Positive Builder/Company Stories

[Ghost Hip]

So there has been a lot of negative reports on certain companies lately, which is sad, but it makes the positives even more rad. SO LETS SPREAD SOME GOOD MOJO and talk about the good peeps we've dealt with be it repairs, trade ins, refunds, whatever.

What inspired this thread is my buddy's TheSyle/Holowon Umiom stopped distorting recently, I told him I'd email them about it and see what they could do. I emailed Shandi, their main email communicator I've corresponded with... She told me to email Bill (the mastermind behind the designs) with the issue and to send it on out. That was at the beginning of this week. I got an email last night saying it was done and on its way back.

Now thats how a pedal company should run.

Share your recent positive interactions with builders, I know there are some good ones of the builders on here among others.

[sonidero]

DUDE... Tom will listen to long ass emails and find a good answer and will make anything... Brian redid a pedal I got from cl and made it better... Aen traded me some awesome for awesome with much happiness... I've never had personals with Ryan but the 3 pedals I own are super sick and show a lot of love... Arcane Analog just made me a pedal that was WAY beyond my expectations and is a dream to deal with... I will think of more...

[bigchiefbc]

I have two that have been within the last year or so:

1.) I commissioned a custom dubscope from Adam at Copilot. I requested several significant changes from the stock version of the pedal, some of them were such big extremes, that he basically redesigned the entire pedal (or at least the filter section). He charged me an extremely reasonable price for the custom work, really just a nominal amount over what the stock pedal costs. Then, when I received it, I had an issue with one of the functions of the pedal. I recorded a video showing him my problem, and he had me send it back to him. It was such a complex pedal that I expected it was going to be quite a while before I saw it again. It was back in my hands within the week, with the problem completely solved. Fantastic builder, stands behind his products, and really cares about making your vision come alive

2.) I had Skullservant/Dirge make me a custom version of his Cavedweller delay in a wah pedal, and he also added a blend circuit and gave me the knob layout I wanted. It arrived way ahead of the timeframe he quoted me, for a ridiculously reasonable price. While I was playing with it, the wah function stopped working. He offered the option of sending it back to him to fix, or he would walk me through fixing it. I chose the latter, and he gave me exactly the instructions I needed to get it back working perfectly. One of my favorite pedals now. Excellent customer service and great prices.

[hbombgraphics]

bukowski is the man!
I had two culturejam circuits that I wanted in one enclosure, I sent them out, one didn't work so he threw a hyperion in it's place at no extra charge.
Also: Every pedal of his I have ever owned has been awesome.

Skully (DIRGE) is flipping great to deal with
put a gloom drive in an enclosure I had, and has been the part of about a million trades

as far as non ILF peeps
Zvex: repair and returns has always been great to deal with, they even fix pedals that You buy used, I had one pedal that I thought I lost in a flood, when It dried out it actually worked, but it got funky after a while, they kept a standing RMA so that I could return it, if and when it went bad.

Digitech: has some great customer service from what I have experienced. They gave me a bunch of tips on re-calibrating my whammy and respond to e-mails within a few hours.

I will add more positive experiences as I think of them,
honestly most of them have been pretty positive with few exceptions

[Mudfuzz]

I've had two custom Fuzzhugger builds both better then what I had hoped for and Tom is BEYOND cool.
Aen [Dwarfcraft] is is always fun to deal with!
McSpunckle built me a realy cool Samurai Switch that I LOVE
DannDubblewe is fun to deal with!
Mesa Boogie are great when it comes to servicing stuff they even will work on the stuff you got used!
Old School Amps of Olympia Wa [also.. "Old School" is a BIG Oly thing... we has Old School Pizza, Tatoos, Amps and so forth... no idea where it started but...] are super cool! they build neat little custom amps and cabs and they fixed my old sunn, which is a cool thing at this end of the sound because all the other local guys have closed shop and I was nice to find a guy in town that knows his shit.

