ilovefuzz.com

Mentioning JHS on this site makes me uncomfortable.
JHS makes me uncomfortable, independent of the DE/ILF history. The JHS faithful make me uncomfortable. Many dubious vibes.
But gold on green is one of my most comforting color combinations...it's weird how they have a habit of using other color schemes I dig...on pedals I don't want to own.
Oh well.

rustywire wrote:Mentioning JHS on this site makes me uncomfortable.
JHS makes me uncomfortable, independent of the DE/ILF history. The JHS faithful make me uncomfortable. Many dubious vibes.

Agreed.



(and fuck 'em)

Don't get me wrong, I'd rock a JHS pedal but there are sooooooooooo many other interesting things out there.

goroth wrote:SMD - through hole - tagboard - it's horses for courses dudes.

The V3 Cosmichorus barely fits in a 1590BB with SMD. Soldering that by hand would take a day or two and reduce Ryan's output (and pricing) to Toneczar levels. But is the Cosmi not a boutique pedal because it has SMD boards? Is Ryan less of a wizard because he chose to work with smaller sized components?

What are you paying for with a boutique pedal?
The circuit design?
The unique sounds?
The visuals and other tangible aspects of the pedal?
The relationship with the builder?
The after sale care?

Or does one define boutique by how many processes can be done in house and how many hours it takes per pedal? If you take a pedal developed by a large corporation, and then produce a 1:1 clone, but in a basement somewhere and with fancy graphics - is that boutique?

(when I wrote this post I was working it through in my head question for question, but now that it's written out it looks less Socratic and more passive aggressive than I'd like. Please mentally remove any aggression from this post and read it through a haze of friendly inquisitiveness)

Hey come on I was talking solely about jhs there and his use of smd. I admitted I was only really interested and jealous of the switching system he has going on.
Ryan is on another planet of genius and what he does is all his own and amazing. I love his work. Thank you for your criticism. I hope the sound, construction, design and work that went into my stuff can speak for itself.

Also this one's for you Nora!


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7qF-dJkVuI[/youtube]

TOMKAT_BKLYN wrote:

goroth wrote:SMD - through hole - tagboard - it's horses for courses dudes.

The V3 Cosmichorus barely fits in a 1590BB with SMD. Soldering that by hand would take a day or two and reduce Ryan's output (and pricing) to Toneczar levels. But is the Cosmi not a boutique pedal because it has SMD boards? Is Ryan less of a wizard because he chose to work with smaller sized components?

What are you paying for with a boutique pedal?
The circuit design?
The unique sounds?
The visuals and other tangible aspects of the pedal?
The relationship with the builder?
The after sale care?

Or does one define boutique by how many processes can be done in house and how many hours it takes per pedal? If you take a pedal developed by a large corporation, and then produce a 1:1 clone, but in a basement somewhere and with fancy graphics - is that boutique?

(when I wrote this post I was working it through in my head question for question, but now that it's written out it looks less Socratic and more passive aggressive than I'd like. Please mentally remove any aggression from this post and read it through a haze of friendly inquisitiveness)

Hey come on I was talking solely about jhs there and his use of smd. I admitted I was only really interested and jealous of the switching system he has going on.
Ryan is on another planet of genius and what he does is all his own and amazing. I love his work. Thank you for your criticism. I hope the sound, construction, design and work that went into my stuff can speak for itself.

Goroth's talking in a broader sense -- he's not hating on what you're posting, or your pedals.

Anyone that doesn't like SMD probably doesn't understand it or know what they are talking about. I'm sorry. SMD is so much better IMO it's not even funny. I could give a shit less about mojo trannie or that mojo cap. IMO soldering by hand is a waste of time and money. I do however enjoy the pedals that are made that way but could give a shit less if they are SMD or not.

Chankgeez wrote:I think SMD makes sense for builders with high production levels.

For pedals that're touted as "boutique" (whatever that means), I'd prefer non-SMD designs and builds.

Chankgeez wrote:Well, I would hope so, but it seems some builders aren't doing that. I'd definitely wanna pay less than "boutique" prices for a SMD pedal. In fact, unless a SMD pedals really did what no other pedal could (and I absolutely had to have that sound), I probably wouldn't buy it. I might buy it if it were cheap enough and/or I was curious enough.

Same page. EHX is making SMD pedals (like JHS) but they are considerably less expensive at every tier. I currently own none of them; and if I have my druthers in hunting *keeper* effects...prefer 20th century shiz that can be serviced by most savvy soldering-gun users...should the need arise, which it will when given enough time.

Only SMD pedals I've made exceptions for are the Ibanez SB7 and Effectrode PC-2A (pretty sure the PM-2C is too). I would have made an additional exception for the CCv3, had the pedal been better suited for the way I use modulation. I digress...

And some SMD pedals I think can be regarded as Boutique. Check out some of Pickdroppers builds. He actually places the components by hand and solders them with a soldering iron. No oven baked. If that isn't boutique building I don't know what is.

KaosCill8r wrote:And some SMD pedals I think can be regarded as Boutique. Check out some of Pickdroppers builds. He actually places the components by hand and solders them with a soldering iron. No oven baked. If that isn't boutique building I don't know what is.

A lot of people solder SMD by hand and that shit is crazy hard. I'd say that makes it more boutique than anything. Plus I challenge anyone to a/b a circuit and tell me you can actually hear that much of a difference between smd and through hole.

Didn't Devi accuse JHS of stealing the Hyperion circuit? Is that primarily why JHS is disliked on this forum? There must be more to the story.

jwar wrote:Also this one's for you Nora!


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7qF-dJkVuI[/youtube]

I don't think anything, I was asking for clarification. I am here to learn.

Do people seriously like that band by the way? It just sounds so cheesy. Perhaps that was their point, I dunno.

I love Type O Negative.

If it makes you feel any better, I love Dr. Octagon.

Pete wrote:Didn't Devi accuse JHS of stealing the Hyperion circuit? Is that primarily why JHS is disliked on this forum? There must be more to the story.

Are you serious?

I'll tell you why people don't like JHS.

#1 Dude has stolen not only her design (which is fucked but she's a dick and it still doesn't justify it) but also others.
#2 Go God Go. I'm Catholic and I'll say this. If you're associated with the largest cult probably in the fucking nation, even if you claim not to be, I'm sorry but your company sucks. If it weren't for all those mindless IHOP morons in Grandview, I doubt JHS would even be on the map. They lie their asses off as much as they want, but I know those motherfuckers are working with them.
#3 Mediocrity. Every single circuit they produce is a clone of something else. So literally there seems to be nothing original. In fact, most times they aren't even a twist on circuits, just straight copies.
#4 The look is boring and crappy. Yes this is important. Why have all those fancy boxes if you're just going to slap printer ink on them?
#5 Homie has the personality of a shoe. I met him in person and he could have given a shit less about talking to me. I'm a potential customer, but won't buy now because of how non personable he was. It was literally like talking to a fucking wall. You could at least pretend to care like all the other builders did.