Cool DIY pedalboard

[Steve A.]

I've been looking at those $150-300 pedalboards from SBD, et al, and I really didn't need anything that complicated- with power supplies and loops.

While some guitarists want to wire up all of their pedals, just in case another world war breaks out, I just like to grab a few different pedals to use with the particular guitar and amp I'll be using. I always like to have my Boss tuner pedal but everything else usually changes from night to night.

I had picked up a fancy leather IBM ThinkPad briefcase for a few bucks at a thrift store and figured I'd build a pedal board that would fit inside (roughly 11" x 14").

Ace Hardware is selling a 2" x 15' box of Industrial Strength velcro this month for $25 (p/n 90197)- $5 off the regular price. I cut off a piece of that and brought it over to Home Depot to find some indoor/outdoor carpet that it would adhere to very well and got a 100 year supply for about $13 (2' x 12'). For the board itself I got a 2' x 4' piece of 5.2mm Luan plywood for about $5 and had them cut it into a few pieces so I could started on this right away. I already had a 16oz can of contact cement and oversized acid brushes to apply it.

For the velcro they recommend waiting 24 hours for maximum strength. I contemplated adding some epoxy when sticking the velcro to the bottom of my pedals but decided against it- at least for now. If I find the velcro peeling off from the bottom of the pedals I may add the epoxy.

BTW this idea would work well if you had an SBD pedalboard with a trashed power supply- just cut it out to fit the carry bag. I was going to make one a bit bigger and mount a power strip on the top.

And the velcro does not stick as well to the indoor/outdoor carpet as it does to the strips of "loops" that comes with it- the idea is just for the pedals to stay in place when the pedalboard is on the floor- not that they would stick to pedalboard if you were to hold it upside down.

Steve Ahola

P.S. 10 years ago I swore that my lips would never touch another effects pedal ("if it ain't alltube, it ain't allright!" ) but they can be handy- why buy or design a guitar amp with 4 channels if you can get the same sounds with one or two channels and a few pedals?

EDIT: I forgot to staple the carpet down and it looks like I do need to epoxy the velcro on to the back of my Visual Sound Route 66 pedal (it has a weird rubber backing). BTW RG Keen is evidently involved with the engineering for this company and does great work- offering boutique quality at less-than-boutique prices. I like it how all of the controls and switches are very usable- it's not like you have to fine-tune the controls "just right" to get decent sounds...

I mentioned adding a power strip to one of my pedalboards. I was thinking of using screws to mount it securely- but why not attach it with velcro when I need it? As they say when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail...

EDIT: I've already put the velcro on 6 different overdrive and distortion pedals so I'm ready to rock! Some of these pedals were a bit unwieldy to use in conjunction with other pedals (like a tuner) because of differences in size and weight but it looks like this will work great.

As for the pedals I'm not using at the time I had also picked up a few leather briefcases, but everything would bang around inside. So I figured why not put the indoor/outdoor carpet inside the briefcases to hold the pedals in place? If needed I'll line the bottom of the briefcase with the 5.2mm plywood and then secure the carpeting to that... Another thought: since I'm using staples, too, Scotch 357 spray adhesive might be better than contact cement. Also, my scissors got pretty crapped up cutting the self-adhesive velcro but they cleaned right up with my TechSpray Label & Adhesive Remover Pen (with heavy naptha and d-Limonene).

Woohoo- I'm finally getting these suckers organized!

Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz
Barber Small Fry
Damage Control Liquid Blues
Fulltone 2 FET
Visual Sound Route 66
Seymour Duncan Twin Triode Classic

[Paleo Pete]

Sorry to resurrect a thread a couple of months old, but had a comment or two on this that might be of interest to Steve. (Haven't been poking around here much the past couple of months either, other things grab my interest now and then.)

I saw a very similar idea a while back, can't remember the details, but both sound pretty workable. I think the guy used a peice of 1/4" plywood on bottom to stiffen it up a bit. I don't think the velcro will give you much trouble, I'm currently rebuilding my pedalboard, and it was very difficult to get that industrial strength velcro off. (same 2" wide stuff you're using, I'm using it this time too it worked so well.) The upside is it only left a couple of very small glue spots here and there. It holds quite well and I found I could grab up my pedalboard and carry it by any single effect with no problems.

I took the rubber backs off my pedals, it's not easy to peel them off, the glue is good, so I have the metal backs to stick velcro to. I screwed up and put the rough half of the velcro on the pedals, so any time I pull one and use it at home, it picks up lint and carpet fuzz, which is why I just pulled it off and started over instead of just using the existing velcro. I'm putting the soft part of the velcro on the pedals this time, that should make them still usable as standalone pedals if needed. Sometimes for band practice all I want is the overdrive or distortion and volume pedal, it's not hard to take them off and cruise.

