Pedal Boards

[ch willie]

My pedal board is a mess. Literally, the board itself is a mess. It's got a velcro surface, and it has collected every fallen hair from each of my three dogs.

So I need to grow up and build my own board. Any words of wisdom?

I'm embarrassed at the mess, the board, the cables, but here's what I've got now:

[Don]

I'd just clean that up.

[ch willie]

I've brushed and used tape on that board, but those dog hairs are tenacious.

I saw a guitarist recently with a relatively tiny board, with the pedal closely placed. Good: small. Bad: easy to tap the wrong switch.

Ideally, I'd place the pedals side by side, but the board would be too long, hard to find a case for.

For those of you who use a lot of pedals, what do you do about a pedal board?

[Rickenjangle]

Willie, I do have a lot of pedals and my pedalboard situation is always changing but lately I've been putting a TS9 and an SD-1 in a boss 3-pedal box with a Boss tremolo pedal and calling it good.

Thing is - most people in the crowd can't tell when you use effects, as long as you're playing the 'hooks.'

Sometimes if I want to get really crazy I'll add some rack reverb. Tired of tap-dancing. I wish I could find an amp that could do it all for me with 3 channels (vintage clean, vintage hot and fluid lead tone - basically what I get with my Tube Screamer and Super Overdrive together and separate) and reverb and tremolo. Everything else is gravy.

Four button footswitch and I'd be good to go. But I can never find one amp that'll do just what I need it to do. Sooner or later there's an overdrive pedal sitting there...and then another...and then a phaser or a wah...and a clean boost...and a delay...and -oops I need a fuzz! LOL

As far as what to do about a pedalboard, find a soft sided gator mixer gig bag, measure the inside dimensions, and then build a board that'll fit inside of it.

[Don]

I use a Gator Pedal Tote with my wah off to the side. The board's too small for it with my other pedals, plus it's a raised board with the power supply underneath and I didn't like the feeling of my wah raised up.

The only drawback is that my delay, tremolo and reverb are in the second row and are harder to reach by toe.But as you said- all the pedals in a single row would make for a long board.

It's nice to not have the power supply on the board.

[Bill Moore]

I've been thinking about the ideal board for a while now. Every time I feel like I almost have a plan, I realise something else would be better. I have a few pieces of aluminum angle, and channel that would make a nice frame.
I would like to raise the top row for easier access, except flat on one end for my volume, and wah. I want it at least wide enough for 5 Boss type pedals, and the volume, and wah, so it really would leave a large footprint.
I've toyed with the idea of having the top row overlaping the lower, with a hinged rear to gain adjustment access to the lower pedal controls. If I ever actually build something, I'll post pics.

[ziess]

Here's one I made from a sheet of plywood and some chain links to hold the pedals on;

[ch willie]

Looks great, Ziess. Very tidy. That gives me some ideas. BTW, love my DC Brick. It works wonderfully.

[Offshore Angler]

Good topic. I have been thinking about how to build the perfect pedal board. Using lean concepts, some ideas I stole from Sonny Landreth and engineering optimization tools I have a new concept which, if I dare say so, may be revolutionary. If'n I get some free time this weekend I'll build the prototype. Stay tuned.

[ch willie]

You've got my attention.

[Don]

Mine too!

[ch willie]

Here's one of Landreth's from Premier. He calls it "The Runway." It folds in the middle.

I might be able to do something that simple. I don't want to go with Velcro for the surface. How do you guys stick your pedals to the board?

[Rickenjangle]

@Willie,

If I ever build a board that has handpicked pedals (i.e. one that has exactly what I want, no compromises and no danger of changing my mind) I'd probably take the bottoms off the pedals, mark the holes, and drill through the bottom of the board. Then I'd get longer screws with threads that match and run screws through the pedal bottoms into the pedals themselves. It would be the cleanest possible way to do it. But boy, that's a LOT of work.

If I were taking things that far I'd probably run the power through holes in the board as well, and use George L's.

But who keeps their pedals all the same all the time?

I agree that Velcro isn't the way to go for a permanent, roadworthy pedalboard.

[jeru]

I really like the method that ziess mentions in post #7. I myself use velcro, but our dog don't shed

ALSO - OSA: I'm jazzed to hear about/see what you've got in mind.

[ch willie]

Some good suggestions, RJ.

[dirtdog]

Before I went with my Pedal Train setup (with soft bag), I went the Zakk Wylde route. Don't have a picture of that setup anymore, but it was based on this. Worked out well.

[Rickenjangle]

Before I went with my Pedal Train setup (with soft bag), I went the Zakk Wylde route. Don't have a picture of that setup anymore, but it was based on this. Worked out well.

Looks like there are two pedalboards there with the same setup. Is that Zakk's actual rig? I thought he used all the signature pedals now.

[dirtdog]

Looks like there are two pedalboards there with the same setup. Is that Zakk's actual rig? I thought he used all the signature pedals now.

I'm going to say this might be as old as 8-10 years ago...I've had my Pedal Train since 2010 and I had the plywood setup for quite a few years before that. First spied this in one of the magazines - Zakk's live setup in BLS at one time, for sure. Not sure if he did something similar with Ozzy.

[ch willie]

The last few gigs I've played, I'm just taken a dirt pedal and the amp with me. But I like having pedals at the ready if I want them. I haven't taken enough time with the Banshee; audiences like talk boxes. I am getting to take the EB Wah out of the chain--it's old and has held up but doesn't have the sweep I like in a wah. Pot is really noisy too.

I've given myself a 1yr ban from buying gear other than picks and strings or an emegency repair. After that, I may get a Vox wah. That's the ideal wah sound I hear in my cloth ears.

[Rickenjangle]

I'm going to say this might be as old as 8-10 years ago...I've had my Pedal Train since 2010 and I had the plywood setup for quite a few years before that. First spied this in one of the magazines - Zakk's live setup in BLS at one time, for sure. Not sure if he did something similar with Ozzy.

Yeah, he did. This into at least one - probably two - already overdriving JCM800 Marshalls.

I think he got his clean tone by backing off on the guitar volume.

[pit_s_xroad]

Hi...

a pedalboard is no rocket-science... I love pedalboards since day one playing the electric guitar

Get the dimensions of the space your pedals will need, add some additional space to it for upcoming new pedals you admire, get you a piece of plywood of these dimensions plus some velcro-tape... and start arranging your pedals...

Do not fix them straight away... start toying around with the arrangement of the pedals... ask yourself... what pedals do I need really often, so they should be easily accessable... are others rather rarely needed and maybe could go into the "2nd" row...

The chain your connecting them with each other must not be automatically also the order you place them on the board... toy around with it, try out...

If you think you're done with your arrangement... see whether you have all neccessary cables... if not, you may buy some more short cables... or even better you make them yourself by soldering your own customzed cables...

This kinda process lead me after more than two decades to this one...





If you want to see how it all developped over the years you are invited to visit me virtually here...


Good Luck and rock on...
PIT...


PS: ...and maybe you can bribe your dogs to sleep anywhere else...

[Don]

Nice pedalboard!

One a related side note- at a gig last year, I was suffering from bad enough sciatica that I couldn't ballance well enough on one foot to select my pedals in the back row of mypedalboard with my toe. I had to squat down and select those pedals by hand!

That reminds me- the Belle Epoch is such a great musical instrument that I'd love to put it on something (like Jimmy Page did with his Echoplex) so I can manipulate it during performances. Any ideas?

[ch willie]

pit s x,

Great looking pedal board, very tidy. I have real balance issue, so I may go with a folding board, like the SL board I posted a photo of in this thead. Having them in a single row would help greatly.