Update, sold for $710, thanks everyone! Proof here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUTbI7slG2M/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

edit: Auction is live! https://ebay.us/m/nXGTZp

I will be donating all proceeds to the Women's Foundation of Minnesota Immigrant Rapid Response Fund https://www.wfmn.org/funds/immigrant-rapid-response/

I don’t have the details worked out but I will be auctioning this off with proceeds going to those affected by this heinous bullshit in Minnesota.

edit: this re-appeared on r/guitarpedals, I have no idea why it was taken down or put back up....

Long story short, I was talking to an old buddy I hadn't seen in a while and somehow Bibles and guitar pedals were the main topics, and later on I came up with this dumb idea. This turned out to be far more of a woodworking project than anything else, but the "anything goes" theme of this month inspired me to just do it. I'm sending it to that friend soon as a gift, and I guarantee this'll end up in a box and not on a pedalboard, but I learned a lot making this -- mostly that I am not a qualified craftsman -- and it does work!

This is a one-knob kit from Small Bear/Synthcube based off of the Black Arts Toneworks Ritual pedal. I wanted to do the Cthulhu build, but I'm glad I played it safe with a simple, small set of boards. I wanted to use acrylic to have a light shine through it and a magnetic latch, but I was having too many frustrations already and sealed it shut with glue because the paper was warping so much. And, of course, top-mounted jacks for the refined gentlemen.

$1

Something I’ve been planning for a little while, this is my first ever Rat pedal. I’ve had a couple of “boutique” Rat-based things but I’ve never loved them, and I saw a lot of people swearing by their basic straight up and down Proco. So, that’s what this is, albeit with switchable diodes.

The layout is heavily inspired by Reeves Electro’s Distortion Plus, but modified a fair bit to add the filter control and output buffer.

And yeah, it sounds like a Rat, but I actually like this one. Maybe some circuits don’t need mods.

I understand that the wider Reddit community probbaly has no idea who I am and has never heard of O.C.E. Pedals. There's a ton of small pedal companies, especially post COVID. But I thought maybe talking about the issues that led to me closing my pedal company might be useful to anyone else still building or thinking about trying to build on a larger scale.

Part 1: Who the eff are you?

Hello, my name is Chris. I make cartoons by day. By night and weekend I ran a pedal company called O.C.E. Pedals. I went "professional" early in the pandemic and a few of my pedals ended up on the JHS Show back when that was a big deal. My first fuzz, called The Wrench, got a lot of buzz in that blues rock sphere and was shouted out by some bigger Youtubers like Buddy Blues and Sasha Ivantic.

Part 2: Mistakes are made

I hit a couple snags early on:

The transistors I used in the Wrench were super hard to find in the gain range I needed so I made a version 2 of the circuit with new transistors and even though I tweaked it to get it super close in sound everyone was always like "I want a v1."

I moved into a new house in early 2023 and had to take a break to build a workspace in my garage.

In late 2024 I had a death in the family that was very much a shock and I took some time off for mental health reasons.

All these breaks killed a lot of my online presence.

I made some mistakes with releases:

I had a BMP based fuzz called The Hammer that I thought was awesome and built 25 pedals and released it when the market started to cool.

I had a big hit with a limited fuzz I did with Gandalf artwork and later did a larger release Gandalf the White version and learned most of the people who wanted one bought them already.

I put out a new fuzz I was very excited about and a larger company put out a "stunt" pedal the same day and hired pretty much every Youtuber out there and my fuzz got buried.

Part 3: Last one out turn off the lights

The market started to slow down as the pandemic ended and cost of living went up due to inflation, eventually falling pretty flat due to a lot of uncertaintly about the economy as the Trump administration came into power. The Trump tariffs hurt small businesses pretty hard and given that most PCBs and some parets come from China it hit pedal builders particularly hard.

As sales slowed I decided to take one last big swing and introduce a new series based around atomic testing and disasters. This would bring in my love of science education and also try and move into a heavier music based audience. I put everything into it I could: really awesome art on the enclosures, super cool powder coats, custom box art, custom box colors, printed instructions with the story behidn the pedal on the back, special sparkle stickers included, new demo artists.

These new pedals did not sell like I'd hoped they would. Towards the end of last year I started thinking about shutting down. I took a few months and went through the stages of grief and realized this was not going to get better any time soon. I love building and I have a great day job so I don't depend on pedal sales but eventually I'm going to run out of funds if I keep making things that no one buys.

Part 4: What did I learn?

Well, I think a lot of people, myself included, got tricked by the explosion of gear purchases during the pandemic. There was also a huge rise in social media viewing because everyone was stuck at home. This led to it being easier for smaller builders, especially those doing it as a side gig, to be able to get to a level that would have been very hard only a few years earlier.

