Over at Rattlesnake Cable Company – they are running a Pedalboard Photo Contest. All you need to do is upload a pic through their form and provide a brief photo caption. Additionally, you can vote daily on boards too! The winner of the Pedalboard Photo Contest will receive a pair of 15′ Custom Cables with Neutrik Nickel plugs with a retail value of $120! Not bad!

To enter, go here and submit your pic! Good luck.

Here are the details of this pedal:

Back at it! The Rosa Mystica limited edition of The Blessed Mother keeps all the acclaimed sounds of the original (see description below), while adding a vibrant enclosure that really pops on your pedalboard. It’s the perfect opportunity to pick one up for the first time, buy a second to stack, or gift to a special someone.


The Blessed Mother, just like the name would suggest, is equal parts unique and inspiring. The range of tones goes deep and wide thanks to the Immaculator, which allows you to control the transparency of the drive. This enables you to dial in anything from a vintage Tubescreamer-like grit to a heavenly transparent boost. The Blessed Mother plays well with others and often enhances other drives in the signal chain. The gain (thanks to a supernatural combination of silicon and germanium diodes) has a warm and sweet character to it, just like you would expect from God’s mom. Separate treble and bass controls allow you to really control the feel, but the specialty of this pedal is its powerful midrange that can cut through no matter where on the neck you are playing. It runs on 9v or 18v and is true bypass.

Features:
-Full control over the transparency of the OD
-9v or 18v DC
-True Bypass
-Silicon and Germanium diodes give the drive a classic, warm character
-Light-up halo

This give away is open to everyone (international too). You can also submit bonus entries, so be sure to take advantage of those to increase your odds of winning!

To enter, click here.

The Line 6 POD X3 and Boss GT-8 are two multi-effects processors that have been discontinued for a while, however both hold value today. Although unavailable for purchasing new, both can be found used for almost nothing.

The X3 has great latency and can be heard on number one records. The GT-8 is still used by studio musicians that I know of to this day.

Both the GT-8 and X3 can be connected directly. Because they can recreate an amplifier and cabinet, you can plug directly into the PA system or use a line out for recording.

Boss GT-8

The GT-8 does a certain “crunch” sound very well. For lead and high-gain, I like to think of the GT-8 as having a certain crunch sound and less as an “amp modeler.”

You can go as far back as the Boss GT-5 (the predecessor to the GT-3 and the first release in the GT series.) In online communities, many people argue that the GT-5 actually sounded better than newer releases.

The reason the GT-8 sounds good is because it contains analog circuitry. It has the same circuitry built-in as an Ibanez tube screamer pedal. Other multi-effects units emulate this circuit digitally.

POD X3 Live

The X3 contains a “direct out,” an XLR output that sends the same signal a microphone would provide from an on-stage cabinet. In addition to using this feed, the X3 can be connected to an on-stage amplifier using the “live out”.

For an outdated release, the X3 is still surprisingly modern. It has a USB port, which can be connected to the Line 6 GearBox software. GearBox has a great user interface for creating and editing patches.

For creating patches, Lincoln Brewster’s X3’tone is a favorite in online communities. Lincoln Brewster is a studio engineer by trade, so it could be worth investigating his patches. Although there are people that have done a complete analysis of his patches, I find the most significant part of his signal chain is the EQ block, particularly a boost in the 3kHz range. His patches can be found on his website.

About the Author

Hi, I’m Dean Hailstone. You can read more of my posts on PlayGuitarLive.com. To contact me, send an email to dean@nullplayguitarlive.com.

So, I’m so happy to finally announce that Pedal Labels are BACK again!

For you that are not familiar with these, it’s a great solution for marking and remembering your pedal settings! These are high quality vinyl labels but with low-tack adhesive so look really good on the pedal, and when it’s time to take them off, they peel off cleanly and won’t tear.

Some of you are probably saying.. I just use tape, why is yours better?

