from this thread (there's also this one).

losthighway wrote:My stompbox collection has been growing in spite of itself, but I've capped it at 8. No more. Meanwhile I outgrew the nifty little hardshell pedal board/case that my room mate gave me. I looked online and it seems you need at least $200 if you want a hardshell pedal board.

I got mine for $20 a piece at Home Despot:


they are husky brand aluminum toolboxes. I just flipped them over, velcro-ed the pedals in the shallow lid, and put some foam in the deep end to protect them. also, instead of having one heavy ass board, I have two, light, modular and compact cases that are easy to ferret away when loading up.

they rule.

the lids also help in keeping tone vultures' prying eyes away from my gear.

kidding. POG->Boss Tuner->EHX Hot Tubes->z vex FaizFactory->Moog Ring Mod-> Lil big Muff->Line6 DL4->out.




sandals also rule.

caix wrote:I'm looking to get a pedal board. Right now, I only use 4 pedals, but I could use enough space for six. My current board is a cheapo and is falling apart. I don't really need a powered board, since I can rip out the power strip from the old one. But I'm not opposed to buying a powered board.

just go with a power strip (surge protectah, naturally).

if you have a bunch of pedals that run on -9v, just get the godlyke powerall. I currently power my boss tuner, the zvex, the lil big muff and the line six. plus I have the capability of running two more pedals on that daisychain. fucking awesome.

I can power my ring mod off of it, but it gives it some interference with the adapter.

Here's some that I've found:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... 3010.html#
http://www.nycpedalboards.com/
http://www.music123.com/Core-Equipment- ... 8.Music123
http://www.pedalboards.com/

these are all absolute ripoffs. the 3nd one is exactly like the husky boxes at home depot, but they flipped the latches and charged you $55. They keep them in the drill corral at the Despot.

I like the hardshell cases with enough room to put guitar cables and a power strip in.

Wood can't beat the aluminum casing. I can toss these in my trunk and have no fear. spend the money you saved on the power supply, some foam and a roll of velcro.

my cables and plugs all fit in the cases. I can also fit a sustain pedal, a super long extension cord, a little box for guitar picks, a slide and an ebow with some room to spare.

If there was a post on this already, just kerble and I'll use that link. I didn't find any in a search.

in this case, I searched +pedal boards and selected "search all terms". only four threads came up.

I am a prying eyed tone vulture, I guess.

I built my boards myself.
My guitar rig is in a case I made in a friend's woodshop, with hardware off the shelf, from Lowe's.
It's two tiered. Under the top tier is a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power supply, which made things quieter, and is safe to use with germanium based effects.
Things are secured by the now common bike chain link method, which I've used for years. I thought of it on my own, and thought I was completely clever, but it seems that it was common sense, because I see it often enough.

The boxes, in order (these days):
Jangle Box compressor
Keely Java Boost
MXR Zakkkkkkk Wylde OD
Thoback Stonebender (Tonebender MK II clone)
E-H Small Stone nano
Fulltone Supa Trem
Sib! Mr. Echo
E-H Holy Grail Plus (the new one in the aluminum box)
Zvex Super Hard On

off the board I'll sometimes add a Memory Man and/or a Line 6 DL4 (as a looper), on the back end, depending on what I'm playing. On the front end I usually have a Boss tuner, and might have a Vox wah and/or an Ernie Ball Volume.

My bass rig is simple:
Guyatone tuner
E-H Little Big Muff
E-H Pulsar Trem
Guyatone delay
-mounted on a 1x6 slab of wood, with bike chain links, powered by daisychained OneSpot.

I've made many boards for friends because I think it's the best way to go.

-A

alex maiolo wrote:I am a prying eyed tone vulture, I guess.

yeah, me too.

alex maiolo wrote:Things are secured by the now common bike chain link method, which I've used for years. I thought of it on my own, and thought I was completely clever, but it seems that it was common sense, because I see it often enough.

could you explain how to do that a bit? bun adrian's was the first I had seen and yours was the second.

kerble wrote:could you explain how to do that a bit? bun adrian's was the first I had seen and yours was the second.

You take a flat bike chain link, which is just a piece of metal with two holes in it, right?

