I bought my Joyo Ultimate Drive because it was cheap, not because I 'needed' it. (I'm a smart shopper.) I couldn't justify spending $130, or whatever the OCD costs, for something that ended up sitting on a shelf. I would have returned it for that much money.
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What is your guilt leval for owning a clone?
- Thread starter Dash Lashes
- Start date
Sometimes a cheap clone can generate a sale to the originator of the circuit. Some people like to try many different effects to find the one that they want. Cheap clones help in that regard, and many times after the person has found the one they are looking for, they will eventually buy the original.
Where I think cloning is sleazy, is when a new pedal hits the market, and then very soon after cheap clones of it are all over the place. One of my first six compressors sold was on a pedal dissecting site a week after I had shipped it out. That definitely felt like a punch in the gut, so I know how some of the originators must feel. If the clones come out too fast, then there will be less and less innovators willing to stay in the pedal business (they could make more profit by assembling high end instrument cables).
But there are ways for the original designer to slow down cloning of their designs. Making the components impossible to read is a good one. Using multi-layer (more than two layers) PCB’s is another good one. If a builder goops the circuit, then it just seems to invite the curious to find out why it was gooped.
-Frank
Where I think cloning is sleazy, is when a new pedal hits the market, and then very soon after cheap clones of it are all over the place. One of my first six compressors sold was on a pedal dissecting site a week after I had shipped it out. That definitely felt like a punch in the gut, so I know how some of the originators must feel. If the clones come out too fast, then there will be less and less innovators willing to stay in the pedal business (they could make more profit by assembling high end instrument cables).
But there are ways for the original designer to slow down cloning of their designs. Making the components impossible to read is a good one. Using multi-layer (more than two layers) PCB’s is another good one. If a builder goops the circuit, then it just seems to invite the curious to find out why it was gooped.
-Frank
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Zero.
There's nothing special about electronic circuits and they cannot be patented or copyrighted. If you get into this business, you need to know that. The market moves incrementally with slight tweaks as "improvements" are made to circuits and parts go into and out of production. While I may not be inclined to buy a clone for a variety of different reasons, if I end up with one, I'm not losing any sleep over it. Neither should you.
There's nothing special about electronic circuits and they cannot be patented or copyrighted. If you get into this business, you need to know that. The market moves incrementally with slight tweaks as "improvements" are made to circuits and parts go into and out of production. While I may not be inclined to buy a clone for a variety of different reasons, if I end up with one, I'm not losing any sleep over it. Neither should you.
Electronic circuit patents are issued all of the time. One recent example that I can think of, is the Redeemer buffer circuit patented by Creation Audio.
-Frank
I have no guilt at all for owning clones. 
I love my Brassmaster clone. Paid a fraction of what I'd pay for a real Brassmaster and it doesn't have near the noise of a real Maestro unit.
Also loved my Marshall Guv'nor clone even though it was always too over the top.
I feel less guilty owning clone pedals because if I don't like certain parts of it, I can easily rip them open and modify them and not feel wrong doing it. For example, I don't really TL072 op-amps, so in the Guv'nor, I yanked those out and put in something else. I also don't really like red LED clipping or yellows, but I like infrared emitters and how they clip, so I used those as clipping diodes.
I love my Brassmaster clone. Paid a fraction of what I'd pay for a real Brassmaster and it doesn't have near the noise of a real Maestro unit.
Also loved my Marshall Guv'nor clone even though it was always too over the top.
I feel less guilty owning clone pedals because if I don't like certain parts of it, I can easily rip them open and modify them and not feel wrong doing it. For example, I don't really TL072 op-amps, so in the Guv'nor, I yanked those out and put in something else. I also don't really like red LED clipping or yellows, but I like infrared emitters and how they clip, so I used those as clipping diodes.
