The brass eye-catcher pictured above has been named the Candela VibroPhase. It's a guitar effects unit like no other and creates a rotary speaker effect with a touch of phase, wah, vibrato and tremolo without the need for a battery or power brick – just an inexpensive tea candle.

The Candela VibroPhase is the brainchild of "mad scientist" Zachary Vex of ZVex Effects, a company known for pushing the tone envelope with such classics as the Fuzz Factory and the Box of Rock. The project began with an idea to add a phaser/vibrato unit to the company's line up and mushroomed from there into a mechanical work of steampunk art with a modern twist.

Vex developed a new current-starved circuit that could operate on the tiny amount of power resulting from candle light shining on small solar cells, mixed in a miniature Stirling heat engine to drive a spinning disc and added effect control in the shape of a neodymium sphere magnet.