices cause of 'Boutiek' and a nice enclosure is over unfortunately. Basically every pedal that was not BOSS and mentioned true bypass was sold cause there were finally so many pedals other than Boss to chose from.

Just an overkill of YABM's and now chinese companies with possibilities to make huge quantities and big companies like EHX taking back parts of 'their' market offering classics again and being able to keep the price down, the bubble has kind of burst.

A shame for Trex, I liked some pedals. But decent pedals with non screaming graphics are not enough to be hyped anymore.

[Mulekicker]

That's why my whole business model is to just make enough to buy more parts.

[Highsmith]

Sure, when I started building a couple of years ago, my wife and pals were all "Sell them."

The thing for me is, if I started really trying to sell them then it would not be a hobby anymore. There would be responsibility...I'm really not interested in someone contacting me down the road because a switch failed or something.

[Travis]

I’ve just made so many pedals that it doesn’t make sense for me to keep a huge box full of them so I just sell them to purchase more gear and clear up space.

It does make me happy when people tell me they really like the pedal and it seems like they will put it to good use

[rocket88]

i don't think the pedal business is tanking. look at how many companies there are. i think part of the issue with T.Rex was down to management and growing way too quickly. to some extent the same thing happened to EHX in the 80's when they declared bankruptcy, and reopened in russia. even better look at gibson right now. one of the most influential guitar companies in the history of music was completely mismanagement and trying to turn it into a lifestyle company.

i think the "boutique" market is still strong, even with stupid cheap chinese pedals hitting the market. what i see, not just cause i sell pedals based on order, that many people when they start playing and want a pedal they get whatever's cheap and "fits" some category of pedal (OD, Distortion, Fuzz, Delay, etc.). But, as people get better they become more picky and look for something that's in there head and think about quality rather than price. think about when most start playing you don't go out and buy an expensive guitar, you get something cheap to learn and work up. you can apply the same thing to cars or audio equipment or really anything.

Marbles makes a good point about YABM, but the same can be said for YAFF or YATS. i think that's also a big part of the issue. the other issue is miss information and i'm not just talking about from regular players by JHS for instance has a video on their youtube page about "Myths" of guitar pedals, most of which he's completely wrong. sites like TGP are a big part of the problem in spreading miss information IMHO, because it's the first place people find info about music gear.

btw, i read an interview with the guys of T.Rex about the bankruptcy and they're not going away. basically they declared bankruptcy due to the amount of debt they have and the bankruptcy wipes it away and they restructure. i do wish they good luck and success, they make some great stuff.

[Strassercaster1]

That’s a bummer . If I was a rich man I’d buy one of those tape machine echos . I would bet hundreds of thousands of dollars went into design and manufacturing for that pedal . It’s a shame but with the Digital stuff out there a mechanical device like that is a dinasour . I personally would love to have one and would pay up to 250 bucks for one . 800 no way I could find a vintage space echo for that or a little more . What was some of there other creations ?

[Sensei Tim]

Trex has been bought out by the original owner/founder.   Seems to me like horribly bad management.


I’ve heard rumours also about catalinbread since Nick passed away.  Lots of drama being had over the new management of the company vs original employees.   It’s a real shame.  

[Muadzin]

Thing is, when people hear the word bureaucracy they think governments, but private business also suffers from the same disease. And when the time comes to downsize its always the guys on the workfloor who get axed, never the guys shuffling paper. The modern manager is like a feudal noble, for he derives status from the number of people that are part of his department. In a startup phase a business is still lean and agile, lines of internal communication are short, shits get done. Once a business moves into the next phase ossification sets in. Managers start rearing their ugly heads, departments get formed, things have to be done according to certain methodologies, endless meetings ensue where everyone has to have their say, except for the actual guys on the workfloor. And if the managers can't form a consensus they will hire an expensive consultant who tells them what they want to hear. Shit still gets done, but at a slower pace, and often more because the guys on the workfloor find ways to work around management then because of it. And then a business enters the dinosaur age, where even the people on the workfloor stop caring and only sit out their time waiting for retirement. And the company survives more thanks to being too big to fail or by buying up their competitors.