StinkFoot FAQ

Here you will find answers to some questions about the products and services of StinkFoot Electronics. Or, to be more precise, here are some things I wanted to tell - regardless if anyone asks or not...

For contact information - if you want to ask me something - go here.

Can you buy and mod a brand new pedal for me, so I can save the shipping one way?

Sure I can - that's no problem at all. The pedal + mod + return shipping will have to be paid before I buy it, though - I'm not financially equipped to keep new pedals in stock. I buy all pedals (stock Boss/Ibanez etc) at Estrad Musik in Karlstad - partly because I believe in supporting your local dealer, and partly because I've found that once the shipping is factored in, buying a single pedal from Musik-Produktiv, Thomann or Musicstore Koeln isn't that much cheaper anyway.

At times I also buy used pedals and mod them for direct sale. When there are such pedals available, it will be posted on the front page. I can't take requests or monitor the used market, though - that would take way too much time. If you want to buy a used pedal and have it shipped directly to me for modding, to save one leg of the shipping, we can of course arrange that.

Can we meet up, so I can save on the shipping?

Generally, no. It's not that I'm a hermit or anything, but if I were to drive round town picking up and/or delivering pedals, I'd never have time to actually mod any pedals (much less visit my real job, which pays my rent and my toys). The same goes for me having to stay at home at specific hours, to allow for visits. I prefer to work through the post office, simply because it lets me plan my time much better.

The bright LED's you use - they must draw more power, making the battery life shorter, right?

Actually, they don't... I use ultra-high brightness LED's, which produce several hundred times more light from the same amount of current. Since I don't change anything else besides the LED (leaving the current limiting resistor intact), the current draw/battery life stays the same as before. It can vary somewhat, due to differing forward voltages, but for the average Ibanez/Boss pedal everything stays just about the same.

Why have you stopped building loopboxes, A/B boxes and effects pedals?

The grim reality hit me... I founded StinkFoot Electronics with a vision to provide high quality handmade effects to starving guitarists. I've known all along that it was important that the business didn't grow too big - as soon as I would need to employ someone (myself, probably) or find outside contractors to do much of the work, the vision would be dead. By then, it simply wouldn't be possible to keep the prices down. The only alternative would be to do it all on my own, working nights and weekends to deliver the pedals. Sadly, that doesn't work in the long run either, and I've already noticed that I'm starting to have a hard time keeping up with the demand. This is why I've decided that effective immediately (december 2003), I will be focusing entirely on doing modifications. In the future, I might produce small runs of loop boxes or effects pedals, but that remains to be seen. Of course, if I can find someone who is willing to drill and paint the boxes for me - at a reasonable cost - things may take a different turn. But for now, I'm focusing on modifications.

Who is StinkFoot, by the way?

Well, isn't that all of us... after a long day at work? My name is Andreas Möller, I live in Karlstad in the west of Sweden and I play music whenever I can get away from my day job. StinkFoot is therefore a "side thing" for me - it doesn't affect the quality, but limits my production volume. If you want to see what I look like, you only need to glance to the right... Not a pretty sight, but at least my mom likes me.

How does PayPal work, and are what are my payment options?

PayPal can best be described as a regular bank, only located on the Internet, and has been designed for easy shopping over the net. PayPal excels at international transactions, as there are no large fees and long waiting periods involved. The same instant that a payment has been registered it is available in the receiver's account, and can be spent on purchases via PayPal, or withdrawn into a regular bank account. For you - as the customer - this means that you don't have to pay any fees at all, even for an international transaction, since all costs are at my end. It also means that you can safely use your credit/debit card - PayPal handles all card info (via 128-bit SSL encryption), and I never see your card or bank account number.

To use PayPal you need to register for a free "Personal Account", and link a debit/credit card to that account. After that, you can shop all you like! You can find additional information at www.paypal.com.

But there are other options as well, and here are a few:

Country of origin	Bank transfer	PayPal	Cash with the pedal
Sweden	Preferred - no fees, and most times it can be administered from home (internet banking).	Great, but it can feel a little	No problem.
Nordic countries/EU	Good - the IBAN-system keeps the costs low. Can be administered with internet banking, and takes 2-3 days.	Works great.	Works, but only swedish currency or euro, please.
The rest of Europe	More expensive and time-consuming, but it works. Make sure all fees are paid for.	Great, if PayPal can be had in your country.	Works, but use registered/insured mail. Swedish currency or euro, please.

Please be advised that PayPal is the only money transfer method where I pay all the fees for you. With EU bank transfers, the sender and receiver share the costs (you pay the cost in your bank, and I pay mine). If you use international bank transfer or other means of payment, you need to make sure all fees are paid at your end. I cannot accept international or postal money orders, simply because my bank won't cash them.

Can I send you a schematic, and have you build the pedal for me?

