Puzzle Pedals

[EdwardMarlowe]

Anyone seen these? Stumbled across these the other day. Been a long time since I've seen as interesting a new concept in pedals. If they could do these at reasonable prices and expand a range, this could be a great way of having many of the advantages of a pedalboard without having to have the board.... Clever idea. Also clever is the fact that to have the big advantage of the sign, you need to buy more than one! 

https://www.gearnews.com/puzzle-effects-a-quirky-new-concept-for-boutique-effects/

[Skinnyman]

That would be even better if they plugged together and did away with the need for patch cables....

Ah. I just spotted the connector on the side.

Genius

Edited January 22, 2021 by Skinnyman

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 22/01/2021 at 14:12, Skinnyman said:

That would be even better if they plugged together and did away with the need for patch cables....

Ah. I just spotted the connector on the side.

Genius

Yeah, that's the absolute best bit imo. If they did the right combination of effects for me and I were to get involved in a gigging project again I'd be well up for a few of these. 

[Matt P]

this look like an ingenious idea but i can see a couple of potential issues, the cases seem to be 3d printed for this prototype stage (a perfectly valid choice for production or very low volume manufacture), for production they mention aluminium cases, these will need a taper to allow for easy manufacture (as seen on all pedals made in die-cast boxes) this will make the shape tapered from top to bottom so they will not fit together quite as neatly as the prototypes do, this would also make the connection between the pedals less effective/reliable. The other issue is that the design compromises the internal space quite a bit (shown by the unusual circuit board shape) this will make the circuits slightly more difficult to design and produce.

the enclosures are likely to be quite expensive to produce as well, the industry standard Hammond enclosures are around 8 to 12 quid each, as these would need custom tooling i'd expect the price per enclosure to be possibly 3 or 4 times that for the small runs required.

Unless they can offer a sound that isn't available anywhere else I don't see these going very far. the competition at €120 is fairly fierce.

Sorry to be so negative but years in the production engineering industry just seems to make me look for faults in everything.

 

Matt

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 22/03/2021 at 12:52, Matt P said:

this look like an ingenious idea but i can see a couple of potential issues, the cases seem to be 3d printed for this prototype stage (a perfectly valid choice for production or very low volume manufacture), for production they mention aluminium cases, these will need a taper to allow for easy manufacture (as seen on all pedals made in die-cast boxes) this will make the shape tapered from top to bottom so they will not fit together quite as neatly as the prototypes do, this would also make the connection between the pedals less effective/reliable. The other issue is that the design compromises the internal space quite a bit (shown by the unusual circuit board shape) this will make the circuits slightly more difficult to design and produce.

the enclosures are likely to be quite expensive to produce as well, the industry standard Hammond enclosures are around 8 to 12 quid each, as these would need custom tooling i'd expect the price per enclosure to be possibly 3 or 4 times that for the small runs required.

Unless they can offer a sound that isn't available anywhere else I don't see these going very far. the competition at €120 is fairly fierce.

Sorry to be so negative but years in the production engineering industry just seems to make me look for faults in everything.

 

Matt

Fair points made, though. I've seen other ingenious ideas in the past fall by the wayside for much the same reasons. Most of my pedals I've bought in the last few years have been £20 Chinese cheapies, and they're often equally as good sound-wise as those on which I spent far more. (We'll see how they last, but as I'm not heavy on them and don't play out these days....). I could see spending more this sort of money if I were regularly gigging, though they'd have to have the right mix of effects, and they'd really need to offer *all* the f/x I'd want (OD, clean boost, verb, slapback echo, and trem) in order to take advantage of the design - little point if there isn't more than one or two that appeal. 

It's interesting looking at it from the business point of view as you have, because it really does explain how so many great ideas just don't take off for reasons other than design.