2012 Product Focus

2012 is off to a good start. Sales of our Pedal Jeanie products are slowly picking up steam and we are we are building a couple custom G1 amps as well. We have had a handful of Pedal Jeanie customers trying to power AC only pedals off our boards and sadly we have to tell them it is a DC power supply at this time.

The good news is we have a new product fresh off the prototype bench that will make our customers with AC pedals very happy. As a matter of fact it may make anyone using a DC Brick, Voodoo Lab Pedal Power, or any user of a DC power supply a happy camper. This new product has been designed to eliminate the need for those big clunky AC power supplies from your pedalboard. Our product called "The Chopper" will convert DC power to AC power much like an inverter, but it is specifically designed to power 9v, 12v, 18v, and 24v AC pedals. With this product we can power AC and DC pedals off of our DC power supply. It will have the same barrel tip connection as the industry standard, and will work with all the standard cable adapters in the market. It will also ground the signal to eliminate common noise problems that occur when mixing AC and DC pedals. The prototype is up and running and is currently being field tested. We hope to start a small production run this summer and hope to ship before the holiday season. Due to the potential demand for this product we are going to start pre-selling them about 3 months before the first production run is complete. This will enable us to build the correct amount of units to meet the demand. We will post a pre-order page on our website as soon as the test phase is complete.

We have been getting a lot of calls from musicians who already have a pedalboard but would like our power supply. We have been looking at ways to make a smaller form factor to accomodate existing pedalboard users, but it is a bot of a catch 22. We can go smaller by using lithium power to power our DC supply, but that will increase the cost of our product. We are not sure people will pay more than the current cost of our Pedal Jeanie products for a slimline powersupply. If we keep it relatively the same size it is an easy product that will be slightly less than our pedalboards, but it would have to sit off to the side of current pedalboard configurations as it would take up too much space to add it to an existing board. We are still batting around idea's on how to design a powersupply only version of our pedalboard. We are open to ideas and would love to hear from you if you have some thoughts on this. Please email info@grid1.com with your thoughts.

We have slowed our progress on the battery powered bass amp due to the increased interest in our battery powered pedalboards. That said, we are beginning to test a few bass amp configurations and are working closely with a number of seasoned bass players to be sure it is voiced correctly, and has all the desired features to make them happy.

That is it for now. Thank you for following our blogs. We will send another update as we get ready to launch the DC to AC converter.

Transition to new Internet Provider

We wanted to apologize for anyone trying to access the Grid 1 website the weekend of December 9th through December 12th. We needed to switch to a new web hosting company as our previous hosting service was not able to scale with the traffic we have been getting. We had a number of days where our site crashed and was offline for a few hours. After several attempts to correct the issues we decided it would be best to switch providers. Everything should be back up and running and we hope the site is faster and available 24/7. We appreciate the support and want to welcome all of our new visitors.

We are working on two new products and will be posting more details just after the holidays. The Pedal Jeanie products are in stock and shipping to all of our dealers across the US. We are negotiating some exciting distribution deals that will make our products even more available in 2012. Thank you for stopping by.

Pedal Jeanie Jr - Now Shipping!

Although the blog posts have been slow in coming, we have not slowed down at Grid 1. We have been busy building more products and accessories for our customers. The latest addition is the Pedal Jeanie Jr. It has all the same power as the Pedal Jeanie but takes up less room on stage with its smaller form factor. We have been getting lots of phone calls about both Pedal Jeanie products over the last few weeks and are trying to accommodate everyone. We do not have as many dealers signed up as we would like, but those that are on board are selling through the Pedal Jeanie pedalboards quickly.

We have been focused on building enough inventory to keep up with the demand. Our inventory is growing on a daily basis and we are moving our warehouse to a larger space to provide more storage and faster fulfillment.

The next goal is increasing our dealer base. We have good representation in Northern California, and are looking to expand across the country. We are asking all of our loyal customers and followers to help us spread the word. We will be busy this next month opening more retail stores to make it easier to buy our products across the US.

We have lots of accessories in stock as well. The Pedal Jeanie Car Charger is available and a must have for that last minute charge while driving to a gig. Hard cases are available now via our partner Case Xtreme. These cases are super lightweight, very durable, and flight approved. We even added a metal loop to accommodate a padlock for added protection when flying with your Pedal Jeanie. Soft padded shoulder bags are on the way but will not arrive until the end of August. The battery expander is designed and tested, but we are still trying to nail down the proper case for transporting it. Should have it ready to go soon.

Thank you to all of our new customers and the many artists who are helping us spread the word about our professional battery powered audio products. More coming soon...

Pedal Jeanie™ Launch at NAMM 2011

The Pedal Jeanie™ was born by talking to musicians about products that could enhance their playing experience if it were battery-powered. We asked many guitar players and bass players if there was a battery-powered accessory that might prove useful to them. Tal Morris a good friend and an amazing guitar player asked if we could build a battery-powered pedalboard to avoid the AC problems frequently encountered at gigs. After researching the current pedalboards in the market we saw a few things that could be improved on. Few of them had the ability to keep the top of the pedalboard clean, and none of them had "built-in" battery-power. We decided to design a pedalboard that would include everything a musician needed to install and power their pedals right out of the box.