Not always - sadly, as the business side of StinkFoot Electronics grows, the time available to do custom one-off projects tends to shrink rapidly... I do take on some jobs like that, though, as you can see in the gallery, but it is getting less and less frequent. The pedals and mods I do offer have had quite a bit of R&D time put into them, and by selling more units I can keep the overall cost down for the customer. One-off jobs tend to use as much research time, but usually only render the one sale.

Do you do trades?

I get this a lot, and the general answer is "no". I sell pedals at reasonable prices to starving musicians, and need to keep the money coming in to be able to continue with that. Not to mention that I'm a starving musician myself... Of course, if you happen to have *that* special pedal I've been looking for (tip: you can check my personal pages for that - there's a wish list in the effects section), I might be tempted. But normally - no, I don't do trades. Sorry.

Why don't you have soundclips of all the pedals and mods?

Well, I do try to record all my work - the effects pedals as well as the mods - but it's not always feasible. I don't feel it is prudent for me to sit on a finished pedal that someone is waiting for, just so I can get the recording arrangements done... But the soundclips I do have - and feel comfortable enough sharing - turn up on that pedals' page. My goal is of course to be able to present the customer with both decent images and sound clips for all products - at least the noise-makers. I suppose I'll get there sooner or later...

But really, what are the costs?

Passive units like loop boxes are relatively expensive to manufacture - the labour is cheap (solder a few switches and jacks and you're done) but the parts are expensive, which jacks up the total cost. Drilling and painting the actual box is the most labour-intensive part, and the truth is that before I've even started that job - while the components are still in a pile on the workbench - I've already spent about half the money you're paying me... That's how tight this business is.

Mods are another thing altogether. Pure component jobs are often cheap in parts (modifying a ts-9 to ts-808 specs only entails replacing a few resistors and an IC, for instance) but the tight spaces means more expensive abour. It's not easy to simultaneously de-solder all 8 legs on an IC chip - preferably without damaging it. A true bypass mod are generally expensive in parts (mostly the switch) but require less dexterity. In the end it'll cost nearly as much to mod a ts-9 to 808 specs, as to perform a true bypass operation on a CryBaby - but in the first case it's the labour that costs, in the second it's parts.

For a tube screamer to sound right, do you have to use a NOS or "vintage" op-amp?

Yes and no. First off, we need to clear up the issue of the JRC4558D being the "TS-808 chip". It isn't true. Period. The 4558 is a standard dual operational amplifier, that was (and is) manufactured by a whole plethora of factories. Now, about half the 808s used the version from Japan Radio Co (JRC4558D) while the other half used a version from Texas Instruments (RC4558P), made in Malaysia. Both op-amps sound equally good - the differences between them are mostly down to noise levels and such - but still the JRC chip is the one people talk about...

If you want to read up on the different IC chips used in original tubescreamers, as well as what the term NOS (New Old Stock) means, I can recommend an article from my other site. Click here to read (opens in own window).

To make a long story short, the RC4558P is still in production in the same factory, and with the same equipment, as back in the '80s. Also, they sound exactly like the "originals". The JRC4558D's history is a little more complex - during the second half of the '80s, the company (Japan Radio Co) changed its name to New Japan Radio, and at the same time they moved their production to a cheaper part of Asia. The JRC4558D was dropped at the time, and the new and improved version was called NJM4558 (today, that chip is called NJM14558). Eventually they noticed the JRC4558D hype, and started re-issuing it. That chip has the original specs, but naturally isn't produced in the same factory as in the '80s. If the change of venue and machinery means anything, sound-wise, is still up for discussion. For instance, Analog Man recommends the "new" JRC4558D, and it is also used in the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (which is a faithful TS-808 clone with an added gain boost mode). On the other hand, Robert Keeley sees/hears it differently, and uses the RC4558P instead. Therefore, there seems to be a case for dealing with NOS JRC4558D, at the same time as current production units are readily available.

For my modifications, I usually use current production chips - either the RC4558P or the "new" JRC4558D, and my own personal preference varies. At the moment I like the RC4558P best, but if that is because it sounds better, or because using it gets me off the whole NOS discussion, I don't know... And remember that there is plenty of scope for experimenting with other chips - one I'm particularly interested in right now is the LM833, which is said to sound softer. I'll probably plop it into my own TS-9, next time I overhaul it. I do not keep stock of NOS JRC4558D chips, and do not actively search for them either. So unless a few fell in my lap while I was out looking for other things (not very likely, I admit) I won't have any for sale.

The Toshiba 7XXX circuits is best avoided altogether, as they make the sound far too harsh and shrill. You'll find a TA75558 in all the reissue TS-9s, as well as in a good portion of the originals, and replacing it for any of the others mentioned will make a big difference.

I always use IC sockets when replacing chips, instead of soldering them straight to the pcb. This is partly to make replacing and experimenting easier, but also to avoid frying the chip while soldering it in.