NAMM 2015 thread

[johnny problem]

Hey Riffer Mark, would you mind maybe recounting how this whole relationship started and what the process was and how you protected yourself and your design.  Lawyers involved?  Patents?  Third party holding of intellectual properties?  Things like that.  It would most interesting to me and others I would think.

This, because I'd hate to see a Big company taking advantage of the smaller guy.

[Beta Cloud]

good god man, it looks like something you sit on at dairy queen!

An 8yr old?

or an eight year old.

[jibberish]

heh

-------------------------------

mark, that really sounds great. I think BAT's level of ass kicking will increase significantly.
I think your agreement was very smart. 

would you ever let like sweetwater sell your pedals if they asked?

[The Riffer]

Sounds pretty damn sweet mang.

Thanks!

Good on ya Mark. I think it's great that a bigger company like DOD is working with smaller, maybe lesser known makers of awesome stuff, then that's great for all parties involved.

Thanks man, I agree. I really hope it works out for both of us. If its a successful w/o alot of backlash, then they may be willing to license from other small builders and we can start the dominoes falling towards the plethora of other small builders who deserve a look by the mainstream.

Hey Riffer Mark, would you mind maybe recounting how this whole relationship started and what the process was and how you protected yourself and your design.  Lawyers involved?  Patents?  Third party holding of intellectual properties?  Things like that.  It would most interesting to me and others I would think.

The whole thing started in a very cool way. Tom Cram who is the main guy @ DOD is a true pedal guy. Tom was buying pedals from me, and using them but never tried to use any sway from being a huge guy in the business. He in fact did not tell me. He just bought pedals like  any public person. He had bought a few and at some point emailed me and told me that my LSTR pedal was his favorite fuzz pedal of all time and he used it for everything. As we emailed a bit back and forth, talking about various stuff, I mentioned to him that Im not really a "pedal guy", and I don't use all of the schmancy new devices. I'm very simple, wah/Pharaoh/delay. Which at that time was my old standby Blue DODfx90 analog delay, and I went on to tell him that I really liked alot of the old DOD pedals. At that time he told me that he was the guy @ DOD/Digitech. I think at that point we were both for real and kept in touch every once in awhile. A few years go by and I was going to NAMM'14. Tom saw that and came by my booth, we met , talked and hit it off pretty quickly. We went out that Sat night for dinner/beers and out of mutual admiration just brainstormed some " what if" scenarios. So we pretty much by the end of dinner had roughed out what was acceptable to us both, he was very receptive to my ideas for the pedal. It was pretty much all hashed out right there and a handshake happened. It took awhile for him to convince his corporate people that it was a good idea, they did accept it and we slowly moved through the phases of getting this thing done. They have Lawyers, accountants and such who went through everything, I dont have that. I think I am able to read a contract well enough, they protect themselves and I believe I am protected to my satisfaction also. Its a license agreement, so I still own everything. At the end of each production cycle, I have the right to renegotiate the next production run.

heh mark, ponder working the IMTS show in Chicago FOR 10 DAYS STRAIGHT.  total bullshit.

the last 2 days are like zombieville. none of the exhibitors has anything left and anyone who wanted to go, went already.   redefines boring and your ankles and knees are smoking.
this giant fucking showhall like a morgue.   like right before opening...all carpeted and no one around.

the best one ever was this sort of fail local industrial show in Indianapolis at the old hoserdome. 
3/4 of the exhibitors started packing up after they:
a)didn't do well the entire show
b)virtually no one showed up last day
c)mgmt. were a pack of tards

except the packing started about 4 hrs before the show closed. mgmt was going apeshit trying to stop everyone from packing up and just getting tacky on the pa system.
I was helping the local rep/distributor with our product line in his booth because it was pretty huge. we were laughing so hard I was sore the next day. I wish I would have filmed those couple hours.

best thing about McCormack is watching the collection of people they scraped up to bring the crates into the hall. like every bum and junky in Chicago heh.
waiting for your crates is like the lotto. do you get yours early? or do you get fucked and get yours near the end so you are still there packing way late.

glad I don't do that anymore.

10 days? fuck. NAMM is 4, I go for 3. Thats still too much, yeah I struggle w being on my feet drinking for 3 days.
With DOD, the display was handled by corporate, so I walked in and out with no work. My own display is just a pedal board, so that requires very little work also, just carry in and out. Being in control of my own destiny means I come and go as I see fit. Arrive late, leave early, walk around and drink.

This, because I'd hate to see a Big company taking advantage of the smaller guy.

In the end it's probably a mutual use. We are both getting an advantage out of it. If in the end I get fucked, well then I get fucked. Im out nothing at all except maybe a reputation hit. Again, I thinks its a calculated risk and Id rather fail than not try at all.

heh

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mark, that really sounds great. I think BAT's level of ass kicking will increase significantly.
I think your agreement was very smart. 

would you ever let like sweetwater sell your pedals if they asked?

Thanks man. Ive definitely been asked by all of the major online retailers. My production is too small, they want large amounts and also large margins. My stuff is too labor intensive to allow large margins. I enjoy working with smaller shops who cater to the boutique industry. They get it, and know what they are selling. I think their expertise in suggesting a certain pedal to their customer is invaluable. Last thing I want is a guy to want a boutique tubescreamer and the dolt sales guy sells him a Pharaoh, kid then posts online that the Pharaoh sucks.Right tool for the job... I am in a few larger online retailers, but they play fair and stick to my parameters. I have pulled dealers who do shady shit, I dont need it. That said, I am in  quite a few Sam Ash stores in larger markets. They agreed to do small quantities in real stores, no online. They don't get enough units or enough of a margin to discount or do blow-out sales.

