Skin Pimp. what happened?

[molokaio]

indeed... he was very friendly, always! Great pedals!

[johnson]

I always loved the wooden circuit boards inside

[pothole]

I went through almost every one of Ryans designs and settled on the MKI. He's currently modding it out for me...I'm not exactly sure what he's going to do but, and to use his words, it is going to "blow my skirt up". He did mention something about oc81d's, bias/tone controls, and the word crazy a couple times however. I think it's a good time to pickup an early custom painted box of his as well.

[stella_blues]

Oh god adrian.. that mkII with oc81d's was the shit! Killer pedal!
I miss the mkII and even more the mkIII he made for me. Unfortunately had to sell.

Yes Rob, the MKII is a great sounding pedal. I'm glad I picked it up from you
It's a lot higher gain than the Captains own Sola build, although I prefer the Sola at the moment. The FF side is an extremely usable bonus as well.

In fact Xan's clips of it are still available

http://stompboxes.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=3240

My favourite of my trio is the MKI, Ryan has tuned the circuit extremely well, not an accurate replica like the jerms MKI, but sonically it's right up there biting at it's heels.

[itkindaworks]

He's got a new muff coming out, it'll be pretty cool I'm sure.

[tigerdriver]

Is the FF part of the Skinbender technically a 1.5?

[I am Incinerator]

I have an old school style (no led, battery only, no bias control, OC84 loaded) MKII and a "stained glass" version of the MKIII and both are great pedals. I find myself loving the MKII, it was my first real fuzz experience and that thing is great. I haven't really bonded with the MKIII very much and have been thinking about parting ways, either trade or selling outright. Ryan is super cool and steered me in the right direction with his fuzzes when it was still pretty easy to e-mail him. I'd love to try the "Not of this world" MKI someday.

[Fighter Pilot]

WOW what a kick ass thread, It started out slow but really picked up on the praise for Ryan.
Ryan and I talk a lot about the business and he is still going thought a lot of changes. Anyway he just moved in to a new home and spent the weekend moving 3 of the BIG U-Haul trucks full of stuff into it. He has a new shop now in his garage and his workshop set up has much improved.

I know I'm one of those dealers that can not keep his pedals in stock so he is building as fast as he can. He just finished up some Custom MKIs with OC81D for the store and they sound unreal, have more gain are super quit, have that nice blooming effect to them and they have the "Not of This Earth" graphic on them.

A run of 20 Halloween effects were just completed by him for the store. The enclosures are painted by Laura Bennett (Used to paint for ZVEX) and he created a very special circuit for this run. It uses silicon transistors and a set of diodes for clipping, the tone is just mind blowing. OK, so what is mind blowing well this is not a Muff or Fuzz Face but to me it sounds like my old 70' ProCo Rat but the Rat (one of my favorite pedals) now sounds like it has a blanket over it compared to how open the sound of his circuit is and how the notes are fat and fuzzy but still sustain their tone. The only other pedal I can compare it to is my original big box Mayonnaise by Skreddy. I know the Rat (IC circuit) and the Mayonnaise are totally different circuits from each other and different from Ryan's circuit so I am just saying that the tones I can get from the Halloween effects are kind of like that. Lots of clear sustain and a real nice smooth fuzz with no buzz saw tonality. I compare a buzz tone to the new Black Cat Bee Buzz I just picked up.

Leave it to Ryan to create a fuzz that sounds so good and like no other, out of my 40+ fuzz pedals I can compare it to I can't find one that it sounds like.

What else is new? Ryan is now using Silver chrome & Gold chrome coating on three runs of the pedals he is building for the store and there will be Muffs, Fuzz Face (Face Plants) and a new Octavia pedal coming. The chrome coating is solid and just shines like a new fender on a Hog. There are also 12 Luci swirl painted enclosures (God she does great work) being build with the 3OD, Muff and the Halloween circuit being built in them for the people that do not care for the Laura Bennett Halloween styled boxes.

He has 60 pedals to build for Analoguehaven and a bunch for Step-Up Guitars and my orders keep him busy. I really never go on TGP so I don't know the trend of what people say about his pedals or why they are selling for less. I sell his pedals to people in Thailand, Italy and Canada is my biggest buyer and I am always running out of stock and the testimonials I receive are of the highest accord.

Hold on to your Skinpimp pedals they will go up in value I'm sure. Ryan is looking at ways to speed up production so building on perf boards are a reality and not on the turret boards that take time to stain. There is also a plan for making pedals that will sell for less using powder coating and silkscreen graphics. Water slide decals and clear coating also takes a lot of time. So the older original pedals will be worth more as they are hand crafted works of art.

This year has been a roller coaster ride for Ryan and come next year a much stronger business plan will be in place and never fear he will bounce back to stardom. Next month there is also an article in PremierGuitar about him. The wheels keep turning and he is always thinking of new ideas to bring his new line of effects to reality and step away from the standard Skinbenders. Lots of new pedals and some crazy stuff coming down the road.

On to some photos - I have about 20 more custom images in my folder too but I do not want to take up the next 3 pages so here are some old and new standard production pedal photos & a sneak of my devil women.


Custom MKIs w/OC81D in red, yellow, green and gold new w/no top switch


MKI old w/top switch and new punk design - MKIIs white & silver


MKIIIs old 3 controls and new 4 controls & a 3OD


Buzzarounds old to new to new/old design w/black knobs


MKII, MKIII & Buzzaround all old customs on see through blue enclosures


Close up of the fine tattoos - can you see the fish?

[tigerdriver]

So to bring this issue full circle, the OC81D Skinbender that nobody snagged on here just went for $18 above the $300 BIN on ebay.

[edkoppel]

I need to post my Fuzz Face.
It just rips; it's a totally uncontrollable beast and hates having buffers in its way.
When I run it through the Valve Klipper it can get really nice and saturated.
Pics on the way later...

I would love to try one of his Big Muffs for sure.