Build Your Own Clone
someone asking me to overnight them a pedal so they can
build it on Friday for their gig
on Saturday. And sure enough,
Friday night they’re calling me
and emailing me with all capital
letters and exclamation points,
saying, ‘It doesn’t work! You need
to fix this or tell me what I’m
doing wrong here!’” he relates,
with only the slightest hint of
exasperation in his voice, before
writing it off as simply a part of
the business.
And despite the company’s
evolution, some things remain
unchanged. Vonderhulls continues to develop his kits in the
same way, by gauging the general level of interest on his own
forum and then buying a handful
of the original pedals through
dealers or eBay—a task that can
take a considerable amount of
effort, energy and capital for the
most vintage of models. He then
tries to track down schematics
for the pedal, sometimes getting
them from the manufacturers,
and sometimes culling them from
trusted online sources—“usually
you run into a lot of contradictory schematics online, but there
are circuits that have been pretty
well explored by the DIY community,” Vonderhulls says. It’s a
process that can take months
and one that can rely heavily on
the availability of needed components—something that, much
like soldering, can require mammoth amounts of patience.
Overdrives continue to be
BYOC’s most popular products
and competition remains rather
slim; General Guitar Gadgets is
the only other online outlet that
Vonderhulls is aware of providing
ready-to-build kits to customers
(“I’m really surprised no one else
is doing this,” he admits). People
outside the guitar industry still
We kept removing things until there was only pure
guitar left. I believe great guitar design isn’t about
asking the question, “What kind of inlays can we
add?” It’s about asking, “How can we distill a guitar
to its essence?” I’m TJ Baden, and that’s why I started
this company. To make a pure guitar. With pure sound.
We set out to offer a truly handmade guitar – made
by skilled luthiers – at a price that’s reasonable. I’m
thrilled with the results. Now it’s up to you to decide.
Call us at 760-738-0370 or visit badenguitars.com and
we’ll help you find a dealer. I hope you’ll feel the same
way I do – that it’s pure joy.