[The Shocker]

Mark, I know you are way too busy, but I would subscribe in a second if you ever started a blog.

[black]

Dang, R-Mark. Congrats on all of that! So very cool, and it couldn't happen to a more solid and deserving man. Proud to know you and Rock the Pharaoh.

Everyday!

[Lumpy]

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

[The Riffer]

Mark, I know you are way too busy, but I would subscribe in a second if you ever started a blog.

Thanks man, I appreciate that, but...I'm not a big fan of putting myself out there unless its answering a specific question. I bore myself and couldn't imagine that everyone else wouldn't be bored also.

Dang, R-Mark. Congrats on all of that! So very cool, and it couldn't happen to a more solid and deserving man. Proud to know you and Rock the Pharaoh.

Everyday!

Thanks You! Too kind. Stoked that you dig the Pharaoh. I never get tired of hearing that.

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Lumps, Its all true, and I'm lucky for that.

[Beta Cloud]

NAMM..just returned. First stop, SR.com 

Riffer, it's amazing that you just do what you do because you love your craft, and a corporate recognizes you because they love your craft, and you get to do pedals for the masses, (unintentionally. as it should be). your pedals and business ethic are both equal in integrity and badass factor.
KUDOS!

[Lumpy]

This looks pretty crazy, and I don't even fully understand what it means:

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2015/01/29/korg-noritake-introduce-futuristic-nutube-vacuum-tubes/

Does this mean that in the future, tube amps will weigh 4 pounds, and all fuzz pedals will have real tubes inside?

[eyeprod]

Now there's something interesting, for sure!

[RAGER]

Oh shit, I was gonna post that too.  I've been waiting for someone to come up with something like a tube that isn't a tube.  There's them yellowjacket things been around for a while but...

[jibberish]

now THAT is awesome.  they got rid of the 1930 tech, but kept the function.

[The Shocker]

Damn, that is pretty cool.

[The Riffer]

Its all theory.
let's see if any one turns in a 12ax7 for that .. that......that thing.

[BastardCthulhu]

The blue Pbass gives me a raging GAS hardon.  That is all.

[spookstrickland]

Its all theory.
let's see if any one turns in a 12ax7 for that .. that......that thing.

Pretty cool, problem is we need power tubes too.  Also Russians were making subminiture tubes decades ago not much bigger than these, why not just go with them?  but any company looking into tubes for the future is a good thing no matter how they go about it, it will get a lot of people talking and building their own tubes.

[The Riffer]

Follow up on the DOD/B. A. T. project.
If youre so inclined, here is a video I shot of Joe from Randall Amps meeting the Boneshaker.

p.s. The new Randall Amps are legit. Typecasting in the gear kingdom is strong and hard to overcome.

[bitter]

The new Randall EOD88 seems interesting, but I'm not super impressed with the built in fuzz circuit. Cool that they went "there" though.

[RAGER]

Still have my RG200ES with matching cab from 1989.

[The Riffer]

The new Randall EOD88 seems interesting, but I'm not super impressed with the built in fuzz circuit. Cool that they went "there" though.

I thought it was pretty good. Ive forever been against the idea of putting a transistor fuzz or diode clipping distortion in the front of an amp, hardwired in. I was approached by a small startup company to license the Black Forest in the front of one of their amps, basically the same concept as the EOD88. For various reason I turned it down. I guess I am too old school and my eye to the future and what kids want may be off. We shall see if it gets any traction out in the marketplace.That said, that amp sounds pretty good at lower (NAMM floor) volumes, and sounded really good with a bass.

Still have my RG200ES with matching cab from 1989.

The RG series they had in their booth was impressive for the midschool metal tones. With a boost, they were 100% nailing the "dime" tones. For DIRT cheap. Very affordable for a kid in his bedroom to sound like a rockstah.

[bitter]

The new Randall EOD88 seems interesting, but I'm not super impressed with the built in fuzz circuit. Cool that they went "there" though.

I thought it was pretty good. Ive forever been against the idea of putting a transistor fuzz or diode clipping distortion in the front of an amp, hardwired in. I was approached by a small startup company to license the Black Forest in the front of one of their amps, basically the same concept as the EOD88. For various reason I turned it down. I guess I am too old school and my eye to the future and what kids want may be off. We shall see if it gets any traction out in the marketplace.That said, that amp sounds pretty good at lower (NAMM floor) volumes, and sounded really good with a bass.

The gain structures of the amp sound good to me from the few vids on youtube, albeit a little disappointing there isn't much control over the amount. Not having an ability to reduce the preamp gain, to me, just makes the already highly compressed tones too saturated for any fuzz (built in or external) to layer/boost correctly. That's why their fuzz sounded undefined and swamped out. An amp like that might be improved with some lower gain preamp tubes and passive pickups.

/allaboutfindingthesweetspot

[Stonergrunge]

Damn, Ibanez is going to release a limited edition reissue of the very cool 2609B bass known as the "Black Eagle", plus Danelectro is now selling their classic Longhorn bass in black.