So...ive finally assembled all the parts for a dig dug build ive been planning for 6 months or so. not a cheap build. sourced parts from PPP and small bear. first time using small bear and never again. the vactrol was a bout 4 bucks more than mammoth, everything was more in all honesty. the shipping took 2x as long as the good folks at pedal parts plus....AND here's the kicker: after spending 45 bucks on about 30-40 resistors and caps- not a single one was labeled and i am missing a couple resistors. so my next 3 hours are going to be spent going through all the parts and finding out their values and running by radio shack after that, because apparently theyre too busy at small bear to label the components of your order. AWESOME. Pedal Parts Plus, if they can get more inventory and variety, will have my business everytime. I just bought some knobs from mammoth so we'll see how they score on my scale of customer service. your comments are welcome. anyone else have crappy experiences?
Melonhead
Wow, that's pretty strong. Smallbear is a fine place to buy certain things. I generally buy all resistors and capacitors from Mouser because they are nicely labeled. Smallbear offers several things that the others don't. My business is spread between pedalpartsplus, mammoth, smallbear, and mouser. Sometimes effectsconnection.
I don't order many caps or resistors from ppp, mammoth or sb. I get mine from mouser, newark or tayda. smallbear is nice because you can get most everything you need for a project there, but I prefer to order from multiple places to build up stock over time. If you're only doing one project I can understand your frustration though.
ppp for enclosures and an odd part if I need one
mammoth I like getting pots there and an odd part if I need one
smallbear has lots of great hard to find parts for pedals including germanium trannies, that is what they're there for IMHO
tayda has lots of great cheap stuff, and they do their best to label everything. but I check every bag of resistors anyway.
mouser has the mack daddy selection of caps, resistors, trannies, ic's, etc etc
newark is pretty cool too
digikey is supposed to be great too but I don't care for their website so I haven't ever used them
good luck man
I prefer small bear actually. its mostly because I order in larger quantities, usually 10 or 25. for my largest orders, turn around time is about a week and I'm talking $250.
For boxes I go with PPP. Unfortunately, to have things drilled and powder coated takes about a month, but they do good work and have excellent quality control now.
I haven't ordered from Mammoth in a while, but may go back now that they have BYOC drill patterns.
I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion. Thank you for sharing yours.
(Moderator hat comes off)
I try to be fair when I approach vendors, but repeated bad experiences get noted by me. In this case, I can understand why it might be frustrating to get a bunch of bags of resistors in various values, but in all honesty that's part of the deal in getting parts. Sometimes you have to check them, and I've gotten bags of resistors that are marked for one value, only to measure them and find their value written was completely wrong.
I agree that sometimes parts cost more at Smallbear than at other sources. Perhaps it would help if you understood some history about these suppliers. Smallbear has been around by far the longest of any pedal specific supplier. Perhaps by as much as 10 years. In that time, Smallbear was just about the only place to go for a ridiculous number of parts that just couldn't be found easily anywhere else. With the rise of the internet in the last ten years, venders have popped up on eBay and opened their own shops. Big companies like Digikey and Mouser have become more accessible to little guys like us. A lot of those common parts can be found for cheaper through some of those places now. This is all new development, and anyone joining in with the DIY stuff now doesn't really see that things are much different now than they used to be. Unfortunately though, the change doesn't really change the guys at Smallbear's costs. I know that with the rise of competition prices often get lowered, but it doesn't make sense to start chopping prices just because a newbie like Mammoth shows up who is under pricing them. They can't 'compete' with places like Tayda based in Asia, so they aren't trying to - actually they don't need to. Many, many, many of the boutique pedal builders use them as their suppliers on a daily basis. DIY guys like us make up only a portion of their business.
