DIY Mic Pre Kits, Lunchbox Mic Preamp Kits, Power Supply Kits

pics of the front panel

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<bump> Engineering plans for the cases are finished.... see photos above.

I'm in a weird position right now.

Sales this month are down, way down. But I'm getting lots of emails and inquiries from people interested in buying the kits... but everyone seems to be waiting for the cases.... you all say you'll buy the kits when the cases are ready.

I understand.

My problem is I can't fund manufacturing of the cases if there are no sales. And there are no sales because everyone seems to be waiting for the cases.... kinda like Catch-22.

I may have to come up with some incentives for buyers... maybe everyone who ordered kits (past, present and future) before cases are available will get discounts when they buy the case in the future.

I don't even know yet how much these cases will cost to manufacture so I can't even tell you how much discount I can give... One shop estimated cost to manufacture at $90 for a 100-run. Yikes! I don't have that kind of money.

And I'm not sure of pre-orders because Paypal doesn't even allow that... and I don't know yet how much to sell the case.

I'm open to ideas....

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My humble opinion is, just manufacturer the panels and make people buy the case from a vendor. If you can find a stock case thats available with removable panels you can just do the panels in a few configurations, say 2 channel and 4 channel if thats what most people are buying. Then you can either include the panels with the kit orders, or just sell them separately.

I think thats a good compromise and it has to be a LOT cheaper to just have a bunch of flat 0.32" aluminum drilled rather than have the whole case manufactured. Of course I don't know how much that costs. There is no bending, shaping and welding involved for panels. Just cuts and drills.

For example, I used the same Hammond case you used for that prototype 4 channel. Had you had pre-drilled panels available I would have bought the panels from you and the case from Mouser without thinking twice. People want the cases because its a real pain-in-the-you-know-what to drill out the holes for the preamp and the XLR's. There is no other drilling really except maybe one small 1/4" hole to mount the trafo. Almost everyone has a hand drill and a few bits. To do the panels you need step drills in odd and hard to find sizes, metal files, a drill press, a vice, and a jig saw for the power connector. Thats a lot more stuff.

I got the quote back from the manufacturer. Doing a (1) pc prototype of the complete case, will cost ....<Drum roll.....> ready for this?.... $1800 per case.

That price per case falls down dramatically by 60% at qty 3 and fall by 75% at qty 5. So obviously, the more cases are manufactured, the cheaper... ALOT cheaper, it becomes.

I wonder how much it will fall at qty 50 or 100.

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All I can say is "Wow." Thats big bucks. Even at 75% off. Even at 90% off thats pretty pricey and that doesn't factor in any markup for profits. How much would it cost to just do panels?

(1) pc front panel prototype is $475 each, falls down to $115 for qty 5. AGain, I don't know how much it will drop at qty 50 or 100.

These front panels should be compatible with par-metal cases.... at least, that was the plan, haven't tested it in real life though.

The rear panel costs are about the same, even though the rear panels have more holes and even has an odd shaped hole (for the IEC connector)... in fact, the rear panel is cheaper ($430 for 1 prototype, drops down to $105 for 5 prototypes) But I don't think my rear panels are compatible with par-metal cases... My case is a tad bit taller than par-metal cases.

This will require a 5-figure sum investment just to even run a small number of cases.

Thinking how I'm going to pull this off.

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Honestly, I think you're in over your head. This is getting out of hand.

There's got to be a better way to market this thing without providing pre-cut cases.

If people are so worried about cutting the case themselves, what if you just have metal templates made and offer them as an option with the pre kit?

You could also put together an instructional video on how to properly use the template to drill the holes.

Or if the template thing is a bad idea, you could just make a video on how to drill the holes in general and include the video free?

Just thinking out loud.

Thanks for the ideas, shaare. Not bad. I'm thinking about it.

I actually have a template for the frontpanel, I had one company do it and it turned out okay. I probably need one more tweak to finalize it.... need some slight adjustment to the holes. That's one solution.... not complete solution, but acceptable solution.

I'm waiting for quotes from other companies to see if they can provide a lower estimate.

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I agree with Shaare. This is WAY too much money to lay out, especially so early in the game and especially on credit. You are now approaching the cost of a nice new car. Maybe you should submit a few SC-1's to various magazines for review? They will usually review it if you send them free ones.

That's another good idea, Scott.

Owel, you have to give some serious consideration to options such as these and focus your efforts on research in marketing the product in a manner that's financially practical from a business perspective.

One thing is for sure, though. That is, for the time being and at this point in the game, you don't want to risk it all in hopes that the "trend" of concerns from perspective clientele which you're being exposed to most will be resolved and, moreover, that the customers will act upon their initial inquiries with the product by finally purchasing it based on the resolutions.


Oh gosh, please excuse this entire post. Besides the fact that it's really late, I've also just recently completed my associates degree in business and it'll take some time for me to begin the withdrawal period to filter out all this crap out.

I need to take a week long vacation to just lounge out, play video games and live off of take out and microwaved pizza.

-But seriously, I'm willing to help with the research. I'll keep my eyes open and put in some time to find good ways to market this project. And, actually, I think having magazines review the product could be a good place to start (as Scottso suggested.) In fact, have you ever heard of TapeOp? It's a free magazine and is somewhat small-scale; however, I sense that most of the readers are professionals in the industry and would definitely be considered as good, worthwhile exposure.