Messages

I honestly don't know HOW people can make it as a new Booteek pedal company now. There are SO many names out there that the market seems completely flooded.

I guess the creme rises to the top though... 

I honestly don't know how some of the ones that are out there have survived.  I just had a discussion with a potential dealer last weekend and showed him a couple of FFX prototypes.

He commented about how nice they looked compared so some of the other "boutique" builder pedals he gets.  Among his recent shipments included:

1.)  Pedals that came in no packaging at all.  Just bagged and ready to go.
2.)  Pedals that used a cheap vinyl sticker as a label.  I don't consider this as bad as some of the other things but it bothered him.
3.)  Pedals that came without the bottom plates screwed on.  The screws came with in a separate bag so it was easy enough to put them in, but he thought that was a bit lame.

And this doesn't even address some of the poor "mojo" wiring and things like that.

I agree that the market is getting crowded and it is getting hard to differentiate.  The better examples of smaller companies (like Catlinbread, Wampler and Earthquaker to name a few) have their act together and seem to be doing very well for themselves.

If that's the case (which I'm pretty skeptical about), Alpha is shooting themselves in the foot by putting branded parts out into the market that don't meet their QA standards.

I just try to stay away from the stigma that buying an asian component from an asian company means that you get lower quality than buying that asian component from a north american company.

Idk I feel it's possible that they are so cheap because they are sold batches of pots not quite upto alphas quality control standards

This.  I've received many out of spec parts from Tayda that are name brands.  I suspect that offer to buy the QC rejects at a highly discounted price.

For the smaller shaft pots, I'd have no problem with them selling them if they only identified them as such; then I'd know to avoid them.

Either way, many of the issues encountered with poor quality components don't exist when parts are purchased from places like Mouser, Digikey or even smaller distributors such as Small Bear.  Tayda's niche is parts at dirt cheap prices but not necessarily high quality or even in spec parts.

There are plenty of high quality Asian vendors.  Tayda just isn't one of them.

Make no mistake, I still buy some things from them.  But I've run into many problems and there are some items I just won't buy from them again.  Every vendor has issues from time to time, but I've procured a lot of parts in my life (professionally and personally) and Tayda's rate of OOS parts (not just Alpha) is significantly higher than I've seen from anything outside of eBay.

Idk I feel it's possible that they are so cheap because they are sold batches of pots not quite upto alphas quality control standards

This.  I've received many out of spec parts from Tayda that are name brands.  I suspect that offer to buy the QC rejects at a highly discounted price.

For the smaller shaft pots, I'd have no problem with them selling them if they only identified them as such; then I'd know to avoid them.

Either way, many of the issues encountered with poor quality components don't exist when parts are purchased from places like Mouser, Digikey or even smaller distributors such as Small Bear.  Tayda's niche is parts at dirt cheap prices but not necessarily high quality or even in spec parts.

Congrats on breaking the drought.  The pedal board and the pedal look great.

Are those Eagle knobs or something else?  I like the look of those.

Oh, and to answer your question, when you are ordering, you put your instructions in the notes section.  Amazingly, I've never had a problem when I put the correct info in there.

I really like PPP, but they do have the worst commercial website I've ever seen.

That said, I deal with the website because their quality and customer service are significantly better.

Very nice. 

Enclosed jacks, a 1590a man after my own heart.

That looks great.  I like the finger joints.

Now the real question: How does it sound?  I have a PCB here but haven't built it up yet.

My main beef with Tayda's pots is that the shafts have variable ODs.  Some of them have the standard .25" shaft and others have .235."  I ran into some 9mm pots the other day with the smaller shaft and the knobs don't install on them properly; they wobble when turned.

Very cool.  I've thought about doing one, but I've been slightly put off by the cost.  My phono cart is a very low output MC (250uV) so I'd probably need step-up transformers to get the gain I need.

If you are going to sell these things, I agree with Jon: make it road worthy and solder all of the legs.

I love socketing components on DIY and proto builds, but I'd be wary of socketing transistors on something that is going to be kicked around a lot.

If this is a serious venture for you, I'd also recommend drilling templates so that both jacks are closer to the same location on each side.  You may also want to measure out your wiring ahead of time and spend a little bit more time wiring it neatly.

I think a little bit of planning and practice and your builds will look a lot more professional and that will serve you better in the long run.

Yeah, I've stopped using painted boxes because I can't clean then with the solvents I like (primarily flux remover).  I agree that acetone shouldn't be used unless you are trying to destroy the finish.

Is that a painted or powder coated box?

I think it looks pretty nice.  Here are my thoughts:

1). I can't tell for certain, but did you clean the enclosure after etching?  I always wipe down the enclosures with flux remover after etching.  Alcohol works OK as well.  It usually helps a lot.

2). Backfilling (with wax or paint) would add contrast, but you might run into issues in the larger etched out areas (specifically the silhouette of the guy) as there isn't a ton of depth to offset the width of the etched out area.  You might just have to try and see what happens.

That's a great looking build.  I like the large scale exterior and how it all ties together with the knobs.

And that wiring.  Man.....