Gross….

Let’s break down some of the issues/benefits.

• With tape, you probably draw the circle and knob settings. I’m sure that works, but it can look pretty bad. You spent some dough on your board, I’m sure you want it “right and tight”. With Pedal Labels the circles are nicely marked and with a straight edge and Sharpie you can draw a nice clean line.
• With tape, mailing labels, general paper stickers, etc you’ll run into the issue of the adhesive gunk-ing up or worse, turns to cement. The labels/tape could tear creating a longer time to clean up after removal. Pedal Labels will come off cleanly
• With Avery mailing labels, etc, they are not water proof, and can fade with exposure. The Pedal Labels use high quality vinyl with a laminate on top. It’s designed to look good.. for a long time!

The labels come in a variety of options per sheet. There are 3 and 4 knob layouts perfect for Boss style pedals where knobs are laid out in a line. Single knob labels for when you need to position them close to the knob when they’re not in a linear layout. The labels also have color dot indicators and triangle cuts. These are perfect for noting toggle switch positions and/or fader/knob positions as well. And finally, there is the dual knob label for when you have to mark multiple settings, or need to set a setting with a dual / gang pots.

The Pedal Label pack includes 4 sheets of labels giving you a total of 136 individual labels per pack!

Get your Pedal Label pack here!

Also, a small disclaimer.. be careful with valuable or hand painted pedals!!
Remember – Anything that ‘sticks’ can pull. Please do NOT add these to valuable pedals or pedals that might have loose ink/paint. Hand painted pedals, pedals with ink applied over powdercoat and have not been properly treated or baked may pull ink/paint. You can also make the labels less sticky by first sticking the labels on a shirt before applying to pedals. Please stick at your own risk.

The 2021 build is about as far as I can take my ‘all-analog pedalboard’ concept; at least, using this particular board, loop switchers and power system. There’s absolutely zero room anywhere on there…every nook & cranny either has a bundle of patch leads, a power adaptor or jack plug wedged in it; and I think the GigRig Generator is about to explode powering this lot. But…it sounds great; and it makes my life making demo & comparison videos so much easier for the next year. Every sound I could possibly need is right underneath my feet; powered correctly; isolated in true-bypass loops so the signal is always super-clean; and all the amps are in phase with no ground loop hum. That means I can just kick a few switches and go, rather than spending the first part of each filming day ripping things apart, digging through my pedal collection and trying to work out where the annoying buzz is coming from. It streamlines my workflow and cuts a significant amount of time off shooting videos for a living!

The guitar signal comes in through the patch bay, and straight away hits the Terry Audio White Rabbit, which is (almost) always on. This buffers the signal right at the start and keeps the signal as clean and defined as possible. It then goes into the passive Lightning Boy 2020 Instrument Transformer which, to be completely honest, does almost nothing (but…I’d bought it, and wanted to feel I was getting some sort of use out of it!) It adds just a hair of subtle harmonic saturation. Then, the signal goes into the loop switchers; if no switch is kicked, it passes right through into a Suhr Buffer to split and isolate the signal, and the two identical feeds then go off to my amp rig. Those two feeds are then split & isolated again by a pair of passive Lehle P-Splits, giving all 4 of my amps a good, strong signal at all times (with full control over phase) for easy experimenting with pairing amplifiers together quickly on the job. I generally just flick switches and see what sounds best running together on any given day.

But if I kick any of the loops on, I can bring in whatever combination of pedals I like. I use GigRig loopers – a OMX8 and OMX6 chained together – and the loops are:

1) This mutes the signal and sends it off to an old Peterson 420 Strobe sat on top of my amps. I love old-school strobes; they’re super-accurate.

2) A Williams Audio MkI Tonebender (probably my favourite fuzz of all time!); an Analogman Sun Face NKT Red Dot; and Analogman Beano Boost treble booster. These all need an unbuffered signal so they’re in a loop together at the start of the board, and the loop’s ON switch and switch to turn the White Rabbit off can both be pressed with a single foot stomp for ease. Two classic fuzzes and a Rangemaster…all NOS Germanium transistors and running on GigRig virtual batteries.

