aphexafx
A mind is a terrible thing.
- Dec 10, 2013
- 276
- 152
- Disclosures
- Designer - Big Machine Electronics
I've had my Opti-FET for over a month now and I've since sold off my other pedal compressors. I love it. Good stuff, Frank!
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FEA fan club!
- Thread starter bongomania
- Start date
From Friday to Monday we actually had some Opti-FET stock on the website… but they are all gone now.
Glen has been quoting a 9-12 month wait, but with these last Opti-FET builds we were able to cover everyone from an 12+ month wait to only a few days wait. What I am trying to do is aggressively attack the waiting lists to eliminate or significantly reduce the size of the lists by building large production batches. The Opti-FET was the first of the three compressors that we attacked in this manner. It is now the DE-CL’s turn… for the next four months we will be cranking out DE-CL’s. Then it will be time for the DB-CL. So if you were to get on the Opti-FET waiting list today, you would be at the top for the next Opti-FET cycle in 7-8 months.
The goal is to eventually rotate smaller batches every month that will be able to keep up and have stock available on the website.
-Frank
buglen
Brother of Boomertech
Yep. I'm finding that estimating production is definitely more of an art form that a science. Apologies go out to all those who have been on the notification list(s) for longer than anticipated, and also to those who were notified well in advance of anticipated wait time and didn't have the funds available. With only one or two exceptions, everyone has been extremely patient as we work through the lists, and it is appreciated more than you know!
- Glen
I was able to get together with Durden26 last night for some bass fun and finally played through a DE-CL. Frank that thing is a KILLER circuit. I've got some mad respect for what you crammed in that pedal and I'm happy that FEA is putting them in the current production batches. Can't wait to see the notify email for my spot in the list!
Thank you!!
Thank you!
That is great that you had an opportunity to try one out before you buy one. This next run of DE-CL’s will have a different circuit from the one you tried out. The circuit changes are to reduce background noise in the audio path and to have a more useful range on the warmth control. They will also have the new faceplates.
Thanks for hanging in there!
-Frank
Great! So I'm looking at a 4-5 month wait for a DB-CL. I can wait that long, I bought a temporary Compressor in the mean time to get me by. So we are looking at early new year! When I filled out the on line form on your web site, does it give a notification email to say I'm on the list? Or do I assume I'm on the list and then jump up and down a lot trying to get noticed when they are available?
You will receive an email when you sign up on the list… no jumping is necessary.
Glen notifies everyone in the order on the list.-Frank
So when do you guys think you will have them available to order on the spot?? How long would that be? A year, maybe a year and a half? I REALLY want a DB-CL and or a DE-CL. Dont have the money right now, but I will in about 7 months. Just wondering if I will be able to simply go to the website and order and have it in a few days..... How far off are we from that point?
Also, is there any chance in he** you guys will ever make some of the older pedals that are out of production again? Like would you do a build on a bass crossover dist if I paid and waited for it???
Those are the questions that I ask myself every day and try to predict the answers.
When we wiped out the Opti-FET list and had stock available for the website, I thought that we may have those pedals on the shelf for a week or two. Glen put them up on the site on a Friday night and they all sold by Monday afternoon... 3 days. Looking into my crystal diode ball and making solid predictions hasn’t worked out for me so far. Maybe I need to run the crystal diode ball at a higher voltage to reduce distortions.
When I was the only one building the pedals up to this past April, we were receiving more than 1.3 requests for every pedal I built. For a business that’s a great direction to be moving in, but it was impossible to get ahead of the curve without making changes to decrease cycle times.
By making some changes I was able to reduce my out of pocket costs and use all of those savings for extra help. My son Ryan started working with me in April and has been exceeding all of my expatiations with assembly. We also brought Pat in a few months ago to populate circuit boards. Pat has incredible soldering skills and builds circuit boards like they are going to be judged in a competition somewhere… really beautiful work!
Even though in these last five months we have produced more units than what I was able to produce by myself last year, it is still way too early to know what our combined efforts are capable of producing. It is also impossible to forecast what new pedal designs will be hits or not. We haven’t had stock for the website for several years now and have no real data regarding site visits to sales numbers. With so many unknown variables, there is no way to accurately estimate when we will be able to keep up with demand or if I will need to hire more help. But we have been greatly improving cycle times this year and our future is looking good.