Smallbear remains the best one-stop-shop in the DIY pedal building place, and they carry a larger variety of pedal specific stock than anyone else, and they are expanding their stock weekly (faster than Mammoth and PPP). Steve (Smallbear owner) called me from Namm in 2010 when I had emailed in a question about some parts (Smallbear is located on the east coast, Namm is in California)! He spent half an hour on the phone with me in CANADA just to make sure I understood somethings I had questions about. Their people are available if you need help, and their customer support when there's a problem is top notch. I know it might seem crappy to look at 20 cents a resistor when you buy singles, but Smallbear's bags of 200 is still 5 cents cheaper than mammoth's (last I looked they were 3.95), and when you look at the bulk prices, pretty much everything is even.
In the case of Mammoth, they opened up about a year or so ago I believe. Instantly when they arrived I noticed that EVERYTHING on their website was a little bit less than Smallbear, just slightly, like by a couple cents or so, when purchased as singles. Essentially, they set themselves up, at the beginning, to under price Smallbear on everything. Since then I have placed 4 or 5 orders. Every one has had issues, some small and some major. I appreciate that Blake is doing his best, and his customer response has been very good for me. He's personable, and he's doing his best to run his business well. Fact is though, my last order with them was for more than 100 pots. I went with him to save money over going with Smallbear (the next best place price wise for alpha 16mm pots by the way, even better than PPP or any of those other places), and in doing so I ended up having a ridiculous duty bill on my end (I'm in Canada). Not Mammoths fault for sure, but I never get them on my Smallbear orders. Truth is, Smallbear would have saved me money in this case, but I hoped I'd save with Mammoth.
It's not just Smallbear to Mouser, cause if you go to Mouser you could save too. For example you may find a Vactrol for $2, but if you look down the list on Mouser you'll Vactrols of the same value made by different companies for more, perhaps as much as $12 (*hypothetical*). Sometimes the price difference is because the part is sourced from a different location, or because the parts themselves are of different quality. It's not just those kinds of parts - A Hammond 1590A is a better quality enclosure than the New Sensor 1090NS, but I buy the 1090 because the difference in quality isn't important in my use, and I need to save the few bucks in the difference in price. You don't know that the Vactrol from Smallbear and Mammoth actually compare to each other quality or price wise. Wima caps are considered better than many other brands, and people care a lot about things like Mallory or Orange Drop caps for their amps and guitars, but part of the reason they do is because their quality is better than the average film cap, and you pay for that difference. Yes, if the part is exactly the same from exactly the same source, bought at exactly the same price, then it would be questionable. However, we can't say that's the case.
On PPP, I agree that they are fantastic. I get all my enclosures through them, and some stomp switches. They have the widest supply of enclosure sizes and the biggest variety of powder coat colours available, and their customer service there is super top notch! I will always, always be their fan.
Oh, and don't forget to factor in price whenever you, or anyone else for that matter, is getting stuff shipped. That's one reason I like Tayda - cheap or free shipping. But sometimes it's worth it just to pay that extra little bit for a part because you can get it all from one place.
Jacob
Quote from: The Dudesmallbear has lots of great hard to find parts for pedals including germanium trannies, that is what they're there for IMHO
+1 I can't think of a better place to go for tested, guaranteed germanium trannies.
For everything else, I've been going to Tayda lately.
I've ordered from Smallbear twice and both times got wrong parts and it took more than two weeks to get my order. I didn't notify them either time because 1) I'm lazy and 2) I figure I'll find a use for those parts eventually.
That being said, he does have things that are really hard to find elsewhere on the web. Speaking of which, anyone know another place to order the Alpha 'dust covers' for pots?
Quote from: jubal81 on January 31, 2012, 04:09:31 AManyone know another place to order the Alpha 'dust covers' for pots?
Tayda pots come with them ;)
Does anyone know if the Tayda Alpha pots have the same shaft dimensions as the smooth shaft pots we get from Smallbear and Mammoth?
