What happened to Smallsound/Bigsound?

[Blood_mountain]

Oh well, good thing there is this mint specimen on offer for only a little over $400usd…

https://reverb.com/item/53065174-smalls ... t=53065174

[voerking]

i keep seeing these crazily priced listings, but are they actually selling?

[Blood_mountain]

i keep seeing these crazily priced listings, but are they actually selling?

Not necessarily selling for prices as high as that one Fuck is listed for, but selling for big $$ and super fast. Minis in particular seem to be going quickly.

[The Eristic]

Wonder if this is the one that was sold here in BST a few days ago for $100 less.

https://reverb.com/item/53125694-smalls ... zz-machine

[coupleonapkins]

Wonder if this is the one that was sold here in BST a few days ago for $100 less.

https://reverb.com/item/53125694-smalls ... zz-machine

[The Eristic]

National Geographic Mini w/ Top Jacks - $249 local pickup / MGR (Kenosha, WI)

And this one is now on TGP for $320. Should start a registry.

[Chankgeez]

It's on Reverb for even more: https://reverb.com/item/56048657-smalls ... -emo-house

[Dandolin]

vibey :/

[The Eristic]

Is Emo House like the opposite of Twinkie House?

[the_carl]

Found a reddit post on clones, returning, covid etc. from a month ago while trying to see if Brian had posted anything anywhere lately: https://www.reddit.com/r/diypedals/comments/u5uqg1/psa_brian_of_smallsoundbigsound_is_not_okay_with/i5ityz9/?context=3

hey all. i can see that there are a lot of emotions surrounding this thread and figured i would chime in to try and answer any questions, etc. as much as i don't particularly like the wording of the thread, it is what it is - after all, i don't think any small brand/builder appreciates anyone cloning their pedals, especially when the pedals are not themselves direct clones of anything.

ok first, why have i taken a break from pedals? i have been doing ss/bs as a one-man-operation for over a decade now (besides a small stint where i had some help from a friend) and when covid hit i went to a weird headspace as it seems many other people did. i was already feeling a bit burned out in general, having feelings of imposter syndrome and my screenprinter that i worked with for many years decided to throw in the towel which was a real bummer. i wanted a little break to recalibrate and work on some new projects and then covid happened and subsequently i got pretty depressed and retreated from things. i also moved my house and workspace during covid, had to do a lot of renovation work and was shut down for long periods of time simply due to not having time.

was any of this a smart business decision? absolutely not! but it just sort of happened.

am i returning to the business? yes definitely! i wish i could provide an accurate timeline but i simply cannot at this moment as there are lots of moving parts to running an operation larger than putting out a handful of pedals at a time.

when the op contacted me, i was honest and open about my feelings and for full transparency i can share the entire exchange if anyone needs to see it. i have been into diy and the community for almost 20 years now (fuck) and i've always felt more or less the same way - which is that selling clones of small manufacturers' work felt bad to me. let me be clear as well, i'm 100% for diy and feel like cloning is totally fine in general but have my own moral/ethical line that i am not interested in crossing and simply let the op know that. for everyone commenting on the legality of this situation, you're absolutely right that i can't stop them from selling anything unless they are stealing trade dress or directly copying artwork.

as for the other comments here about the community ambient track that i ghosted u/slap_me_thrice
- i truly apologize for that. i sincerely wanted to do the project but it was really stupid timing on my part as i was insanely busy at the time and sometimes have a hard time saying no to something after saying yes - obviously to a fault. understandably this upset people but all i can really say is that i'm only human and made a mistake. u/wonderyak
i don't understand how i ruined the community for 2 years but nonetheless deeply apologize for my fuck up.

i already apologized/talked to u/BoneslyGrifter
via dm about the secret santa (months ago actually) but it was a similar anxiety-laden situation - certainly not an excuse but i'm a person who fucks things up sometimes.

just to get my other faults out there - i'm insanely behind on responding to general emails so if you have written me for any reason at all and i didn't respond, please don't take it personally and i deeply apologize for that as well.

i'll try to respond to all of the comments in this thread where it makes sense.

[Chankgeez]

Good post, the_carl, thank you.

[Blood_mountain]

Found a reddit post on clones, returning, covid etc. from a month ago while trying to see if Brian had posted anything anywhere lately: https://www.reddit.com/r/diypedals/comments/u5uqg1/psa_brian_of_smallsoundbigsound_is_not_okay_with/i5ityz9/?context=3

hey all. i can see that there are a lot of emotions surrounding this thread and figured i would chime in to try and answer any questions, etc. as much as i don't particularly like the wording of the thread, it is what it is - after all, i don't think any small brand/builder appreciates anyone cloning their pedals, especially when the pedals are not themselves direct clones of anything.

ok first, why have i taken a break from pedals? i have been doing ss/bs as a one-man-operation for over a decade now (besides a small stint where i had some help from a friend) and when covid hit i went to a weird headspace as it seems many other people did. i was already feeling a bit burned out in general, having feelings of imposter syndrome and my screenprinter that i worked with for many years decided to throw in the towel which was a real bummer. i wanted a little break to recalibrate and work on some new projects and then covid happened and subsequently i got pretty depressed and retreated from things. i also moved my house and workspace during covid, had to do a lot of renovation work and was shut down for long periods of time simply due to not having time.

was any of this a smart business decision? absolutely not! but it just sort of happened.

am i returning to the business? yes definitely! i wish i could provide an accurate timeline but i simply cannot at this moment as there are lots of moving parts to running an operation larger than putting out a handful of pedals at a time.

when the op contacted me, i was honest and open about my feelings and for full transparency i can share the entire exchange if anyone needs to see it. i have been into diy and the community for almost 20 years now (fuck) and i've always felt more or less the same way - which is that selling clones of small manufacturers' work felt bad to me. let me be clear as well, i'm 100% for diy and feel like cloning is totally fine in general but have my own moral/ethical line that i am not interested in crossing and simply let the op know that. for everyone commenting on the legality of this situation, you're absolutely right that i can't stop them from selling anything unless they are stealing trade dress or directly copying artwork.

as for the other comments here about the community ambient track that i ghosted u/slap_me_thrice
- i truly apologize for that. i sincerely wanted to do the project but it was really stupid timing on my part as i was insanely busy at the time and sometimes have a hard time saying no to something after saying yes - obviously to a fault. understandably this upset people but all i can really say is that i'm only human and made a mistake. u/wonderyak
i don't understand how i ruined the community for 2 years but nonetheless deeply apologize for my fuck up.

i already apologized/talked to u/BoneslyGrifter
via dm about the secret santa (months ago actually) but it was a similar anxiety-laden situation - certainly not an excuse but i'm a person who fucks things up sometimes.

just to get my other faults out there - i'm insanely behind on responding to general emails so if you have written me for any reason at all and i didn't respond, please don't take it personally and i deeply apologize for that as well.

i'll try to respond to all of the comments in this thread where it makes sense.

Yikes. Sucks to hear Brian is getting some flak. Exciting to hear him talk about returning to building tho!

[coupleonapkins]

Great to hear Brian is alive & getting weller peter bless it all

L'il chuffed that's he's stuck in a reddit loop tho (ILF: still friendly and not ronnie james dio-A, as far as I can tell?)

We are not Coverdale....we just want our boi Brian back

[goroth]

Bri is posting on reddit. Maybe he'll soon be down with the ILFness? There's hope!

[Blood_mountain]

Bri is posting on reddit. Maybe he'll soon be down with the ILFness? There's hope!

That would be awesome!