Although wonkystuff has been around since 2011, the hardware side is a bit more recent — from around 2017 when Ash & John (as the noise/drone duo Orlando Ferguson) decided to start making their own instruments.

Ash took an artistic approach ("If it makes a good sound, don't worry about the engineering"), whilst John started applying his electronics and software-development background…

Here are some of the Orlando Ferguson shows:

• Chapel FM Musicathon, 2017
• Chapel FM Musicathon, 2018
• Hogwash, 2018

John's first PCBs were standalone, battery-powered, modules (the original core1, mm25, 'one unit of delay', and rbss), patched together with 3.5mm mono jack cables. Orlando Ferguson did a few shows with this arrangement until Covid and lockdown hit in 2020.

In April 2020, Ash bought an AE Modular system (Starter Rack 2), and John realised that the standalone modules could be re-purposed to conform to the AE standard - so that's what he did! The very first 3rd-party (e.g. not made by Tangible Waves) module was created in mid 2020, going on sale in September 2020. wonkystuff® was registered as a trademark in April 2021.

Since then, wonkystuff® has released over 40 modules. In 2025 was registered as wonkystuff ltd. in the UK, changing the domain name from wonkystuff.net to wonkystuff.co.uk.

rbss, kæstle drum, qvca, bd55 and kæstle are among Wonkystuffs most popular products.