Jacob
so after a little booze and settling down, i can understand where a lot of you guys are coming from. Youve done business with these folks before, you know them on a first name basis. I'm sure they have their hands full- running that kind of business and knowing which parts to supply etc and getting everyone's order straight has got to be mind numbing. On the other hand, it's nothing personal, it's business. I didnt go to college for applied physics or electrical engineering. I build pedals because it's fun, it's cheaper than paying for overpriced boutique crap (there are exceptions), and it's something that i can do as fast or as slow as i want. Having said that, if i pay money for something, it's gotta be right. I spent a few hours converting all the caps to uF from pico and nf, compiling the list of mats that madbean so graciously supplies us with...you know THE LEGWORK...it's fun, i dont mind doing it. It's just really frustrating to have to put my build on pause because some guy in a warehouse didnt take 1.5 seconds extra per part and write the name of the thing he was putting in the baggy. Just frustrating is all. Am i gonna have to source parts from smallbear again? im sure i will...and im sure the small bear guy is a really nice guy. everyone in this building community seems to be (except me apparently ;) )..but again, business is business. i paid for it. it should be right.
just my opinion.
Nah, your experience is legitimate. I think you should write a (polite) email and share your experience. Businesses shod always appreciate feedback from their customers. I believe Smallbear is one like that.
Jacob
Also, sorry guys for the novel. Didn't intend that one to be so huge. Just kept continuing my thought.
Quote from: jkokura on January 31, 2012, 05:09:50 AM
Does anyone know if the Tayda Alpha pots have the same shaft dimensions as the smooth shaft pots we get from Smallbear and Mammoth?
Jacob
Tayda do knurled shaft, otherwise the same as the smallbear 16mm Alpha 'Smooth shaft'.
I have ordered from all the usual places listed here. The only mistake SB ever made was send me 4 extra 2n1306 transistors. I told Steve and he told me to keep them. That's just my experience.
Honest opinions are good though.
I have never really had problems with smallbear, shipping times can be long, but I usually only buy from there for harder to find stuff. Now that they are out of Hotpotz-1's I am hanging up my wah repair hat. Sad. Before PPP put up their USPS priority mail or else disclaimer I had one order go missing totally, which they replaced for free, so it wasn't the horrible inconvience it could have been. The worst thing I have had happen was with effects connection. I had to file a paypal claim because they took my $ and never sent order confirmation, nada. Long wait to get my $45 buck back and never a response to any of my email or phone messages. So lame, they had the best price on Switchcraft jacks and 3PDT's in small quantites for a long time. I know Mammoth has cocked up a bunch of orders for other people, but after around 10 orders from I still haven't had an issue. I like their raw 4site enclosures.
If you are making many small orders often you are more likely to have a bad experience at some point than if you had placed one or two big quantity orders in order to have stock on hand. But then the wife factor comes into play, "You spent how much on pedal parts?!?!?!?"
Analogy time: You go to Burger King and order your cheeseburger with extra cheese, no pickles, extra mustard, easy mayo, half the lettuce, and extra tomatoes, and the top bun toasted, one or more of those changes is not gonna happen. If you order 30 cokes, 25 cheeseburgers with everything, and 40 large fries, you are probably going to get exactly what you ordered.
I've had the same experience as most here, and I've ordered from all the usual suspects in the US and Europe (and my first Tayda order is going out next week once I get my final part count finished). The reality is, mistakes are going to happen on web orders, and it doesn't matter if it's for electronics, or books, or fishing rods. I've had entire orders from Cabela's go missing and then have them not be able to fill the replacement orders, I've had Amazon take my money and not ship for a month, etc, etc. I've actually found that most pedal parts suppliers (PPP, smallbear, banzai, musikding, partspipe, madbean, guitarpcb, etc) have higher rates of getting the orders right, especially when you consider the high part count/low part value of the orders (think about it, you're paying a nickel for a single resistor, someone has to go pick that part out and bag it, it's hard not to burn five cents in operating costs just doing that).
The most reliable, easiest to deal with parts source I have had has been Banzai. Every single part in your order comes in their own little ziploc bag, with the part number printed and barcoded on a sticker, and the orders have never been wrong. They are also the highest cost individual part source for caps and resistors (twice as much as the next guy in many cases), and their shipping rates are the highest. So, in the end, you get what you pay for I guess.
