Saturday 20 September 2014

Slopeshoulder's Very Own Coming Clean Post Shocker

Poor slopeshoulder couldn't have Mason stealing the limelight so he decided to do his own coming clean post....in Mason's thread where it would receive maximum hits and exposure. 

I took a screenshot of his post instead of doing a cut and paste job.  I also took the liberty of saving (or stalking) the post on archive.org, just for slope!


A couple of things.  For a man "nearly twice" Mason's age slope sure is a bad judge of character.   Slope is diagnosing Mason with a disorder now?  Be careful slope, saying those sorts of things could get you in legal trouble! 

Slope's third paragraph is the best bit.  Slope lists attributes which he calls the "colossal ugly side" of things.  Slope has a very short memory as these are the very behaviors he indulged in himself. 

Saturday 13 September 2014

Dan Boul from 65Amps Weighs in on the Vertex Issue

Dan Boul, and his equally smug friends, says some stuff about the Vertex controversy and makes himself look like stupid.  It's obvious he hasn't read all the threads on the issue and hasn't been following it from the start.  He comes off as arrogant and condescending. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoTh6HVheY0

Thursday 11 September 2014

Steve "Snide" Snider

So while browsing through the Axis Wah Announcement Coming Clean thread I noticed that silver TGP supporting member Steve Snider  made a few great posts.

Firstly this guy adds fuel to the fire, including starting a now 5 page thread on HRI about the whole thing.  He then slowly starts to back out but does it in a sneaky "knock the door and run away" style.

This guy is supposedly friends with Mason and made this unusual post:

my previous post had broken some forum rules so here is an edited version:
The next step is for the mods to lock this thread as it is done.  Mason said his stuff and others said thiers but it's time to end it.  He has admitted that he was lying. He has said he will offer refunds.  Leave him some time to gather some sense and do what he can.
He is a smart young 27 year old man with an amazing wife , a future and is a good person deep down but has severe issues that he must deal with regarding his pathology. What he did is sooooo wrong but he has been caught. No need for judge and jury anymore, full admission of guilt. An intention to do the right thing going forward. Please stop the feeding frenzy. He is not a member of ISIS nor a rapist or child molester. He conned people including me. That said, I am happy with my BBE wah.
Give him a chance to get help and sort it out and do what he can. Please end this now and give it some time. He would like to make things right I am sure and is working on a way to do that but please let up for now and see what happens.

OK, comparing Mason to ISIS, or a rapist or a child molester?  Hold on a second, Steve!!  Talk about trying to throw perspective on the situation and making a complete balls up of it.

Firstly, Mason done wrong.  He scammed people and made a lot of money out of it.  He needs to own up to this but I don't think his behaviour will ever change.  Steve here makes the most ridiculous, out of context comparisons you think of to try and get people thinking that Mason is really an OK kind of guy.

Also, by Steve Snider posting this very comment he IS adding fuel to the fire. 

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Linguistic Analysis of Mason Marangella's Coming Clean Post

I am here to be completely honest and forthcoming about everything that has occurred over the past two months with my company, without the help from any marketer or PR representative and write to you directly from the heart.
Mason starts off telling the reader that he’s going to be honest and what he is saying is coming from his heart. This nicely sets up the following paragraphs.


I had a conversation yesterday with a friend of mine, who is also a member on many of the forums which Vertex has been the topic of discussion. He too is a small business owner, and has had first hand experience in dealing with a business that had to address issues of integrity. He told me a story about a former employee who plagiarized years worth of articles in his magazine, got caught, and continued to lie about where the articles were taken from. Even when confronted with the evidence, this person was not capable of telling the truth, and just could not face the reality of his actions. When hearing this, I saw myself, and realized, “I’m that guy!”
Mason sort of owns up and brings in a moment of enlightenment to the situation, hinting at a religious / spiritual theme.  The story about the magazine article thing is actually true. 


I’ve yet to listen to my own heart. I ignored the voice of my higher power and allowed my ego to dictate my response instead of speaking the truth. I am here to set the record straight about me and my company, no matter the consequences.
Contradictory information from Mason. In the first paragraph he states he will “write to you directly from the heart” now he says: “I’ve yet to listen to my own heart.” Come on Mason, you can do better than this old nonsense.  Make up your mind.   He also hints again at spirituality with talk of higher power and speaking the truth.  Really puts a bullshit spin on things. 