[osbornkt]

I've had great experiences with Empress, Ryan, and Shoe.
Both Ryan and Empress were super helpful with diagnosing and fixing things when I was on tour overseas last summer. They both responded to my emails within minutes and kept corresponding until the problem was fixed. I was ridiculously impressed with their helpfulness!
Chris from Shoe is just a rad dude. He did a custom Pixel for me, and has always been super willing to answer random questions I've got about projects I'm working on.

[D.o.S.]

Dirge is the best dude to deal with ever, insofar as custom pedals are concerned.

[behndy]

i've never bought from Aen, but he seems a cool ass dooder.

Daltz is a peach. BriBri is RIDICULOUS. just want to have his baby. Matty Wren Cuff has helped me out with his gear and suggestions on stuff that he didna even build. Skully Dirge has done some WEIRD things for me.

fuck. who else? Danno is just on another level for custom/rehouse stuff. Taylor at IE is super approachable and takes care of his customers.

really, it's hard to think of a pedal builder that DOESN'T DOES suck (yay Late Night Gimpy Fingers). i'm sure i'm forgetting someone.

shit. like Ryan Doc Sci. so. GOOD. and so damn nice. Ryan at FuzzyRocious is a great guy.

[sonidero]

really, it's hard to think of a pedal builder that DOESN'T suck.

Behndy just hates everyone...

Or it was late and he meant DOES!!!

[Deltaphoenix]

Brian is the man. He has fixed 2 pedals for me that I bought used, for the price of postage. He had to essentially put all new guts in the TAFM. Always have for Brian.
Taylor from Iron Ether answers my questions and has sent me a reverb tank for an amp I bought from someone else, they had bought the amp from him originally and he had found the reverb tank.
Dr. Sci Ryan, birthday discounts, pizza and Slayer
Alan from MountainKing Electronics is a great guy too. We have emailed back and forth about pedals and possible custom stuffs.
Mr. Dalton has always been super cool in emails about FuzzHugger stuffs.
Skully is a joy to work with, I have my DarthFace Fuzz from him (in an enclosure etched by Jwar).
Dann-O is awesome blossom, I have a Rub-A-Dub reverb on the way from him.
I have emailed a few times with Adam from CoPilot, he is NICE.

[the_carl]

Lawrence of Ohnoho fixed a pedal for me once in like a day. Less than a week between when I sent it out and when it got back to me. That's some service, yo.

Skully is a baller. Mcspunckle and Aen and Brian have also been super cool whenever I've messaged them about stuff.

[skullservant]

Y'all rule

[behndy]

really, it's hard to think of a pedal builder that DOESN'T suck.

Behndy just hates everyone...

Or it was late and he meant DOES!!!

everybody SUCKS. i meant 99% of Peoples That Smell Like Solder are awesome? i WAS tired. just got done with a show. woooooo.

urm... McSpunkler? MEOW. so HAWT. OhNoNo dooder is cool as butts. Montreal Assembly guy was really nice when i had ordered off of him.

SO MUCH BEAUTY OUT THERE.

"it's just... it's just too much beauty sometimes...."

*Gawd, looking down from on high*

"it's a fucking BAG. look at YOUR DAMN CIRCULATORY SYSTEMS. THAT'S AMAZING. IT'S A FUCKING BAG."

[Casavettes]

I've dealt with Ryan, Brian, Jamie (EQD), Skully so far
And I just....


Nothing but the best

[lapsteel]

Another for the fuzzhugger bandwagon.... I got a absynth with a faulty foot switch and shipped it back. I though it would be months like some other bastards and all my pedal money would be tied up, but less than ten days later it was back and working. Moreover, Tom promised a discount on my next fuzzhugger purchase, which I will make with confidence.

I also had a problem with my superpuzzle, and so far Brian over at ss/bs has been totally helpful, and is even working on something special for me...

Bukowski also sold me a great mk II that sounds great at great price. Great.

The mom-d experience was also totally positive. Iron curtain muff killer.

Mtl Assembly is also a solid little company, for an awesome noise I use my nasa, anything that you can get an oscillated signal and a delay... All that sound for a reasonable price and dependable service.

I gotta say I have been fucked by small builders in the past, but the ilf associated builders have been great, it's like that don't be an asshole rule extends to the businesses too.