I've placed orders from EVERYONE of the major suppliers. Everyone has a mistake once in a while, some more than others. Small bear is the pioneer of pedal building supplies and I'll continue to support him where possible. Regardless of where you buy you should double check values anyways. I'll check at least one resistor or cap in every pack I get from anyone.
Josh
Quote from: aziltz on January 31, 2012, 02:23:30 AM
I prefer small bear actually. its mostly because I order in larger quantities, usually 10 or 25. for my largest orders, turn around time is about a week and I'm talking $250.
For boxes I go with PPP. Unfortunately, to have things drilled and powder coated takes about a month, but they do good work and have excellent quality control now.
I haven't ordered from Mammoth in a while, but may go back now that they have BYOC drill patterns.
i guess I should have mentioned the number 1 reason I go to small bear is that, whenever I email them, I get a direct answer withing 24 hours, from Steve himself. I've asked them about new parts before and they've added them, even thrown in a price break at my request. This in my opinion, overshadows all the little things that might pop up.
I've ordered from all the major contenders as well (although have more years of history with Mouser) and have had particularly good experiences with Small Bear, Mouser and Pedal Parts Plus. As I mentioned in another post, my experience with Mammoth was mixed, but I may give them another shot for things other than enclosures.
I agree that it would be nice if small bear labelled the bags, but more for checking the order in quickly than anything. When it comes to building circuits, I always check every component before I solder. It takes more time to build, but it saves a lot of headaches troubleshooting.
My experiences with SB have been very good. Some of their stuff is a little pricey (3pdt, SM caps...) but there isn't a single store that carries as much general and obscure pedal specific parts as Steve. I agree their shipping takes longer than most and they don't label stuff. They have only made a mistake on one of my orders and it was resolved very quickly. I have contacted them numerous times and they always respond within a day. I had a question and Steve actually called me to explain why something was the way it was, he is a super cool, genuine dude. You can tell the guy lives for his business and he loves pedals which is good to know. He also has the best variety and good prices on gain matched germanium transistors, I've bought many sets from him and never been dissatisfied. I try and get the majority of my parts from Tayda and my enclosures from PPP but I always end up at SB for something.
Quote from: timbo_93631 on January 31, 2012, 07:52:57 AMAnalogy time: You go to Burger King and order your cheeseburger with extra cheese, no pickles, extra mustard, easy mayo, half the lettuce, and extra tomatoes, and the top bun toasted, one or more of those changes is not gonna happen. If you order 30 cokes, 25 cheeseburgers with everything, and 40 large fries, you are probably going to get exactly what you ordered.
I have to go with Timbo on this: If you're asking for trouble, you are gonna get trouble! Don't get me wrong, I can't look in anyone's pockets or time-schedules but for most of us, this is just a hobby, right? If I can't solder this weekend, I'll do it the next one! Sure, there will be people on this forum that build pedals for a living, but what's that gonna be, 2% maybe? Don't want to offend anyone, but I imagine I could spend my time waiting for an order working, or maybe writing a new song for my band (or finishing the Mouser ordering info I'm working on for this community..... :D)
Should start a new thread: What do U do for a living and what kinda music do U play with your band? Me, I'm a designer/engineer in HVAC, and I play really raunchy bar oriented R'nR, all originals.... I will start that new thread!
Paul
copy mine from here...I've been an audio engineer for 17 years (Live and Studio) and currently work in Post Production full time at a major TV network. I still mix/produce and master, but now with the FT gig I can take it easy more and pick and choose which gigs (and artists) I'd like to work with. I don't play in any bands but do mess around on the guitars and other instruments if I'm co-producing or playing on something.
My latest production is my son Paolo, who is at this point 1 year old, so I don't get too much time (except late nights) to build and play. Most of the times it's mostly building.
I like Smallbear - but there is a learning curve!
