Hello everyone!
I hope yous are all doing well!
As just about everyone knows at this point, mainly cos I’ve told them or complained about it, I have a bad back. It’s been a pain in the bum (actually just above the bum) for years now and it’s had a significant impact on the business. Around the time of the Skitzy launch it got really bad and since then, I’ve had to spend a bunch of time in bed alone with a heat pack and my own horrifying brain. As a result, much of that time has been spent on needless thoughts, so now you have to pay the price by reading this overly long and boring article I wrote. No skimming please.
Before I go on, I just want to thank everyone who has reached out to help, offer advice or support. It means a lot. Also Mike from Sonic Pickups deserves a super duper thank you for pointing me towards some stuff that really helped me get on the right path with all that. Just so you know Mike doesn’t just give great helpful advise, he makes great pickups too, that you should absolutely check out. The Champion Leccy guitar that I use to test and design every single pedal has a pair of his Crystal Palace Humbuckers and they are absolutely top notch. Anyway…
I finally managed to see a doctor recently, and am currently making good progress with some meds and PT. I am also working very bloody hard to lose weight to both help with the back pain and to help steer me away from some of those risky areas that come with obesity. I’m down 15lbs, so that’s something.
I spent a couple of years repeating the cycle of overwork -> debilitating back pain -> delays -> scrambling -> overwork, etc. and as you can imagine it hasn’t been working as a cunning business tactic for getting ahead in the post-pandemic world.
Last August was about the worst of it, I was in agony just before the Chicago show and just barely made it through the whole thing. Things did not improve as much as I wanted to believe they would from there and by the time I was coming up to the Skitzy release it was obvious that I was just managing to hold on by the tips of the fine hairs that we humans all definitely have on our fingernails. By launch day I was already so far behind on builds that I didn’t have anything built and I was behind on retailer orders. I ended up dropping the launch part way through because everything was so far off track.
Anyway, the new approach of seeking professional help and maintaining a healthy lifestyle remarkably seem to be working somehow. For a couple of weeks I’ve slowly and steadily been chipping away at a new plan, and it’s feeling nicely sustainable and sensible even. I am not a “common sense” kind of guy and I’m not a “business pro”, but gosh darn, I am capable of learning obvious life lessons after years of doing the absolute wrong thing until I’m miserable enough to change. It’s like a super power. So here we are!
I know I’ve said many times to many people over the years that I think I’m finally getting thing back on track, but this might be the first time that you should believe me. I’ve actually been hitting (some) deadlines I’ve set for myself and I’m quite excited for what that might mean this year for Champion Leccy.
So, here’s the great plan I’ve been working on with all that empty head time.
The Great Restock
The first step is getting everything back in stock (see below for batch dates).
The Great Enlightenment
Once everything is finally in stock, I plan on slowly working on getting video and downloadable manuals finished as well as a couple of informative articles and a general website tidy. I am woefully behind on information and user guides for all Champion Leccy devices and that’s something I intend to keep chipping away at over the next few months.
The Great Eradication of the Great Backlog
I want to get through some of the designs I’ve put on hold for years. Some of these will be part of the regular line up, some will be limited runs. I’ve already started on this (see below)
The Great Expansion
I am hoping to be able to expand my retailer network again. I managed to finally add a couple of choice stores to the roster towards the end of last year, and there are a couple more good uns on the horizon that I’m very excited about for this year.
So, that’s the plan. Now I type it out I’m suddenly filled with deja vu and dread. I also feel like it sounds a little communist.
Anyway, now I’m no longer slowly slipping into the background and have the energy and momentum to be more active, here’s a bunch of stuff (three things) to catch yous up on.
The now and soon stuff
The Guitar Knobs Podcast!
Back in March I chatted with the lads again, here it is if you fancy a listen.
The Champion Leccy Discord Music Project
We just did another one! It was great! Check it out!
We’ll be opening the sign up sheet for a couple of weeks and organising the next one for a July 1st start. If you want to be a part of it, join our Discord!
The Baltimore Pedal Show
We will be at the Baltimore Pedal Show on Saturday June 29th with a Champion Leccy pedalboard and some stock available for purchase perhaps even, so if you want to come try anything or just come hang out, that’s where you can do that. We hope to see you there!
The Great restock!
As I mentioned, and am now doubling down on, the first stage of the monumental Champion Leccy comeback is getting those shelves chocka with stock. I’ve been out of pretty much everything for months now and as a result am very poor, so here’s the dates…
Dunshes – in stock now!
Swan Hunters – today!
(Or if you’re reading this at a later date – in stock now!)
Woozies – June 7th
Fettle Boosts and Divvies – June 21st
Skitzies – June 28th*
* This Skitzy restock isn’t just a restock, it’s a continuation of the launch I had to drop in February. You can read about it below.
Before getting on to what IS coming, I think it’s important to mention…
What ISN’T on the cards (quite yet, but definitely later)
Well, a few things I was all excited for are just going to have to wait for a bit.
