The End Of Repairs
Added 2024-01-22 23:36:44 +0000 UTCIt is indeed the end of an era - and I wish it didn't have to be this way!
Comments
I thought I'd see what prices people were asking for Frantone pedals on eBay here in the UK. There are actually clones of your pedals listed for sale..
Gordo
2024-03-16 18:11:39 +0000 UTCFrom the title of your video I expected a Louis Rossman inspired rant on how manufacturers are making their stuff unrepairable. I would've thought that many of your viewers and patrons would have no problem repairing a vintage pedal made using discrete, through-hole parts, or could find someone local with the ability to do so (I'm guessing you used germanium transistors & diodes). . Modern, test equipment, even moderately priced, is so capable copared to what we used for service in the 70s & 80s. Out of interest, do you provide any service information, schematics etc.?
Gordo
2024-03-16 18:07:46 +0000 UTCGood for you. I appreciate that you recognize and don't feed the warped economics of the secondary market.
Eileen
2024-02-16 21:02:51 +0000 UTCThanks for the interestiong point of view!
Timothy P Elliott
2024-01-28 03:01:14 +0000 UTCVery high quality relatively small production run hand built devices with excellent after-sales support go up in price significantly after they stop being manufactured. The only way you're going to stop that is by starting up production again. That's just how these things go. They're quite literally a limited edition at this point. If you ask me it's unrealistic to expect a good quality device of that status (i.e. no longer being manufactured) to stay somewhere around its original purchase price. "A used frantone pedal shouldn't cost more than it costs new". Sure but that only applies if you can still get them new? Otherwise... they're only going to get rarer and rarer and if they're still in demand, prices will completely inevitably climb. Why not buy up damaged ones yourself, repair them and sell them at a price worthwhile (to you) but still hugely undercutting the scalpers/resellers? Or hell just say yes you'll repair but it'll be $500.
Shoka
2024-01-25 15:23:13 +0000 UTCYou always stay true to yourself and that is quite admirable. I fully support your decision. You should be unsurprised by the inflated prices of not only your pedals but most "boutique" audio and music devices. It is your choice whether or not to participate or profit from this market.
Bill Karkula
2024-01-24 20:21:59 +0000 UTCAwe.. Miss Blanche... I love my pedals from you. ❤️😍😍❤️
Joacim Wennerberg
2024-01-24 17:41:47 +0000 UTCBALONEY on anybody who argues that you should release your IP/trade secrets to public domain- BARF.
Mike Stubbs
2024-01-24 03:23:23 +0000 UTCCapitalism ruins everything.
Circuitmike
2024-01-23 20:14:41 +0000 UTCHousing comes to mind.
Circuitmike
2024-01-23 20:11:29 +0000 UTCHi Fran, just do it in a Rolex style... 😎 Replace the whole electronic board with a new design with modern components, so that the box "technically" works the same but the core original valued parts have been replaced. So who want just to resell it later, will have a depreciated device non containing original parts any more (e.g. just the box), and who wants to use it to play will have a working device 😁
Roberto Coli
2024-01-23 19:47:14 +0000 UTCDon't blame you Fran, why subsidise the profits of someone with no interest in music who wants a quick buck but doesn't have the talent or skill to fix it themselves.
Zygmunt Dean
2024-01-23 17:53:45 +0000 UTCFlippers. Yea. Not repairing is a moral luxury you may not be able to afford in the future. You could just keep a few fixed units and let go of them at market rates and cut the flippers out of the loop and only sell if they trade in a broken unit at a cheap price. Retirement fund. Depends on the economy and finances. A chip worth keeping in case of future hard times. Who knows what the future will hold.
Don
2024-01-23 17:01:03 +0000 UTCI guess you got what you created ;o) You created and manufactured something so well that you are now part of special historical persons with special devices. If you stop, the price will of course go higher. There has to be someone (an electronics student?) you can train and supervise and that bit of work and knowledge will help them through college and their future endeavors.
Donald J Arndt
2024-01-23 16:38:50 +0000 UTCThis is off topic, but my copy of Fretboard Journal arrived this morning after spending 10 days lost in UK customs. Which is quite an achievement considering books and magazines are duty free.
