I got a lot of work done on the transformers over the weekend, but there's still a lot to do and not many opportunities for me to get into work.  All 100 bobbins are wound and the wires are soldered to the bobbin pins (600 solder joints total).  I tested each coil twice for every transformer bobbin (total of 400 tests).  99/100 tested good.  One turned out to be a dud.  99% success rate is pretty darn good in my book.  I'll attempt to disassemble and rebuild the failed bobbin after the rest of the 2020's are fully built.  The next time I can get into work is Tuesday.  I'll be stacking the transformer core laminations all day.  I hope it can be completed in one day.  It will be a lot of delicate work.  After that is complete the next job will be mounting the transformers in their shielding cans.  Once that is done, final assembly can begin, which will be mounting the transformers and jacks on circuit boards and mounted the completed boards in the enclosures.  Lastly, I'll need to spend a day packaging all the completed 2020's, print shipping labels for all the preorders, fill out customs forms for the international orders, and get them to the post office for delivery.

Of the first 110 to be produced, just 38 remain available for purchase.  Thank you to everyone who has helped to support this product and my company during this time.  I'm very grateful.  I already sold more 2020's than any model of pedal I ever produced and the 2020 hasn't even been released yet.  I think that's a good sign and it excites me.  Looking forward to the second run!  Stay healthy my friends.              

It appears I will have to push the release date back further.  Not sure exactly how much further.  Regardless, I will ship the preorders as soon as they are ready.  I believe the current number of preorders sold is about 59, plus the initial test batch of 10.  69/110.  There are still a few left, so act soon.

I have a 3 month supply of coffee, some home-made whiskey in an oak barrel, and enough flour to make pizza 3 more times.  The last part is a little discouraging.  I've been carefully following the developments of COVID-19 in both New York City, and in my area of NY (Erie County) since the beginning.  Experts believe we have not reached the Apex in Erie County, but in my opinion we're doing a whole lot better than NYC.  NY Gov, Andrew Cuomo, has pushed back the schools from reopening until April 29th.  I assume the same would be true for most businesses.  Realistically, I think he'll push that date back much further as it approaches.  Technically, Sole Proprietorships such as mine, are allowed to continue working since I work alone.  However, a few factors have prevented that for me.  Number one is child care.  I'm staying home with my toddler while my pregnant wife continues her work as a doctor.  She's due next month, which will definitely make things a lot more difficult.  Number 2 is safety.  If I'm driving to work, I'm going to need to visit the gas station where other people visit.  I don't want to become a part of the problem.  Lastly, I had the electricity turned off and the rent was placed on hold in anticipation of reduced income and highly limited work hours.  I have since gone in for a few hours to work in the cold, dark lab with just battery powered lights to continue with some hand labor aspects of building the 2020 transformers.  When I have the power turned back on I should be able to complete the first run in about 8 hours.       

All that said, I'm working out a couple different plans for getting the first run completed and shipped in a safe and timely manner.  I'm bumping back the release date by 1 week to May 1st.  I think that is doable, but I don't know for a fact.  Things could always get much worse if too many people act like selfish idiots.  Please check back to my blog as I will try to continue providing updates.  Be careful, stay healthy, and thank you for supporting Lightning Boy Audio!

​-Mike            

Thank you to all who have ordered 2020's so far.  I'm very humbled by the support of my great customers.  A total of 110 are actually being produced.  The first run is 100, but there was a test run of 10 to start off with.  Those first 10 sold right away.  Of the 100, 40 sold so far, which happened mostly in the past few days.  I'm writing now to share some news about how it may be a long time before I can make more than the initial quantity.  This is due to the impact of COVID-19 on suppliers of the raw materials I need.  Many of my suppliers are focusing on producing for the medical industry exclusively.  At this time I can't say when I'll be able to make more than the first run.  As for the first run, I might be able to meet the deadline, but that is still unclear.  I had the power turned off in the lab to save on the energy bill.  The landlord agreed to no rent during this crisis.  My wife is a doctor, so she continues to work on the front lines during the week, while I stay home caring for our 2yr-old son.  Due to all of this, I'm not able to get in to finish the 100 2020's at the moment.  There's really only 8 hours of labor remaining for completing the run.  In the coming days I will consider what can or should be done.  I thank you for your patience, understanding, and amazing support.  We're all hoping this ends soon so we can get back to our former lives, which I'm sure everyone now values a little more.