3) I love compressors but parallel compression is where things really come alive for me. The Effectrode PC-2A is my favourite sounding compressor but it doesn’t have a blend control, so I’m running it in the loop of a GigRig Wet Box to let me blend some transients back in….the attack is still there and it’s not super-obvious, but you can get loads of sustain from the compressor too. Also in this loop is the ZVex Lo-Fi Loop Junky…a crazy all-analog looper (how it works is beyond me!) which isn’t much use as a ‘traditional’ looper, but can be great fun for ambient effects and mashing things to wobbly pieces!

4) The first of two modulation loops…I run all my modulation pedals pre-drive rather than the more typical post-drive that people go for nowadays. (Most of my favourite classic tones were modulation pedals into cranked amps, so for me, running them before the overdrives makes more sense.) The BigToneMusicBrewery Maggie is a Magnatone-style vibrato, and the Skreddy Little Miss Sunshine phaser is a modified Phase 90 that uses photocells rather than chips for more clarity and headroom.

5) The Analogman Mini Chorus is based on a Small Clone, and mine is running on 15V – which I believe is the voltage the chip is optimised for. Also in this loop is the Retro-Sonic Flanger running on 18V…this is the newest iteration of this pedal, which has less filtering up-top than the earliest runs. I’ve compared it to my original V3 EHX Electric Mistress and it is absolutely dead on…superb job by Tim, because it’s a very tough circuit to get right.

6) My mid-pushed OD loop. First is the Decibelics Golden Horse – a super-accurate Klon clone. Guillem makes them all by hand and A/B tests them to his best-sounding original Klon (he has three!) to ensure they’re 100% identical…this pedal ended my Klon search, for sure. The JAM TubeDreamer58 is a sort-of hybrid between a TS808 and the original Boss OD-1….both those old pedals are broadly similar in circuit, but the TD58 combines my favourite qualities of both: the mid-hump, but asymmetrical clipping and a tone control.

7) The Williams Audio Power Driver – which is a Colorsound Power Boost/Overdriver. I’d never tried one of these circuits before but this one floored me so much it had to go on the board….super-versatile, and sounds great regardless of guitar or amp. It has the common master volume ‘mod’ which is much needed….without that, the circuit is pretty much too loud to be useable!

8) Two famous/infamous overdrives! The Analogman King Of Tone, running at 12V and set as two clean boosts, which I prefer for the extra dynamics; though I still usually stack the two sides together. The Vemuram Jan Ray sounds astonishing on its own, but right now I’m using it as an additional gain stage to smash into the KOT…it’s a wonderful booster as well as OD, and the high & low pass filters are brilliant for stopping things getting too thick or fizzy.

9) The Hudson Broadcast (running at 24V) is a console-style preamp circuit; great for those Beatles ‘Revolution’ type tones, but also great as a clean boost…and the high-pass filter is brilliant for shaping anything before and after it on the board, as the 24V headroom means it can handle most things without distorting (unless you want it to!). The Williams Audio Ram Fuzz is a Ram’s Head Big Muff, which sounds brilliant (and is much less finicky with buffered signals)…but to be honest, this pedal is keeping the spot warm for a Kingsley Page (which has since arrived…and is my favourite OD I’ve ever used!)

10) The Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE is a crazy overdrive…it models everything about the breakup characteristics of classic amps, from negative feedback to ghost-tones that appear when everything is caving in on itself. I set the both sides broadly the same (modelling a Marshall Plexi) but the Silver side has touch more gain and bite, and a little less sag, for lead playing.

