MG Pedals - The Drive

General documentation, gut shot, schematic links, ongoing circuit tracing, deep thoughts ... all about boutique stompboxes.
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snail
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Post by snail »

modman wrote: What is being said about certain online pcb layouts, that you're only allowed to use it three times, is absolute nonsense. If you buy pcbs from ggg or tonepad, you can use them in boxes to sell them. If you make your own pcbs from the layout and sell boxes from them is not legal. They could sue... but will they?
I've seen an "Alien Booster" with the ggg or tonepad (don't remember wich one) tag on the PCB. It was obviously a RM clone, trannie was NKT275 (althought the site states that they use "vintage mullard oc44"), one knob for gain.

Recent updates include a 3 position voice switch and a tone... so now he copied the Java Boost? Some people not happy only cloning old fx straight on still need to borrow someone else's tweaks??

One thing is for sure: the MG guy will not have the trouble to import the etched boards from GGG to Brazil, then assemble then, and then export back again, right??

snail

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JHS
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Post by JHS »

IMHO the MG stuff is way overpriced considering that Brasil is a BRIC-country and belongs to the 3rd world.

If you import something in Brasil you have to wait 6-8 month for the stuff, the custom works very, very slow there.

JHS

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m.alexander
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Post by m.alexander »

snail wrote:
One thing is for sure: the MG guy will not have the trouble to import the etched boards from GGG to Brazil, then assemble then, and then export back again, right??

snail
MG diy PCB in Brazil (use GGG/Tonepad/Diystompbox/ROG internet files)

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Ed G.
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Post by Ed G. »

I can only assume that MG is buying the pcbs from JD. So no harm, no foul. I would think he would delete the identifying tags from the pcb if he were etching his own from the boards.

I'm curious as to what mods he's done to the circuit. Maybe it's something new and novel.

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axiss
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Post by axiss »

Hi there! First post here, I've been in fx diy for years now, always enjoying in many ways everything the online diy community has to offer, from Tonepad/GGG/Geofex/AMZ kind of sites to the amazing forums like this one. Sadly I'm not able to add anything by now (still lots to learn here), but hope to help someway in the future.
The one thing that really pisses me off is when someone makes (BIG) profit over someone else's work, I believe this is one of those cases. Lots of guys work very hard to provide us lots of knowledge and info, so we can have a great deal of fun (and knowledge!), and those same guys get ripped off by a few jerks out there... :x Couldn't this guy just make his own pcb and avoid using someone else's copyrighted artwork? Maybe to make a better layout to suit his needs, or to add a little bit here and there... I believe anyone that has ever done a project from the web ended up changing or adding something to suit his own personal needs.
That leads me to believe this MG guy just don't know a d*mn thing about what he is doing (and selling for LOTS of money, BTW). And that's pretty disturbing for me, also a pedal buyer, that I can pay BIG money for some nice looking, full of BS promises pedal and end up with a DIY project I've already done and tweaked myself to my tastes (maybe I've even designed my own board to place some tweaks, he hasn't EVEN done that!)
Gotta carry my screwdriver with me now all the time, especially when shopping for pedals... :? :lol:
Surely wouldn't buy any that carried those oil caps inside. :shock:
Ed G. wrote:I can only assume that MG is buying the pcbs from JD. So no harm, no foul. I would think he would delete the identifying tags from the pcb if he were etching his own from the boards.
I must agree, if JD sells MG his boards and knows they go inside those pedals, we shouldn't care about that. But I'd like to ask JD on this (you guys who know and talk to him could do that for us).
Anyway, it sounds pretty odd to import finished pcbs from USA to Brazil. Ok, you could, but sounds odd. Labor costs are probably a lot lower anywhere in South America, right?

Even so, should a guy who can't design his own pcbs sell pedals from $229 to "$379 and up"? :roll:

Anyway, before this thread I didn't even know MG Pedals existed. Now I've done some research and found a clip on YouTube, it's from his Denmark dealer, so I assume it's "MG-approved". I think his Fuzzyland sounds pretty lame, which makes me even more concerned that this guy may be just "surfing the hype wave", if you know what I mean...
[Look for MG Fuzzyland on YouTube, I can't post any links yet]

According to the site, he even makes guitar amps... Strange... At least he can wire them PTP, so he doesn't need a board there... :lol:

I'll wait for the gutshots, still can't believe the guys uses GGG/Tonepad pcbs and even leave the names in there! Sounds too stupid to be true... Snail, have you got any gutshots of that booster?

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Guilherme
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Post by Guilherme »

Here in Brazil we don't have heavy duty DPDT switches or any reasonable metal boxes Hammond-like (unless you have them custom made, expensive except in large quantities). Also no BBD chips, high quality jacks, etc. He problably imports these parts, and besides the large shipping costs we have HUGE taxes. The PCBs are problably made in Brazil, no need to import them.

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axiss
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Post by axiss »

Guilherme wrote:The PCBs are problably made in Brazil, no need to import them.
That's the problem, you see? How can you say 'no need to import them'? If he had his own pcb design, he could do whatever he wished with it, do them at home, hire someone to do them or even pay a large company to make them in a fancy way, fiber glass, whatever.
But, considering he uses someone else's copyrighted artwork as his pcbs, he MUST import them directly from the designer (JD in that case), otherwise it's just plain illegal, according to GGG's policy. :?
Considering he is seeling these things in USA and Europe (the site also lists dealers in France, Denmark and UK), I believe he must follow other countries' laws. I don't believe brazzilian laws ignore copyright or something like that, but even if they do, that doesn't change a thing.

I think it's just very, very sad... :? :?

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modman
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Post by modman »



Look at the meticulous packing and all that artwork they went through. But no pcb artwork skills. I had a Brazilian friend from Sao Paolo whom I met working in a small restaurant. He was also a graphic designer and had done some work for prominent Belgian magazines and his style also displayed this sampling technique, using cut up very cheap comic magazines.

Police in Sao Paolo have other thing to do than bust IP intruders, I figure.
If the inside of the box are as clean as this, and its a wel wired BSIAB, WHICH IS NOT PROVEN YET, it's a very decent box to use, if you forget all the rest.

Should say that what's very likely is a licensing deal which in fact is a very loose gesture - I'll be making 100 pcbs with your layout for commercial purposes, I'll give you x cents per pcb. This is very cool thing to do, because GGG or Tonepad is not going to sue all the way to Brazil over $10-25 max! Making your own pcbs is easy - making your own jacks or switches is something else.

You have to win at least a few thousand bucks in a court case to break even.

He would probably sell double if he labeled it 'BSIAB' or the like and nobody could do anything about it, if I'm not mistaken. I mean I you label your diy box 'Ed G's BSIAB' you could tell a nice story to your fellow axemen about diy on the web...


What I'm hoping is somebody to step up and say they AB-ed it with their BSIAB and it kicked ass, ...what about those gut shots btw
Please, support freestompboxes.org on Patreon for just 1 pcb per year! Or donate directly through PayPal

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soulsonic
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Post by soulsonic »

Police in Sao Paolo have other thing to do than bust IP intruders, I figure.
Yeah, like kill innocent people in the streets.

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