Dotcomformat

Just throwing out a wild idea here, don't read too much into it yet...

Suppose that the stooges found a way to eliminate many of the barriers
to getting custom panels fast. The catch would be, that the finish
would not match the current MOTM standard, and might not be able to
match dotcom exactly either.

I know that this group is primarily concerned with dot com format
panels, but the larger questions are worth asking to everyone.

Instead of hassling with unreliable paint shops, expensive screen
printers and too-busy metal vendors, suppose all of that was brought
in-house. We're talking anodized panels in a choice of colors, and
laser engraved graphics. Right now we provide exact match panels, but
at the expense of being slow, slow, slow (and a great hassle to us).

Since everything would be in house, truly custom panels could be done
much quicker. For the sake of argument, let's say that they would cost
$25 or so for a 2U panel.

If we were to offer replacement custom panels for existing factory
MOTM and/or dotcom designs as well as the popular third party
conversions, how many people would be geeked enough to have that
custom blue MOTM or dotcom synth, that they would go to the expense of
replacing all their panels?

As a bonus, there could be several graphics treatments to choose from:
- MOTM standard layout but enhanced with panel edge stripes
- MOTM format but with jack fields broken up, flow diagram graphics,
multiple knobs sizes, etc. (think CMS)
- E-MU modular style format, signal inputs to the left, control inputs
to the bottom, outputs to the right

Is this a crazy idea, or what?

Moe