11) I used to love my Memory Man, but I found the sine-wave chorus/vibrato a bit predictable-sounding. The Fairfield Circuitry Meet Maude is a magic delay pedal…it has a great, clunky vibrato circuit for the repeats (this pedal sounds nothing like tape, but it does have elements of that glitchy, mechanical modulation about it) and never seems to get in the way of your clean sound, regardless of how soupy and insane you set the repeats.

12) Two simple delays chained together – individually they’re great, and I use them for different applications, but together they can give a pretty good emulation of the multi-head delay sound. The Analogman ARDX20 is quite DM-2 in nature – dark and moody – and has two sides; so I set one for a ‘standard’ thickener delay and the other for a tasty slapback. The JAM Pedals Delay Llama+ is quite bright and defined in comparison, a bit like an old 18V Ibanez AD-80, so I tend to use it more for chimey clean sounds…plus, it has the infinite feedback momentary switch to make it go nuts!

13) I’ve always struggled with Tremolo pedals and I’ve been through loads over the years. But this is my new favourite – the ThorpyFX Chain Home, which goes after the old Vox Repeater/percussion trem sound. It has a lovely chop to it – it’s definitely it’s own ‘thing’, but it does the job very well. It also has an amazing boost circuit which is great for hoofing into an amp.

14) I’ve tried a few spring-reverb-in-a-box pedals over the years, and this has been my favourite – the Gurus Sinusoid. It’s tube driven and can do subtle fatness when you want a basic ‘verb, but can get nice and splashy too. It also has a great sine-wave tremolo circuit for a different flavour to the Thorpy.

…and that’s about it! All of that is piled into a Dr Z Z-Wreck; Hughes & Kettner Puretone; Dr Z DB4; and Cornell Romany Plus. They all sound great both on their own and paired; but certain combinations work better for different jobs, so it’s nice to be able to choose what combination will show a pedal off to its full potential, for example. The speakers are a combination of Celestion and Fane…though I’m leaning more towards the Fanes nowadays; they’re handmade here in the UK and always sound epic regardless of what amp they’re in. They don’t have the ‘bitey’ upper midrange of the Celestions, so they sound a little less aggressive when recorded, but very beautiful and detailed too.

Check out this detailed break down video:

Pedal Line Friday – 10/2 – analogMensch

Hello from Trier, Germany, on a warm Sunday in September

Here’s my pedalboard, not really changed for the last years! All pedals except of the volume pedal are self build.

Signal Chain:

Rocktron HEX Volume Pedal (right)
Never left me alone for all the years, just a great and good working volume pedal. I removed the expression TRS jack and mount a minimum volume pot instead.

PLAN B buffer/booster/channel switch (bottom center)
Simple opamp buffer behind the volume pedal, just for keeping the guitar signal in good condition. Switchable, but I left it on all the time.
The booster is a clone of the LPB-1, just to kick in a bit more. The pot of the booster is switchable between full range (silence to max) or only boost (input level to max).
The channel switch controls a relay in the patch box (more on this later).

THE BAD ONE overdrive/distortion (bottom left)
The overdrive is a classic TS9 on 18 volts (like the whole board) with a slight modification for a bit more low end.
The distortion is a self engineered thing with a BC547B and a BC327 transistor. It’s really rough and fuzzy, I love it this way for more hard and broken sounds.

A/B/insert/switch pedal (top left)
This is a really special pedal! It’s a signal chain controller or switching controller, depending on the mode it’s on.
Fully controlled by a ATmega chip and a bunch of relays and optocouplers.
– Mode 1: A/B switch (or mute with no cable in the left jack), switch between the board output trough the patch box or the other output on the left jack
– Mode 2: Switchable effect loop on the left jack (TRS for send and return)
– Mode 3: Foot switch (TRS tip to sleeve)
– Mode 4: Foot switch (TRS ring to sleeve)
– Mode 5: Foot switch (TRS tip and ring to sleeve)
– Mode 6: Momentary foot switch (TRS tip to sleeve). In this mode one of the status LEDs reacts to grounded or ungrounded ring on the TRS, so an optical feedback is possible.

