Onion Madder's Mess O' Pedals
Hand-modded oddities, glitch boxes, and warbly loops.
If you like your pedals mass-produced and factory-fresh, you're in the wrong place. If you like them fully functional and looking like they were made in some chick's bedroom closet in the middle of the desert: welcome home.
Pedals
Straight from the bench, priced per build. Free shipping on every one.
Kitty Dripper - Boutique
a four-knob distortion that clips against LEDs instead of diodes, so it stays loud and open instead of squashing flat. Separate controls for the bottom and the top, and a Moist toggle that moves where the gain sits.
$160
Wimpy Whines - Boutique
A wah with the treadle taken away and one knob in its place - park it on a vowel and every note comes out through that same nasal, mid-forward peak. One control, numbered dial, no volume to get lost in.
$145
Wet Dog - Boutique
Six knobs of chorus, which is five more than most - from a clean wide shimmer to a seasick warble that will not hold still. Rate, Shape, Dimension, Depth, Animate and Intensity.
$145
See all 15 pedals » 12 more
Synths & Noise Boxes
Instruments rather than effects - things with their own voice that do not need a guitar in front of them. Built from scratch, not bent.
Bluebottle - Dragonfly VCO and Opto Duet in a Painted Tin
My Dragonfly VCO and my Opto Duet in one small tin painted black, wired into each other. Seven knobs and two toggles on the lid, a shared volume and two toggles on the side, a 3.5 mm line in that chews on a guitar, and a rechargeable 15V battery inside. Small enough to palm. One of a kind.
$185
Garden Variety - CD4093 Drone Synth in a Floral Tin
A CD4093 quad NAND drone synth on my own stripboard layout, in a tin covered in pansies, with far more bends on it than it has any business having. Six knobs and six toggles: one toggle is power, one knob is volume, and the rest only mean anything in combination. Its own amp and speaker plus a line out, 9V battery. One of a kind.
$165
Speak n Synth
A drone synth living inside a Speak & Spell, sharing its speaker. Nothing was bent to get it there, so the toy still spells, on its own AA batteries. Six knobs and three toggles through the back, a power starve on the synth, a 12V rechargeable pack with a charge port, and a line out carrying the toy and the synth together. Made to order on a donor toy, so no two look the same.
$225
Circuit-Bent Oddities
Not pedals - bent, rewired, and re-purposed electronics that make sounds they were never supposed to.
Starjammer - Circuit-Bent Toy Guitar
A Toys "R" Us Dream Dazzlers guitar bent into a noise machine. Real touch-responsive strings play the riffs, buttons fire notes and built-in tunes, and the whammy bar warbles. Added bends: a voltage starve plus an echo with depth and feedback. Speaker pulled for a line out, custom pink LEDs throughout. One of a kind.
$180
Factory Third - Circuit-Bent Kawasaki Keyboard
A late-1990s Kawasaki toy keyboard that shipped from the factory with a whine already in it. Rather than fix the defect the build hunts down the two resistors that make it worse and puts them on knobs, so the fault becomes the voice. Pitch off two photocells or a knob, a drone mode, and a wild mode that cycles the sound chip's voices about twice a second. Line out added, every stock feature kept. One of a kind.
$220
Super Sound Warps - Crystal-Swapped VTech with Echo
A 1996 VTech toy keyboard with its clock on switches. Four crystals, three toggles, and the original is still one of them - so swapping it runs the whole toy fast or slow rather than just retuning it. A CD2399 echo with depth, feedback and mix, a switched line out, and every stock voice, drum pad and rhythm still working. One of a kind.
$175
DIY Kits
Parts kits for the guides on my DIY page: a board, a power module, a battery and connector, jumpers, every component the build calls for, and a printed instruction sheet. Three formats - solderless breadboard, permanent breadboard, and stripboard - and you pick which build you want when you order. Every part in a kit is brand new. Unlike the rest of the shelf, none of it came off my bench secondhand.
Kits are not shipping yet. I am waiting on the battery connectors before I can assemble them, so the page below is the menu and the photos are still to come.
DIY Kits
Everything one of my guides needs, in a box, with the instruction sheet printed. Breadboard, permanent breadboard or stripboard, for nine builds I have made work myself. All parts brand new.
Tape Loops
Hand-spliced cassette loops in recycled shells - $12 flat, shipping included, one of each. The label on every shell is whatever it used to be (gospel, polka, a Christmas comp) and has nothing to do with what's on the tape now. The audio is a random loop I picked, spliced to repeat forever - warble and hiss included. Don't like what's on it? Record right over it.
Tape Loops
Twelve hand-spliced cassette loops in recycled shells, each one a different tape and a different former life. The printed label has nothing to do with what is on it now. Pick a shell, or record straight over it.
$12
Next Drop
New pieces appear in small batches. Want a heads-up? Email onionmadder@gmail.com with subject "Mess O' Pedals Drop List."