Malaise Forever is a one-person pedal-building operation based in Columbus, Ohio, founded and run by Zac Sweeney. The shop focuses on hand-built dirt boxes — fuzz, distortion, overdrive, and gain stages — with each enclosure painted, populated, and soldered in-house using a mix of through-hole and surface-mount components. Circuits are original designs, often nodding to classic gritty tones while adding new voicing and control options.

The lineup leans heavily on high-gain and vintage-flavored dirt. The Clubber Lang, a collaboration with Mask Audio Electronics, is a Harmonic Percolator–inspired fuzz with a MOSFET input stage and asymmetrical germanium soft-clipping. The Golden Guillotine pairs a dual op-amp distortion core with a pre-distortion boost, while the Iron Fistula uses JFETs to approximate tube-amp saturation. Other pedals include the Rage Monster, a dual-stage germanium treble booster and overdrive, the Vicious Bastard Fuzz, and A Constant Ache Behind The Eyes, a dual-fuzz built around four silicon transistors that can be blended together.

The brand operates at a small-batch, boutique scale, selling through its own site, Reverb, and a handful of specialty pedal retailers. Its reputation centers on heavy, character-rich gain tones and distinctive hand-painted graphics rather than polished mass-market finishes.

Malaise Forever Customs has 1 product cataloged on Equipboard, including Overdrive Effects Pedals.