Me (Mason Marangella) I did go to the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with a BA in Sociology and a minor in Education. I do not have a degree in electrical engineering and did not clearly represent this to my customers, dealers, and artists. Although I have many skills of my own as an electronic designer, I’m not nearly as skilled as the engineers that have been supporting me in developing the Vertex products.
Claims to be an “electronic designer” yet he hasn’t designed anything. It was shown that he outsources his repair work.  Here Mason shows his narcissism and talks about skills which he quite clearly doesn't have.   This is a good example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.


Ken Volpe
Ken has been a long time friend who has great sales experience, and offered his help in finding new dealers for Vertex products and supporting dealer relationships. He has only been working with Vertex since April of this year.
Ken had no idea what was going on with the Axis Wah, nor did I make him aware of what the product was in any way. Any information that he passed on to dealers was based solely on what I told him. His involvement in the company was strictly to work with dealers and be a representative; however, in light of the Axis Wah controversy he started to defend me, believing me when I said the things that were being written about me and Vertex on the forums were untrue. He is my friend, and wanted to support me, and I let him down by not clearly telling him the truth and allowing him to separate himself from the company before he became implicated in the Axis Wah controversy.
Poor Ken. However he got involved in this mess I’ll never know. Notice Mason tries to diminish the issue by called it the “Axis Wah controversy”. What about the cables, Mason?  The volume pedal?  The Blackout wah? 


Michael Landau
Michael Landau and Vertex are parting ways, and both of his signature products, the Landau Boost and Landau Chorus, will no longer be produced after this final run releases this month. Michael Landau has been instrumental in helping me grow my business and develop products over the last several years. He’s been incredibly generous with his time, guidance, and friendship to me, and I am forever grateful.
This is one of the best bits. Mason knows that Landau would be reading this so this probably accounts for how obsequious this particular section is. He seems to have wangled one last money making last minute run on the Landau Chorus and Landau Boost pedals. Probably Landau’s good nature agreed to this. I think it’s disgraceful.


He trusted me with his name and allowed me the opportunity to do two signature products with him. I damaged his trust, our business relationship, and our friendship by my choice to market and sell a rebranded product in the Axis Wah, which ultimately damaged the credibility of my company and called into question the validity of his signature products despite being one of a kind, unique products.
Note Mason's use of the term "one of a kind , unique products".  What an unusual thing to say whilst "coming clean".  It's obvious that Mason is a narcissist and has grandiose ideas about himself and his products.  This is the equivalent of handing out business cards while at a funeral. 


I know that Michael and I both believe in the quality and sound of the products that we created together- they are incredible. However, I understand that being associated with me and Vertex calls into question his integrity, and this is certainly not what Michael signed on for, and in no way does he deserve to have his name disparaged on account of my actions.
Again Mason massaging his own ego and calling the quality and sound of his products "incredible".   He didn't design anything - he gooped a BBE wah pedal.   He ripped off the design of a Dunlop Cry Baby.  He built a simple booster.  Anyone with a soldering iron and access to a few schematics could do these things.


I will always consider Michael to be a friend and wish him nothing but the best. He has inspired me in so many ways since I was a 6 years old: listening to his rich ambient guitar tones on James Taylor’s “New Moon Shine” cassette tape that my parents would play in their old Nissan Sentra with my brother and I in the back seat. As I developed as a guitar player and listener of music, I got into Michael’s solo career and the rest was history. I can’t go a week without listening to something that Michael has played on. It’s truly been a privilege and an honor to work with Michael over the last few year and have been some of the most memorable experiences of my life.
The most sickening part of Mason's post.  He manipulates the readers by giving rich details about himself as a child listening to Landau's playing on a James Taylor album in the family car.  Pure manipulation on his part.  Note how he sucks up to Landau by saying that he can't go a "week without listening to something that Michael has played on".  He sounds like a teenager who has just broken up with his girlfriend. 

Also, Mason knows that Landau would be reading this and tries to appeal to Landau's sensitive side by using this family unit imagery and calling Landau "Michael", thus making them seem like old friends in a comfortable, trustworthy and familiar setting.
--------------------

Overall I think Mason is full of shit.  I wouldn't trust this man, his work or anything that he builds.  He wants to manipulate people in the hopes that he can rebuild his business.  He has an over-inflated ego and high flying ideas about himself.  He will never change his ways and will never face up to the full extent of what he's done.

