Pedal culture is killing everything we love

[neonblack]

So this might have been discussed elsewhere but I've been feeling this lately. I love Knobs and Chase Bliss and all the new shiny things, and I know there's always been a small subset of collectors and flippers around. But I think that Reddit and YouTube and social media in general is making things difficult. You have these awesome, innovative effects either sitting on collectors shelves or being sold for ridiculous amounts of money. I feel like if a builder releases a batch of 50 pedals, maybe 10 of those are being used to make music. The rest are being used as currency/trade bait/karma points/whatever, and I'm sure the builders would rather these things be in the wild, making music and being seen/heard.

I'm just frustrated. This week I saw a $275 pedal sell for 500 bucks. And now this. And it has Johnny Cash on it. Did Johnny Cash use overdrive? Was he mangling loops? FUCK.

[01010111]

I feel like that’s just a byproduct of pedal culture becoming more popular? A lot of people have nice guitars, but most people don’t actually produce content for other people (or at all). So, even though a lot of the stuff’s not being used, the fact that people making music now can benefit from the increase in availability of amazing pedals can only be a good thing?

[coldbrightsunlight]

I do think it's bit of a shame and the number of people who buy the new shiny things clearly just intending to flip them is annoying. but yes it's just a factor of being more popular probably.

Just... Don't be like the flippers, maybe you don't have to have that one thing and you can use another thing.

If anyone's dumb enough to pay $300 for a Fuck... smh

[Chankgeez]

Not sayin' you're wrong, but, in this case you're bein' trolled by Schrödinger's Box (AKA Wittgenstein).

[neonblack]

Ahhhh Witt. Well, I also may have had a few drinks before I posted that.

I stand by it though!

[coldbrightsunlight]

Not sayin' you're wrong, but, in this case you're bein' trolled by Schrödinger's Box (AKA Wittgenstein).

[Jwar]

I have some shit like that somewhere. What you want grill? hahaha. No, I feel you. People are just dumb asses and want to make as much money as possible. In this case, I think that's a fair value on that pedal. I don't think he's too off. I had a few customs done by Brian. OK....more than a few. I know custom stuff add about 35-100 bucks depending on what you're wanting done. I mean, it's a one off. Here's the thing though. To me, I literally have zero interest in one offs anymore and thus the fall of Acid Splash Designs. That became apparent to me that I no longer was passionate. That's another story. They are cool but if I can get the same exact thing 1:1 for cheaper, I don't care if it has something cool on it or if it's puke green.


That pedal also is a piece of ILF history. It'd be cool to see it stay but Witt got banned, so he's probably not going to care about that part, which I totally understand.

[Jwar]

Here's what is really killing it for guys like us. Drop releases. When you do those, it creates a frenzy, which sells the shit out of your product. HYPE train. That's all that shit is. Drop releases are the most annoying thing that has ever been done IMO. I hate them to the point of almost not caring about the effects being released that way. IMO, you ought to sell that shit the same way you would anything. It's all marketing hype. It's good for the builders, bad for the people like ourselves who want to actually use them for music.

We used to have builders on ILF that cared about that kind of thing. Alas, money and increasing difficult life situations are probably the death of things like this. Sucks. This new world of super fast paced everything. Think about it. You're trying to give money to someone for something and you can't even do it because you're not fast enough to spend it. How weird is that? You have to faster at paying.


Also IMO, repeat business has to be hurt by drop releases at some point. You cannot maintain a company that way forever. I could point to some examples in the pedal community but they know their own inventories.

[D.o.S.]

Gear Speculators are annoying. Pedals that don't appear to have much of a place outside of Instagram clips seem to be more of a thing than they were a while ago. But ultimately you don't need these things to make interesting music (or even boring music!), you just need ideas. So, yeah, it sucks, but it's also not like there's no cool music being made because all the Boards of Canada-ifiers and forward/backward/sideways loopers and UBER DOOM TOAN MACHINES are being hoarded.

[Paul_C]

Here's what is really killing it for guys like us. Drop releases. When you do those, it creates a frenzy, which sells the shit out of your product. HYPE train. That's all that shit is. Drop releases are the most annoying thing that has ever been done IMO. I hate them to the point of almost not caring about the effects being released that way. IMO, you ought to sell that shit the same way you would anything. It's all marketing hype. It's good for the builders, bad for the people like ourselves who want to actually use them for music.

Personally, I agree.

If I decide I'd quite like to try something, I'd like at least half a chance of buying one.

If I'm honest, I'd prefer to pay a cheaper s/h price than new, but nevertheless 11 pedals on my board are new.

If the choice is between trying to grab one before they sell out in 5 mins, buying one for flipper prices or just forget about it and buy something else, I tend to go for the last one as it makes life simpler and less stressful.

If you're earning a living and selling out every batch then I understand completely why that might be the best approach to take, but it does risk putting your product beyond some people who may decide to ignore everything you do.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I agree on batch releases jwar I'm not necessarily knocking people who do them because I'm sure as a small business it's great to have that reliable cash flow from selling a batch on a specific date then making another batch. But it's not great for most people trying to get those pedals and to an extent it drives the flipping.

But flipping exists because some people's reaction to this is "well I can't wait a few months I'll just buy one for double" which to me is completely and utterly crazy. If you miss it you miss it, it's just a single piece of gear.

Which leads to:

But ultimately you don't need these things to make interesting music (or even boring music!), you just need ideas. So, yeah, it sucks, but it's also not like there's no cool music being made because all the Boards of Canada-ifiers and forward/backward/sideways loopers and UBER DOOM TOAN MACHINES are being hoarded.

Yep. I can make cool music with a DS1 or I can't make it at all.

[Jwar]

What I’m saying is that the business model of drop releases are inherently flawed. You spend less on advertising in some cases because of this but the viability of creating return costumers is significantly cut over time due to not being able to purchase a product. I’d be interested in the actual numbers over the course of let’s say a year with a drop release. It seems like they always sell out right? They don’t. Most recently I’ve been able to see things for sale for a much more extended period of time than previously. Which means that the drop releases (in my mind) are no longer working for said product. No one in specific here being talked about. I’m just talking about that type of sales tactic in general.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Yeah I've never sold stuff so, just thinking out loud. Definitely has positives and negatives to it as a strategy. And personally as a consumer I don't love it.

[frodog]

I agree.

[neonblack]

Jwar, we might be talking about the same company. And I don't blame the builders for the hype. The hype videos can be fun and get me excited.

I'll be totally honest, this post was mostly made because of my saltiness. I got hype and planned my day around a drop and missed it, then saw the same pedal a week later for a 200 dollar markup. So I'm basically part of the problem, because I drunkenly made an offer on it. Thank God someone made a better one.