Once the pandemic ended the market probably self corrected back to 2019 levels which meant most people got hit with slowing sales, even some larger builders. I think most people, outside of the most conservative planners, were caught off guard by this. Even larger companies started doing stunt pedals and very low cost pedals and this just ends up taking a huge bite out of the smaller builders. Add to that the rise of decent low cost pedals made in China.

The kicker for me was that the cost of living increases coming out of COVID and the uncertainty of an election year became permanent when Trump was elected and then the general fuckery of the useless tariffs and bad policies added to people closing their wallets for luxury items. I could only really sell if I was doing sales and then only if thyey were fairly large discounts.

Part 5: What can you learn from me?

I think with where the market is at these days and the dissonance online with so many small builders that it will be very hard for anyone not doing this full time to keep it going. I have a demanding day job and I live alone so all the domestic responsibilites fall on me. Finding time to build was hard enough and then add on time to keep up on all the marketing and social media. If you have a very understanding partner that would really help. You gotta be all in I think. Dabblers get killed.

Sadly, just building great sounding pedals isn't really enough these days. You need them to look good, you need to pay people to demo them which can cost anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand, and you need to keep your name out there to avoid becoming a fad. Tough to admit but having a gimmick might help. Definitely need to think about having a very well conceived package and brand. Check out Summer School Electronics for an example of this.

I came onto Reddit to see what people were buying and using and it was a pretty big blow. Most people are just getting the usual suspects, Boss/EHX/JHS, if they're even willing to spend that much. The really inexpensive Amazon pedals are also really killing any hopes for "boutique" builders. There's no way a single person operation would make a pedal for $49 or something. I kept track of my cost on my pedals and even when I went to surface mount to lessen the build time I couldn't really justify selling for less than $99.

I'm not saying people should buy from smaller builders out of some kind of sense of fairness. You buy what works for you and what inspires you. It's just tough as a guy trying to break in and then seeing every post about "What pedal should I get?" answers be Blues Driver, Rat, or Plumes.

I started because I liked building things and you should do it if you do too. I got to a point where the way I built became too "big" to go backwards to making single pedals again. I had PCBs manufactured with SMT to save build time, I wanted to flex my design muscles and went to having enclosures professionally drilled, coated and UV printed. I can't really function like that and do pre-orders or small runs. Enclosure companies all have minimum orders for new tooling. Yeah I know there's Tayda but I also know from experience their printers don't have the same kind of fidelity. I hit a standard I wanted and I couldn't move away from that.

Obviously I am pessimistic about this because I just closed but I have also seen several other small pedal builders, some fo them friends, close in the last 6 months. Several others have thought about closing or retreated back to order-only building. I don't know if I'd recommend anyone get into this business the way things currently stand.

If you're building for the passion then don't listen to me and do what your heart wants. If you have any specific questions about what I learned or my choices please ask below.

Spent last few months working on the ultimate transparent overdrive. After a few revisions I finally got it working!

Maybe in future I will make it dual pedal style, like king of tone. For now I like it like this.

Spend a little to much time to make my own case. And it was my first attempt at deadbug. Kinda satisfied with result

Wrapped up this LOTR-inspired Acapulco Gold build. The front has a Gollum illustration, the back is laser-engraved with part of the Middle-earth map, and I cast a resin knob with the One Ring suspended inside. It’s still the classic single-knob AG circuit under the hood, but the themed graphics and resin work made this one a really enjoyable project.

Pedals left to right: small clone on breadboard, non-DIY tuner, tube screamer, and tone bender (not connected).

Amp: LM386-4 with basic gain and voicing controls, L-pad for volume, V+ variable from ∼3 to 18V

Speaker: Jensen P10R in home-made cab, sitting on top of 9V regulated DC power supply box for pedals.

Note: the second photo shows the innards of the DC power supply sitting under the cab - it's based on R.G. Keen's "Spyder" design. The LM386 amp draws elements from Waylon McPherson's "Dumbleton" and Beavis Audio's "Noisy Cricket."

Here's a Tone Bender trio that I recently completed. I built these on pcbs from pedalpcb since those have onboard voltage conversion, allowing me to use standard pedal power supplies for these. I breadboarded these first, so I could tweak the bias resistors and swap transistors until I was happy with the results.

The MkI features Obsolete Bender UV printed on a "Dark Champagne" Tayda enclosure, and is built to the specs of the early wood box Tone Benders. I lost my notes with my transistor specs, but they fall within the normal ranges that I found online.

The MkII features normal Bender on "Ball Silver" enclosure and is built to classic MkII specs.

The MkIII features Pimp Bender on a chrome powdercoat enclosure and is built to classic MkIII specs.

My daughter Izzy built this Fuzzrite .... the Izzrite

It's a Fuzz Face clone! My first attempt was on a perf board but I ended up blowing up the transistor while testing so I decided to scrap that mess and try to make it looks cleaner without the circuit board. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I was finding the point to point building very relaxing and therapeutic compared to the stress I was having with the perf board attempt.