You can change the mode by pressing and holding down the foot switch for ten seconds. The unit changes to program mode, so you can toggle through the modes. The LEDs blink in the number of the mode. Press and hold down the switch for three seconds will save the mode and change back to switching mode.

Most time I use this pedal as a A/B switch for switching to a second amp or the DI box of the sound guy/girl. It’s also made for switching different effects I don’t have on my board. To have the choice between an effect loop and a remote switch option in one box was the best idea for me. Three months ago I build a remote control able A/B box with a DI output in output B, so this will be an option in the future.

patch box (top center)
This is the box all my cable from the amp and the power supply are plugged into.
The left plug is a basic 3 pin XLR for feeding my board with 24 volts, it’s converted to 18 volts in the patch box.
The TRS plug in the middle is my channel control from my amp. A relay in the patch box is switching this thing, it’s controlled by the PLAN B.

The right plug is the guitar output to the amp.

I used basic cables you can find on any stage. So if one of my cables decide to break down one day, I can use whatever the sound guy/girl will give me.

And yeah, it’s just loudness, loudness and more loudness. Cause it’s punk rock, so no big, special sounds! Just a dirty guitar.

Cables are all self made to custom length and plugs. A lot of work, but this board survived everything! The LEDs on the pedals are always on, just change the color from blue to red.

My guitar is a Hagstrom Viking Deluxe. Played once, falling in love and never changed since!

My amp is the Peavey Valve King 50 watts 1×12 combo.

I haven’t played in a band for the last years, just hanging around and making music with friends. We have still written down some things and licks, but never formed a band.

So on…maybe I can inspire some people out there to build more great effect pedals and boards.

See you…
analogMensch

instagram: analogmensch
twitter: analogMensch (very inactive)
blog: analogmensch.de

Today’s Stupid Deal of the Day is the Pigtronix Mothership 2 Analog Synth Pedal!

Here is some info on the Pigtraonix Mothership 2:

The Pigtronix Mothership 2 goes lightyears beyond the original Mothership.

Mothership 2 is a velocity sensitive, pitch-tracking, 3-voice analog synthesizer with oscillator hard sync and pitch modulation via portamento and CV / Expression control. Housed in a compact aluminum chassis, this state-of-the-art pedal goes lightyears beyond the original Mothership, delivering a user-friendly guitar synth with real-time pitch and amplitude tracking, switchable preset tunings and a devastating Sync effect that delivers new modulation effects for guitar, bass and anyone brave enough to plug in to the analog future of Pigtronix.

The dashboard of the Mothership 2 contains five custom-made, dual-concentric potentiometers and a pair of toggle switches. The top row of controls provides individual level knobs for VCO (triangle wave) and Square wave voices as well as the original Clean guitar sound and a gut-busting Sub-octave Sine wave voice that can be removed from the main mix bus and sent to its own dedicated bass amplifier when the SUB output jack is used.

The middle row of controls provides Master Volume, Glide, Fine Tune and an adjustable Dynamics function that allows the player to adjust the “feel” of the synth’s amplitude tracking.

The bottom row of controls contains the 3-way tuning switch with Unison, Octave Up, and Interval (MAJ 3rd, 4th, 5th) presets as well as a new Sync function that slaves the VCO’s triangle and square wave oscillators to the input signal, creating a pitch-locked, unison sound with complex harmonics and overtones that can be modulated.

The Sync effect found in the Mothership 2 can be dialed in to create a staggering array of unique sounds using the Sweep and Timbre controls as well the on-board Glide function to achieve modulation and pitch effects that sweep from one note to another with adjustable timing. An optional expression pedal / CV input can also be used to modulate the VCO in parallel with the on-board knobs and Glide function, creating “Sync Sweep” effects from another planet.

