Pedals, stompboxes, noisemakers. They’ve existed in one form or another for the last seventy years, giving every musician with a power cord a way of formulating their tone and subsequently their entire sound into one single meteor or one ambient swell. Distortion made punk possible, flange basically is The Edge, fuzz in Jack White’s hands…these are tones and manipulations inextricable from the overall affect of their creators.

The Art of the Stompbox looks at the industrial and artistic development of pedals throughout the last century, with a special focus on the livingly designed and technologically precise pieces of art now being produced. From the exhibitions website:

The Art of the Stompbox will exhibit for the first time a great number of hand-painted, screen-printed, or sculpted effect pedals; drawing attention to this recent phenomenon in contemporary culture that represents a demand and passion for transcendent tone and novel sound, as well as visual style. Also featured is a film produced by Henry Kaiser with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline (funded in part by the Levy-Lipson Educational Fund) that explores the natures and use of stompboxes in American electronic music culture. Be it jazz, blues, rock, country, or experimental music, pedals are an important part of today’s sonic expression for players of all electronic instruments.

Over the next two months the Museum of Making Music is hosting an event a month in connection with the exhibition, all focusing on live demonstrations of the remarkably specific uses now being employed on these little buggers. You can find out more information on the Museum’s website.