I don't have much to add, except that SB, while not perfect, has come a long way in both its offerings, efficiency and over all customer service. Steve really listens to feedback and has made a lot of effort over the years to get those orders out fast and complete. It's pretty tough when you are building project to project and having to order parts to complete them. For me, it doesn't matter so much how long it takes to get here because I generally order stuff that I know I will use down the road, but don't necessarily need right away. I really like SB and I like to support it with my money, too. Steve gets a lot of credit in my book for making DIY pedal building so popular.
Anyway, although I do mention SB a lot in the project docs, it's not through any formal affiliation. Rather, it is very convenient and usually well stocked. Steve is familiar with a good number of the BOMs for projects here, so if you have specific questions about parts for one of the MBP projects, he may have an answer. At least, that is something you aren't going to get anywhere else :)
I am a SB fan as well. I am fairly new to building and have only ordered from Steve (5 or 6 times now) and my orders have been perfect. He has returned e-mails very fast and has been VERY helpful with all my questions. I plan to do business with SB for all my future builds if he has the stock. I do it for fun and don't care about a few extra bucks for this kind of service.
It kinda sucks having to sort resistors but there are websites that make it very easy and fast to do.
Here is the one that I use:
http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/resistorcalculator.php
I am in the uk so I wont be ordering from smallbear anytime soon.
But the parts I get from CPC/farnell (similar to mouser) are never labelled on their packaging. You can cross reference the codes from the order sheets and label them up that way but I think it takes me just as long to actually get out the DMM and measure the parts and label them correctly.
I have had a few bags of resistors that were incorrect and also some box caps that had larger dimensions than the ones I ordered. I never bother to get them exchanged, just keep them and order some more parts next time.
I have ordered quite a few parts from Dr Tweek recently. The service is top notch there.
After reading all these, I too have ordered from SB and will continue to do so. I had a few orders wrong but they corrected it. The shipping time is the one thing that bugs me though.
But, my opinion is that they should label their stuff. It is just good business sense to do so. If they can't take the time to label due to cost, then I would have a minimum order for resistors. With caps, especially for a noob, we all know how hard those things are to read when you are not sure what all the numbers mean. Noobs are people too ;D
Honestly, if Steve could speed up that shipping part, it would go a long way I think. Just my opinion though...that and a quarter will get you a 5088 I guess ::)
I've also had some slow orders from SmallBear, I usually go elsewhere (Mammoth, etc.) when I'm in a hurry for the faster turnaround time. I am fine with SB's prices being a bit higher because I understand that it is a specialty supplier with some odd and useful pedal parts. My main complaint is the 3PDTs. I have heard that Small Bear doesn't want to deal with people just buying switches or whatever, but $8.50/3pdt seems insane to me. Can't he just bulk buy from a place that sells them for ~$3 each, sell them for $5 and still make a good profit? That way you wouldn't need to always order from a second supplier if you are starting out and working on 1 project.
My guess on his 3PDTs is that as probably one of the first suppliers to offer them in quantity some ten years ago, he probably paid a much higher price to stock them than other suppliers are paying now. But, that's just speculation. I totally agree $8.50 is way out of line with what competitors offer. I actually got my current supply of 3PDTs through a group buy over at BYOC last year.
Quote from: jkokura on January 31, 2012, 06:09:11 AM
Nah, your experience is legitimate. I think you should write a (polite) email and share your experience. Businesses shod always appreciate feedback from their customers. I believe Smallbear is one like that.
Jacob
Also, sorry guys for the novel. Didn't intend that one to be so huge. Just kept continuing my thought.
I agree, you should at least state this to them nicely like Jacob said. Maybe they'll take your suggestions into consideration.
I for one have placed many orders through Small Bear and Steve has always done me right. I am a very happy repeat customer. I do get most enclosures and 3PDTs from PPP, but when I need a few of these transistors, a couple of those caps, and a few of those photocells, I go straight to Small Bear.
