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.
Get Wet - Boutique
Warbly, seasick, pitch-warping delay in metallic-purple glitter with a purple LED. It sounds like being underwater without getting drowned. Six knobs (Delay, Speed, Depth, Wave, Blend, Feedback) that'll take you from a light vibrato through chorus into full tape-warp queasy.
$120
Octaver 1 - Boutique
an octave fuzz on the PedalPCB Octaclave board: a note an octave above what you play, fuzzed. Volume, Tone and Gain, jacks on the top edge, in a sky blue 125B.
$120
Uneasy Cadence - Boutique
a tube vibe named for the board it is built on, the Different Noises Uneasy Cadence, which nobody sells any more: two 12AU7s standing up out of the face, with speed, depth and volume. The parts list came together through Reddit and every resistor was checked with a meter. Needs 12V at 500mA, center negative.
$300
See all 21 pedals » 18 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.
The Popo - Boutique
My Siren and Police Lights boards in one purple 125B: a 555 cop-car siren that literally sounds like a police siren, two flashing lights, and a CV jack. One of a kind.
$80
Octave Avalanche - Boutique
My Octave Avalanche in a blue 125B: seven square waves an octave apart, each on its own toggle, with my Clean Boost inside for gain. It sounds like a soundtrack being played backwards. One of a kind.
$80
Squawk - Boutique
an Atari Punk Console in a clear 125B, two 555s with two knobs and a toggle, the 9V battery on show behind the lid and a speaker on the back. The cheapest thing in the shop and it squawks.
$35
Circuit-Bent Oddities
Not pedals - bent, rewired, and re-purposed electronics that make sounds they were never supposed to.
The Groaner - Pointless Electronics PE-002
Pick it up and it groans. An ISD1820 recording module with its pitch resistor swapped for 470K, a tilt switch across the play button, and a speaker behind a grille drilled into the front of a silver 125B. No knobs, no switches. Its page lives in the Pointless Electronics catalogue.
$60
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.
$160
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."