Homemade Pedal Boards

[Avalanche 126]

ok so the title says it all. who has made a pedal board, like plywood and all that, to put their single pedals on??? or who has gone to the extreme and spent couple hundred on a power supply non slip board thingy???????? pictures are greatly appreciated.

[mesabooger]

I have, well kinda. A friend of mine helped me out with this board, it works out pretty cool. Most of the stuff you can get at a Hardware store. Blackboard, aluminum rails, rivets, industrial grade velcro, etc....

[Fuzz]

That's cool! I really like your pedal board Mesabooger! How much did it cost to make?-Adam

[mesabooger]

Umm, I'd say 20 bucks tops, if that. You can nail the rails or rivet them, My friend chose the latter, sturdier. I also used industrial grade velcro and superglued the pedals to the velcro and board.
You can find this stuff at you local crafts store. And almost all the materiels you can get at a Home Depot or similar (Menards?).

[mesabooger]

P.S. I'm thinking of adding either MXR Phaser or a power supply and call it good (for now). We'll see.

[Fuzz]

lol, as of right now......I have...........0 effects.=O) lol, I'm about to get my electric guitar though! I bought it already(for $75!!!!) from a music store in Ohio. It's an Ibanez RX-170, only problem? It's got Veggie Tales stickers ALL over it! lol, Those will come off though...-Adam

[codyofthejungle]

leave the veggietales stickers on,they're cool

[Avalanche 126]

hey guys, can u please keep on topic for me. that sounds like a cool guitar, but post it somewhere else please!!!!!

[Fuzz]

oops, sorry! ok, homemade pedal boards. I saw this guys on his site, he made it out of a SUITCASE! I forgot the link, but it's on the "homemad effects" thread here(the link).-Adam

[LWatford]

I'm thinking of building one out of a cafeteria tray...

or maybe not. The problem I have is that I like my pedals spread out. My pedalboard would wind up being huge for not much stuff. Look at Eric Johnson's pedal board. It is pysically large, all he has on it are 6 pedals. There are guys with 3x that amout of pedals with boards smaller than this thing!

I only have two powered "effect" pedals, the rest are control pedals for rack stuff (non-powered).

Lee

[mesabooger]

Lee, sounds like a Bradshaw switching system would meet your requirements.

[LWatford]

Probably! I actually looked at his "cheap" system (until I found out how much they cost!). I'm not so sure that is what I really need. If I could find a good preice on a Rocktron Patchmate, I might think about that (Stereo Loops, very important!). My rack at the moment isn't MIDI'ed (it may be, I havn't decided), so I use regular footswitches. I've thought about making one big board full of switches and making a big snake that runs back to a break-out box in the rack.

[Mastervolume]

I am using 3/4" plywood that has a white plastic laminate. The plastic is cool because it grabs the velcro strips better.

Male to the pedals (2" type industrial) Female to the board.

2 bucks for the handles, the board was scrap from a different project, and 25 bucks for enough velcro to last a lifetime of changes.

If anybody lives and so cal I have more scrap of that board that I would be willing to give out.

[3e3c3e]

I have made one from some scrap pieces of wood at home. Worked out great. Even mounted and PowerStrip on the under side, so there is only one thing to plug in. I'll have to take a picture tonight and post it.

-3e3c3e

[Avalanche 126]

mastervolume, where did u get that power supply unit thingy, how much did it cost?? how many pedals can u plug power 2?? i might be getting like 2 or 3 pedals for christmas and trading 2 in for a compressor/sustain and i wanna build a pedal board, from wood pieces, and i wanna power supply that wouldnt be hecktick like having all a/c adaptors and having 2 power sticks to have to plug into.

[Mastervolume]

The power supply I am using is a Voodoo Lab Pedal power.

This is the first generation pedal power, they make a new one now. This one has the capabilities of providing 8 - 9V outs and one ac plug-in.

The new (Pedal Power2) ones still run 8 but they also have 2 steped up outputs to run the line6 pedals and 2 sag outputs that can be lowered to simulate a battery that is dying (some fuzz pedals make cool sounds when this happens).

