Axis Wah Announcement

fretmeister

Comedy gold.

I was unaware of any of this until today.

SimonC

Anyone phoned him yet?

meltedbuzzbox

mike_l said:

guitarfishbay said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

So... What was the mod? 

The price mod.

is that the one where you do nothing, bar change a sticker, apply some gunk and charge an extra $250?

Its worked well for so many

monquixote

SimonC;343959" said:

Anyone phoned him yet?

Please don't do this unless you actually own one of his products

ThePrettyDamned

Still, if you want a wah that according to many posters is worth £325, you can get the BBE!

Seriously, read reviews on tgp and huge racks. It's supposed to be the best vintage sounding wah ever.

Just a shame tone hounds won't try more affordable options, they'd have found their tonal nirvana much cheaper and sooner! Landau tried a cheap arion chorus and loved it - before then, they were probably a bit cheaper...

Dave_Mc

frankus

Does anyone know what the vertex arion mod is (as used by Landau?)

What kinda goop? How thick is the sticker?

ThePrettyDamned

frankus;344010" said:

Does anyone know what the vertex arion mod is (as used by Landau?)

What kinda goop? How thick is the sticker?

I think it has a different chip in, and changes the little switch thing at the top to a vibe switch. Don't quote me on either, but iirc that's basically it.

Also, true bypass and level knob. Apparently worthwhile mods, but there are so many great sounding chorus pedals out there, I think you'd be mad to buy a vertex now!

Richardj

I think a little devils advocate might be in order here.  Obviously the Vertex/BBE debacle has done a lot of harm to reputations.  I think a bit of respect is due for putting yourself into the bear cage here and making yourself open to the criticism you are bound to receive.

If it is a cynical ploy to regain some face it might not work.  If it is to genuinely to show/admit that all was far from good before, lessons have been learnt and the situation has been resolved so no-one is left feeling mislead then it is a good place to move on from.

It might be a bit naive but I would like to think the latter.  Time will tell.

Welcome Mason, I hope everyone can benefit from your joining us.

ThePrettyDamned

Richardj said:

I think a little devils advocate might be in order here.  Obviously the Vertex/BBE debacle has done a lot of harm to reputations.  I think a bit of respect is due for putting yourself into the bear cage here and making yourself open to the criticism you are bound to receive.

If it is a cynical ploy to regain some face it might not work.  If it is to genuinely to show/admit that all was far from good before, lessons have been learnt and the situation has been resolved so no-one is left feeling mislead then it is a good place to move on from.

It might be a bit naive but I would like to think the latter.  Time will tell.

Welcome Mason, I hope everyone can benefit from your joining us.

Nah, suggesting his marketing was a bit misleading isn't really admitting to doing wrong...

He took a pedal, gooped and rebadged it, then charged a metricfuckton for it.  The NOS version had a changed pot, according to tagboard effects - otherwise identical.  No NOS parts at all.  The regular was completely stock, and inspection suggests the inductor is stock, too. 

The volume pedal was supposedly 'gutted' and 'rebuilt' - which it wasn't.  The extra features were removed, and the actual circuit left was gooped. Again, this came with quite a large mark up, making a £65 pedal cost £169.  Again, this is a mod and apparently does affect the sound - but he said it was gutted and rebuilt, it wasn't.  Hand crafted in California it was not. As far as mods go, it's pretty small - the mark up for it is enormous, although that's really none of my business.

Lastly, he sold directional cables.  Even ignoring the hyperbole of using directional cables for guitar, it turns out they were not directional.  Again, they were extraordinarily expensive for what are regular cables.  

It's all on TGP, with photo evidence of all of it.  Yup, I've no life

I don't think he can claw much rep back by saying his marketing might have been a bit off.  It would have done much better I reckon if he'd come clean, offering full refunds to all customers. Even then, it's probably not economically viable.

frankus

Hands up who bought or considered buying one?

Hands up pedal makers who's reputation might suffer by association?

If you're not one of those people - what reason is there to be angry about this?

digitalscream

frankus said:

If you're not one of those people - what reason is there to be angry about this?

Perhaps because this isn't an isolated incident - remember the Freekish Blues debacle? Perhaps if people see that there's going to be a significant backlash if they go down this road, they'll think twice. That reduces the chance of getting screwed for all of us.

John_P

frankus said:

Hands up who bought or considered buying one?

Hands up pedal makers who's reputation might suffer by association?

If you're not one of those people - what reason is there to be angry about this?

