ilovefuzz.com

Hey Matt,

I don't see any reason why you shouldn't build the Fingerprint again.

There are TONS of Big Muff clones, yet EHX still builds the Big Muff. Regardless of clones (which imo, you have to expect will pop up when you disappear for 2-3 years), the Fingerprint is still the original. And that's what people want. Why else would people pay 3x more for genuine Fuzz Factories?

As for the name Fuzzprint, it's not unusual--I'd even say it's tradition --for clones to riff on, or tip-their-hats-to, the original pedal's name.
(Also, ILF's DIY section doesn't allow clones of in-production pedals without the builder's permission.)

NewarkWilder/Mike has totally disappeared, you were never paid for the name rights for Fingerprint, and he decided not to use the name anyway. It's yours--why not use it? The only reason these clones are popular is that people want a Fingerprint. They're buying Fingerprint clones cause you're not making Fingerprints!

I'm tied to this cursed circuit, so here's my involvement...

I ran Secret Seasons for its short existence, from the prototyping, to building, to shipping...and literally all the investment. (Obviously, Laura gets the credit for her awesome artwork! I assembled and wired about 50% of them, my ex wiring the other half). Ah, NewarkWilder posted the Facebook statuses.

NewarkWilder basically screwed me. He was polite while doing it, though.


For those interested in the long backstory:

It started when he contacted me, saying he got the rights to the Fingerprint name, and that Matt (Penny Pedals) was going to send him build info, but never did and was no longer responding to any emails. So he came to me to trace the Fingerprint, do 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. He then decided not to even use the Fingerprint name. Then, after I did the layout and design, ordered PCBs and sent everything to him (with the assurance of being paid back...my fault--I'd had several phone conversations with NW and considered him a trusted friend)...he admitted a couple months later that he wasn't capable of building them. And that Laura had quit. I'd invested hundreds of dollars in what seemed like a sure thing, so I asked if I could build them. He agreed, and we agreed he'd get a cut for coming up with the names...I expected around $10 per. Later, when I'm ready to go to market, he starts talking about having me sign a contact, and says he wants $35 per pedal. Higher than what Laura was getting (he'd previously talked her down like 50% from what she got before and should have gotten!). Too late, cause it's ready to sell. So I agree. 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, what with shipping enclosures to Laura). I was making about the same per pedal as Mike!
He did nothing but Facebook statuses...he'd disappear for a couple months at a time, pop up with all these requests, then disappear. He also asked for--and got--4 free Snowdrifts out of the deal. When Laura quit because there was no room in the profit margin for her to get paid what she deserved, Mike told me I had to take it out of production so he could hire someone to make a new graphic (I didn't own the names, so I couldn't keep building it if he told me not to)...six months later, he was still telling me "almost there!" only to find out he hadn't even paid the graphic designer. I asked him for permission to get the pedal back on the market, because at this point, I'd lost money on it, and he responded by taking back the rights to the names and saying he was going to build them himself.

In the end, I was left with hundreds of dollars in parts, many 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, and I was left holding the bag. So the parts I was sitting on went to Mr. Wire, and the Bennett boxes and stickers are still sitting here. Unless I start a salad dressing company, the stickers aren't going to be used.



As for Mr. Wire...

My longtime pedal-building buddies Mark and Dave started Mr. Wire with some help from me. I tack their parts orders onto mine and we share bulk discounts. I don't have much time for non-FuzzHugger things, but I've got some involvement there.

After 11-12 months of the Snowdrift being out of production, and no word from Mike/Secret Seasons (or Penny Pedals, for that matter!), I sold all the Snowdrift parts to Mr. Wire and they built the Fuzzprint they'd been talking about for a few months. I told them I wasn't sure if I was comfortable stocking it, given the history with NewarkWilder, so they sold it through Etsy and eBay.

Matt--when I saw that you popped up on Harmony Central, I reached out to you, asked if you had any concerns or issues with the Fuzzprint--even said I'd like to get you a free one--and you never responded. I'd have given you a free one, heck, I know Mark would've arranged for you to get per-sale cuts had you voiced any concern at all. After hearing nothing back from you, and hearing nothing from NewarkWilder, I told the guys I'd be willing to start stocking it at FuzzHugger.com.

IT'S ALL PEDAL LOVE!!! I LOVE MY PRINT AND DRIFT!!!