Futurelec, Smallbear, Mouser and Ebay here - oh, can't forget the forums ;D
Smallbear has been great for me as a hobbyist. When I ventured off to Mouser, like other I ended up with some caps that won't fit in a pedal enlcosure, much less the board I bought them for ???
SB is definitely not the speediest or the lowest cost, but the selection is great and geared for pedal builders, so the ordering takes much less time.
OP - do yourself a favor and buy a resistor pack on ebay if you plan on building more pedals. I got 20-30 values in good supply labeled and ready to use. I did the same with other part groups from futurelec. The futurelec caps weren't marked, but it is easy to cross-reference. A few plano boxes and some masking tape and you can get pretty organized in an afternoon.
I regret that I don't have more time to post on any of the forums--part of the price of "success." Diystompboxes.com remains my "home", because "ya dance with the one that brung ya," but it is gratifying to see many other busy venues catering to DIY FX. I think I'm now OK with the OP of this thread, and I just wanted to comment on the economics of selling the Blue 3PDT switch.
I am not at all unhappy with the fact that that part has become a commodity; its low cost and ready availability have made it easy for more people to roll-their-own pedals, and that drives traffic to SBE as well as other DIY sites. I maintain a fairly high price for small quantities, because the profit margin helps to feed 6 hungry people (+1 sometimes growly Bear) and pay the freight for a shop that will soon hit over 2,000 square feet. Every business has this issue: On what part(s) of its product line is it going to make its money?
I would also add that the version of that switch that I have always sold is made by the same Taiwanese factory that designed it 10 years ago. I have been offered numerous, much cheaper, Chinese clones, and I have stayed with the product I have. Some of the clones are competitive in reliability, and some are junk, as you can tell from the occasional on-line horror stories. Meanwhile, we are healthy, profitable, and able to keep plowing bearskins back into more made-to-order parts. Keep checking out the New Additions on the Stock List, and keep making LOUD NOISES!
Regards
SD
Thanks for stopping by Steve!
Josh
How many of you went back and read what you posted after Steve posted :D
Oh sure...I was the only one huh ;)
Support the bear since 2005 here
Go on Steve !
Mich P.
I got my order just fine. Ya, woulda been nice to have bags labelled but you know I have to id them by eye and DMM also so in the end not that important- though the diodes were a challenge as I could't read them and DMM just shows if they are leaky or bad or whatever. The LEDs were all labelled as to their color. I also had to ask multiple questions along the way as a noob and Steve always emailed me very quickly with answers.
Clifford
PS- Making much loud noise with my new creation thanks to you Steve.
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=3738.0
Over the years, I've had both good and so-so experiences with just about all the pedal-specific vendors. All of the businesses that specialize in DIY effects are necessarily fairly small operations (as compared to Newark, Digikey, Mouser, etc). This means that the "shit happens" factor has more of an impact (e.g. - someone gets sick, goes through a divorce, etc). These are human beings, not faceless corporate mega-monster legal entities. So sometimes they drop the ball. This doesn't mean you shouldn't hold them accountable for mistakes, of course. I'm just trying to emphasize the "real-person" factor.
Labeling each individual bag is NOT a trivial thing. Trust me. Without some kind of automated system set up, it is simply not cost-effective to label values on everything. And even with an automated system, there is a lot of added cost in hardware and labels/toner. This is fine for the big boys (or a smaller shop that has the backing of a big supplier), but it's hard to do for a small shop. Just imagine one of Steve's employees spending the extra time to hand label a bag of one resistor. It's ridiculous. The cost of the labor to write the value far exceeds the benefit of selling a resistor. :D
I think we're in the golden age of DIY effects. There are many parts vendors and lots of options for projects.
Quote from: culturejam on February 07, 2012, 07:29:55 PM
I think we're in the golden age of DIY effects. There are many parts vendors and lots of options for projects.
Yep!
just received my biggest order ever from SB. Ironically, it contained the smallest selection of components I've ever ordered, just a lot of them.