If I were buying a new power supply I wouldn't get this one. I ended up using a Dunlop 535Q that requires 18V and had to use two of the outputs to make this happen. Also I had a Line6 delay pedal and it never worked well with the pedal power.

I would consider first the pedals that I wanted to use on my board and then choose between these power supplies

Voodoo Labs Pedal Power2 - 8 DC outs 1 AC out, 9V (12V) ONLY $170.00

Dunlop Power Brick - 7- 9V 3- 18V (not good for some boss pedals) $100.00

Boss TU2 or NS1 - one is a tuner the other is a noise suppressor. Both can use the boss daisy chain to connect other 9V effects I think up to 7. The TU2 I have on my board and love it $80.00

Juice Box - [URL=http://www.pedalboard.com] This is the best of the bunch. Runs the Line6 stuff properly has 18V and 9V outs and also has sag circuits you can run something like 10 pedals off of it. Smaller than the pedal power but the most expensive @ $219.00

Good Luck with your board!

[mesabooger]

I'm comsidering getting the new Pedal Power supply, but if you're on a budget consider the Signal Flex power supply. At $40 bucks its a good value. www.marsmusic.com carries them. It only has 5 9v outputs and no extra features. it sounds decent though. But if you could, purchase one of the better rated ones.

My next pedal: EHX Small Stone phaser

[mesabooger]

Oh, nice board Mastervolume and could you give us a run down of your FX chain, there's one or two pedals I don't recognize.
Are those solderless connectors? I'm thinking of upgrading to those. A little pricey though, Are there any major signifigances you've noticed using them?

[Mastervolume]

Here is the layout


I run my guitar into the Zvex Fuzz probe ( This is the pedal that Stu G. - Delirious uses a ton on Glo and Audio lessonover) into Dunlop 535Q into Maxon OD-820 (suped up tube screamer) into a Nuance Habenero (really thick distortion) into a Fulltone fatboost (just for solos) into a Voodoo lab Tremelo (best trem made) into a Danelectro danecho into an Ernie ball Volume control tuner out to the Boss TU2 and then the regular out goes to the front of my Matchless Clubman.

I have gone through a lot of different gear in the last few years and think that I have finally found a set up that gives me all that I am looking for...........

The cables are George L's and really aren't all that expensive. They are the solderless type and make a HUGE difference in your tone. You will be amazed at how much of your high freq. gets rolled off. Each end is like 4 bucks and the cable is about $0.50 a foot. You can get 20 foot premade cables for about 20.00 though.

They are great because if they ever go bad you simply cut an screw it back in. I don't even think about my cables anymore.

You can check out the pedals and some sound files at www.musictoyz.com (http://www.musictoyz.com)

[Fuzz]

THE PROBE PEDAL SOUNDS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY!!!!!! LOL, the "sounds of insanity" oh yeah, that was insane alright! -Adam :D cool though!

[Avalanche 126]

kewl mastervol. thanx for the info, im gonna look into the dunlop power brick. hopefully i can get it. keep puttin up ur boards. by the way, i was thinking of making one that would look like a really lazy v to curve around, better reaching and have it be like 2'x3' or 4' and having the whole top velcroed and drill holes in it where ever i have a pedal so i can run a power supply to it w/o interfering with the guitar cables, cause u know when u mix power and guitar/mic cables, they hum.

[Unregistered]

I built my pedal board (with the help of my dad) out of 1/2 inch plywood.
I'd show you a picture, but I don't feel like posting it.
We made a nice case for it that looks like a big briefcase. You can get most of the stuff just at a hardware store. And depending on how fancy you want it (in terms of hardware) that will play into the overall price.
I spent almost a hundred bucks putting mine together, but it has been well worth it. My board is 32x18 inches and right now has 10 pedals on it and a Voodoo Lab pedal power (which by the way cost about $200 and powers eight pedals).

I've seen many people just velcro their pedals to a board and call it good, I would highly recommend making a case for it. If you need any more plans or designs I'll try to tell you what I did with mine.
By the way instead of using all the velcro I used some carpet on the bottom of the board, and that made it look really nice.