It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Fulltone used to misrepresent what the Fulldrive was
Back then the really clever folks (like Jack Orman, Beavis Audio etc) used to casually call them out - but ultimately people like being marketed to and the technically smart/original guys are still in their bedrooms and the bulshitters got businesses out of it and became reformed characters.
<slight tongue in cheek, but basically the thrust of it>
It's written with pseudonyms: Gomer Pyle, The Goose etc. It's generally held that Gomer is Clay Jones, The Goose is Jon Landgraff, The Idolmaker is a guy called Bob Burt and The Middleman is a store in Pensacola called Blue Angel.
Enjoy...
http://churchoftone.com/
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Who was it who visited the Behringer factory and noticed through an open door there was just a room full of other companies' gear being ripped apart?
There's plain old fraud, IMO:
1) Took not merely someone else's design, but someone else's finished product (pedal, cable, etc), put their name and branding on it, and gooped the insides to hide what they'd done. Lied and lied and lied when called out on it. Threatened legal action against those who told the truth. - Vertex Wah and cables
1a) Same as 1) above, but only a pedal, and no legal threats of which I am aware. - Freekish Blues
Then there's lying about what you designed:
2) Took some other builder's circuit design and used it as their own, making extremely minor adjustments (if any) and charging a sky high price. Claimed they'd developed it all by themselves over the course of years of R&D. Still lie to this day about it. - Vemuram Jan Ray, Vertex Steel String, Vertex Dynamic Distortion, maybe some early JHS pedals.
Or lying about what it does:
3) Claimed the pedal has capabilities it absolutely does not have. - Vertex Boost
Then there's plain old shadiness:
4) Took some other builder's circuit designs and used them as their own, making extremely minor adjustments, manufacturing them in China and cutting the price more than in half. Lied at first about it, then admitted it and release a revised version. - Danelectro Cool Cat CTO-1, CO-1, and CF-1
Then way on down the line we find pretty common pedal voodoo nonsense, but not openly dishonest so much as marketing:
5) Treated a classic design (Tube Screamer, Big Muff, Fuzz Face, etc) as their own thing. Maybe they modded it, and maybe not. They usually never exactly claimed it was their own unique design, but weren't open about it, either. - Many - but no, not everyone.
And then common, perfectly legal (in most cases) opportunism. Anybody who is fooled isn't paying attention. They come right out and admit it:
6) Straight up, open, not-even-attempting-to-be-coy-about-it cloning of anything. - Mooer, etc.
I'm sure there are others.
Even the venerable Zendrive is a tubesceamer with some different clipping and a control that just trades gain for low end - but that’s one that shows some deliberate thought at least
1. Buy DSP chip.
2. Comission DSP circuit.
3. Sexy videos done by Fluff, Rabea, Ola, and others.
4. Profit.
It really doesn't take that much these days to launch a pedal brand. Just get some Youtube influencers on side and you're winning.