Funny Little Boxes 1991

The Funny Little Boxes 1991 is a dual-drive overdrive pedal handmade in the UK, first released in 2021. Its whole reason for existing is Pearl Jam's debut album Ten: the builder's stated aim was "to capture the sound of the Ten album by Pearl Jam and the blueprint for the sound is a mid-forward drive pedal being pushed into a cranked, high-gain amplifier"¹. Rather than one clipping stage doing all the work, it runs two cascading gain stages, so you can set a light edge on the first and let it drive the second into heavier saturation.

Guitar World describes the circuit as two gain stages, the first in the ballpark of a Tube Screamer driving a second, Marshally gain stage, on the basis that Stone Gossard and Mike McCready pushed their JCMs with overdrive pedals on Pearl Jam's debut². The pedal is handmade in the UK by Andy Ilgunas and sold for £99, approximately $130²³.

The controls

The control layout is straightforward: six knobs, no switches, no menus. Gearnews noted when the pedal launched that it has two gain knobs for its two gain stages, where the first one drives the second, plus a three-band EQ section and a standard master volume control⁵.

The two gain knobs are the heart of the pedal. Because the first stage feeds the second, you can dial in anything from a gritty boost to full-blown lead tones⁴: a low Gain 1 setting into a higher Gain 2 keeps the Tube Screamer-style midrange edge in front of the heavier stage, while running both high stacks the two stages for the saturated, punchy character the maker compares to a JCM800⁴. Gearnews' Jef summed up the layout at launch: "Overall, I quite like the simple control layout, and the demo video below sounds pretty good as well."⁵

History and versions

The 1991 was Funny Little Boxes' first original pedal design, launched in 2021 and priced at £99, with the first two batches already sold out at announcement¹⁵. It grew out of a challenge from the YouTube channel Let's Play All¹: Matt Webster, a Pearl Jam tribute band guitarist who runs the channel, challenged the builder to recreate the Ten tones, and Gossard and McCready's Ten-era sounds became the design inspiration². The circuit itself was a collaboration between Andy Ilgunas, Marc Dunn of SoundLad Liverpool, and Simon Andrews of JSA Effects³.

The original run used a distinctive pink enclosure. In June 2024 that changed: the supplier ran out of that particular shade of pink and could not source any more, so the builder moved to limited edition colorways, starting with a Gold Sparkle finish⁶. The Gold Sparkle is the first in a line of new finish runs⁶.

There is also a DIY route. GuitarPCB publishes a build document for a bonus PCB based on the Funny Little Boxes 1991, described as a unique dual-drive overdrive inspired by the tones of Pearl Jam's Ten era, combining two independent gain stages with a 3-band EQ⁴. That PCB is only available as a free bonus with qualifying orders and is not sold on its own⁴.

What reviewers said

MusicRadar's review team found the pedal stands on its own merits rather than trading on nostalgia. Their overall verdict³:

MusicRadar review team³

The mid-focused character is a direct consequence of the design: the first gain stage sits in Tube Screamer territory², which pushes the second stage the same way Gossard and McCready's overdrive pedals pushed their Marshall JCMs on Ten². Guitar World notes the album's distorted tones are thought to have been made using a combination of Marshall JCMs, Ibanez SD9 or TS9 pedals and a SansAmp Distortion¹, so players chasing that sound with separate pieces can compare the 1991's two-in-one approach against a Boss SD-1 vs Ibanez TS9 style pairing.

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