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Vintage threads from the first ten years
Business idea, and a few questions
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 4/16/2003 4:16 AM |
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Chris B |
Business idea, and a few questions Hey! I really enjoy building amplifiers, but don't have room for them or the cash to build them and let them sit. I'd like to build stuff, and then sell it if I'm not satisfied with it's tone (I'm rather picky, but tone is subjective). Installing new electronics in their guitars for folks would also be an idea. Could I get sued if someone gets injured by one of my amps? Even with a warning label? How would I go about setting a price for my work? Would the e-bay auction approach be best? Chris B |
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| 4/16/2003 3:08 PM |
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| R.G. | The dark side...
Absolutely. You remember all that stuff in the newspapers about frivolous lawsuits? Selling anything that could conceivably damage anyone in any way puts you on the wrong side of that. The torts lawsuit industry functions as a kind of lottery. If someone can cobble together any kind of damage you've done them, even if the court holds that you're only 1% responsible and someone else 99% responsible, YOU can be held liable for the entire amount of the damages. And damages may be made punitive, to punish you for some kind of real or imagined malevolence. And it's hard to imagine any product you could sell that would NOT open you to tort actions. Remember that cup of coffee that MacDonalds sold that nice lady? Warning labels are a minimum, but they are not sufficient. People have sued and collected for injuries sustained when working with power tools made decades before they were hurt, where the user who got hurt had purposely removed or deactivated protective shields and guards that had been designed to keep them from being injured. R.G. | |
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| 4/16/2003 8:56 PM |
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| Chris B |
I guess this is why effects pedals companies pop up a little more often than guitar amp companies... It's kinda hard to get electrocuted by a 9V. 
Chris B |
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| 4/16/2003 9:49 PM |
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| marrk | Don't be fooled by that cute 9 volt battery. One time I reversed the polarity of a diode by mistake. I got one hell of a burn from the lead to the diode. I won't do that again. Mark |
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| 4/16/2003 11:59 PM |
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| Soren | Some light I drew up some ideas on a safety pedal recently on the amp general discussion board. I believe use of such a device could go a long way in preventing someone from harm. Scenario: Guitar man sees his amp explode, and says to himself, "man I better let go of the strings and unplug my guitar right away". He does so, and "accidentally" touches the ground sleeve (now live) of the phone plug. Zap! Guitar man will hit the floor before the phone plug does. I don't care what anybody says about Newton's laws of gravity! Having a pedal on the floor would prevent any voltage going through the guitar cable. Soren |
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| 4/18/2003 12:39 PM |
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| Brian |
The McDonald's coffee incident FYI, one of my friends in law school says that case was overturned in appeals. It is brought up often enough that I thought some people might be interested to know. Have a good weekend. Brian |
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| 4/18/2003 1:27 PM |
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| R.G. | That's good news. You would think that sanity would prevail somewhere. However, the interesting part is that even if the judgement was overturned, the defendant (McDonalds in this case, but us normal people in the hypothetical situations we're discussing) probably laid out on the order of $1M in legal fees to defend the suit and lose, then appeal and win. What is appalling about the current state of justice is that the most trivial legal action breaks the bank for normal people. A competant trial lawyer will usually ask for a $10K retainer up front. We all have to ask ourselves exactly how we'd cope with writing an unexpected $10K check next week. Frankly, I can't understand why the lawyers haven't gotten together to start legal insurance companies. Pay $100 a month and you get legal fees of up to, say, $100K paid. It would make them a pot full of money, both on the insurance business and on the increased litigation. On second thought, maybe no one being able to afford litigation is a *good* thing... 8-( R.G. |
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