For storage and protection of unused pedals I have some of the Kodak instamatic camera pouches made in the early 90's with a velcroed flap. Effects pedals fit perfect and don't get beat up much when carrying them around. You should be able to find them now and then in resale shops like Goodwill or yard sales. They work great, I didn't have a pedal board for years, I just threw everything in a gear bag and hooked it all up at the gig. The camera pouches offered just enough padding to keep them in good shape and I think also helped a great deal in keeping dust out. Look around and you can find similar pouches to fit double size pedals too. Small make up bags come to mind. I see them at the local Goodwill store every time I go in. Make up bags, travel pouches for various things...

I only used a couple of peedals before, so it wasn't a major issue, an Ibanez SD9 distortion, Schaller volume pedal on the floor and an Arion SAD1 analog delay was all I had, no real need for a pedalboard until I picked up a Marshall Bluesbreaker overdrive, Dan Electro Rocky Road, (makes a half decent flanger) DOD compressor to add to it, and the delay was run through the effects loop of my amp so it sat on top of it, not on the floor. It's going on the pedalboard now, that's one reason for the makeover.

I'm holding off for now, but I think what I'll do is reserve a spot large enough to fit the Marshall pedal or a Boss DS1, since the Marshall pedal has been giving me some trouble lately. I think it's just a dirty switch, but the jacks have been coming loose for a couple of years and until I can afford to do some work on it I might need to swap in the Boss in its place, turn the gain all the way down and it makes a decent overdrive. The main reason I'm poking around the site is to see if any good threads on modding that pedal pop up. (Don't want to hijack this thread so I won't be asking for suggestions on that, it'll wait a day or two until I finish looking through the existing threads anyway. Something might already be sitting there waiting...)

Oh and by the way, the Boss DS 1 I'm working with is one I grabbed at a local pawn shop for $20 not long ago, in almost untouched condition. Wiped off the dust and it has one small scratch on the side you have to look close to see, it looks brand new and works perfect. I thought it was a deal...

[Steve A.]

As for the Visual Sound Route 66 pedal I ended up peeling off the rubber on the bottom and securing the velcro to the bare metal. I had to do that with another brand of pedal, too.

Steve

[Regis]

Guys have a look at my pedal board page.

[Paleo Pete]

Regis:

Nice pedalboard page, thanks. That's the same way I built my pedalboard, but I'm using a 1x12. The old one is a 1x10, shorter but worked great, I'm redoing it to get more pedals mounted and get the wider board so the volume pedal doesn't stick out. I'm using 2" industrial strength velcro, the stuff works great even in small strips. I made up a splitter box for power supply, and am thinking about an extension for it so I can keep the wall wart (9vdc 800mA) back near the amp instead of up close, due to the noise factor. Would said extension affect available voltage? I'm not sure but don't think so.

I like the snake idea but don't have the materials for it right now so I have to improvise. I do have the connector, and might just solder it onto the existing wire to get a longer one to the board.

Oh, and I'm also wondering how the velcro sticks on top of paint? My current board is unpainted, I built it 3 or 4 years ago and just didn't worry about paint, but I want to paint this one. I'm thinking it shouldn't affect the velcro much, it should still stick well, but not positive since I haven't tried it yet and don't want toexperiment with the board I'm going to have in front of me every time I get onstage. Have you had any problems with velcro not sticking to the paint?

Steve:

I'm debating right now whether I want to pull the rubber off the back of my Boss DS1, the thing is brand new and will no longer be "original" but the way it is it can't be easily mounted with velcro...decisions, decisions...the rubber backing is losing, by the way...it's gotta be mounted right??? hehe

[Regis]

Regis:

Nice pedalboard page, thanks. That's the same way I built my pedalboard, but I'm using a 1x12. The old one is a 1x10, shorter but worked great, I'm redoing it to get more pedals mounted and get the wider board so the volume pedal doesn't stick out. I'm using 2" industrial strength velcro, the stuff works great even in small strips. I made up a splitter box for power supply, and am thinking about an extension for it so I can keep the wall wart (9vdc 800mA) back near the amp instead of up close, due to the noise factor. Would said extension affect available voltage? I'm not sure but don't think so.

I like the snake idea but don't have the materials for it right now so I have to improvise. I do have the connector, and might just solder it onto the existing wire to get a longer one to the board.

Oh, and I'm also wondering how the velcro sticks on top of paint? My current board is unpainted, I built it 3 or 4 years ago and just didn't worry about paint, but I want to paint this one. I'm thinking it shouldn't affect the velcro much, it should still stick well, but not positive since I haven't tried it yet and don't want toexperiment with the board I'm going to have in front of me every time I get onstage. Have you had any problems with velcro not sticking to the paint?

Steve:

I'm debating right now whether I want to pull the rubber off the back of my Boss DS1, the thing is brand new and will no longer be "original" but the way it is it can't be easily mounted with velcro...decisions, decisions...the rubber backing is losing, by the way...it's gotta be mounted right??? hehe

None of my boards are painted, but if you wanted to do that I would mask off the top where the veltex is glued. Eventually it will come loose if you paint it, I would think.

I've never had any problems with voltage drop running a long DC cord from back by the amp to the board, never measured it either. It might be a good idea to measure voltage and current draw.