The Pedal Jeanie™ has a patent pending design and features 8 independent 9v connections, 1 independent 12v connection, and 1 independent 18v connection. All these DC connections are built-in underneath the pedalboard. The matrix design on the top of the Pedal Jeanie™ makes it easy to tie down or use pedal tape to hold up to 10 pedals. All the DC power connections can be run through the holes on top of the chassis to the built-in DC connections underneath. Each DC connection accepts a standard 5.5mm x 2.1mm barrel cable (10 cables included in the box). Every connection is independently circuit protected and has a fault indicator LED to make it easy to find a shorted pedal or hook-up problem.Once all the pedals are installed there is a master stomp style power switch that turns on the pedalboard providing power to all the pedals instantaneously.

The Pedal Jeanie™ has a master battery-level LED on top of the chassis. The LED will glow green, then orange, and will finally glow red to alert the user to charge the pedalboard. The Pedal Jeanie™ will run for up to 50 hours (approx) with 10 pedals, so users should easily get a week of playing before needing to charge the pedalboard. The image on the left is a Pedal Jeanie™ loaded with 8 pedals (sent in by Tal Morris).

In closing we would like to thank Bill and Pat Bartolini for giving us the opportunity to show our products on their booth at NAMM 2011 in Ahaheim. The Bartolini booth is in Hall B, booth #5872. The Pedal Jeanie™ and G1 will be on display.

New Products Coming Soon!

We have been busy designing a few new products based on customer feedback and suggestions. An obvious addition is a battery powered bass amp. This is a bigger effort than first meets the eye, as bass players require more power, and that equates to bigger batteries. We think we have a solution that will keep options open, costs down, and still deliver high output with great tube tone. We are currently working on our bass amp prototype. We will post the features and specs as soon as it is dialed in.

Another product everyone has been asking about is a battery powered PA. We call it the one man band system. It will have inputs for acoustic guitar, electric guitar, microphone, iPod/CD, built in effects, and the ability to chain multiple systems together. It will also have a tube preamp to give the amp our trademark battery powered tube tone.

Some customers have been asking for more power and the ability to use extension cabs. To accommodate we are designing a head unit of the G1. It will have 200 watts and the ability to drive multiple extension cabinets. It will accept 4ohms to 16 ohms. This head will be AC only to start with the potential to add battery power in the future. Same great dynamic tube tone as the G1 with lots more power and flexibility.

We have been getting good reviews on the G1 and look forward to releasing more battery powered products that will help us complete our mission to "Unplug the Band"!

Grid 1 Customer Testimonial

One of our first customers (Thomas Edwards) who bought a G1 via our website was kind enough to send us a video testimonial about why he decided to purchase the G1 and what he likes about the amp. Thomas found our website after seeing our Namm Show Ad in Guitar Player Magazine. He filled out the online form on our "Buy" page and selected the cabinet wood, grill, chassis, and padded cover. We then called him and discussed his order to be sure it was what he wanted. He told us he was just about to purchase a boutique amp but was concerned with the weight. He said he liked the audio clips he heard on our website, but wanted to be sure the amp would have the tone and functionality he was looking for. We told him he would have 30 days to try it out to be sure it was what he wanted. He received his amp just after we returned from the Namm Show and we were as excited as he was to find out what he thought about the amp. Everyone who has played the G1 has loved the tone, dynamics and feature set. Since he was our first customer that purchased via our website without ever playing the amp we were anxious to hear what he thought. Well 30 days passed and he said he liked the amp and wanted to keep it. He said his friends were very intrigued by the amps ability to run on battery power and get as loud as it does. He told us his musician friends call it the "magic box".

We wanted to take a moment to thank Thomas for being a great customer and for sending us his video testimonial. The video is very real, and demonstrates his true enjoyment of owning one of the first 60 watt battery powered tube guitar amps in the market. From everyone here at Grid 1 Audio LLC... "Thank you Thomas"!

New "Direct Buy" Pricing at Grid 1

Since our launch at the Namm Show the only negative feedback we have had has been regarding the PRICE! We knew the price was high, but we also knew we built an amplifier that will last a lifetime. We wanted to deliver the best sounding, highest quality, tube guitar amp that would run on a battery for well over 4 hours. We did that. Our problem was trying to keep enough margin on the price so we could sell the amp via music stores and distributors. In doing so, the retail price was just too high for the G1 to have a chance in the market, especially given the current state of the economy. We are offering the G1 as low as $1799 for a beige tolex version. The premium hardwood and guitar match options start at $2395. This is a big change from the original $3995 retail price we announced at the Namm Show in January 2010. We hope this new pricing will get more people excited about owning this amazing 60 watt, battery powered, tube guitar amplifier.

Everyone who has listened to, or played the G1 has given it nothing but rave reviews. This amplifier deserves to be played and we want to do our part to make sure it is as affordable as we can possibly make it. The only way to accomplish this is to sell it direct to the public. The difficulty in selling direct is getting it in front of people so they can hear how good it sounds. We hope by offering a 30 day money back guarantee that our customers will have a chance to play it to be sure it is everything we say it is. We offer many custom options and some gorgeous green cabinet options. We even offer to match the color of your guitar. The G1 is handmade in the USA and is the first battery powered tube guitar amp in the market. We have sold this amp to a number of customers who have been spreading the word about how beautiful it sounds. We will be posting some video testimonials and more pictures over the next few weeks.

We hope our new pricing model will help you afford a G1, so you can experience the freedom to play this amazing amp anywhere. Thank you for all the support, and please help us spread the word!