To BAMF or not to BAMF? here is my experience. if you dont wanna read long posts, skip down to the summary at the end part.
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I first met BAMF on the Boston Engineering thread. I am a typical end user type of consumer, so imagine my surprise that my current existing pedals can actually be modded to a sound i would prefer. i first contacted BAMF and told him whether he can mod my friend's DOD Metal X to sound like a Boss MD2 ... BAMF said yes, and i was very since this friend of mine really needed a better distorted sound to reflect the soul behind his playing. My friend however, wasnt excited the idea, so i decided to let myself be the guinea pig. I asked BAMF whether he could mod the following into:
1.) MT2 = thicker sound, bye bye nasal mids + thciker sound.
2.) DOD Death Metal = add a gain knob to stop it from feeding back all over the place.
3.) Snarling Dogs Bootzilla = give it a more voice like quality, and turn the 'low' wah into a psychotic, distorted talking wah.
BAMF said yes to all this, which encouraged me a lot more! ... i mean, the guy is practically superman; turn whatever pedal it is you have, into a pedal that you want only for 500php each! - just like turning lead to gold (as one poster described BAMF's work).
I went to manila in the last leg of january (im from davao) hauling a heavy bag of pedals ... the Bootzilla fuzz/wah weighs 7 lbs. so it is equivalent to carrying a heavy stratocaster... had a hassle at the airport, since they dont know what guitar pedals are, and things that have IC's are potential explosives.
I scheduled for an appointment at that time, and i was 30 minutes late... i was very embarassed at this point since i expected BAMF to be very strict and business like. After hiking the subdivision for awhile, i found the BAMF labs (its a house with cool dogs that i wanted to pet, hehe) ... and was surprised to see that there was no BAMF. He was still on his way. i waited for him, while trying to come up with a conversation with his assistants who didn't feel like talking to me. i was a bit disappointed since i'll only be in manila for 5 days. when BAMF came, he was a cool person ... not businesslike at all and is a very friendly guy (and plays cool surf guitar too). i showed him the pedals, but for some reason he was more interested with his current project, a half stack Fender (which was really loud, and bad-a**).
Finally he took a look at my pedals and commented:
1.) MT2 = i can do this in a few hours
2.) DOD Death = i dont have the schematics for this, i think i can do this in 2 days.
3.) Bootzilla = the fuzz is a fuzz face clone (i forgot what he said about the wah), and he can do it in 2 days too.
I tried waiting for the MT2 but BAMF was suffering from migraine, and some ppl came to have their guitars scalarized ... and all those testing and conversations took a long time, so i decided to go home.
After 2 days, i contacted BAMF and he said he's gonna need more time. After another day, i needed to go back to Davao the next day (in the airport by 8am), so that night i rushed to BAMF to get the pedals (my friends were waiting in the taxi) ...
BAMF managed to only mod the MT2 and im not sure what mod he did to it... i hurriedly tested it on the project Fender half stack, by playing 2 minutes worth of black metal, and hurried to get back to the cab... towing the unmodded DOD Death and the bootzilla. BAMF said something about the MT2's level, but i ddnt hear it anymore... i was in a hurry. i only have 3 hours to spend with my best friends.
Back home i tested the MT2 ... and was shocked to find out, the thing stutters.. i called BAMF and he told me "that's what i told you, the level tone in your MT2 is busted and i ddnt have the parts to fix it." i was ... i didn't understand... the pedal was regularly used by my friend in my house before... and there was nothing wrong with it. i was really confused. but oh well, i just concluded the travel messed up my MT2, i mean, it was more than 5 years old anyway.
Soundwise... i thought the MT2 was STILL THE SAME. there's a part of me that said it sounded worse, but i wasnt sure, maybe it was just my mood and the feeling that my MT2 doesn't work the way before i brought it to manila.
I talked to BAMF about it and he asked me to ship it... and the DOD too if i wanted. so i payed for the shipping (DHL) and had it shipped to BAMF, at this point, i was feeling bad since i spent a lot of time and money that is clearly not equivalent to the 500 php + a few pesos on travel fees planned to spend.
BAMF told me to give him a week with the pedals ... a week came, he asked for another week. another week came and he asked for another week, but i told him, i had a gig the next week and i really needed two dirt pedals. BAMF told me he will send me 2 dirt pedals: his boston HM2 and OD100. it was really cool of him because i received the pedals within 2 days, courtesy of BAMF choosing and paying for the LBC shipment. I tried out the pedals and was blown away. My cousins were also blown away that one of them wanted to buy a Boston HM2 and have it BAMF-ed. my faith in BAMF-ed was restored and i even told my dad about him. my dad said its rare you get to transact business with ppl like that - ppl who would forgo short time profit just to gain a customer that would keep coming back.
