ShortScale.org

I've just finished art college and I'm looking for a project.

One idea I've had is to start a boutique fuzz pedal site that sells a good selection of pedals from UK builders, like Fuzzhugger does in the US (but with a way better design). It might feature the odd handpicked pedal line from the US but I'd be keen to keep it British.

I'd be looking to support these builders as best I could, maintain their brand identity within the site and run it at pretty much zero profit. As well as these guys I'd be able to showcase one off items by diyers that had come up with something good and who want to get it sold with a stamp of approval from the site for a decent price (plus quality sound demos etc.).

I realise some of the country's finest builders frequent this forum so I'd be interested to hear what you think.

I guess the first question is, has it been done?

And the second, could it work?

I think Dave's doing it, isn't he?

dave's doing it with dwarfcraft at the moment but he was selling chuck collins stuff for a while.

http://www.thelastguitarist.com/

Dave's doing this, and also I'm not sure the UK is big enough for this to be of any advantage to the business model of UK builders, but maybe I'm wrong. I always got the impression that Mike and Tim were doing plenty healthy business.

Currently I just build to order and maintain an order list, which keeps me more than busy at the moment seeing as I have a day job and a girlfriend and a band aswell. If at some point down the line I wanted to go fulltime on the pedals I would obviously more rigidly standardise the "non Custom Shop" pedal line in terms of colour and construction, build batches, and get them sent to retailers, and if I was doing this then UK based retailers would obviously be great, since there are loads of online smallish ones in the US, like Prymaxe Vintage, Jet City Music etc, and only a few in the UK.

But yeah, for now it's not really something I am exploring.

Like this ? http://www.joespedals.com/ - who sells

Black Arts Toneworks
BMF Effects
Black Cat Pedals
Blackout Effectors
Crazy Tube Circuits
D*A*M Stompboxes
Death By Audio
Devi Ever
DrNo Effects
Dr Scientist Sounds
Earthquaker Devices
El Musico Loco
Homebrew Electronics
Lightfoot Labs
Malekko
Heavy Industry
Piggy Fx
Rockett Pedals
Skreddy Pedals
Stone Deaf Fx
Subdecay
Throbak Electronics

Yep although most of those are sourced from the USA.

Personally, I'd be up for selling via online stores, but my prices are too low for the really boutiquey places. To make it worthwhile for places like Joes pedals, and this Belgian effects store that got in touch recently, I reckon I'd have to double my prices. If I did that would I still sell any pedals? Who knows. I'm often tempted to start a new company building £150 fuzzes and selling them with a bunch of waffle. I do know that a great number of pedals that retail at twice the price of mine are nowhere near as well-built.

I think the pricing is where this thing would be a bit different. A lot of those US builders and D*A*M sell a circuit based on the fuzz face for £150-200, don't they? Mike and Tim sell stuff at a really good price and I'd want to keep those prices the same, I'd link to the builder's site so the consumer had the choice to buy direct if they wanted to. I'm thinking of it less as a business and more of a Village Hall for all the UK effects 'cottages'(?). One of the factors is that as an artist, I can make the site look, sound and feel really good, in a way that's appropriate to the products.

I can see though that maybe the market here is too small for me to be making more money for builders and not less!

Mike, you could be on there as a custom builder, that's no problem.
It would be very different to Joe's, though I think that's a great way to get US effects here.

But if Dave's working on this very project I'll leave him to it......Dave?

Well everyone has to start somewhere, so if you've some Art chops why not do something in the field you love I guess. If you get a portfolio of people (other builders) on board and come up with some sample content I'll take a look...

Yep I'd be up for this. Even if you don't go the whole hog and buy a bunch of pedals and then try to sell them, but treat the thing as a storefront for UK builders to sell directly.

Can't think of too many people in the UK who are into batch production. There's DAM of course, and Ian at Ghost Effects. The effectsdatabase.com has a list, but going through these is a bit of a thankless dirge:
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/country/uk

Yeah i used to do the Chuck collins but to be honest the profit margin was tiny, like ten quid tiny, and I was really doing it as much for the fact i liked the pedal but I couldn't really justify carrying on with them financially long term. Will be selling some Timhulio Fredric effects very soon which is great. Off work for a while now so will be getting the site up to scratch and new listings etc. I'd LOVE to be able to stock all kinds of other 'boutiqe' stuff (or rather just great pedals by independent creative manufacturers like Tim and Aen really) but it's a going to be slow builder what with using all profit to buy larger stock orders etc etc.

In all fairness it's a bit of a killer importing from the states - I can't bring myself to charge the same in ££ as it is in $$ and I keep a semi eye on other euro retailers and mark my prices a little under that so again, the profit isn't big bucks, I just like doing this with people who's gear I really respect. I have no exclusivity over any of my products so its perfectly possible someone could come along and offer thousands to Dwarfcraft and blow me out the market but hey I'll deal with that if it happens. Over the next year though I should see things moving better and better. Like tim says one option is being a 'store front' which if all the comission is straigh forward is something I'll look at.

i think wwrrss is mates with the guy from ghost effects and i now someone who is friendly with sonic pharmacy, who also do some nice stuff. might be worth giving 'em a shout.

stewart wrote:i think wwrrss is mates with the guy from ghost effects and i now someone who is friendly with sonic pharmacy, who also do some nice stuff. might be worth giving 'em a shout.

wwrrss does the pedal designs for the cases for ghost effects if I remember rightly. I also think Ian only makes to order as well. They look great pedals and Benecol also has one of his as well.

The builders I was thinking of were Fredric, MBM, Ghost, North, Magnetic, Pigeon, D*A*M (how does he justify his prices though?), MWFX and possibly a tech guy I know who knows the Lovetone guys and could maybe reincarnate the Big Cheese and Brown Source. I think it makes for a really nice range which could be augmented by a couple of handpicked US numbers to fill any gaps as well as some kits for people who wanna build their own. I have ideas for the name and branding of the site.

Thanks for all the replies.

If I'm not stepping on Dave's turf here then I might start working on it.

Nah no worries, go for it dude - maybe we can work together in some capacity too, even if just some cross promotions etc. I like the idea of mutually supportive businesses/ventures rather than daggers-out cut-throat bollocks. Feel free to PM me if you fancy doing something, or chat about this in any capacity.

Thanks Dave, the idea is that to be a worthwhile venture it should benefit everyone and I think it could comfortably run alongside and complement what you're doing. I'll report back once I've got some ideas for the visuals.

this sounds exciting!
i have had some interest from a couple of USA based distributors but i haven't jumped on this as yet.
would be more interested in working with someone in the UK, and have had enquiries from one 'biggish' online store but nothing concrete yet either, so who knows.

That's great Ghost. I'm tied up for the next couple of weeks with other projects but after that I'll be starting on this and I'll be in touch.