M.I.L.F. “Math Is Lotsa Fun”
Like most of us, I’ve encountered my share of Ripoffs and Shills in the music business. Most were over the top and highly “secretive” about their mass-formation “ingenuity” and went out of their way to conceal circuitry and work. More often than not, they lifted somebody else’s IP and the work wasn’t really well-executed. Further, it tended towards being a poor copy of a copy of an original design. The signal gets degraded and the Joke’s on them.
If you come original, there’s no need to drown your “Secret Squirrel Shit” in RTV electronic silicone “goop”. No matter how excellent the MTBF is on a part, something will eventually fail (Thermodynamics 2nd Law creeps in) and you’re only making it very difficult or nearly impossible to service later on. I’ve considered the more benign IP and “protection” arguments w/ respect to the “gooping” of circuits. I can sympathize and understand the logic but still feel its superfluous. I’ve even read & heard that “goop” can somehow be sonically beneficial. This is total BS.
Special note: Cornish and other ORIGINAL designers who goop their work are not exactly who I am referring to above. I have a different and far less harsh critique for them. Cornish’s PCB work is covered in epoxy along with providing tamper-evident “seals” on the enclosure as an attempt to protect it. If somebody breaches the seals, then it voids the warranty. But the way I see it, anybody who really wants to will still get in, remove the goop, Xray/Trace and reverse-engineer the circuit regardless of any physical barriers present. Googling will reveal that a bunch of his circuits have been ripped off and marketed by unscrupulous vendors and cloners and his protective measures have not prevented that. I respect Original work and have been fortunate to own several of his pieces. But, as a former service/warranty station for most of the major brands, I prefer “doing no harm” and “gooped” circuitry makes that extremely difficult. Standard service & troubleshooting can be a challenge-why complicate that?
Now, if I am being totally honest, this rest of this diatribe is really inspired by and about several ripoffs & shills I have encountered in recent years. I feel like going into it a bit. Their behavior can be likened to a pack of un-neutered, poorly-behaved dogs proverbially “dry humping” everybody & everything in sight. That’s a fully justified statement. Their reality is actually much worse…hahaha.
There is one in particular who I am hoping will read this along with a few others I’ve had the recent misfortune to encounter. Yes, this is a flex on my part. I’ve earned it. These annoyances have been present since literally Day One but appear to be most prominent since the 2020’s.
There’s a midwest music store owner/entrepreneur who handed me over $12,500 for a GR 1.6 a while back. A Google search of their website revealed that it appears they attempted to:
#1. Reverse engineer the GR1.6
and
#2. Marketed and actually sold at least one sub-par, derivative product based on the GR1.6 according to their website
It seems they learned the cheap n’ easy way that my work is difficult to replicate for obvious reasons and is extremely cost prohibitive to manufacture. Yes, I know this is ridiculous money for us to fathom for any guitar amplifier, but it’s a literal splash in the bucket compared to what I’ve personally invested into JCA Circuits over the years. A fraction of an order of magnitude less in fact. There’s that M.I.L.F. again…
I did find their offer acceptable at the time albeit slightly suspicious being the second, largest sum I’ve ever received for a build. I usually do my best to screen potential clients before I engage in any business. Especially since I work out of my home. But that’s a whole other topic for another day. I misjudged them.
It seems there was a plan all along which I was not included in, and looking back, I definitely wouldn’t have relinquished the amp. I didn’t need the money, per se. My ego simply got the better of me at the time.
It would have been much better if they had instead talked to me about designing a product line for them-I am sure we could have worked something out. That would have netted everybody far more than the “price” of a single guitar amp over time. Tsk, tsk.
So, fallacious Ripoffs and Shills who believe they have the technical chops, skills, and ears to do better than I will be certain to try. Is it possible to get close enough for Government work? Maybe. But no matter what, it will never be an Original.
JCA
