This business card is also a distortion pedal
Producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou mixes business with pleasure
Now, we get handed plenty of business cards here at MR, but this is pretty much the greatest we've ever seen - and it comes from guru of all things heavy, Kurt Ballou.
The producer and Converge guitarist's current card doubles up as a PCB, you see. Solder it up, add $40-$50 worth of parts, and you'll have yourself a distortion pedal.
Ballou says the design is called the Brutalist Jr, and when it's released in 2017 under the GCI name, it should look a little like the prototype below.
Until then, you'll have to first bump into Kurt Ballou (possibly by hanging around his Massachusetts-based GodCity Studio), then get busy with the soldering iron. Good luck!
Get the MusicRadar Newsletter
Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.
Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.
NAMM 2025: “That’s my little secret weapon… Old Blue” – Morley teams up with Pantera’s Rex Brown for signature wah pedal with an “intense monstrous sweep”
NAMM 2025: "I want people to sound a little less guitar-y and more magical!": Yvette Young and Walrus Audio's Qi Etherealizer might well be the atmospheric guitar pedal you'll want to use with any instrument or voice