So can there be more Drifts and Prints cause that's what People want... Can there be some backroom meetings to hash it out over hash???

It's cool to see you around, Matt, welcome back and I hope it all goes your way!

I'd say ya might as well make the fingerprint as well.
it's coin for You and Laura.

Tom Dalton wrote:many 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.

You can't come up with a circuit that would fit in there?

Tom Dalton wrote:I'm tied to this cursed circuit, so here's my involvement...

I ran Secret Seasons for its short existence, from the prototyping, to building, to shipping...and literally all the investment. (Obviously, Laura gets the credit for her awesome artwork! I assembled and wired about 50% of them, my ex wiring the other half). Ah, NewarkWilder posted the Facebook statuses.

NewarkWilder basically screwed me. He was polite while doing it, though.


For those interested in the long backstory:

It started when he contacted me, saying he got the rights to the Fingerprint name, and that Matt (Penny Pedals) was going to send him build info, but never did and was no longer responding to any emails. So he came to me to trace the Fingerprint, do 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. He then decided not to even use the Fingerprint name. Then, after I did the layout and design, ordered PCBs and sent everything to him (with the assurance of being paid back...my fault--I'd had several phone conversations with NW and considered him a trusted friend)...he admitted a couple months later that he wasn't capable of building them. And that Laura had quit. I'd invested hundreds of dollars in what seemed like a sure thing, so I asked if I could build them. He agreed, and we agreed he'd get a cut for coming up with the names...I expected around $10 per. Later, when I'm ready to go to market, he starts talking about having me sign a contact, and says he wants $35 per pedal. Higher than what Laura was getting (he'd previously talked her down like 50% from what she got before and should have gotten!). Too late, cause it's ready to sell. So I agree. 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, what with shipping enclosures to Laura). I was making about the same per pedal as Mike!
He did nothing but Facebook statuses...he'd disappear for a couple months at a time, pop up with all these requests, then disappear. He also asked for--and got--4 free Snowdrifts out of the deal. When Laura quit because there was no room in the profit margin for her to get paid what she deserved, Mike told me I had to take it out of production so he could hire someone to make a new graphic (I didn't own the names, so I couldn't keep building it if he told me not to)...six months later, he was still telling me "almost there!" only to find out he hadn't even paid the graphic designer. I asked him for permission to get the pedal back on the market, because at this point, I'd lost money on it, and he responded by taking back the rights to the names and saying he was going to build them himself.

In the end, I was left with hundreds of dollars in parts, many 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, and I was left holding the bag. So the parts I was sitting on went to Mr. Wire, and the Bennett boxes and stickers are still sitting here. Unless I start a salad dressing company, the stickers aren't going to be used.



As for Mr. Wire...

My longtime pedal-building buddies Mark and Dave started Mr. Wire with some help from me. I tack their parts orders onto mine and we share bulk discounts. I don't have much time for non-FuzzHugger things, but I've got some involvement there.

After 11-12 months of the Snowdrift being out of production, and no word from Mike/Secret Seasons (or Penny Pedals, for that matter!), I sold all the Snowdrift parts to Mr. Wire and they built the Fuzzprint they'd been talking about for a few months. I told them I wasn't sure if I was comfortable stocking it, given the history with NewarkWilder, so they sold it through Etsy and eBay.

Matt--when I saw that you popped up on Harmony Central, I reached out to you, asked if you had any concerns or issues with the Fuzzprint--even said I'd like to get you a free one--and you never responded. I'd have given you a free one, heck, I know Mark would've arranged for you to get per-sale cuts had you voiced any concern at all. After hearing nothing back from you, and hearing nothing from NewarkWilder, I told the guys I'd be willing to start stocking it at FuzzHugger.com.

Tom...I love you keep on trucking.

Wow, wilder seems like a sketch dude.

Speaking of sketch!! SKETCH FUZZ!!

Holy shit this thread is awesome. It went from me being a little bitch to extremely informative and therapeutic. Ah, internets.

Lots to reply to, I'll start with one thing that I've always wanted to address, that Tom touched on. The Fingerprint circuit and it's creation, and supposed connection to other designs.

The Story of the Fingerprint

Let's face it, when it comes to guitar pedal circuits, NOTHING comes from nothing. We all have to learn from somewhere. For me, that started at birth. My grandfather and father were both appliance repairmen, back when TV's had tubes and things were so well built that if something failed, you could actually fix it instead of shit canning it. I grew up learning how to fix ANYTHING... and to this day, I work on my own car, re-wire my house, fixed my microwave, and I'm generally known by family and friends as that crazy dude with the tool box and thick glasses who can replace the ABC on your XYZ by natural ability. I was born to build and fix things.

