Dice Works - Erich ROCKS

[BuckeyeBrown]

Just wanted to share my Dice Works story w/ you...

I know Erich has been knocked a little on here for not being great at email responses. I'm not going to defend it but the service level I just got from him could not have been better.

I've emailed him via ebay several times asking about pricing for this or that, and if he would still build one of these or those, and if he would tweak this to do that, etc. I never got my responses back immediately but they guy probably "is" too busy to do it all as a 1 man crew. As it turns out all I ever did was bug him. I never ponied up to buying 1 damn thing from him (yet). I ended up scoring a used Dice-O-Matic from the Emporium and really like it. About 4 months ago or so it just stopped working. I emailed Erich, fessing up that I bought it used but asked if he could help me troubleshoot it or work on it for me. I gave him a little info on the problem and he said "send it in" - so I did. Over the last week or so I tried to reach him a couple times on it and also to bug him about his Astronimus that he used to build (he still does and its got some new cool tweaks to it). Anyway today he told me that my Dice-O-Matic is in the mail. He didn't charge me 1 penny for the repair work and he covered the shipping back to me to boot!!! Who else will do that??? Nobody.

The guy builds GREAT pedals and although he might not be stellar at getting out of from the bench and playing with emails, but he stands behind his product like no other. He actually helped me today in ID'ing a version of one of his old Astronimus's that I finally tracked down used.

Somewhere down the road I'm going to be happy to hand this guy the money for a new Fuzz Epic, or something!

Cheers to Erich,


Patrick

 

[tjs]

I'm glad you had a good experience. Mine unfortunately was the polar opposite (or should I say "is" since the situation is still not resolved?)

All I can say to anyone thinking of ordering from Erich is "good luck."

 

[Adam Zaiger]

I ordered a Muff Diver Finale from Erich on the 'Bay earlier this fall. It was a bit disconcerting because the listing indicated delivery within a week and then I came to learn on TGP that the eBay sales were basically orders. Erich was fairly slow getting back to me on status e-mails and apparently had some trouble sourcing parts, but in about 6 weeks I did get my pedal and it is a great sounding, versatile pedal. I have never heard a story of Erich outright defrauding anyone, so frankly, I would buy from him again. It is what it is, right?

 

[itkindaworks]

No webpage, just his ebay handle t-booster. What's the Astronimus?

 

[amp boy]

you just may have gotten someone else's pedal.
: /

 

[huskerjohn]

Well, I placed my order on October 16th 2009. I ordered the Dice Works Triangle Big Muff. ($125) After that I sent him two or three emails and finally he sent me this email message:

Thanks Rex, it's on its way. 3-day priority USPS confirmation ######. I changed the clipping section for the better and you are getting one of the first new ones.
Thanks for the patience.
Erich

I was very surprised when I received the pedal because he sent me the Muff Diver Finale!!! which is a lot better than the one I ordered. It’s like $100.00 more too. ($225) Has the same fuzz sound than the one I ordered and much more, and it sounds great.

After that, he sent me an email with the Muff-Diver-Finale user instructions.

Thank you Erich! One more time...You Are the Man!!!

You will love the Finale! I think it's the best muff out there and I have tried most of the best!

 

[fellsilver]

What is the pedal he makes that is a supposed Hendrix octavio copy what is it called? I am very interested in it and how do you get a hold of him ? or find out about his pedals does he have a web page? Thanks alot I will tell him you sent me.

If I remember correctly, the octavia clone is the Astronimus. He does not have a web page; you've gotta e-mail him or contact him through ebay.

 

[Hiwatt Bob]

i had issues with him too. only ebay transaction (other than one where i was literally defrauded) where i've considered leaving neg feedback. he had an attitude also when i was sending him ultimatums after weeks of not hearing from him. must say that the muff diver i got from him sounds excellent--but i will never order from him again just on principle.

 

[buddachile]

He didn't charge me 1 penny for the repair work and he covered the shipping back to me to boot!!! Who else will do that???

Robert Keeley.

I'm not knocking Erich, even though he hasn't return my emails, but Robert Keeley did this for me on a Rat I bought on Ebay and that arrived with a broken switch. Also, I broke the switch on my Java Boost and he fixed it for free. Keeley provides fantastic customer service.