Flip over your pedal. Remove two opposite, or all four screws. Place the link over the screw hole and replace the screw. With some pedals you may need a longer replacement screw.

Flip the pedal upright. Now you have an effect with 2 or 4 dog ears sticking out from it.
Place on board.
Drive wood screws through other hole in chain link.
Admire your work.

SO much better than velcro. It looks prefessional too.
Let me know if that doesn't make sense.
Look at Bun E. Adrian's photo and you can sort of see the end result.

-A

This is exactly what I've done over the last three weeks. I'm a velcro man, myself, and the velcro work is a little bit sloppy, but I like it, and the pedals don't move around, so fuggit.

The velcro was six or seven bucks at Target. The power supply is a OneSpot, which was $25, (I think). I bought four right angle 1' cables at Radio Shack for $2.99 each. Those were the only things I spent money on. I stole a dirty piece of 1'x2' plywood from work. Adam gave me a small briefcase (made by Halliburton!) on long-term loan. Chris gave me one of those pedal daisy chain things on long-term loan. (Chris doesn't use as many pedals in this band as he did in Racetrack.)

Cheesy Fender Pedal tuner -> Boss GE-7 -> MXR Micro-Amp -> EH Little Big Muff -> Boss DD-3

A surge protector is actually a pretty good idea. I have room to mount one on the top of my board. The OneSpot is 1700 mA, so I could easily power twice as many pedals, if'n I had another daisy chain. But I capped it at five pedals. I'd feel like an asshole if I had many more pedals (and most of the ones I have are to help control my dynamics. Nothing too crazy.)

Dr. Ew wrote:Have you considered making one yourself? That's what I've always done and I've found it to be pretty rewarding and way more econo!

first, kudos to the guy who built his out of the toolboxes. those things look fucking champion and ya can't beat the price.

that being said, after pricing out what it was gonna cost me to build one (i wanted to make something fairly heavy duty, ie. aluminum edges and the whole bit), and factoring in my time, i figured it was more worth it just to buy one. now mind you i work in a guitar store so i get a very decent deal, but in any case...i bought a pedaltrain and so far am loving it. lightweight, nice outer case, and the frame is very nice for hiding power supplies and cabling. very hip.

also, some other tips for anyone who has never built one before:

- if you're using more than 4 or 5 boss pedals (or anything else that's not true bypass), seriously consider a bypass strip to avoid tone suckage

- don't cheap out on cabling...these will be in your chain for some time, so spend the extra couple bucks on at least half decent shit like rapco/digiflex/planet waves/monster/george l's, you'll thank yourself later

- be wary of poweralls...most people i talk to have no issues with them, but several folks i know experience a lot of hum with their particular signal chains, so try it with yours. if it doesn't work, stock up on batteries or get a voodoo labs pedal power if you've got the dough

- remember to double check your pedal order before you start screwing things down, as different combinations can have drastically different end results...there's no right way or wrong way, just make sure it works for what you want to accomplish

best of luck

benadrian wrote:I bought a cheap-o, $50 pedalboard from Sam Ash years ago. Recently, I began holding down the pedals with bike chain links.

It works great. However, almost as soon as I did it, I got the desire to cut way back on my pedals, as I've noticed a bit of tone sucking with the four Boss pedals.

Ben Adrian

Kind of off-topic but re: boss pedals sucking (tone)...I'm always left shaking my head in disbelief when i see some big-shot stadium rocker who you know has money to burn with a board full of boss pedals. (not directed at you, BA). I mean, a few are good, like that DM-2, but for the most part they are overrated as shit. They do alter tone in a really bad way. I can't think of one Boss fx pedal that some other company hasn't done a better version. (i think the ibanez AD-80 is a better analog delay than the Boss 2)

i used to have a homemade pedalboard, but for whatever reason, i decided to spring for a Pedaltrain Jr. i dig it, & it's a lot neater than my old mess-o-cables...

I have this one which you already know and which I like quite a lot. It's the first one I have ever owned and I just got it this year. I used to only use 2 or 3 pedals but now I use more and decided to finally get a case for them. I like that it's powered because it makes setting up a breeze. You just plug in your guitar, your amp and the power and you are good to go.