I'm gathering parts to build a Harbinger One and i need the photocells. The only place that sells the listed NSL-7532 parts is Smallbear. They insist on a shipping rate of $58 to England - for a few items weighing less than a penny. I got a bag full of boards from Madbean for $3.95 shipping, probably 20 times the weight. I just can't work out why Smallbear charge so much when MBP can do it at cost through USPS.
...i ordered from Tayda and mouser because i'm from the Philippines...its cheap and the shipping cost is low...my orders arrived to my country in 3-7days only...but sometimes took almost 2 weeks to be delivered on my door from the local post office....and worst....the customs tax i pay is way too high...it almost double the cost of my orders...well..just sharing my experience...
..still happy building pedals!!! ;D
I have been building for about two years now and I have nothing but great experiences with SB and Steve. I've probably placed 15 or more orders and I can only think of a couple issues over that time. I'm not too keep on their painted enclosures (quality/lack of selection) or their Taiwan 3PDT's (price) but they remain my favorite of the mom and pop vendors.
In the last couple months I've finally began to stock up on parts and I'm amazed at how much I'm saving. Group buys on this forum are also great. Bulk purchasing makes it a lot easy to justify using multiple suppliers (as most of us do) and deal with the occasional hiccups when things go wrong with an order.
I found myself similarly frustrated with Mammoth recently over some mistakes, but in the end they made it better. After reading Steve's post above I feel a little bad for getting so mad at Black and the Mammoth guys. They too have mouths to feed and are trying to do their best.
FYI Small Bear is also now carrying Alpha 3PDT's for about 5 bucks, which is a great price and alternative to the Taiwan switch. They are cheaper ($350?) at PPP, but if you are already placing a SB order, $5 is not too hard to swallow and better than placing an order elsewhere just for a switch. Plus they are black and black is cool ;)
.
Quote from: echidna on April 18, 2013, 12:46:14 AM
I'm gathering parts to build a Harbinger One and i need the photocells. The only place that sells the listed NSL-7532 parts is Smallbear. They insist on a shipping rate of $58 to England - for a few items weighing less than a penny. I got a bag full of boards from Madbean for $3.95 shipping, probably 20 times the weight. I just can't work out why Smallbear charge so much when MBP can do it at cost through USPS.
Have you seen this?
http://www.banzaimusic.com/Univibe-Upgrade-Kit.html (http://www.banzaimusic.com/Univibe-Upgrade-Kit.html)
I used it on my build of Jacob Kokura's Univibe clone project, it works very well and Banzai ships for far less. Might be of interest for all european Harbinger builders!
Paul
Quote from: DutchMF on April 18, 2013, 10:44:01 AM
Quote from: echidna on April 18, 2013, 12:46:14 AM
I'm gathering parts to build a Harbinger One and i need the photocells. The only place that sells the listed NSL-7532 parts is Smallbear. They insist on a shipping rate of $58 to England - for a few items weighing less than a penny. I got a bag full of boards from Madbean for $3.95 shipping, probably 20 times the weight. I just can't work out why Smallbear charge so much when MBP can do it at cost through USPS.
Have you seen this?
http://www.banzaimusic.com/Univibe-Upgrade-Kit.html (http://www.banzaimusic.com/Univibe-Upgrade-Kit.html)
I used it on my build of Jacob Kokura's Univibe clone project, it works very well and Banzai ships for far less. Might be of interest for all european Harbinger builders!
Paul
Off topic, but thanks for linking to that Dutch.
I've just ordered a Harbinger so that set could come in very handy!
Ditto...Thanks Dutch :) :)
Quote from: echidna on April 18, 2013, 12:46:14 AM
I'm gathering parts to build a Harbinger One and i need the photocells. The only place that sells the listed NSL-7532 parts is Smallbear. They insist on a shipping rate of $58 to England - for a few items weighing less than a penny. I got a bag full of boards from Madbean for $3.95 shipping, probably 20 times the weight. I just can't work out why Smallbear charge so much when MBP can do it at cost through USPS.