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Joe Bonamassa's Response


http://forum.jbonamassa.com/viewtopic.php?id=27168
Hey Guys,

I'm sorry to be chiming in so late but I must warn all you fellow gear nerds to stay away from Vertex effects and pedalboard services. Mason is not truthful nor is his work good or in most cases his own. He had me on his site without permission as a user and happy customer. I am/was neither happy nor do I use any of his products. My pedalboard sounded awful, took tons of gain away, and added a huge ground hum. It also cost $1400 and that was after I pitched a fit when the $2000 bill came to my tour manager all the while seeing unauthorized You Tube videos of my " new rig" a rig I never tried nor signed off on. Fortunately Dave Friedman at Rack Systems came in and saved the day for $400. All I wanted and asked for was to have some cables cut to size. I didn't want to waste Dave's time so I gave it to Mason. BIG MISTAKE.... I am very disturbed by his actions and have heard recently that he has been called out on some Wah Wah pedal stuff. Bad News Bear that cat is unfortunately. So... In closing...

Just trying to keep my fellow guitar nerds from getting ripped off like I was.

Caveat Emptor
Joe Bonamassa.

Monday 8 September 2014

Mason Comes Clean

 http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1477492

Dear internet community, musicians, artists, and dealers,

I am here to be completely honest and forthcoming about everything that has occurred over the past two months with my company, without the help from any marketer or PR representative and write to you directly from the heart.

I had a conversation yesterday with a friend of mine, who is also a member on many of the forums which Vertex has been the topic of discussion. He too is a small business owner, and has had first hand experience in dealing with a business that had to address issues of integrity. He told me a story about a former employee who plagiarized years worth of articles in his magazine, got caught, and continued to lie about where the articles were taken from. Even when confronted with the evidence, this person was not capable of telling the truth, and just could not face the reality of his actions. When hearing this, I saw myself, and realized, “I’m that guy!”

I’ve yet to listen to my own heart. I ignored the voice of my higher power and allowed my ego to dictate my response instead of speaking the truth. I am here to set the record straight about me and my company, no matter the consequences:

Me (Mason Marangella)

I did go to the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with a BA in Sociology and a minor in Education. I do not have a degree in electrical engineering and did not clearly represent this to my customers, dealers, and artists. Although I have many skills of my own as an electronic designer, I’m not nearly as skilled as the engineers that have been supporting me in developing the Vertex products.

Ken Volpe

Ken has been a long time friend who has great sales experience, and offered his help in finding new dealers for Vertex products and supporting dealer relationships. He has only been working with Vertex since April of this year.

Ken had no idea what was going on with the Axis Wah, nor did I make him aware of what the product was in any way. Any information that he passed on to dealers was based solely on what I told him. His involvement in the company was strictly to work with dealers and be a representative; however, in light of the Axis Wah controversy he started to defend me, believing me when I said the things that were being written about me and Vertex on the forums were untrue. He is my friend, and wanted to support me, and I let him down by not clearly telling him the truth and allowing him to separate himself from the company before he became implicated in the Axis Wah controversy.

Michael Landau

Michael Landau and Vertex are parting ways, and both of his signature products, the Landau Boost and Landau Chorus, will no longer be produced after this final run releases this month.

Michael Landau has been instrumental in helping me grow my business and develop products over the last several years. He’s been incredibly generous with his time, guidance, and friendship to me, and I am forever grateful.

He trusted me with his name and allowed me the opportunity to do two signature products with him. I damaged his trust, our business relationship, and our friendship by my choice to market and sell a rebranded product in the Axis Wah, which ultimately damaged the credibility of my company and called into question the validity of his signature products despite being one of a kind, unique products.

I know that Michael and I both believe in the quality and sound of the products that we created together- they are incredible. However, I understand that being associated with me and Vertex calls into question his integrity, and this is certainly not what Michael signed on for, and in no way does he deserve to have his name disparaged on account of my actions.

