That’s awesome! Can’t wait to see the final product!
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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society
- Thread starter kranahan
- Start date
That’s awesome! Can’t wait to see the final product!
So Morley, famed wah manufacturer, has a small production facility in the lovely suburb of East Dundee, literally 5 minutes from my house. I met one of their assembly technicians who said he and one of his coworkers would happily jump ship to Sushi Box if I paid a decent wage and actually taught them about electronics. He took the job at Morley to learn more about how pedals work but his training has been limited to his job of assembly, nothing deeper.
So I would have to get my workflow set up to accommodate it, but I'm considering poaching a technician or two from Morley to speed up production in the near future.
So I would have to get my workflow set up to accommodate it, but I'm considering poaching a technician or two from Morley to speed up production in the near future.
Tube fuzz wah
For real!
If you could make something like the old vintage chrome monster Morley/Tel Ray Power Power Wah Fuzz, Phasers, or Boosts with a tube, I'd jump on that in a heart beat!
The newer Morley reissues don't even come close to the old ones.
Lowendtech
Happily trending in my own peculiar direction.
I used to have one of those back in the 80’s. Thing was a weapon. Definitely wouldn’t want one thrown in my direction. Probably one of the first effects I ever had. Not sure whatever happened to that.
Maybe you should just take over the whole facility and turn your basement into a studio.
I would actually love to do that. I've thought about renting out a small commercial space so I could keep manufacturing out of my house, it feels a little weird bringing people into my house to have them work for me, and having an external shop would save a lot of space in the basement and garage. I would have to sell a lot more pedals to justify the expense though.
I'm also nervous about accidentally turning this into my full time job, which was never my intention. Frankly I never planned on hiring anyone either, but I'm getting to the point where I think it makes sense to do it, so maybe in a year or two I'll get to the point where it makes sense to relocate Sushi Box HQ out of my basement. Change is scary
EDIT: Just out of curiosity I looked up what it would cost to lease out a small space for manufacturing, looks like I can get into a space just down the street from Morley for about $500 a month + utilities. Not unreasonable, but not something I have budget for right now.
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Lowendtech
Happily trending in my own peculiar direction.
That’s about the price of a couple of pedals. Maybe someone wants to pay your rent for a couple/three free pedals a month.
Well that's with a one year lease, I'm not sure if they let you pay by the month or if it has to be one year up front. Either way a big commitment that I don't think I'm ready for.That’s about the price of a couple of pedals. Maybe someone wants to pay your rent for a couple/three free pedals a month.
Hiring employees, insurance, benefits, rent, utilities and other financial, security and social considerations can be expensive and extensive. That has been my "business" for the past 20 or so years. While I agree expansion is an exciting idea it may not be the best move for @Sushi Box FX as many in the boutique industry have found out the hard and bitter way.
Start small and consider each step.
Start small and consider each step.
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Yup, exactly. I'm thinking of starting with one employee, obviously part time (probably 10-20 hours/week max). Not planning on turning this into a real business. Moving manufacturing into a dedicated space instead of having everything in my house is enticing, but flirts dangerously with the "this-is-my-full-time-job-now" territory.
Expansion would still be pretty costly with such a array of customizations, doable, but not easy. Keep it simple, focus and perfect your process. Its possible, and more rewarding
Yup, I'm still planning to do the bulk of the work, but final assembly is pretty easy but time consuming, and my new updated designs were specifically designed to make it even easier, so I could have people with very little training successfully putting together pedals for me which would free me up for more technically involved work. I'm not ready to be a "boss" and hand over every part of the work, but getting someone with less knowledge and experience to do the less technically demanding work makes sense at this point.
Alright, just made an executive decision:
I've had a couple people ask if the new designs I've mentioned will be implemented in August builds, and my answer has been "I'm not sure yet." I've been holding off on ordering the new designs as I wanted to get all of them done at once so I could make one big order and not have to split it up, so I still haven't ordered any of the new versions yet.
Well I'm almost finished, the only ones I haven't finished yet are Dr. Wattson, Sunnday Drive, Echosaurus and Robot Butterfly. I'm going to do the Dr. Wattson and Sunnday Drive redesigns tonight and get everything ordered together TONIGHT so I can get new designs for all the tube pedals for the August batch.
The FV-1 designs (Echosaurus and Robot Butterfly) are going to have a much more involved redesign with the tube implementation replacing the current op-amp driven design, so I'm going to wait and do those later, as they may require additional revisions and I don't want to hold up everything else waiting for something that I'm not positive will work.
Also Lab Rat X will not get a redesign at this time, if I decide to bring it back in the future I'll likely get rid of the boost and just keep it as a single channel drive, maybe I'll use the other tube section as a tube input buffer or something. That could be neat.
I haven't posted an update on the special edition Underground Accelerators recently, but they're still being worked on. I decided I wanted an adhesive to hold the wood faceplate to the enclosures and I got them all glued last night, I just need to add tube sockets and I can start final assembly, so I expect to have those ready to go in the next couple days, but I'm bumping the circuit board redesigns up in the queue so I can get the latest versions of everything going as soon as possible. Aside from the added features some of them will have, all of them are going to be easier to put together on my end so I really want to switch over to those.
Man, I'm wordy today. Sorry about the 5-paragraph essays everywhere.
I've had a couple people ask if the new designs I've mentioned will be implemented in August builds, and my answer has been "I'm not sure yet." I've been holding off on ordering the new designs as I wanted to get all of them done at once so I could make one big order and not have to split it up, so I still haven't ordered any of the new versions yet.
Well I'm almost finished, the only ones I haven't finished yet are Dr. Wattson, Sunnday Drive, Echosaurus and Robot Butterfly. I'm going to do the Dr. Wattson and Sunnday Drive redesigns tonight and get everything ordered together TONIGHT so I can get new designs for all the tube pedals for the August batch.
The FV-1 designs (Echosaurus and Robot Butterfly) are going to have a much more involved redesign with the tube implementation replacing the current op-amp driven design, so I'm going to wait and do those later, as they may require additional revisions and I don't want to hold up everything else waiting for something that I'm not positive will work.
Also Lab Rat X will not get a redesign at this time, if I decide to bring it back in the future I'll likely get rid of the boost and just keep it as a single channel drive, maybe I'll use the other tube section as a tube input buffer or something. That could be neat.
I haven't posted an update on the special edition Underground Accelerators recently, but they're still being worked on. I decided I wanted an adhesive to hold the wood faceplate to the enclosures and I got them all glued last night, I just need to add tube sockets and I can start final assembly, so I expect to have those ready to go in the next couple days, but I'm bumping the circuit board redesigns up in the queue so I can get the latest versions of everything going as soon as possible. Aside from the added features some of them will have, all of them are going to be easier to put together on my end so I really want to switch over to those.
Man, I'm wordy today. Sorry about the 5-paragraph essays everywhere.
I was just thinking about all the fuzz pedals I have and that none of them are Sushi Box. Then I perused the site and "w'ut?? No fuzz?"
It's like when you keep opening the refrigerator expecting something to appear. So what gives?
I know I'm not the only idiot here who would buy one. We all need more fuzz pedals for no reason. Right?
It's like when you keep opening the refrigerator expecting something to appear. So what gives?
I know I'm not the only idiot here who would buy one. We all need more fuzz pedals for no reason. Right?
It's been on the list for months now, I'll have to pick an arbitrary deadline for it. Maybe prototype/demo by Halloween or something like that.
I mean I hadn't explicitly said that yet, but obviously yes it will be a tube fuzz.