I know forums can tend towards a pitchforks and mob mentality at times (probably rightly in this case) but I think most of us care because we want to look out for each other as fellow guitarists and musicians - one of the great things about making music is working with others in bands and that leads towards a sense of collectiveness (if thats a word)  with other musicians.  We're all happy to give and ask for advice about gear and when someone misleads people for financial gain it makes "us" angry - whether that's a landlord not paying the band at the end of a gig or a dodgy recording contract or a guy selling pedals by claiming they are something more than they are.

John_P

On the flipside - vertex seem to have gained a reputation for their knowledge about improving gear from somewhere so I wonder if there's a culture difference in this statement that we are missing in the UK - I think we tend towards being suspious about motives when we hear things like this that perhaps USian's don't and it could be a genuine attempt to start putting things right but us cynical brits read it slightly differently.

frankus

It doesn't "make us" angry, we choose to be angry.

And whilst this stuff happens rarely, as @digitalscream said, I'm surprised by the armchair vigilante ism.

ThePrettyDamned

digitalscream;344071" said:

frankus said:If you're not one of those people - what reason is there to be angry about this?





Perhaps because this isn't an isolated incident - remember the Freekish Blues debacle? Perhaps if people see that there's going to be a significant backlash if they go down this road, they'll think twice. That reduces the chance of getting screwed for all of us.

Yarp, this. It's not about getting angry so much as showing that, as a community, we won't accept this kind of behaviour. Which we shouldn't - if I bought mim strats but rebranded them to my name, then claimed I'd made them in house, wound pickups myself and marked them up by 3 times the price, I'd be hammered when discovered. Even if I did an "nos" version with pio caps and new pickups.

Now go sit on the naughty step, vertex, and think about what you've done.

ICBM

John_P said:

On the flipside - vertex seem to have gained a reputation for their knowledge about improving gear from somewhere

It all sounds very Magic Alex.

Dave_Mc

John_P said:

On the flipside - vertex seem to have gained a reputation for their knowledge about improving gear from somewhere so I wonder if there's a culture difference in this statement that we are missing in the UK - I think we tend towards being suspious about motives when we hear things like this that perhaps USian's don't and it could be a genuine attempt to start putting things right but us cynical brits read it slightly differently.

Mason posted something similar (maybe identical, I got sick of reading all the threads) on TGP and got a similar response to here.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1476885

xSkarloey

All rather odd really. 

digitalscream

Ummm...in case anybody missed it, Michael Landau's responded personally to all this:

9-6-2014

AN OPEN LETTER FROM MICHAEL LANDAU.

This letter is in response to the recent events surrounding Mason Marangella and Vertex Effects. I first became aware of the drama concerning the Vertex Wah Wahs through Clif Jones , L.A. Vintage Gear , on August 16th. I was late hearing the news because I had been on tour and I’m not a regular on the gear forums. The news was not good, this was exactly the type of drama that has kept me far away from guitar pedal endorsements for most of my life up until recently.

Since I’ve never actually owned a production model Vertex Axis Wah, I anonymously purchased one 12 days ago so I could have it compared to the BBE Ben Wah by a reliable source whom I’ve known for many years,

I wanted to have a first hand account of the results. The results show that the Vertex Axis Wah I recently purchased was identical to the BBE Ben Wah.

Obviously I can’t be involved with a company or associated with a person who runs his company like this, 

so officially as of 9-6-2014, I no longer formally endorse any Vertex products. 

I would like to state the following facts for clarity:

- I am not an electrical engineer, the only time I open up a pedal is to change the battery.

- I have never used, nor have I ever endorsed any of the production model Vertex Wah Wahs.

- The Wah Wah that has been on my pedalboard since January 2013 is an old Dunlop Cry Baby that was modified by Mason, I don’t know the specifics of the mods, it sounds good to me, it does have a Vertex sticker on it from when Mason worked on it a couple of years ago.

- I do not use, nor have I ever endorsed the Vertex cables.

- I use the Vertex Landau Boost because I love the EXP volume control function.

- I use the Vertex Volume pedal only as an EXP pedal for the Landau Boost.

As of 9-3-2014 , I have instructed Mason to give all of the dealers and distributers a 30 day notice 

stating that the Vertex Landau Boost and the Vertex Landau Chorus will be discontinued.

Out of respect to the entire guitar community:

If anyone wants to return their Vertex Landau Boost or Vertex Landau Chorus and is having a problem doing so through Vertex or the dealer they purchased it from, please contact Clif @ L.A. Vintage Gear and I will personally provide a full refund. 

Michael Landau

(reposted from http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1477017)