FAQ
GENERAL
> Why are your pedals always sold out?
Abominable is run by a single person! I'm sort of a control freak and want to be involved with every part of the process. I do plan on getting help within the next year because we are finally at a point where I can't keep up without someone helping. We put up pedals in batches and some of them will sell out in 5 minutes or less while some will sit for a week or two. Keeping up with us on Instagram & Facebook is the best way to see what we're making and what will be up for sale next and when.
> When will you have more of a specific pedal for sale?
If you want to make sure you know when a product will be back in stock, it's best to sign up for an email notification on the product page AND to follow our social media. We are most active on Instagram and we will post warning on there every time we put more in stock. If you check that daily, you'll never miss a release.
> The pedal I want is out of stock, will it ever be made again?
YES! YES! YES! Abominable is run by a single person. I build each pedal by hand and it's pretty impossible to keep everything in stock at all times. We used to take orders for pedals but the turnaround ended up being 2-3 months and that just sucks. Now we will make what we call a "batch" of a specific pedal, which allows us to assemble a bunch of the same boards at a time, cutting down on assembly time. If a pedal is a limited version or will not be coming back, I will try to remove it completely from the website.
> Can I cancel my order?
Sadly, once an order is placed it cannot be canceled. We have to be very strict on this policy since it can be crippling to a small business to have money come in and out on short notice.
> Do you accept returns / exchanges?
Again, being a small business, we cannot afford to offer returns or exchanges. If you are looking to try a pedal out before committing to buy it, you are in the wrong place. We suggest visiting your local guitar shop if you need to try before you buy. We offer demo videos on almost all product pages and there are additional ones on YouTube if you take some time searching. Due to how quick pedals are sold when put in stock it wouldn't make sense for us to offer exchanges. We suggest if you don't like the pedal to sell it on Reverb / eBay at a reasonable price.
SHIPPING
> When will my order ship?
Time until shipment varies from product to product. Please refer to the product page to see the current listed turnaround time. You item will ship following those estimated dates. Unless your package is a week past the longest end of the date range, please do not contact us asking when it will ship. We will just end up referring you back to the product page and we've both wasted our time!
> Will I get a tracking number?
Shopify will send you a tracking number the moment a label has been printed for your item. You can also sign in and check your Shopify account to see if tracking has been added for your order.
> But I got a tracking number yet it appears that it hasn't been picked up yet, what is going on?
We schedule mail pickups one at a time, usually once every 2-3 days. Sometimes we will print a label and something will come up and our pickup is delayed a few additional days. Don't panic. Your package wasn't lost. Please allow up to 4-6 days before shooting us an email - we promise that in 99% of cases we just haven't had a package pickup yet.
> Do you ship internationally?
Yes! Nearly 20% of our sales are international sales. There are a few exceptions such as Germany and Italy, we do not currently ship to these countries due to numerous lost packages in the past.
> How much is international shipping?
For a single pedal shipping is:
Canada --- $39.25
Everywhere Else --- $54.00
> HOLY COW! Why is international shipping so high?
We only ship international via the USPS Priority International mail service. It has tracking AND insurance included. First class does not have tracking once it leaves the US and is not insured. There have been a few instances where international customers have filed PayPal claims against us after a package is lost by their country's postal service and when this happens, if we didn't have insurance we'd be fucked. We suggest getting a group of friends together and ordering a bunch of stuff and combining and splitting the shipping costs until we are able to provide international distribution.
> My country charges me out the ass for VATs / Taxes, can you mark the package as a gift and put the value at $20?
First off, those taxes are fucked! We seriously hate that it happens. But referring back to the above answer in regards to why shipping costs are so high internationally, if we mark a package as $20 and it's lost we get $20 on an insurance claim. That hurts a small business pretty bad when it happens enough. We also ship directly through Shopify and I haven't been able to find a way to mark it as a gift in customs. We cannot afford to take all international packages to the post office so we can mark them as a gift. Again, we're hoping to have international distribution in the coming years, it's just hard to get there when we sell out so quickly doing direct orders.
POWER
> What type and voltage power do your pedals take?
ALL of our pedals take 9v DC Power with a Center Negative tip. Since we have made versions of particular pedals with interior charge pumps for higher voltage we cannot recommend using anything higher than 9v.
> Can I use a 9v Battery?
None of our pedals have connections for a 9v battery. With the price point of the effects we sell, we expect that our customers use individual or multi power supplies. We find it to be the most reliable way to run any guitar pedal.
> What mA do your pedals draw?
Currently all of our pedals draw under 100mA except for the Sunnbather DI which draws 300mA.
> What brand / model power supplies do you recommend?
This is our personal opinion, but we suggest an EHX 9v DC wall wart or the Fulltone Isolated 9v DC wall wart for single pedal supplies. For multi pedal supplies, we recommend any of the supplies made by Voodoo, Walrus, & Strymon. We don't have any personal experience with any other brands and suggest searching pedal forums and google for other recommendations.
> What power supplies should I NOT use?
The first obvious answer is anything with AC power or a voltage higher than 9v. When it comes to specific brands, I personally would avoid the single wall wart daisy chain version of the OneSpot (the $20 one). They tend to get pulled on and twisted, and shoved into cases and bags to a point where it can cause issues. The $30-50 multi pedal supplies on Amazon are another one we not only don't recommend but will also void our warranty if used. We've had more than 5 occasions where they have fried regulators and diodes in our pedals. If you are spending $200 on a hand-made effect, we considering dropping $160 on a Walrus Aetos or give your pedal a dedicated wall wart before plugging in a bargain brand multi supply.
WARRANTY
> Do you have a warranty?
YES! For all pedals there is a 1 year warranty that applies only to the ORIGINAL OWNER of the pedal.
> What are the terms?
If you encounter an issue in the first year, the standard procedure is to contact us via EMAIL (not social media) with your problem. PLEASE include your order number with your initial contact and the model of the pedal. If we can't troubleshoot over email, you can ship the pedal back to us at your expense for us to look at it. If we determine that the problem is from bad part / our workmanship, we will fix the problem immediately and ship the pedal back to you & pay you (up to $9.99 in the US) to cover your initial shipping costs. If the problem was caused by incorrect use (we can tell when the wrong power supply is used), we can repair the pedal & you will be charged for our time and return shipping costs. If there is nothing wrong with the pedal (this is literally 95% of the time what happens), the issue is most likely on your end (guitar, amp, cables, etc) and we will ship the pedal back with some extra swag to cheer you up at your cost.
> What is considered the start of the 1 year?
The first year starts at the day your order was delivered by the USPS. Since we can see this via Shopify, it seems to be the best way since order date wouldn't work with build times involved.
> Why only 1 year and why can't it transfer owners?
You may or may not know this already, but we are a company run by a single person. This isn't a hobby either, it's 100% of my income. Larger companies can afford to repair stuff for longer than a year, we can't. We try to use top of the line parts (a lot of boutique pedal builders use extremely cheap parts from the same place hobbyists source from) to avoid most parts failure. Switches tend to wear out the quickest and we think if it's going to break, it will do it within the first year of use. We don't allow warranty to transfer from the original buyer simply because we don't know what abuse the pedal has gone through after it's left it's original owner. It wouldn't be fair to you if we denied repairs to do shown abuse that you weren't responsible for. Since we sell completely direct, we are able to form a relationship with our customer and we trust that they know everything a pedal has gone through when a problem occurs.