SDOTD – Pigtronix Mothership 2

Okay, let’s talk about the deal! Typically the Pigtronix Mothership 2 sells for $250, but is currently on sale for a crazy low price of $129.99! That’s knocking off $120!! Nutz! With Stupid Deals of the Day, these deals only last for 24 hours OR until the unit counts gets low. As with all Stupid Deals, if you want this pedal, you need to jump on it. I’ve personally missed opportunities by being slow.

Iâ€m writing this post, because with COVID-19 and some of the positives that can come from this. Many of these people lost jobs or are working from home. Gears begin to turn and the thought of cranking up that business that has always been on the back-burner is suddenly timed right. Some of you are taking the leap.

Often times when I run into people starting out, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) is brought up. The idea of exhibiting at NAMM and have a large chain or distributor pick up the line – and whammo – youâ€ve made it.

I thought I would write a post basically outlining some pros and cons as well as a potential checklist to see if you and your business are ready for NAMM. I also wanted to outline some possible tips as well if you are ready.

But first, let me step back, I was a person dreaming of a business in the music industry. I started with a single counter top in the basement when I started Rattlesnake Cable Company. Iâ€ve been to NAMM as a guess in 2018 and January of 2020 Rattlesnake purchased booth space. So I know the struggle. I know the feelings (and meaning) of going to NAMM.  Iâ€ve been meaning to write this post for a while.

NAMM Costs, Mistakes and Tips

When talking about NAMM, there is a feeling of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). You see your business peers, you see the press at the event, etc. You see the excitement and buzz surrounding the event. Just getting into the game you might have a feeling youâ€re not worthy and your product or business is too young.  Those feelings are normal, and potentially accurate. Donâ€t doubt your ability, worth, product, etc., but definitely question your process, your execution and scalability. Those are things you have to have a vision of before making any moves.

The next hurdle is cost. NAMM, is expensive.  Youâ€re spending $34/square foot. So a 10×10 is $3400 for just the concrete.  You have to calculate your booth creation, travel, employees, food/lodging, Ubers, etc. At the end of the day, I would say you need to have $10-$15K set aside for that. Please note, that is Winter NAMM costs. Summer NAMM is probably half the cost, but less than half the size (that could be good or bad, depending).

Most new businesses start to see if they can hack this. To me, this is your #1 mistake – how to get your expenses cheaper by compromising. First compromise I see people do is to share the booth other companies. So, letâ€s say if I can get 2 other business to share the 10×10 and now I only have to pay $11.50/square foot.  So now I have to come up with $1150 vs $3400. This sounds good on paper.  But now with a 10â€x10†square, you might be sharing that with 6 people. That makes things tight. Sharing the marketing oxygen with those other businesses too, is difficult – meaning that people will be asking about a product that you are not associated with. People visiting the other businesses will block the view of people that might be into your product or business. Not good.

Another failed hack that you might jump on is to share lodging. It would be nice to not buy a hotel room for yourself or your crew/associates and maybe crash with a buddy that lives nearby or to maybe crash on the floor of buddy-business. That definitely will save money, but I have to say NAMM is exhausting. To be able to get good rest is important. A bed is gold.

For us, we purchased an AirBNB 1 mile away from the convention center.  We could walk or take an Uber it was well worth it. The AirBNB also had a kitchen so we went grocery shopping and stocked up our fridge with late night meals and could even pack lunches depending on the day. The AirBNB was the same price as a hotel room, but we had living room and 3 beds available with a kitchen. Well worth it.

The next mistake is to skimp on the marketing.  If youâ€re going to have a booth at NAMM, you should be all in – or not in at all. Get the brochures. Get the stickers. Do your best on the booth build. Bring product.  You need to come with the A game.  Itâ€s more about “just being there”.