P.S.  I spoke with the landlord about running a long extension cable from another part of the building to run the transformer winding machine for a few hours so I could finish the run.  It would need to be done during daylight hours on a warm weekend when my wife has off of work.  I told him I would like to do this if I sell all 100 by the release date.  He agreed.        

Despite very cold conditions, poor electrical grounding, dim lightning, and a bare bones recording setup, I managed to get a video done while under stay-home isolation.  

All non-essential businesses are forced to close in New York state as of yesterday.  LBA is essential for my survival, but apparently they mean a different sort of essential.  At the end of the day yesterday, I loaded up my truck with a pile of instruments, 2020's, an amp, a basic recording setup, my camera, and my video/photo computer, and then headed home.  My home office is very small, but is now functioning as a makeshift mini studio until the threat has passed.  I'm extremely limited with the work I can do from home, but I will try to stay productive.  This will be a difficult time for everyone, I'm sure.  I still have business bills to pay during this period, although I was able to get them lowered.  Your support during this time will help me to stay afloat.  You can place an order for a 2020 here, which will ship out as soon as I'm allowed to go back to work... even if the release date is after the date I can return to work.  I will attempt to create demo's of the 2020 in my very makeshift home studio until I can get back into LBA Studios for proper demo work.  Thank you for your support during these trying times.  Please be responsible and stay healthy.  

The pre-orders for the 2020 Instrument Transformer sold out pretty quick.  As a result, I'm now accepting orders for the first production run.  They will not ship until sometime around mid-spring, but you can get on the list here.

My Trinity channel strip design is consuming my existence, but its necessary to get this thing done in my lifetime.  I have many goals for her, but one of the big ones (and last ones) is to make it so easy to assemble a grandma could do it.  That's actually extremely difficult to pull off.  I've been working hard on that one for the past few months and its getting close to the point of extreme.  I even dream about it every night!  When I achieve that I'll be ready to move onto retail packaging, setting up reviews, working on advertising and seeking distribution for Trinity.  Its still a long ways to the finish line.  

Since I'm not building pedals anymore, I needed to come up with a substitute form of income until I release my channel strip.  I zeroed in on one idea, which is not a pedal, but similar... The LBA-2020.  Its basically a 1:1 audio transformer in a metal box the size of a tiny pedal and has 1/4" in and out jacks.  Its intended purpose is to be placed between instrument pedals to inject some transformer mojo.  The idea was spawned from customer requests to put a transformer in the Op-2 Comp and NuVision pedals.  I always have to respond that its not possible due to the dimensions of the pedal verses the size of the transformer.  This new idea of a transformer in a box is a much better approach in my opinion because it can be used with any pedal, not just inside one of my creations.  One of the ideas around the application of this box is that a user could have multiples and place them between various pedals to help create the warm sounds akin to high-end professional studio equipment.  I designed the transformer and made a working prototype, so it definitely works and imparts a high fidelity warm tone.  The transformer is a high performance layer-wound gapped style with faraday shields between the coils.  It uses a nickel alloy core for an extremely wide and linear frequency response, and its encased in a MuMetal can for magnetic shielding.  I will be manufacturing it in house on my transformer winding machine to keep the cost as low as possible.  The prototype PCB is designed and in the manufacturing phase.  I hope to sell the finished product for $99.00 USD.  Beta testing will begin sometime in the next month or so.  Anyone interested in beta testing can get in touch with me for a discounted beta version at [email protected].  If you don't like it you can absolutely return it for refund.  Thanks for checking in on me!