MOAAH":3u26e0ou said:
Well as soon as you start making PCBs the ease to add features such as Midi Switching becomes cheap and possible, and the door to mass production opens wide. After the design work, there would be very little extra cost involved. ICs by the thousand lot cost pennies. It's more about ability than cost, but you know that.
So it's that I'm unable to design a MIDI switching feature? That's interesting, because I offer an optional MIDI interface for one of the amps on the CEC side of the house. Must have been divine intervention that I was able to design that!
If you want to split hairs over this, I'll elaborate on some things. For one, the channel switching circuit on this amp is stupidly simple. Externally, the channel switching is controlled by a single mono 1/4" jack connected to a footswitch that is nothing more than a latching SPST switch. Open circuit, close circuit. Many MIDI controllers have 1/4" jacks built-in which can plug directly into any amp with this sort of scheme and handle switching functions. It's not as easy in an amp like the CEC Brigand (in my avatar pic) which can have channel and mode switching performed simultaneously via a 5-pin DIN connector. It makes much more sense to offer a MIDI option on an amp like that where there aren't any readily available "COTS" solutions.
In the business of manufacturing--especially consumer electronic manufacturing--costing goes well beyond R&D, logistics, and production, but you know that. This is a low margin product, which will retail for $999. From a BOM standpoint by itself, whether or not you want to believe it, the cost of incorporating a MIDI feature goes beyond the cost of IC's. And it's not a cost my business partner and I were interested in incurring for this product. So it could end there from a decision making standpoint. Beyond the BOM, there are projected costs in several areas like assembly (not everyone is well-versed in SMD soldering for instance, and if they are they get paid more), the service and support side (I'm sure customers will want the satisfaction of knowing they will receive service and support should they need it), etc.
Perhaps the standard hobbiest-for-profit doesn't concern himself with such details. I get that. But when you are interested in sustaining a business in an industry as tough to survive in as guitar amps--you have to. Even more so when you decide to create a lower price point product where margins are much lower than normal.
There are other features that were not included for much the same reasons. Independent EQ's, more gain control features, etc. Many considered, many decided against. You have to sacrifice somewhere unfortunately.
MOAAH":3u26e0ou said:
Hey, the Japanese make great caps, especially for the cost. Their sockets are bar none, meaning, it's nice to see you don't have cheap Chinese sockets. It's amazing how many big dollar amps use shit sockets. Your goal may not be big dollar, but good sockets are critical. I won't get into how great Japanese switches are, because most folks seem happy with the Mexican ones, which are infinately better than anything from China.
Belton sockets are actually Korean. I agree though that cheap, flimsy sockets shouldn't be used, and I refuse to use them in any amp. Beltons are the best reasonably priced tube socket I have ever used and I'll use them exclusively until I find something better at the same price point.
MOAAH":3u26e0ou said:
As for the Chinese pots, I think it's an insult to say anything is American made but is in fact stocked with Chinese parts. BTW in mass, PECs are not that costly, you just need to preorder enough of them. They will never be as dirt cheap as Alpha, but in most cases you get what you pay for. YMMV, and that's OK too
No doubt that PECs are nice pots. But again, until I can wrap my head around the true value added over Alphas I'm not going to incur the costs. For you it may be offensive to find a part in an amp that happens to be manufactured in China. But not everyone feels the same way. There are a lot of shit parts made in China, but Alpha pots ain't one of them. I've used all kinds of pots over the 7 years I've been actively building amps, and I can't find any valid reason not to use Alphas. There are many parts worth spending considerably more money on (trust me, I use Auricaps and O'Netics trafos in many of my amps), but not all of them.
MOAAH":3u26e0ou said:
To be sure I was wanting to see how you reacted to someone not singing praises. It's good practice for you in case ya evar get too big, too fast, and all the the wannabes hate ya for it. FWIW, you did well IMO, good luck to you in the future.
I appreciate it! As strange as it may sound, I don't want to grow quickly. It's very tough to do, and it's very tough to survive. I've been in the amp business going on 3 years, growing at a slow to moderate pace the whole time. Wouldn't have had it any other way. Just picked up my first "real deal" artist endorser in September of this year. probably wouldn't have happened if I didn't have the foundation I'd spent so much time, energy, and money building.
