Ok, so if you’ve ben following most things VF, you know that the oldest and arguably most well-known thing in my general stable is this thing called the 23, which is a gated fuzz with a couple interesting mods that I dreamed up when first building that make it a little unusual, highly playable and potentially one of those secret weapon processors that you keep around for those special mixes. For those who don’t know this stuff, yeah, I make a thing called a 23. Why the name Because it was the 23rd thing I built, which was coincidentally the first production box I built a good second ago in the dark year of our lord 2011 – and I’ve continued to make in some sort of iteration or another ever since. This, as one would surmise, it the current iteration. In Eurorack. Because space is limited at the homestead and pedals take up space so why not rack it up and keep the starship humming?

Florid prose aside, at its heart it’s still the exact same circuit as the original pedal. Meaning if you wanted, you could very much plug a guitar into this and go to town. I’ll neither stop youl comment or judge. However, when you start putting modular-level voltage into this guy, its character changes pretty substantially. The gating is left by the wayside but somehow upper harmonic enforcement becomes pronounced – fundamentals as well. Not to mention little chirps and squeaks suddenly inherit a whole other character. The tone control is pretty fancy, too. All said, think of it as some sort of classy sound-gooderizer that you can blend into things at just the right moments to add some well-needed spice into your stems. Or whatever y’all call music these days.

Business Stuff

Price for this guy is $149, which includes shipping and handling (whatever handling actually is). Hopefully that’s a decent approximation of utility and value in the current hyper-capitalistic price-gouged inflation  fest that is our contemporary global economy. I’m doing all that I can to keep things as affordable as humanly possible, but until the dust clears and those in a position to profit over human misery have been brought to knee, I at least have to cover expenses. However, please keep in mind that each one of these is lovingly built by hand and while we’ve spared no expense on quality, we have spared expenses on marketing, packaging, merchandising and other general business necessities. In other words, don’t expect a neat box with a glossy zine promoting other products or an interactive DVD where you can compare models, etc. We went this way intentionally in order to provide you, the public, with an affordable, quality module without up-selling you on the fluff. What can I say, we’re practical weirdos who stand behind an honest product and would rather not subject you to a sales pitch. Why? Because after over two decades of being firmly entrenched in the world of diy experimental music, it’s all we know. Maybe one day this will change, but until that watershed moment, we’re still here to offer you honest gear at an honest price and write about our singular endeavors in the collective third person.

If you decide to take the plunge, we ship priority mail from Ithaca, New York, typically from the mail room of a large research institution that dominates the general economy of said town, for anyone really into specifics. In the case of international orders, we’ll do whatever we can to get it to you in a reasonable amount of time with tracking attached – but kindly remember that this decade is currently defaulting to perpetual toxic weirdness, so patience is probably a good thing to muster. Either way, I’ll do what I can to get things to you in a sane and reasonable manner.

Additional Info

• Power is provided by the usual ribbon cable (included) – red stripe down into the shrouded header. Power draw is minimal – probably less than 100 ma, positive and negative.
• As with all audio electronics that have exposed circuitry, I am in no way am responsible for electrocution, injury, loss of life, etc. due to misuse of this product, act of angry deity, etc. I trust that you’ll do the right thing in the end and not do something foolish like lick this or perform in the bathtub or something, but hey, gotta cover my backside.
• Depth is also minimal – definitely skiff-friendly.
• Width is 10 hp. I like that size – it seems functional. Could I have made it smaller, yeah, sure. but as someone who actual plays one of these things in live performance settings, it’s nice to actually be able to access knobs without a pair of tweezers when you have to.
• Finally, as with all our products, this one comes with our usual blanket, all-encompassing, non-expiring, totally transferrable “if we can fix it, we will” guarantee. I build solid and stand behind my wares, but in the event that something happens, I’d like to think I have your back. Just don’t do something asinine like melt it into a block of styrofoam or douse it in lucite. That might complicate things. Just frame that one and put it on your wall. Whatever you did, the story is worth more than the object.
• Finally finally, if any questions come up, please feel free to get in touch. We’re people persons – honest!

Also, this is a limited edition run – meaning I’m only making a finite amount of these critters (around 20). When they’re gone, that’s it.