Re: Horror stories from people for whom you built pedals

Posted by rocket88 on Dec 07, 2017; 12:49am
URL: http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com/Horror-stories-from-people-for-whom-you-built-pedals-tp40786p40853.html

well i have more than my fair share of horror stories, but here's two of my favorites. first, i had a guy contact me about building a phasor for him that i sell, which is a modified phase90. i charge $190 for it and he sends me an email telling me he'd give me $100 for me to build one for him. i send him a nice email back explaining that i build specifically for my customers, handmade on stripeboard, hand etched, etc.  and that to get something similar from a company like DAM it would cost over $600. he responds telling me it's just  simple phasor and he could just go and buy one for $100 and i should take his offer. my response was a much less polite telling him that my time is worth significantly more than that, that he should just go buy a $100 phasor, and that honestly i wouldn't build him a pedal even if he was willing to pay what i ask.

the second was a guy who wanted me to build him a Ge fuzzface using all NOS parts because they sound better then when built with new components. i gave him a price, which he said was too him, and explained that the transistors are the important part to tone not the caps and resistors, and there is no difference in tone if it's built and tune properly. after arguing with me and demanding me to charge him less, i told him that i have 2 fuzzfaces that are my personal ones, one all NOS components and one that has new components and NOS transistors, that he can try and tell me which one he prefers and identify which one is which. he comes to my place plugs in and tries them, and he of course miss identifies them, telling me how much better the one with new components sounds without knowing.  when i open the backs he states tell me that i tricked him, yada, yada. the kicker is he tells me he's just going to buy the stock mini fuzzface, then contacts me telling me it sounds like a blanket on his amp and not like the one i built, and how it be changed to sound like one of my builds. i told him he should buy one i make and he'll have the tone he wants. needless to say he wasn't too happy with my comment.

i really don't understand some people. they want things for nothing, and fell that time is valuable not to mention the value of someones knowledge and expertise. i've  built and designed pedals for a fair share of professional musicians and legendary musicians and they all get it and get super stoked for builds. there's literally been builds where pedals have been sent back and forth across the country testing and tuning, with 0 issues or concerns. pedals have been built and sent to other countries no issues. it's the kinda guys that hangout at GC and want to sound like X famous guitarist that are always the ones that cause issues.