Hi There.
Thanks for those of you pitching in to this discussion.
Also, please know that I am trying to address the comments in this discussion, and not trying to pitch our pedals in a veiled way. I hope that comes across in this response.
First, I'd like to clarify the point of my previous post. It has absolutely nothing to do with liking or disliking our pedals, this pedal, any of our pedals.
I would never say a word to someone who has tried a pedal and hated it... or even those thinking a pedal is a bad idea, or they don't see the logic in it. I get it, and have been at this long enough to know all of us musicians are strongly opinionated and all have different idea's of good and bad.
The thing I admittedly got a bit defensive about, was my feeling that it was implied the price of the pedal was bloated and the pricing illogical.
It seems that sometimes there is an animosity toward small businesses that make effects. Some people fail to realize that when starting this business, the end goal IS to make money. As much passion as I have about doing this, I do want to make a descent salary and need to make a profit for the countless hours put into this.
I have said this before, so go ahead and accuse me of preaching, but there is a book called outliers in which the author tries to break down in a scientific manner, how people achieve success in their chosen field. One common denominator he finds is that most have had at least 10,000 hours of experience before becoming successful. I've done the math, and I am well beyond that when it comes to making effects, no joke. I say this because this is part of what makes our pedals different and relates to why I sand off component ID's in our pedals.
Most of us know that it's pretty easy to buy a kit for a certain pedal and get a nice working pedal for pretty cheap. That's fun and satisfying, and a cool thing to do.
So one of the dilemma's I had when Wren and Cuff really started rolling was, what the hell am I going to do that can be different in a saturated market of effects companies.
I realized one thing. Getting a schematic, using all the "correct" parts, and recreating a vintage pedal can result in an excellent sounding pedal, but when a/b'd against a real vintage unit, it almost never sounds the same, sometimes not even in the same ballpark.
Why? because there are sooo many variables at play. I finally decided to throw the whole "cloning" via part for part components thing out the window and try to figure out how to really achieve the desired sound rather than focusing on part numbers and component values. Sometimes the original parts do do the trick, but often they do not.
So I bit the bullet and started yanking apart sometimes expensive vintage units and constructing through deconstruction. I'd tried to find parts that actually did what the originals did, and were able to mimic the characteristics of the vintage pedals accounting for parts aging and that weird effect on electronic components that happens when they are used for years on end. This takes a LOT of homework and often requires using a part that one would usually not associate with that pedal. A Wren and Cuff pedal average's 6 months to a year's worth of R and D before it is done.
If you were to ask my employee's and distributor, they would tell you that all this research and obsessiveness has sometimes caused problems when we need to get a new pedal done and I'm taking a long time to complete it.
You'd see me with our proto version, and a vintage unit, going "see, it just doesn't have that mid-range smooth growl of the original." And you'd see my guys looking at me going, "I don't hear it dude... Sounds the same to me...", until they hear the end result.
After putting in all that work, I simply don't want to make it take 5 mins to pop open a pedal, see the results of all this tweaking, and copy what I've spent so much time trying to achieve. May sound dumb to some, but that's my reasoning.
Take the HM-2. The op-amps in there are totally different than the originals. But choosing the one's I chose allowed the sound to be achieved, but achieved with the end result having a dramatically lower noise floor, and a total consistency from pedal to pedal.
Someone else mentioned using "factory seconds". If I could find them, I would love it! Getting components that have been used for years can be great, but look around and you'll see they are very hard to come by if looking for a specific component. That and they are sometimes more $$ than a new component, or will save you a dime if you are lucky. It's not worth bothering with them unless you are hoping they will benefit the end sound.
As far as "beating the fun out of a discussion," as another poster mentioned, when has that ever stopped people from posting their opinions on a pedal forum?
I think I have as much right to ruin a good time as anyone else.
So there you have it.
Oh, and most of you are right, from a business perspective, the HM-2 makes no sense. But I personally think there are lot's of Metal heads and Shoegazers out there that will love the benefits the Hangman has. Time will tell if I'm right or wrong....
THanks again for the compliment guys, they are very much appreciated when I'm stressing about a new release and ranting online about why I know everything... Basically hiding my insecurities through misdirected anger. Isn't that what the internet was made for?
