Landgraff Dynamic OD

Heartfeltdawn

JDE said:

Who is to blame - the opportunistic exploitative nature of a few bad apples, or the herds of stupid fucks on TGP? Is it Thaddeus Hogarth's fault that he's gullible or is it Freekish Ken's fault he is duplicitous?

Most musicians are idiots. Look at the number of shitty contracts signed over the years, from the rhythm section of the Smiths to Bob Dylan's long running dispute with Albert Grossman. When it comes to stuff like pedal endorsements, most active musicians I know don't a) have a huge amount of gear like the bedroom/home players do and b) don't spend their time pouring over whether the 121A capacitor sounds better than the 121B/C capacitor. 

So the chain goes:

Dodgy individual (eg. Ken, Mason at Vertex) suckers well-intentioned but idiot musician. Product released suckers foolish individuals with more money than sense who end up defending frauster for ages on TGP despite granite-firm evidence being produced that says he's a cheating gifford. 

Octafish

Bit surprised to see Peach Guitars stock Vertex, including the £325 Axis Wah . Mind you, looking at their stock they seem to cater a lot for the more money then sense market.

JDE

glynes said:

JDE said:

herds of stupid fucks on TGP? Is it Thaddeus Hogarth's fault that he's gullible or is it Freekish Ken's fault he is duplicitous?

Heh, I see what you did there. I agree - there are some pretty fucking stupid people on this forum too.

As in life. If only life was as serious as pedals.

 The only gear issue with the whole debacle is too many people listen with their eyes. Everything else - stupidity, exploitation, naivety, ruthlessness - are all just facts of life present in virtually all other situations in life. The Petri dish of TGP just makes it easier to observe. And then comment on loftily . 

Dave_Mc

JDE said:

Who is to blame - the opportunistic exploitative nature of a few bad apples, or the herds of stupid fucks on TGP? Is it Thaddeus Hogarth's fault that he's gullible or is it Freekish Ken's fault he is duplicitous?

The scammer. Not much keen on victim-blaming. Plus you could argue that electronics are different enough from music that it's ok not to know much about it- I don't agree that not knowing means you deserve to be ripped off.

In principle, at least. Granted, I find it easier to hold that opinion if I haven't been to TGP for a while and therefore haven't had a bunch of TGPers (and even sometimes moderators) jump on me for pointing out that the newest $600 overdrive pedal is likely a tubescreamer, instead of their jumping on the person trying to sell them a $600 tubescreamer.

JDE

I wasn't victim blaming, I was merely asking the question and I was actually being tongue-in-cheek. The fact is some people are spewing bollocks about pedals sound like - I actually suspect half of the gush comments on TGP about their flavours-of-the-week are by people that have never even played the pedal but they must feel obliged to chip in. Maybe it's posturing, I don't know. They all change their tune when they find out it's a TS clone or a rebranded Joyo or $2 worth of components (not sure what this argument means but apparently people don't like the thought of paying 100 times what something costs to make - as they comment on their iPhone). The pedal ain't changed and neither have their ears but I don't see anyone rocking an Alpha Drive anymore. Why? Because idiots listen with their eyes and want to keep up with the Joneses. I'm not dissing it, but say it for what it is.

Dave_Mc

^ I didn't mean you were, I was just saying I didn't want to blame who I consider to be the victim- I was answering your question, I realised that you were merely asking the question.

Someone made an excellent point on another (non-guitar) forum to someone who had been scammed- not quite the same thing, but close enough- that maybe the person who had been scammed had been a little naive, but that it still took a scammer to take advantage of that. The naivety would have been harmless without the dishonest person who was taking advantage of it.

It's a bit the same here. Yes, it's complex, and yes the golden-eared brigade can be annoying and talk a pile of crap (as you rightly pointed out), but I still consider them to be the victims overall.

Apart from anything else, you don't have to be in that group to get caught up in these things. We're sort of conditioned by capitalism to assume that anything more expensive is better, and that "cheaping out" is a bad idea which is likely to bite us in the ass later*... you don't have to be a TGPer, especially if you're a newer, more inexperienced player, to think that a £200 overdrive must sound better than a £20 Joyo. You probably don't even know that the £200 one is also a tubescreamer clone.

* I think the placebo effect of non-generic drugs works on Westerners, but not Africans, for example, I think they've done research on that.

JDE

^ agreed ^
All cool, I reread what I wrote and it came across as being harsher than I meant it to be. Sometimes I think my prejudice against TGP can give me "angry monkey at keyboard" syndrome. 

Dave_Mc

No worries, and yeah it can certainly do that to you!

chromatuna

Adam_MD said:

Lol the description for this one is amazing

https://reverb.com/item/501615-landgraff-dynamic-overdrive-2013

I do like this description, I never knew that 4% silver solder could increase touch sensitivity or that building a modded tubescreamer is a 'lost art' - that makes me an artist!

Don't drink the Kool Aid folks 

ICBM

Adam_MD said:

The thing I don't get is why he never did a pcb layout.  Unless the untidyness is supposed to make it look more handmade.  I started off with vero when I started making pedals now if I can find a decent pcb I'd much rather use that.  Veros a bit of a faff most of the time.  

Probably because this sort of small builder doesn't want to invest in 'production' techniques - it's easier to use DIY parts and methods. Since the buyers seem to believe anything "hand made" is better, that also helps - if he was to spend money on getting PCBs made that would detract from that, so increasing cost and reducing the amount he could get away with charging at the same time.

chromatuna said:

I do like this description, I never knew that 4% silver solder could increase touch sensitivity

It also means you can buy your materials at Maplins .

(I like 4% silver solder too, it makes soldering much easier.)

Adam_MD

ICBM said:

It also means you can buy your materials at Maplins .

(I like 4% silver solder too, it makes soldering much easier.)

I like the silver solder from maplin too.  The large roll lasts me around a year.