The Enterprise of Effects

Wait, what just happened tomorrow?

The Enterprise of Effects

When will then be now?  So soon it’s almost in the past.  On July 6th brokerage agencies (like ones attached to shipping carriers like UPS and Fedex) will start collecting the new tariffs.  The tax, as it should be called, goes to the U.S. government so they can continue to do business and fund future spending. What?! I just got a tax cut this year, and now I have to pay for it, darn the luck!  I’m in the small universe of pedal mongers, So, what does this mean for the Enterprise of Effects?

Even with increasing tariffs on electronics like resistors and potentiometers, capacitors, LEDs, and transistors and semiconductors, (referenced from the Harmonized Tariff Code list, see HTC 8526-8541, pages 26-29 https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/2018-13248.pdf), it will still be possible to produce a profitable product, if you’re careful. That said a $5-10 increase in cost of goods is huge in the world of $100-$200 pedals if you’re a manufacturer.  I may have to increase prices over time by 10% to simply make up for that rise cost. Remind me again, why are these called tariffs against China? You and I are the ones paying for it, not them?! Ahhh, the days of future past and cheap Chinese electronics! Enough politics.

Because analog and digital manipulation of signals is so infinite I think that the health and growth of the stompbox world is ensured for time.  As my dad would say, “Chin up young man”.  And, as I rediscovered yesterday with a Univox Square Wave, there is infinite joy in stomp boxes.  I’d pay a little more for that. Support your small builders out there.  As Neil Young said with The Band, “They got it now Robbie”.

 

July 5th

Robert Keeley