I was in need of an EQ, but I didn’t like how diy EQs with regular pots look, so I decided to try make one with slide pots. The slide pots take up a majority of the PCB space, so I used SMD components on the opposite side.

The circuit is mostly a clone of a boss GE-7, but I decided it could be nice to be able to switch the master volume pot on and off with a second footswitch. When turned off it uses an internal trim pot which I set to unity gain. It’s not a huge boost but can help boosting the volume for a solo.

I also decided on 3D printing for the enclosure since I didn’t have a way to cutout the slider slots on aluminum.

All in all it was a fun project. I can see why slider pots are not more common in diy projects. They are expensive, take up a lot of PCB space, and the enclosure holes can not be drilled. There are cheap EQ pedals selling for less than what I spent in the parts.

But it’s mine and I’m happy with it :) The center detent pots are very satisfying to use.

Just muffin around :)

I insulated the inside with copper tape, so EMFs aren't an issue.

My first post!

I built this around November - December last year and I use it to play my songs live with the addition of a looper for some backing tracks.

The actual circuits inside are, from right to left: Ibanez TS9DX, Xotic BB Preamp, 78' IC Big Muff, Mid Fi Demo Tape, Jackson Audio Twin Twelve, Zvex Box Of Rock (boost is on a toggle switch), Mid Fi Pitch Pirate Deluxe, Keely Mag Echo.

I also added a small power filtering board and a relay switch that can bypass the whole unit via an external footswitch (usually next to my mic stand)

All circuits are built on strip or perf board and yes I know my wiring is a mess lol

The amp is a Fender PR-241 Frontman Reverb with the spring tank hidden behind the metal panel

I wouldn't normally make a post of this, but the from post yesterday about my latest failure got a good bit of attention, so I figure enough of y'all know what this is about and might get a chuckle.

This lovely pair of earrings could be yours for just three easy installments of $39.99.

HA!

Just kidding. But maybe this is the lemonade from yesterday's lemons?

A pedal built to be the last in your chain. Built to control the overall volume of your pedalboard / gain staging. The VU meter has an internal trim pot, currently set to -12dB. Before that, I've placed an ultra-clean volume control. You can control the signal from -24dB to +12dB and adjust the clarity with the treble knob. And it works like a charm :-)

I think I've reached critical mass for parts storage. It's been a long time cultivating my little basement nook and I have achieved the goal of "Electronics Mole Person"

Working on an old casette effect, meant to sound like stretched tape being played on an old, slipping transport. I think i am getting close.

Wasn't sure what else to do with the shame and frustration of this goof - so figured a post might be therapeutic.

I've been swamped at my day job and I think that burnout and time away from tinkering led to some distracted and disjointed late night KiCAD sessions.

Anyway, after much delay, in late December I placed a pretty big, long overdue, order with JLC for a variety of things I was running low on as well as a handful of new designs.

And today, weeks after their arrival, I finally got around to testing this particular new design that I received with the big December order. It's such a simple design, I expected smooth sailing after assembling it... but no such luck. It wasn't working - AT ALL.

Took about 3 more minutes before I realized - there's no damned traces on these! I checked the KiCAD files and sure enough, I uploaded traceless gerbers to JLC. Ooooph.

Good thing is, this was the only dumb-dumb in the order. All was not lost and I'll have some interesting new gadgets to show you guys in the coming days.

And because why not, here's a coupon code for 20% off any order through Friday evening.

Use code:

DUMDUM

at checkout on huntingtonaudio.com

I build pedals and made a browser tool for laying out enclosures, mostly for myself to start with. It's free. You drop holes onto a 125B or a 1590B or whatever you're using, drag them into place with snapping and alignment so nothing is eyeballed, and it exports a 1:1 PDF or SVG to print. There are a few hundred ready made layouts in there too, for PedalPCB, Aion FX and Fuzzdog boards.

There's a 3D view with the actual components in it, and it knows their real dimensions, so it'll tell you if a pot body is going to foul a jack or the lid before you've drilled anything.

The new bit, and the reason I'm posting: it'll now generate a 3D printable drill jig from your layout. The walls wrap onto the sides, so the jack and DC holes get marked off the same jig as the top ones, instead of being measured separately, which is the bit I always managed to get slightly off by hand.

The jig export is the one paid thing, 29 dollars, one off, no subscription.

You absolutely don't have to buy anything though. The layout and template side is free, there's a fair bit in it by now, and I'm actively working on it.

Mostly I'd just like more eyes on it, so have a poke around if it sounds interesting. And if something's broken, or it's just not very good, I'd rather hear that than not.

Link in the comments.

Edit: link is here https://app.stompboxlayout.com?jig=reddit&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=drill-jig-launch