Al,
At the risk of sounding like tooting my own horn (or blowing my own [sausage] hahehehe), I did hear a marked difference between the stock and metal scalarized from the get-go. Your guitar is gorgeous aesthetically, and very ballsy sounding, stock.
When we connected the metal scalarizer, it sounded ballsy AND sparkly with a cutting midrange presence. Not really day and night difference as what happens when we scalarize [gooey brown stuff] guitars, but it was there. I was even kinda worried because if you already like your bill lawrence pickups to bits, you might opt to remove the scalarizer. Try disconnecting the scalarizer and listening again. I'm quite certain that the difference will not escape you.
BB,
I've given the pricing matter a lot of thought. A long time ago I guess, but maybe a better response to the matter is in order.
Keeley charges $70 for his mods. Arguably, I've already hit a spot where my DS-1 mods sound better than his. His only real advantage being Steve Vai and Satriani. But everyone I've talked to who has a keeley modded DS-1 found the bakemono and sushimods better. Heck, I have a local Keeley-modded DS-1 on my table right now, waiting to be Bakemonoéd.
.
And from experience in my other businesses, buyers fall into that "you get what you pay for" trap. Literally, if it's cheap, they think it's da [gooey brown stuff]. And they notice the thing and desire it more if it stings the wallet. Boston pedals are perfect examples of the contradiction to this flawed maxim. They have superior parts and better builds, and more features than the pedals they emulate, and at a fourth of the price to boot. But had they not been discussed extensively here at Philmusic, those items would still be thought of as da [gooey brown stuff] just like the many cheap-er pedals that preceded it.
Besides, to the Americans, USD$35-$40 is nothing. It's gasoline money. It's a night at a bar with friends. A cheap bar at that. It's two long taxi rides. How much would they pay for tone ?
My only promise to the Philmusic community : it will never be priced more than P1000. The pending price increase isn't even about greed. It's to prevent or at least minimize any black market exportation of the thing to the detriment of the legitimate international distributors.
So there. For the Philippines, pricing will be only within the range of USD$15 to USD$20.