When I got into guitars and music, the obvious transition was into the workings of those things. This was WELL before the internet had free anything, let alone stomp boxes. The only way you could figure out how to wire a guitar or build a fuzz box was the... wait for it.... LIBRARY. I took out a few books, but the one I kept (stole... sorry) was i think titled 'Intro to Electronics" or something by Forrest Mims III. It was just that... bone simple electronics theory. I'd wager good money that any pedal builder over the age of 35 probably has or has read this book.

Fast forward a few years. I am in a serious band, and my guitar player wants a fuzz pedal. Being the band tech/bitch, it's on me. I hop on the internet and find some fuzz face and big muff schematics, but I either don't have the parts or don't feel like buying $100 in stuff (remember, no pedal parts plus or small bear... radio shack, muthafucka) so I look for what I have. This, that and a LM386. I remember looking at Mims III's book and seeing a schematic for using the 386 (which is a 1/2 watt amp, NOT an OP-amp) as a line driver. Line drivers can be turned into distortions by adding clipping diodes, because I saw something similar in my old DS-1. After looking at that old electronics book (which, by the way, is printed in a 'handwritten sketch style') I cludged together a super simple 386 based fuzz with two diodes for clipping. It may have had 6 parts. We jokingly called it the "sketch" because it was based off a sketch in that book (the schematics looked handwritten).

Later on I would release the 'Sketch' one knob fuzz (with some slight improvements) for shits and giggles. I fibbed about where the name came from to protect it's relationship to Mims III, but it's soooo far removed from anything he designed that it really wasn't necessary. So, now you know.

I started up Penny Pedals. I always LOVED Laura's artwork and thought, what the hell.. let me email her and see if she wants to do a pedal together. Not just paint, but actually come up with a 'sound.' I took the Sketch, modified it about 10 times, and came up with the Fingerprint. Two of the biggest influences on that design were the Keeley modded DS-1, which has an LED/diode asymmetrical clipping section, and any fuzz out there at the time that had a feedback loop (about a million). When Laura sent over the very first painted box, she accidentally left a fingerprint in paint on the back. She put an arrow pointing to it and painted the words 'wow, fingerprint!.' When trying to come up with a name, I posted some pics on a site and my friend Dave said something like, 'If you don't name it the Fingerprint your an idiot.'

In no way, ever, did I know about or consult any DIY website or anything to come up with it. It's just dumb luck that it looks like a simplified Escobedo design. When the circuit was traced in 2009 or 2010 by FSB et al, only then did I start to see similarities and connections to other designs. I thought I was the only shithead stupid enough to use a dumbed down 386 as a fuzz. Turns out there are a lot of them! When FSB reversed the Fingerprint, I was pretty pissed... it was right about the time the recession hit and basically sunk me. But in hindsight, that place and other DIY sites are essential to guys like me, not to copy from (well, not for me anyway) but to compare things you come up with against already existing designs. Turns out, a LOT of builders must have stolen that Mims III book back in the day.

Hm, i ran across the Name NewarkWilder today. He registered yesterday for a new forum...

As for Mr.Wire, Fuzzhugger and the rest of Tom's post, I just sent ya an email Tom.

Long story short: It's ALLLLLLLLLLL good. I don't want anything, the FP is free and clear and ready to fly for anyone, and I openly support Mr. Wire's version. I will ONLY build LB painted FP's for charity auctions like Circuits to Cure Cancer, period. To me it is seriously a cursed design, has created a lot of grief for a lot of people, and my only involvement here on out will be for charity and support for DIY or whatever.

I've said it before, here goes again... this place is the best bunch of 0's and 1's on the internet.

Wow, this was pretty epic.

I want to try a fingerprint now.

D.o.S. wrote:Wow, this was pretty epic.

I want to try a fingerprint now.

This.

Awesome.

Oh and also... I used to be into pedals and HC years ago (before the forum, back when it was just classifieds). Back in '01? And I got out of it, got married and had kids.

Then in '07 I got back into it. Penny Pedals at the time was a big reason I wanted to start getting pedals and stuff again. Now, I've got a pretty nice setup. But still no Penny Pedals.