The first is the handpainted modified Big Muff and Fuzz Factory clones I mentioned in the last updates article. I will get round to this, and a chunk of the money will still go to charity, but charity starts at home, and cos I’ve been out of stock for such a long time, as I’ll keep mentioning I am very poor now, so I need to address that so I can pay bills and buy more speakers to try out in my 1 x 12 cab until I definitely have the right one. Once I have all the regular pedals back in stock, I’ll start to get back to some of the more fun things like finishing up these chaps.
I also mentioned putting up some paintings for sale. This will definitely be happening at some point sooner rather than later, but again, I need to get the Champion Leccy train fully on the aforementioned tracks first, so that’s taking up all of my time and attention for the next however many weeks. But I am very much looking forward to getting back to arting regularly.
What IS on the cards (some time soon)
Skitzy launch 2.0 or part 2 of 2, or whatever you want to call it.
I still have a few nice demos lined up, and I’m still planning to do some video manuals as well as another article and hopefully a fancy downloadable manual.
All of that stuff will start to trickle out from the end of June until it’s all done at which point it will stop.
The Dunsh launch 2.0 or part 2 of 2, or whatever you want to call it.
During painful resty back time I got to thinking about how the Dunsh launch suffered a similar fate to the Skitzy launch cos I managed to catch the two big post covid bugs that were the rage sweeping Philly in early 2023. I always told myself that I’d go back and actually finish what I’d started, but never did, so I’m going to do that soon.
Expect to see stuff (demos, an article or two and manuals) popping up over the coming weeks and months until it doesn’t any more. That’s when you’ll know it is over.
The Great Eradication of the Great Backlog
Over the last few years, I’ve fallen so far behind the plan with releases that I feel great shame and just want to die. But instead of dying I’m just going to spend more time hammering through a bunch of designs I would like to see out in the world and filling out the Champion Leccy lines because that sounds more fun than death.
The Kilter V2
I have the latest prototype built! It’s not where I want it exactly, and it’s making sounds that it shouldn’t, but it’s better than the last prototype which didn’t work at all. So yeah, there’s still a couple of issues to iron out, but I’m hopeful that it’ll see release this year.
Which in turn brings us to…
The Skitter V3 (bad news)
The future for the Skitter V3 is less bright. I had some ideas, then I released the Skitzy and I suddenly felt like I should do a lot more with the new Skitter design, but so far nothing has really grabbed me, so I’ve decided to just shelve it until I’m feeling more inspired.
Also, I do wonder whether I’m overthinking it and maybe it doesn’t need to be crammed full of improvements and new features like I did with the Skitzy. Maybe it’s fine to just apply all the nice new things I’ve learned in the interim, but part of my brain wants to push it as far as I can and I just don’t have the breadth of ideas that I had with the Skitzy without just making it into a slightly different version of the Skitzy. Death by overlap if you will.
Honestly I’d love to hear what people think about this, cos I have tied myself into some kind of pretzel and that’s not a good way to solve any of life’s problems, especially design ones.
Other designs
Beyond the two big redesigns above, there are a bunch of odds and ends that I want to forge on with. Some will be limited runs, so are well overdue redesigns, others will finally be joining the permanent line up.
As always, the release dates really depend on how the individual designs come together, but I am hoping to bash out a couple before the end of the year and get myself back on track so I can start looking forward to some other more interesting things.
Here’s a nice shortlist for you…
The Hand Samwitch – I finally intend to bring this into proper rotation, it’s long overdue.
The Evil twin – I’ve been talking about doing a limited run of these for years.
The Canny Fettle Boost V2 – This one is going to be a good improvement on the V1.
The Kosh – A wee Dunsh-based fuzz in a Fettle Boost-sized enclosure.
I should add that all four of these are well underway, most of the PCBs are finished, I just need to get the production files together for the fab house.
There are a few more, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. That’s plenty to be getting on with for the time being. Also, I am trying to push myself to design or simplify some existing designs to get them into smaller enclosures and lower price brackets. My brain always wants to do the opposite, so that’ll be a fun challenge to help make life more interesting.
I should also add that there’s every possibility that a design will come back and be underwhelming and it’ll have to go to the back of the line again, that just happens sometimes, but I would really like to get all of these over the line within the next year or so.
Odds and ends
For anyone following along, my band (Party Nerves) are going in to record our second EP at the start of June, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Another couple of non-Champion Leccy projects I’ve had to put on temporary hold are rewiring my Fender Player Jaguar and building an amp. I’m hoping to be able to make some time to document a at least some of this and add a few DIY articles back onto the website section.
The Jaguar wiring logistics were a lot of fun to work out, I haven’t actually started on the rewiring job itself yet, but it will allow for a bunch of wiring combinations that I’ll be interested to hear, who knows they may all be useless, but that’s not the point.
For the amp, I have a Ted Weber kit that I’m bastardising into a fun wee Fendery head that I’m also very excited about. I think realistically there’s pretty much zero chance of it ever becoming a proper product, cos it’s just going to be too much to handle on top of all the pedal stuff, so I’ll likely just post progress reports and the schematic for anyone who wants to try any of it for themselves.
As always, thank you very much and many apologies for anyone who actually read all this nonsense, and if you have any ideas or opinions you’d like to share, please do!
You can always email me here!
Or join the discord here!