I will always consider Michael to be a friend and wish him nothing but the best. He has inspired me in so many ways since I was a 6 years old: listening to his rich ambient guitar tones on James Taylor’s “New Moon Shine” cassette tape that my parents would play in their old Nissan Sentra with my brother and I in the back seat. As I developed as a guitar player and listener of music, I got into Michael’s solo career and the rest was history. I can’t go a week without listening to something that Michael has played on. It’s truly been a privilege and an honor to work with Michael over the last few year and have been some of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Donations

I donate my time and money (from proceeds from Vertex sales) to two Title I public schools in Oakland, CA. At ASCEND Elementary school, I helped run their weekly morning music program with two other teachers at the school. I was there a few hours each week, to help run the only musical enrichment that these elementary students got all week due to lack of funding and budgetary restrictions. I plan to continue for this school year as students settle into the “back-to-school” routine and we resume the program (typically the 2nd or 3rd week of school).

At the second school, Berkley Maynard Academy, I use proceeds from the sale of Vertex products (except the Landau Chorus where Michael Landau chose his own charity to donate) to pay for school supplies for teachers and students, and fieldtrips for families that cannot afford it. I have attached a copy of a check that I wrote for the 5th grade camping trip an an example, however several other donations were provided of the last few years. This money was used to pay for students whose families could not afford to send them away on an overnight trip and have an experience in the California wilderness. The check is made out to BMA (Berkley Maynard Academy) TAP (Teacher, Administrator, Parents group):

Vertex Axis Wah

The Axis Wah is a rebranded BBE Ben Wah. The following things were changed: LED, Bottom Plate, Rubber Footpad, control knob, faceplate, and Wah pot on the NOS version only (changed to a different 100K S-taper pot). The silk screening was removed from the enclosures as was the metal emblem riveted into the top of the footpad. We would adjust the pot to give the wah a more full-range sweep, but this could have also been done by the customer themselves. All of the aesthetic changes and parts manufactured for the changes were done in California, except for the Wah pot on the NOS Wah that was sourced in the USA, but likely from Taiwan or China.

I got a hold of a BBE Wah pedals several years ago and found them to be really great examples of the vintage Vox tone, but looked awful. I was working on a wah of my own at the time, but needed more time and money to develop it, and thought that this would be a good springboard to get a wah product out there to help launch my future wah down the road. I experimented with a few different changes (above) to improve the aesthetics and make it look classy, and it became my best selling product. As much as I wanted to continue to develop my own Wah design, the Axis Wah seemed to pick up more and more traction each month and would push my own design efforts back. My idea was that I would just clear out my existing inventory of Axis Wahs, but this never happened. The product was selling well, customers liked it, and I was too oblivious to admit or acknowledge that I was selling a lie.

***ADDITION as of 9/8/14 @ 12:03AM***

To clarify, I have no NDA agreement with BBE or any involvement with the design or manufacturing of the Ben Wah.

Vertex Volume Pedals

This was manufactured as described on the website and in the manual.

Website: https://www.vertexeffects.com/effect...o-volume-pedal

Manual: https://www.vertexeffects.com/docs/m...lumeStereo.pdf

I do state that is based on a Boss FV-500 platform and that this product is a modification. There is also the words “modified in the USA” on the front of the volume pedal. The modifications require getting rid of components that aren’t necessary and as a result hurt the tone. However, the result of the modification is significant, and creates an appreciable difference between a stock Boss Volume pedal and the modified version. I am sure I am not the first to figure this modification out, but to my knowledge nobody was offering this to the public and after I did a few modifications for various artists, I got emails from clients requesting it which was the reason for releasing this as a product item.

Vertex Cables

We buy our cable from Belden, it is made in the USA. The sleeving of the cables, termination, soldering and all assembly of the cables from there all happens in house. We terminate with high quality Neutrik end (European versions, not the Chinese Rean versions) and place two layers of heat shrink around the ends so that they connectors don’t come loose and also protect the cable as best as possible. They are not directional in shielding as a twisted pair shielded cable is. They are coax cables. I offer a lifetime warranty on them.