We will not be building any of our discontinued pedals. The FEA DBD was discontinued because of two reasons. The first reason is that the Toshiba FET’s used in the high-band distortion circuit are no longer produced. The only options I had there were to either purchase a replacement transistor made by LSI or redesign the circuit for different transistors. I tried to contact LSI several times by email, but every one of my emails went unanswered… so the LSI option was eliminated very quickly. And I did not want to redesign that circuit again because of the second reason. The second reason is that our DBD had so many options for dialing in your sound that it was fairly difficult to quickly adjust. I designed the circuit and if I was getting frustrated with setting it up, I could only imagine what headaches others were having with it. That’s when I decided to make a DBD replacement that still had a wide range of distortion, but was much more user friendly. Most of its circuits are complete but I am still trying to decide between several different flavors of distortion. I do hope to have that sorted out soon and have it in production cycles starting early next year.
We do not allow pay and wait. You can only make a payment when there is product ready to ship. BTW, From the demo's that I have seen, I feel the Brimstone Crossover pedal covers a lot of the same distortion flavors of our DBD. Really, the two pedals are a lot more similar than they are different.
-Frank
Those are the questions that I ask myself every day and try to predict the answers.
When we wiped out the Opti-FET list and had stock available for the website, I thought that we may have those pedals on the shelf for a week or two. Glen put them up on the site on a Friday night and they all sold by Monday afternoon... 3 days. Looking into my crystal diode ball and making solid predictions hasn’t worked out for me so far. Maybe I need to run the crystal diode ball at a higher voltage to reduce distortions.
When I was the only one building the pedals up to this past April, we were receiving more than 1.3 requests for every pedal I built. For a business that’s a great direction to be moving in, but it was impossible to get ahead of the curve without making changes to decrease cycle times.
By making some changes I was able to reduce my out of pocket costs and use all of those savings for extra help. My son Ryan started working with me in April and has been exceeding all of my expatiations with assembly. We also brought Pat in a few months ago to populate circuit boards. Pat has incredible soldering skills and builds circuit boards like they are going to be judged in a competition somewhere… really beautiful work!
Even though in these last five months we have produced more units than what I was able to produce by myself last year, it is still way too early to know what our combined efforts are capable of producing. It is also impossible to forecast what new pedal designs will be hits or not. We haven’t had stock for the website for several years now and have no real data regarding site visits to sales numbers. With so many unknown variables, there is no way to accurately estimate when we will be able to keep up with demand or if I will need to hire more help. But we have been greatly improving cycle times this year and our future is looking good.
We will not be building any of our discontinued pedals. The FEA DBD was discontinued because of two reasons. The first reason is that the Toshiba FET’s used in the high-band distortion circuit are no longer produced. The only options I had there were to either purchase a replacement transistor made by LSI or redesign the circuit for different transistors. I tried to contact LSI several times by email, but every one of my emails went unanswered… so the LSI option was eliminated very quickly. And I did not want to redesign that circuit again because of the second reason. The second reason is that our DBD had so many options for dialing in your sound that it was fairly difficult to quickly adjust. I designed the circuit and if I was getting frustrated with setting it up, I could only imagine what headaches others were having with it. That’s when I decided to make a DBD replacement that still had a wide range of distortion, but was much more user friendly. Most of its circuits are complete but I am still trying to decide between several different flavors of distortion. I do hope to have that sorted out soon and have it in production cycles starting early next year.
We do not allow pay and wait. You can only make a payment when there is product ready to ship. BTW, From the demo's that I have seen, I feel the Brimstone Crossover pedal covers a lot of the same distortion flavors of our DBD. Really, the two pedals are a lot more similar than they are different.
-Frank
Awesome, thanks frank! Appreciate the time you took to lay all that out. Must feel pretty good to have you boy working with you and him doing good at it. Very cool. I'll have to hop on your site and get on that waiting list in that case. God knows i don't have the money now, but a year from now, yeah, I can handle that
thanks again man. Keep up the great work my man!
Awesome, thanks frank! Appreciate the time you took to lay all that out. Must feel pretty good to have you boy working with you and him doing good at it. Very cool. I'll have to hop on your site and get on that waiting list in that case. God knows i don't have the money now, but a year from now, yeah, I can handle that
Thank you! Let me be clear that I am not utilizing child labor with my son. Ryan is 25 years old and yes it is great to be working with him.
I think the bass world just started collectively doing this-
Do you mean multi-band distortion or that they are always trying to find the right/perfect distortion?
-Frank