 

[BuckeyeBrown]

Robert Keeley.

I'm not knocking Erich, even though he hasn't return my emails, but Robert Keeley did this for me on a Rat I bought on Ebay and that arrived with a broken switch. Also, I broke the switch on my Java Boost and he fixed it for free. Keeley provides fantastic customer service.

That's cool to hear. It does sound like however that you are/were a customer already? Not to take anything away from Keeley doing this cool thing for you.

 

[BuckeyeBrown]

What is the pedal he makes that is a supposed Hendrix octavio copy what is it called? I am very interested in it and how do you get a hold of him ? or find out about his pedals does he have a web page? Thanks alot I will tell him you sent me.

It is the Astronimus as was pointed out by fellsilver. You can email Erich at tone_bender@comast.net or find him on ebay which he goes by tone-bender as well.

I found info and a clip of it here: http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:WqOcDrLqtdUJ:johannburkard.de/blog/music/effects/Octaver-shootout.html+astronimus+dice+works&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I really dig the low end and was really in love with the way the pedal seems to handle the dis-harmonies in its own way (at least from hearing the clip).

Something else I dug up about it from some other webpage (assuming they've actually quoted Erich):

"Erich from Dice Works about the Astronimous:
The Astronimus is based on the ORIGNAL Roger Mayer Octavio. There MIGHT have been 5 of the original Octavios ever made, and I was contacted by someone who owned an original. He wanted me to build a replica of his, as he wasn't comfortable using his original to play out with. It took about 3 weeks of talking and building, but I got it dialed in. There are alot of differences between my octavia, and the Tycobrahe Octavia. Mainly, the Octavio will actually work with your bridge pickup, you can use it in ALL areas of the neck, not just from the 9th fret to the 15th fret, and you can play chords with it. All other Octavias run on 9V, but this one runs on 18v. The 18v gives it a little more "oompf" (power). There is no other octavia on the market that can do what this one does, period."

The one that I found is actually a 3 x 9Volt version. The 3rd one is to run the LED. Erich told me that the pedal will chew up batteries quick enough without an led.

He's also told me that he has redesigned the pedal to offer more. And I quote...

"Octavia-wise, I have re-designed the astronimus. I added 4 toggles that give you more options. You get different bass/treble mix options, 9/18v operation, a fuzz only switch (like the Fulltone), and a modded option previously unheard of (different characteristics to the gain and octave mix). They are $275+ shipping."

It took me a while to track down a used original version that he made but this one makes me real curious too. Here's is a pic of what he emailed me

 

[itkindaworks]

^^^That seems really cool. I hadn't heard of it before now.

 

[buddachile]

That's cool to hear. It does sound like however that you are/were a customer already? Not to take anything away from Keeley doing this cool thing for you.

Actually, when he fixed my Rat I was not a direct customer yet. It was my first Keeley product and I bought it used on ebay. At the time I was very surprised at how cool he was about fixing it for free. It was later on that I bought the Java Boost new.

 

[BuckeyeBrown]

That's cool to hear. Kudos to Keeley.

 

[guitarnut]

i've just had an update from erich on my order. he apologised for the delay and mentioned that he is making these last few pedals before wrapping it up to concentrate on his day job. : (

 

[Adam Zaiger]

That is a bummer to hear. His pedals are amazing.

 

[drunkenguitar]

i've just had an update from erich on my order. he apologised for the delay and mentioned that he is making these last few pedals before wrapping it up to concentrate on his day job. : (

Oh, damn...good thing I scored a Muff Diver Finale a few days ago.

 

[guitarnut]

Oh, damn...good thing I scored a Muff Diver Finale a few days ago.

how do you like it?

 

[drunkenguitar]

I still haven't received it yet. I got it used at a very generous price. Should be here any day now. I can't wait.
I really wanted to get a Fuzz Epic from Erich, but I guess that won't be happening anytime soon.

 

[Adam Zaiger]

It is an incredibly versatile pedal and sounds just fantastic. It is, in my opinion, the ultimate Muff. I have a Pig Mine on the way, and only one of these 2 will probably end up sticking on the board. Gonna be an interesting shootout.