I'll no longer be building, or associated with, Secret Seasons or the Snowdrift. It was a labor of love for me, from doing the three prototypes, to PCBs, to drilling, to working with Laura Bennett, to assembling each Snowdrift, managing production, and finally mailing them out. It was all done in-house at FuzzHugger, save for Laura's work. (I even got to wire a few myself!
) Thank you to everyone for your interest and support.Mike Brown will be taking things from here. He named Secret Seasons and the Snowdrift, and was inspired in the first place by stacking FuzzHugger(fx) pedals with his Fingerprint. I was excited when I was asked to design the new pedal. When continual setbacks threatened the project, I was honored to be given the go-ahead to manage/build the Snowdrift so it would become a real thing afterall. I'm proud of FuzzHugger's involvement with the pedal.
I'm sorry to those who've been waiting, who I've told "I think any week now" for months. My assurances/estimates were made with the best intentions.
Laura decided not to paint SS pedals in mid-July '11. Mike wanted to hold production while he hired someone do a new graphic...this was the first time a production issue was out of my hands. I've been waiting on graphics since late-July '11. I found out December 2nd that the graphic guy hadn't started...or been paid yet.
While waiting, I worked on circuit upgrades, did a new layout, and sent about a dozen emails mainly looking for updates. I voiced my concerns, and also offered to work with one of the many artists I've met through FH to come up with a graphic without the wait. After checking in again last week, I was asked if I was still interested or enthusiastic about the Snowdrift. My growing frustration was apparently confused with a lack of enthusiasm. And my desire to see the pedal be available & on-the-market was confused with me caring more about selling the Snowdrift than the process of it getting a new graphic. Oh well.
This week, Mike let me know that we have "different priorities" when it comes to the Snowdrift, and that he'll be assuming control of Secret Seasons.
Thanks again to everyone for your interest. Sorry to everyone who's been emailing me asking when it'll be available again. As much as I'd like to see my painstacking investment in Secret Seasons continue to be one of my personal labors-of-love (there's that cliche again! And here's another:), my hands are tied.
Of course, I'll handle all warranty work for Snowdrifts produced in the FuzzHugger workshop.
[EDIT: Added 4/30/13:]
If there's interest in the whole Secret Seasons saga...it it seems like there is...here's the mostly uncensored version:
NewarkWilder contacted me, saying he got the rights to the Fingerprint name, and that you were going to send him build info, but never did. He said he emailed you many times over 2-3 months, but never got a response. So he came to me, asking me to figure out how to build the Fingerprint, design a layout, etc. He said he'd pay me for my work, I agreed. I took a look at a Fingerprint, figured it out (the way I saw it, it's basically a slightly modded Tim Escobedo design, which I'd actually used before), and did a layout...
Somewhere in here, Mike said he didn't want to use the Fingerprint name. The whole thing he'd gotten from you in the first place.
He said he was uncomfortable using the name, since you'd stopped responding to his emails, and that we'd just go with this new thing (a Fingerprint + 2nd boosting fuzz mode pedal, which I designed at his request). He came up with the name Snowdrift and Secret Seasons.
I ended up being in charge of 100% of Secret Seasons and the Snowdrift (other than the Secret Seasons Facebook statuses, which was the only thing that Mike did).
After putting together all the build info, many hours, and a few hundred bucks in three prototypes, then PCBs...I sent all the info to him, waiting 1-2 months, and then he tells me he's not capable of building them. Somewhere around then, Laura backed out, understandably tired of waiting. Mike said he was just scrapping the whole thing. He was done with it, and the Snowdrift was never gonna happen.
At this point, I was $500 in, many hours in, and was going to lose it all. He didn't pay me for any of my work, aside from giving me maybe $30 bucks of parts. I asked him, if I could get Laura back on board, if I could build them, and make back what I put into them. He agreed, and I took over, and Laura agreed to paint as long as I was building them.
I told Mike that since he came up with the names, I'd give him a cut of each sale. I figured $5-10 bucks would be fine, since he'd have zero involvement in operations, and profit margins were tight...Mike then started talking about drawing up a contract for me to sign, and said he wanted $35 per pedal sold. He got Laura to agree to (I believe it was) half what Penny Pedals paid her--and less than the $35 he wanted for himself! Awkward.
A couple months in, I showed Mike the parts/cost breakdown per Snowdrift...I was making less per Snowdrift than I was per Algal Bloom (for a build 3 times as complex, with logistics 3 times as complex, shipping pedals to Laura). I was making about the same per pedal as Mike! He said he'd temporarily take, I think it was, $25 per pedal.
While I was running Secret Seasons, Mike would disappear for 2-3 months at a time, then pop up with all these ideas and requests, then disappear again.
I build him a free prototype, which he kept. He requested I build him #1 or #0, which I did...free. He then requested I build one (free) for his friend. He later said he had a great buddy at Fat Tone and we were 100% in. We just had to send one for them to evaluate. I send Mike two more Snowdrifts, one he said he'd send on to this great pedal demo guy. After sending these, he didn't pay, no demo materialized, and he emailed, saying that Fat Tone emailed him saying they weren't taking on any new pedal brands. Mike never sent the Snowdrifts back.
Laura should have been getting more money. She asked about it, I agreed that she should be getting more money, but that I couldn't, given the slim profit margins and Mike's cut. I don't want to speak for her and get myself in trouble, but I think she was pretty surprised that Mike was taking a cut for doing nothing. She then quit painting for Secret Seasons, and later started painting for FuzzHugger, and got the big raise she deserved.
Mike told me to hold production while he hired someone do a new graphic...this was the first time a production issue was out of my hands. (But what am I supposed to do--he owns the names, and I can't keep using them. Again, awkward position.)
I waited from July until December 2nd waiting for the graphic. Mike kept disappearing for a month at a time, then assuring me the graphic was almost done, then disappearing. I found out after waiting 6 months that the graphic guy hadn't started...and Mike hadn't even paid him yet.
While waiting, I worked on circuit upgrades, did a new layout, and sent about a dozen emails mainly looking for updates. I voiced my concerns, and also offered to work with one of the many artists I've met through FH to come up with a graphic without the wait. After checking in again in January 12, Mike wrote back asking if I was still interested or enthusiastic about the Snowdrift.My growing frustration was apparently confused with a lack of enthusiasm...? He also accused me of being more interested in selling the pedal than I was in the artistic process of it getting a new graphic. Then he emailed to say we have "different priorities" when it comes to the Snowdrift, and that he'll be assuming control of Secret Seasons. Not just taking the names back, but also the layout and circuit work I did...to top it off, he told me not to build anything like the Snowdrift, the Fingerprint, etc.
In the end, I was left with hundreds of dollars in parts, hundreds of dollars of Laura Bennett painted enclosures...when Mike halted production, Laura had a large batch of drilled Snowdrift enclosures she'd been working on, so I of course paid her for those, and ended up with even more painted Snowdrift enclosures that I couldn't use... I STILL have Snowdrift enclosures here. I still have hundreds of Secret Seasons stickers I bought. I didn't make money off the Secret Seasons deal--I lost money, was responsible for ALL the investment, and I was left holding the bag.
