How Circuit Bending Saved Me

For those of you unfamiliar with Circuit Bending, the general idea in a musical context goes like this:

You buy a small consumer electronic with audio circuitry inside (a child's toy, a thrifted digital keyboard, or a guitar effect pedal).You crack open it's shell and play with its guts with wire, switches and solder until it makes a sound it was never intended to make.

Circuit Bending truly is at the sonic roots of rock music. The first fuzz pedal ever designed was a reverse engineered stomp-box of an accidental distortion in the mixing board during Marty Robbin's recording session for "Don't Worry" in 1961. Little did Glenn Snoddy, the engineer, know he would become the father of not only guitar effects, but also an early ancestor of modern circuit benders.

Those ahead of our time know that destruction is at the heart of creation. New and interesting cultural phenomenon can only be reborn from shattering what is acceptable, normal, and mundane. Circuit Bending's entire philosophy embodies this idea by destroying normal sounds intended for a specific purpose.

It's 1966. This time, it's a toy amplifier on an unsuspecting desk. The circuit shorts and begins making the sounds that only synthesizers of the current time were supposedly capable of making. Reed Ghazala begins his journey as a master Circuit Bender, and the father of bending. Since then he has worked with artists like Peter Gabriel, Blue Man Group, Nine Inch Nails, and the Rolling Stones to create otherworldly instruments made from often simple household circuitry.

Beginning your journey into circuit bending is as easy as buying a cheap guitar effect pedal and not being afraid to ruin it. I first started bending in college, when I was struggling with depression. I had no incentive to do what needed to be done in my life. It was during these dark days I discovered audiophiles who circuit bend on YouTube.

I discovered channels like Look Mum, No Computer. Some of his bends include Sega Genesis Synthesizers and and organ made entirely of Furbies. I found Simon The Magpie soon after, who can turn a five dollar child's microphone into a functioning guitar effect.

My first bend was a FAB Distortion, one of the cheapest distortion pedals on the market, in a red plastic enclosure. I had owned this effect for over a decade, and it was about to be transformed. I opened it up and began touching a length of wire to different solder joints, being careful to avoid the power circuit. A wave of sudden feedback shot into my brain like searing hot lead. It's an amazing feeling, finding something that was always there, but never discovered. The globe has been all but charted, the moon landed on, but there will always been something else to discover in the deceptive simplicity of consumer audio electronics.

I spent the rest of the night and early morning transfixed in my cluttered room, solder burning, and sixty cycle hum thumping in my ears. The next few weeks were all switches, potentiometers, transistors, capacitors. The feeling of uncharted territory is addicting.

Before long I had bent about 6 different guitar effects, and even got paid to do a few bends for some of my closer friends involved in music. One of my favorites was a green Octave Fuzz clone that I was able to bend into a Police Siren, an arpeggiator, a synth piano. The sounds it makes are truly unique, and in some cases have never been done before. I called it the Frankenstein Fuzz.

I have some personal advice for any musicians looking to try circuit bending:

Do your research.

Never bend anything you can't afford to lose.

buy a high quality soldering iron, and helping hands. You are going to need help from some quality clamps.

Always solder in a ventilated area.

Never buy electronic components from Amazon (it's like throwing money away).

Always have fun, and bend on!