I built my own pedalboard

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:37 pm

Before:

Building w/ second tier (not attached yet)

Some pedals:

Some handles and daylight:

It's 37"x16". I meant to just be slightly larger than the NYC Pedalboard's Big Shot, but the math worked out better this way when I cut the board down. It's 1/2" MDF, has 8 rubber furniture feet underneath for support and doesn't weigh that much. I need to get a big sheet of velcro to cover it in, but it is otherwise done right now.

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:47 pm

I should add that I kept the rest of the MDF (not in any of the pictures) that I cut off is about 12" x 24". That piece is going to go on a cymbal stand or a mic stand and be a "shelf" for my noisy gadgets and a really tiny pedal chain to run the noisy gadget through. (Contact mic, Atari Punk console, some random noisemakers that are circuitbent, etc) The idea of making the little shelf for that stuff comes from Nels Cline's setup.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:07 pm

man, i need to get to making one

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:19 pm

$8 sheet of 1/2" MDF at Home Depot is a lot cheaper than any other pedalboard I've seen for sale

I probably spent another $5 on the rubber feet and $3 on the handles (black, plastic 4" drawer pulls)

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:29 pm

mathiasx wrote:$8 sheet of 1/2" MDF at Home Depot is a lot cheaper than any other pedalboard I've seen for sale

I probably spent another $5 on the rubber feet and $3 on the handles (black, plastic 4" drawer pulls)

sounds good to me!

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:29 pm

oh, and welcome to the board!

AaronGuitarDude · Post by **AaronGuitarDude** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:45 pm

LOVE UR HUMONGOUS BOARD

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:50 pm

Pulling all the tone-suck off the board. Obviously, the Behringer digital reverb and Artec (some Korean brand, maybe?) analog delays were cheap stopgaps to things missing from my board. Pre-emptively looking around for an awesome reverb pedal, but I think I may just save the $100+ it would cost and get an amp with reverb built in. (I don't have an amp right now, just that little Orange thing.)
The Artec is actually decent, but it oscillates easily and has a tiny amount of delay because it has those bucket brigade chips.

George · Post by **George** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 11:25 pm

The Behringer Digital Reverb gets a lot of love round here. Decent pedal.

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 2:50 pm

It's not bad, and it's very versatile (especially compared to something else cheap, like the Dano Corned Beef) but there's a definite signal quality drop between bypassing the unit and going through it. I may just have to get a true bypass looper for it and my other soft switching pedals.

avj · Post by **avj** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 4:40 pm

Nice work and a nice collection. I've always wanted to try the Sparkle Drive with my setup, as I like the idea of the faux-biamp blend control.

The only issue I see with the board is that the CG is not anywhere near where the handles are -- especially once you add the shelf. That'll be a snap to fix though once the board is fully loaded. Also, if I can be a dick for a moment: stop worrying about pedals and get a proper amp! It will end up being much more integral to your sound than any pedal will, and you may find that once you have a real amp, your pedal choices are dogballs.

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 7:35 pm

avj wrote: Also, if I can be a dick for a moment: stop worrying about pedals and get a proper amp! It will end up being much more integral to your sound than any pedal will, and you may find that once you have a real amp, your pedal choices are dogballs.

this ^

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 7:58 pm

I'm not allowed to play in my apartment, so I haven't bought another amp. I've just got the little Orange thing.

What I do play through is a ART mic tube preamp (12AX7) and a pair of audio-technica studio monitor headphones. Or I play from the ART preamp into my Macbook Pro, and out to the headphones, so I can mess around in Garageband. To each his own. I'm not a gigging musician and never will be, and I don't play with other folks. Even a 1 watt tube amp is too much, and there's not much features on those

avj wrote:The only issue I see with the board is that the CG is not anywhere near where the handles are -- especially once you add the shelf. That'll be a snap to fix though once the board is fully loaded.

I've thought about that. I've got 4 handles, and was going to mount the second set farther up, once the shelf is in place. Really, the CoG isn't an issue right now. I don't carry it far

avj · Post by **avj** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:55 pm

mathiasx wrote:I'm not allowed to play in my apartment, so I haven't bought another amp. I've just got the little Orange thing.