David Peaker
2024-01-23 11:06:08 +0000 UTCIs it time to make more, charge a bit more and bring the price down or say up front i have to mark this as a refurbished pedal which might bring the cost down too. Just s few thoughts, but i know you said it costs a lot more to make them now
Tazz1669
2024-01-23 06:43:15 +0000 UTCI never thought of anyone being in the position of getting an item fixed by its original builder just to turn it around to make a quick buck. What's really interesting to me is that you don't seem to have problems fixing the pedals if you wish. I thought the obsolescence of critical ICs and switches may be the reason you would issue an "end of life" notice on your Frantone website. The problem is that your equipment was not mass-produced like a Casio keyboard. But those who have grown attached to your pedals can use them for decades. You can't support them forever. Avionics has the same problem in terms of "end of life" decisions. The stuff we make literally lasts dozens of years. It's far to expensive to toss out a $75,000 radio that was hand-made, by the most part, and this type of electronics was not massed-produced like some Casio keyboard either. Worse yet is the thousands of vendors that had to supply critical custom parts in the 1970s don't exist any longer. I buy something on eBay and then pull up the maintenance manuals up at work and find the original repair manuals going back to the 60s. Along with the repair manuals and parts catalogs for the item, there are dozens of "Service Bulletins" over the past 30 years with updates and improvements. Many deal with replacement parts changes because a vendor vanishes. After decades of support, 1970s-era electromechanical instruments have an "End of life" service bulletin. There comes a time when the people who designed the equipment have long retired and clean rooms to fix mechanical stuff just keep shrinking. Even with new designs, we are faced with "last time buy" notices from vendors who are discontinuing a processor or FPGA we require for a very active product. It's tricky to guess how many chips to buy in that last time buy and if there is a way to design around it. It's a constant battle with chip manufacturers. But there are very few industries that support life-critical equipment for decades. Your pedals are not going to guide an aircraft into a mountain, but they are a very rare commodity. You should be flattered with the longevity of your products, but sooner or later, parts just dry up.
Matt Wietlispach
2024-01-23 04:00:26 +0000 UTCThe invisible hand of the market does not always work in one's favor.
Travis Hartnett
2024-01-23 03:04:30 +0000 UTCFran, I am so sorry you are suffering this! Last year I watched the value of Heathkit VTVM's skyrocket! Glad I got in when I did. We don't see much Frantone stuff here on the west coast but, thanks for the heads up! Be well lady!
Ken Smithson
2024-01-23 02:29:18 +0000 UTCBloody speculants, that's what they are.
Keri Szafir
2024-01-23 01:48:27 +0000 UTC...and vintage hi-fi gear resellers too!
Keri Szafir
2024-01-23 01:46:57 +0000 UTCI just feel for the legitimate people who just want their pedal repaired but these flipper fools ruin it for everyone else
erador
2024-01-23 01:03:58 +0000 UTCKeyboard guys...
erador
2024-01-23 01:02:59 +0000 UTCStomp boxes are cool and I've been collecting, selling, trading them since I was around 12. Now I go to music stores and have to laugh at the $200+ pedals in the glass cabinets that I paid $50 from Lightning Joes at the local swap meet in 1988. I still got a few around including Electro-Harmonix Memory Man, Digitech FX distortions, DOD Chorus, & a weird one, Korg Synthpedal, but now I collect modern modeling units like Line6 Pros, Digitech RP1000, Roland VG-8. Having 100+ effects units in one box, with the ability to wire up any dozen in any order in serial or parallel is pretty cool, full USB and MIDI control from my computer, etc -- modern tech makes things much easier. Modeling isn't perfect and my favorite ever is my rackmount Digitech GSP-2101 w/ upgraded dual PPC. It's pre-modeling and has true tube distortion and it's modular nature allows you to create completely unique and surreal sounds you can't with fixed modelling algorithms. For total guitar effects nerdery, I have a Line6 developer's pedal, basically a blank slate stomp box with knobs and an SDK to program a little snap in DSP module. I guess it never took off but it's pretty damn cool that it exists. Someone really should come out with a stomp box that you can code your own DSP effects from scratch. The developer of WinAmp created one for himself, but the nifty programming environment is built into the Reaper DAW.
BunnyBrewster
2024-01-23 00:47:42 +0000 UTCUgh. flippers always wreck markets. Same thing on the retro computer/gaming market.
Mikeybg
2024-01-23 00:29:23 +0000 UTCIt is indeed a crazy situation when the designer and manufacturer of an item can't make a profit, but the owner of an old unit can fill their boots.
David Peaker
2024-01-23 00:04:07 +0000 UTCWell, why not buy up the used pedals yourself, repair them, then sell them as "FranTone Refurbished"? The theory being that keeping as many pedals as possible working and in use will drive resale values down (somewhat), combined with putting your own name on the refurbished units will ensure you become the preferred source. Take control of the market for your pedals!
BobC
2024-01-22 23:55:15 +0000 UTC