When dealing with marketing and product, you will then need to deal with shipping and freight. This is expensive – and scary. The thought of your booth or product not arriving – would not be fun. As a NAMM member and in their system, they provide all sorts of shipping partners and scheduling. This was the most stressed out portion of my experience, but after going through it – my confidence in the system is extremely high. They do an amazing job and have it figured out. Itâ€s just intimidating to know and jump through the hoops. But like with everything, after you do it, the next time will be a piece of cake.

This again, is another mistake I see people do. Letâ€s save on shipping and drive it there ourselves.  I donâ€t know how you would even do that with getting the pieces into the convention center. Driving it there to Anaheim, no problem, but walking all the pieces in could be an exhausting nightmare. When you freight stuff, the box is sitting at your space. You have to weigh in travel days on the road, with lodging, food, gas, etc. You need to factor dealing with traffic and parking, etc. Just the extra days alone on the road there and back is time expensive.  If we did that, weâ€d be on the road for 4 days there and back. Thatâ€s 4 more days I didnâ€t have to deal with NAMM. Like I mentioned, NAMM is absolutely exhausting. The thought of me driving for 48 hours after NAMM was over? No way.

So I talked about some of the mistakes and itâ€s primarily focused around money – or how to not spend money. In my opinion – pay the money. So, when I say $10K-$15K total, there are some good hacks, that Iâ€m blown away that people donâ€t do.  First one, hustle and do some research on your state. Many states offer a grant program through the Department of Commerce.  Look for incubator, SBA, business resources for low interest rate loans or partial grants. Look for sponsorships, etc. There are some free money out there to help cut the costs – by a ton! Get a credit card with low interest and no interest for 12 months. Assign that as the NAMM card. That will give you some wiggle room when youâ€re purchasing plane tickets, AirBNB, etc. If youâ€re lucky, it will have cashback rewards or miles that you can apply down the road.

Are you ready for NAMM?

Okay, with that out of the way, letâ€s talk about if youâ€re ready for NAMM. What do I mean when I say “ready”? Like I mentioned above – you may need to question your process, execution and scalability.

The general point of NAMM is to interact with dealers as potential buyers. Other points are exposure, network connections and brand awareness.  Exposure, connections and brand awareness do translate to sales but as a long play. The short play is quick transactions with dealers.

So first item, what are you wanting from NAMM? If your goal is to get into stores and expand your dealer network – then your ROI will be much faster. If youâ€re going for brand awareness and networking, expect a much long ROI, and if thatâ€s the case, can you absorb that expense?

Some people (like us) wanted all of the above. So our goal was to break even as fast as we can, but was okay to extend that debt with brand awareness and networking.

I asked the question about process, execution and scalability. This could apply in a bad way if you donâ€t understand your business and you get a surge of orders. The worst situation you can get yourself in is to work out a deal, and was not able to fulfill it in a way that both parties are stoked on it. So how do you build your product? Can you build a 100 in a month? Do you have inventory? Do you have supplies that can handle a jump? If youâ€re unsure, then youâ€re not ready. You should be able to look at your systems and simply say – if we double our orders, maybe even tripled our orders for the month, we can handle it. If you canâ€t you need to see how to improve your process, your supply line, etc. Get those in place first. Itâ€s good business any way without thinking of NAMM.

The next step is to look at budgets. If we go on the low end.. say $8K-$12K, what percentage of that is gross sales? Iâ€ve talked to people that make $20K a year in gross sales. So that would be 50% of gross sales. 50.. percent. Thatâ€s too high. You need to find the percentage point that you can ‘burn†and not affect or hurt the business. Your priority should be on inventory, payroll, expenses, etc. What can you do to cut into that that wonâ€t sting too hard. If you break even at NAMM, then you get it back and your future will retain those new sales. But letâ€s say you donâ€t land any new deals, youâ€ll need to absorb that cost. Hedge your bet a little.