On point to your question man I have no idea. You raise a very legitimate concern and provide an apples to apples comparison. Heck I could argue SB is the 'big guy" and Bean is the "small guy" actually which further makes this shipping discrepancy more glaring. I'm assuming you didn't miss an option over at SB's place. I know this was an issue with Mammoth as some people didn't hit the drop down box or something like that and thought shipping was higher than what it was. But, good question to which I have zero answer.
I just looked at the NSL-7532 datasheet. It's not all that different from the ones that Tayda sells:
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/resistors/photoresistors/photo-conductive-cell-resistor-ldr-650nm-radial-ke-10720.html
I'll chime in with kudos for Brooklyn, NY-based SB. Unlike others who experience long ship times, SB is local for me—and I usually can pick up two blocks from my place by 6pm same day.
It's practically the only consolation I get for paying absurdly high rent (like most NYers).
Quote from: culturejam on April 18, 2013, 03:25:41 PM
I just looked at the NSL-7532 datasheet. It's not all that different from the ones that Tayda sells:
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/resistors/photoresistors/photo-conductive-cell-resistor-ldr-650nm-radial-ke-10720.html
This is often true of several items. I buy low gain silicon transistors, wah inductors, and enclosures (to justify shipping costs) from small bear. Common parts come from Tayda.
Quote from: Droogie on April 20, 2013, 03:24:00 PM
I'll chime in with kudos for Brooklyn, NY-based SB. Unlike others who experience long ship times, SB is local for me—and I usually can pick up two blocks from my place by 6pm same day.
It's practically the only consolation I get for paying absurdly high rent (like most NYers).
Hey, I thought I was the only Brooklynite here. Yeah, it is awesome to live so close - if I can't pick my order up, then I know it'll be in my mailbox the day after it ships.
never a problem with SB. Spent over 6k in the last year with them. Steve personally called me to tell me some stock was running low and what to try and use as a replacement. I have 0 bad to say.
Received my latest SB order today. Order received 15/4/13, arrived in my hot little hands on 23/4/13.
To be honest, this is roughly a month ahead of when I actually expected.
They've really pulled their game up!
Quote from: lincolnic on April 21, 2013, 03:47:58 AM
Quote from: Droogie on April 20, 2013, 03:24:00 PM
I'll chime in with kudos for Brooklyn, NY-based SB. Unlike others who experience long ship times, SB is local for me—and I usually can pick up two blocks from my place by 6pm same day.
It's practically the only consolation I get for paying absurdly high rent (like most NYers).
Hey, I thought I was the only Brooklynite here. Yeah, it is awesome to live so close - if I can't pick my order up, then I know it'll be in my mailbox the day after it ships.
It used to crack me up that the SB guys had to go two blocks past my building to send my order; which then went out to Long Island to a postal sorting facility; only to end up back in Brooklyn!
Ha, yeah it does bug me that SB does not label resistors and caps but thats just how they do it. I tend to buy those two components elsewhere anyway, and I stock up cause they are super cheap some places.
Most of my other parts come from SB though. Steve carries parts you simply can not get reliably anywhere else. They are reliable. Their prices on pots and jack is competitive, at least at the small quantities I buy in. I'm on the east coast so I get my orders pretty quick, even if they don't ship same day.
Customer service is top notch as well, I mean really top notch. Example, I needed matched fets for a phaser build, and since the 5952s were low on stock I got a note that they could not fulfill my order for a quantity of them. Simply Steve was maintaing a supply a spreading them out, honestly a service to the DIY community. When I explained why I needed them(50 I think, I needed to measure bunch to get a matched set)... he actually rigged up a tester and got me four nicely matched FETs. Ask any one else to do that for you... seriously good luck that. I diddn't even have to ask, he offered it up to me. Thats called earning a customer right there.
SB gets a lot of love on the forums and in pretty much everyones build docs for good reason.
^^^^^^ this is correct.
I've been ordering from SB quite a bit lately and it's been much, much better than before. This year all the orders have been correct and it's only taking 4 days or so to get them instead of two weeks.