I experimented with many cables and found this one to be the best of even the most expensive boutique brands when put in the context of a pedalboard and multiple types of amplifiers (both clean and high gain) and different pickup outputs (both single coil and humbucking). This was also true of all testing and comparing we did with multiple artists and customers. When I was experimenting with different cables in effort to spec my own (which never happened once I started sourcing from Belden), I noticed the Pete Cornish was also using a Belden mic cable for his instrument cables. I justified to myself that Pete was a respected figure in the industry and his cables sounded great, why couldn’t I do the same for a cable that I found to be superior for my purposes.

This justification however, did not make statements about my cables any more accurate. The bottom line is that it is my responsibility to represent my products exactly as they are, and I did not, and I should have laid out this information for customers to make a fully informed choice.

Landau Chorus

This was marketed as exactly what it was, we do match this product to Michael Landau’s trusty old SCH-1, there are many changes, and requires incredibly invasive re-work, however Michael stipulated that he wanted the product to remain in this enclosure as part of the signature product instead of doing a new PCB and putting into a standard Vertex enclosure. Landau has always spoken highly of this product and agrees that it matches his original Arion Chorus.

Landau Boost

This product was marketed exactly as described. It is fully transparent, no color to your sound, and was developed with Michael Landau’s supervision. It is a great product, and has functions that no other other Boost possesses in addition to not adding any change to your tone, just whatever you have, but made louder. To my knowledge this product shares no similarities with other existing Boost pedals, and we used part of the design ideas in the output buffers used on the pedalboard systems that I built to help create the colorless boost function of this product. We also use a similar idea found in our dual buffer pedalboard systems to isolate the impedance of the Volume/EXP function that can be connected to the Boost.

Landau has commented and would continue to agree that his product sounds great, and does exactly what is advertised.

Vertex Boost

This product was marketed exactly as described. It is fully transparent and adds no color to your sound. It was developed off of the Boost that Michael Landau oversaw in the Landau Boost and shares the same overall PCB with a few changes in functionality. The boost circuitry is identical in both boosts, but the Vertex Boost offers a few extra functions, being able to use the Boost as a volume control when the Boost is in bypass. It is a great product, and has functions that no other Boost possesses in addition to not adding any change to your tone, just whatever you have, but made louder. To my knowledge this product shares no similarities with other existing Boost pedals, and we used part of the design ideas in the output buffers used on the pedalboard systems that I built to help create the colorless boost function of this product. We also use a similar idea in our buffers to isolate the impedance of the Volume/EXP function that can be connected to the Boost.

Summary

I was dishonest in the marketing of the Axis Wah. As a businessman I have an obligation to fully disclose the nature of my products to my customers and I did not. On top of it, I lied when questions arose about the origin of the product and didn’t identify the Axis Wah as a rebranded pedal. I dishonored my friends, allies, customers, artists, and family by not disclosing this, and moreover by not being culpable immediately once these facts were apparent. My fears and insecurities as a human being and how it would impact me trumped the necessity to be honest and truthful. I have no excuse.

This has been something that I’ve struggled with my entire life, and I feel that God, The Universe, Karma, or whatever dogma you subscribe to has been trying to tell me to “WAKE UP”,and it has taken something as momentous as this for me to finally “get it”.

It is truly the most difficult experience that I have had in my life, but has also taught me the most important lesson in my life: there is no gray area in the truth. You are either 100% truthful or you are not, there is nothing in between. There isn’t always immediate gratification in the truth, sometimes it sucks, and sometimes things don’t get better right away, or at all, but standing in the space of honesty and truth is the only place where I can be free.

Moving Forward

I will work tirelessly to make customers who purchased the Axis Wah whole again. It is going to be a long and arduous process. I’m working now on securing funding so that I can begin offering refunds to customers that purchased the Axis Wah, as there was no integrity behind the sale of this product. I fully recognize that I need to seek guidance and do some intensive work on myself and really get to the core of my behavior and how I can address this problem I have moving forward. All I ask is for time and your patience in getting money back to Axis Wah owners.

If you are an owner of the Vertex cable(s), please also feel free to contact me as I did not describe that my supplier was Belden, the cable was a coax, and misrepresented the directional functionality of the cable as a result of not being twisted pair shielded.

Sincerely,

Mason Marangella

Sunday 7 September 2014

Pete Thorn - Classy Guy

Pete Thorn is a great guy.  He has officially pulled all of his Vertex demos from his Youtube page.  Great stuff, Pete!  I'm glad to see that Mason is finally getting what he deserves.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1477159