Preparation for NAMM

This is a mistake zone too. You can purchase booth space the day before the event if space is available. There is a deadline to get your booth in the NAMM map and app. That would be a smart move right?  So be sure to reserve your space before that. Typically thatâ€s 6 month before or so. Other prep items to consider, and probably the most important, is to design your space. Do that early on. Draw it out. Think of the flow. Think of the crew you need. Start buying your items. Prep your marketing, etc.I would probably give yourself at least 6 months of prep time. More is better. Less will result in a rushed result.

Pro move – buy a fake foam floor.

Scheduling was strategy that worked will for me. Outlining what I had to buy per month, so expenses were spread out.  This again falls into absorbing some costs prior to the event allocating profit from 2019 to pay for 2020 NAMM.

Conclusion

NAMM is exciting and is a huge milestone for a business getting into the music industry. Go into it knowing your goals and ROI to maintain expectations. If youâ€re not ready, as yourself why, and begin the process of goal setting and plan to get in a position to be ready.

With COVID-19, the future of tradeshows is unknown. Iâ€m staying optimistic, knowing that one day weâ€ll be able to interact in crowded venues again. Summer NAMM 2020 was cancelled, and at the time of this post, there has been no word on Winter NAMM 2021. Also, we need to be flexible of the future and look for opportunities. Iâ€ve been seeing virtual tradeshow notifications – so that could be something to for in the future.  When things ramp back up and we get an all-clear, there might be lower costs for flights, booth fees, AirBNBs while people acclimate back to normal – who knows.

The give away is for a pair of Rattlesnake Cable Company 15′ Custom Cables with Neutrik Nickel Plugs. In addition, the give away also joins forces with the great people at Red Panda Labs. They’re offering up their Particle 2 Delay / Pitch Shifting Pedal. The total retail value of this give away is $419. As I mentioned, the give away is ending soon – it officially closes on June 10th, so don’t miss out on this one. You can also submit bonus entries (some daily) to increase your odds of winning. This give away is open to international submissions as well! Go here to enter!

For those of you that are curious about the new Red Panda Lab Particle V2 Delay, check this out:

Today’s Stupid Deal of the Day is the MXR Raijin Drive!

Here is some info on the MXR Raijin Drive:

Shin Suzuki is the most celebrated amp and pedal designer in Japan, renowned by tonechasers the world over for his ability to faithfully recreate some of the most elusive sounds in music history. As proprietor of Shinâ€s Music in Tokyo, he has cultivated an unfailing ear for incredible tones. In 2016, Shin collaborated with the MXR Custom Shop to create the Shin-Juku Drive, a pedal widely praised for the way it captured the raw sonic complexity of a rare amplifier with a legendary reputation.

Shin and the MXR Custom Shop have come together once again to create the Raijin Drive, a pedal that reinvents two iconic Japanese stompboxes—an overdrive and a distortion—with greater tonal range and usability so that those beloved sounds can keep up with the modern tone chase.

Shin designed both channels from scratch, honing in on the best qualities of the aforementioned pedals with his refined ear and then recreating them with a more versatile and responsive tonal palette. The overdrive signal is smooth, fat, and wide open while the distortion signal packs an aggressive, harmonically rich punch with just enough gain to get good and heavy. Each signal complements the voice of your instrument, allowing your unique tonal character to be the star of the mix. Alternating between the two is as simple as the flick of a switch. Level, Tone, and Drive controls make it super easy to dial in a great sound and start playing.

With classic Japanese overdrive and distortion sounds carefully tailored with enough sonic flexibility to please any connoisseur, the Raijin Drive is a must-have for your board. Getting them both in the same box makes this pedal a space-saving no-brainer.

SDOTD – MXR Raijin Drive

Okay, let’s talk about the deal! Typically the MXR Raijin Drive sells for $130, but is currently on sale for a crazy low price of $69.99! That’s knocking off $60!! Nutz! With Stupid Deals of the Day, these deals only last for 24 hours OR until the unit counts gets low. As with all Stupid Deals, if you want this pedal, you need to jump on it. I’ve personally missed opportunities by being slow.