A few more weeks passed, but my pedals were still in the operating table... i really didn't want to keep on holding the BAMF pedals, because i am afraid something might happen to them. i dont want him to think of me as a customer who takes advantage.
by this point, i was already texting BAMF everyday... being kulit. i am convinced that the only way for me to get it back, is to remind him all the time (just like what i do when im getting a PLDT line, asking for shifting forms, installing a new water pipe... those business centers work faster when you call them everyday).
along the way, BAMF asked me whether i wanted to add a pre-bass on the DOD, to which i agreed. and that one time where he thought he was done but couldnt put the DOD's battery compartment back because it didn't have space anymore.
i always wondered why my pedals took forever... first realization was that:
the DOD death metal metal is not a famous pedal... most guitar players hate it. BAMF is not used to operating DOD pedals and for the record, my DOD death may NOT BE WORTH the research because hey, i must be the one and only who swears by this pedal.
2nd realization was:
my MT2 bakemono was the first of its kind.
regarding the MT2 BAMF decided it was a special operation so he told me it costs 1.5K ... i was shocked at this of course ... from 500 php it took a drastic jump to 1.5K ... i asked him whether he can give me a discount. and he said that since it doesnt have a prebass, he will charge me 800 php for it... i inserted the extra 300 php inside the pedal compartment, and shipped BAMF's pedals via LBC. it reached him in two days. he sent me my pedals back via EMS and it reached me after 5 days.
basically, i sent my pedals to him 1st week of February and got it back 2nd week of April. the whole thing took such a long time, that i seem to have gotten use to not have a dirt pedal. i have trouble reconciling that i have spent a lot of money and the time on the whole thing though.
i was so excited in unwrapping my pedals ... hands trembling. first one unwrapped was the DOD death metal with gain control and pre bass! ... as soon as i took it out... one of the buttons fell off. oh well, crappy knobs. i unwrapped the MT2 Bake-freaking-mono and, well, im glad BAMF-ed fixed the level knob... it didn't look attractive but at least im hoping it would work.
testing time came... DOD death has to be the first... i mean, it was my fave! ... inserted a battery, played a few notes... no sound.i panicked. after YM-ing BAMF, he said the problem was that the knobs shorted against the metal casing and i had to insulate it with tape. i did it with no luck since just like i said, i am just an end user consumer. for a few seconds, i managed to get the DOD to work by forcing the battery inside the compartment ... and what can i say? it is damn amazing! not only does it NOT FEEDBACK, it is a hell lot better than the all new digitech death metal and a lot more powerful than the old feedback magnet DOD Death Metal. this would have been awesome if and only if, i managed to get a consistent sound. every time i turn the pedal on and off, a new sound comes out of it - totally random sound with each step of the pedal (not a good thing!). another bad news is that the DOD Death lost its clean bypass signal - whether you turn it on or off, you can hear the distortion. BAMF said something about forgetting to check Mang Raul's work.
i was feeling down ... so down...
oh well, i have to move on, time to plug the MT2 Bakemono... played a few notes.. couldnt' stop... played with the setting... couldnt stop playing still... got my bass guitar... plugged it in... couldn't stop. the MT2 Bakemono, ladies and gentleman, is an AWESOME PEDAL. Bass or guitar, this thing kicks major a**. i dont wanna sound mayabang, but the MT2 bakemono sound can kick cliff burton's distorted bass sound anytime of the day (even Lemmy's too). NOTE: before you flame, im talking about sound, alright? not the playing and the person. i have yet to do a proper review on the bakemono when i can get a new soundcard to record stuff to the PC.
there are time whether i think that my problem on the 2 pedals could have been solved if i just bought an EQ for the MT2 and a noise gate for the DOD ... but whats done is done. and someday, the bakemono would be worth it when i see ppl heads bang along with my distorted bass sound.
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so to summarize my experience:
i have two pedals, i expected to spend 1K on both of them for mods and i expected them to be back in 1 week.
what happened was, i spent more than 1K on the pedals, 2 months waiting for it and ended up with one NON-WORKING PEDAL, and one AMAZING pedal.
will i have another pedal BAMF'ed again? ... Yes, BUT, if and only if i know there was a guinea pig before me, and i have a back up pedal of whatever it is i sent to him. BAMF is only human after all.
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How can BAMF improve his services?
1.) Treat his hobby also as a business.
2.) Train new staff and give them schematics for the previous pedals so he can concentrate on nothing but R & D (i notice this is what he really loves doing).
3.) Decide on his limitations and tell them up front (i.e. you are from davao, i think you will be spending 700 php as opposed to the advertised 500 php per pedal, and you will be getting the pedal 1 month after instead of the advertised 1 week).
4.) work on a schedule and work on a DEADLINE. or better yet, get a trained staff to do the donkey work.
5.) Increase his rates a little as so he can give better services.
