NOTPEDALS.COM: GIVING INDEPENDENT PEDAL MAKERS A VOICE & OFFERING EXPANDED NOISE OPTIONS FOR PLAYERS!
Melbourne musician Alex Bray has long been fascinated by the sounds that shape great guitar tone. From his teenage years obsessing over Jeff Lang’s slide work to his adult passion for boutique effects, it seems inevitable that he’d one day create something that bridges musicians and the people crafting their sonic tools. That something is notpedals.com, a new online hub dedicated to independent effects pedal makers around the world. Alex Bray chats to Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips
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“I grew up playing in bands all around Australia,” Bray recalls. “We did some touring, even played a set on Rove Live. But after years on the road, I got tired of the constant travel and decided to focus more on recording and staying closer to home.”
That downtime reignited his curiosity for tone and gear. “Early on, it was Jeff Lang who blew my mind,” he says. “I saw him live at the Espy when I was about twelve. I went up to him after the show and asked him about his pedals, that’s the first time I learned what a compression pedal was.” From there, Bray dove deep into the world of effects, drawing inspiration from artists like Radiohead and Mogwai, bands that used pedals not just for colour, but as compositional tools.
The seed for notpedals.com was planted during a chat with a friend in Canada, a builder who goes by Sleep Champion Devices. “He’d made this beautiful Germanium boost, and I asked how he was selling them. He said a bit on his site, a bit on Reverb, and some through local shops,” Bray explains. “That’s when it hit me, there wasn’t a central place where these small builders, the ones beneath the ‘big six’ boutique brands, could reach musicians.”
The site quietly launched in May 2025, following months of groundwork and conversations within the pedal-building community. “I put the word out online and got about 280 responses from builders wanting to list. I narrowed that down to around 50 to start with,” Bray says. “I make sure I get to know the builders personally, chat online, grab a beer and really understand what motivates them and how they approach quality control before they come on board.”
The name notpedals has a more domestic origin. “About ten years ago I was selling and swapping a lot of pedals,” he laughs. “One night I told my partner we needed to talk about something, and she just looked at me and said, ‘It’s not pedals, is it?’ That stuck.”
Bray’s mission is to give a platform to true independents, makers producing anywhere from one to 500 pedals a year. “Once you get beyond that number, they usually have their own following. The ideal builder for us might be making twenty pedals a year, just enough to show the world their work.”
Running the site is a one-man operation, though Bray credits his community as “equal co-contributors.” “I built the site myself, learned everything as I went. It’s been a huge learning curve, but the response has been incredible,” he says. “The friendships that have come out of it, with builders from Iceland, Mexico, the US, that’s been the most rewarding part.”
Among the many discoveries hosted on notpedals.com, Bray singles out two favourites: the Echosphere, “a mind-blowing delay system from a US builder – not even a pedal, more like a delay universe,” and the Retrograde Void Gazer, the site’s current “pedal of the month.” “It looks like a wall of fuzz, but it’s actually incredibly nuanced,” he says. “It just livens everything up.”
Some creators listed on the site produce only one-off designs, like Quirk Effects from the US. “Every pedal he makes is unique…unique art, unique circuit, everything,” Bray says. “They’re gone within twelve hours of being listed.”
Despite curating and connecting with pedal makers globally, Bray doesn’t build pedals himself. “I once modified a Big Muff when I was sixteen by adding a power supply, that’s as far as it went,” he admits. “The real talent is with the builders. I just provide the space.”
Reliability and trust are crucial to the platform. “We want to give these small builders the same retail confidence as the big brands,” Bray says. “Many offer lifetime repair or replacement warranties. We’ve only had one pedal with an issue so far, and the builder replaced it instantly. That level of trust is everything when people are buying from lesser-known names.”
Melbourne’s pedal scene has also played a big role in shaping notpedals.com. “There’s this amazing group called the Pedal Wizards – guys from Galahcore Effects, Dazztronics, Kink Pedals,” Bray says. “We’ve met up, talked shop, and I’ve been inspired by what’s happening locally.”
Bray plans to meet many of his international builders in person next year on a trip to the US and Canada, and hopes to create a mini-documentary about the indie pedal movement. “Every builder has an incredible story, often they’re touring musicians or tinkerers making art in their spare room,” he says. “I’d love to tell those stories more widely through videos and interviews.”
As for the grand vision? “I’d like notpedals.com to become the place musicians go to find the next generation of classic pedals, the ones we’ll talk about in 20 years the way we do about a Fuzz Face or a Klon Centaur,” Bray says. “It’s about keeping variety alive in music. Because the more voices we have, the better the noise gets.”