What I do play through is a ART mic tube preamp (12AX7) and a pair of audio-technica studio monitor headphones. Or I play from the ART preamp into my Macbook Pro, and out to the headphones, so I can mess around in Garageband. To each his own. I'm not a gigging musician and never will be, and I don't play with other folks. Even a 1 watt tube amp is too much, and there's not much features on those

avj wrote:The only issue I see with the board is that the CG is not anywhere near where the handles are -- especially once you add the shelf. That'll be a snap to fix though once the board is fully loaded.
I've thought about that. I've got 4 handles, and was going to mount the second set farther up, once the shelf is in place. Really, the CoG isn't an issue right now. I don't carry it far

To each his own, indeed! I hadn't considered someone who really didn't have a functional need for a big amp. The board turned out wonderfully, and I especially like the Nels Cline-inspired toy shelf.

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:29 pm

mathiasx wrote:I'm not allowed to play in my apartment, so I haven't bought another amp. I've just got the little Orange thing.

What I do play through is a ART mic tube preamp (12AX7) and a pair of audio-technica studio monitor headphones. Or I play from the ART preamp into my Macbook Pro, and out to the headphones, so I can mess around in Garageband. To each his own. I'm not a gigging musician and never will be, and I don't play with other folks. Even a 1 watt tube amp is too much, and there's not much features on those

tru.... I remember my days in an apt and yeah...it basically sux being a guitarist in an apt.... Rock On! Sounds like you have a decent solution..... I just always played my acoustic

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:22 pm

I take back what I said about amps, because I just discovered the Egnater Rebel 30 has an XLR line out.

I played the Rebel 20 years ago and liked a lot about it, but couldn't afford it then. The Rebel 30 head might be my ticket to tube rocking tonez. Guess I'll start saving..

Wennnz · Post by **Wennnz** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:08 pm

Tiny amp is tiny. If you don't need a huge amp, maybe you could get a Lunchbox or something?

Maybe I'm just being judgmental. Does that little Orange sound good? That's all that matters.

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:51 pm

On the Orange Micro Crush: It's not noisy on the clean setting, which is a plus over cheaper SS practice amps. The digital tuner on it is decent enough to use in a pinch, but I have a Korg Pitchblack now that does a much better job. The distortion channel is not that great. It's noisy and best compared to a $30 Chinese distortion pedal than an Orange tube amp. The distortion does not like other pedals at all. However, I know a SS amp isn't going to overdrive like a tube amp, so I don't try to. I just use it set clean.
However, I much prefer using an ART mic tube preamp into a pair of headphones. This is what I use:

It's cheap, overdrives nicely, and has an XLR out, which is cool. But, it will detect and stop any distortion, so you can't drive it very hard at all. I highly recommend getting a nicer tube for it and rocking out.

As far as getting a tiny tube head like a night train, Tiny Terror: I haven't really found one with the features that I want. Specifically, a master volume separate from the gain, full tone controls, and an effects loop. Onboard tube or spring reverb would be nice but not required. The Egnater Rebel 30 actually does all this AND has the built-in voltage limiter to drop it down to an actual 1 watt. (It's not an attenuator, so you don't lose high end. However, since it is so low wattage when turned down, you may not get any speaker-related tone characteristics (depending on the speaker, some compression or additional signal distortion.)

The problem I'm running into is actually finding one to play in the Milwaukee area. There's some dealers listed on the Egnater website, but they haven't been open at a time when I could get there, and they don't seem to actually stock Egnater amps. One of them is also a Carr, Matchless, etc dealer, and those manufacturers have amps that will also go down in wattage like the Egnater, they just cost 5 times as much.

Does anyone have an Egnater Rebel 20/30? I'm looking for a JTM45 tone without the 18 watts of power and without the price.. and it's hard to tell from Youtube audio if it would get me to that tone.

avj · Post by **avj** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:55 pm

The Guitar Center near me always has a few Egnaters on hand -- perhaps there's one near you as well?

mathiasx · Post by **mathiasx** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:14 pm

On the topic of the pedalboard, I ordered a big sheet of velcro and enough adhesive 1" velcro to attach all my pedals. I'll report in with pictures when that's done. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I'm going to tear down the board and give the other side a shot of Rustoleum. Haven't picked a color yet, but I'm thinking Satin "Sweet Tomato Red" http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp ... sid=223609

Front edge (when you're standing above it) will also get an aluminum edge to keep it from chipping if you accidentally kick it.

I need to rethink the handles, too. They're interfering with plugging in the cable to the wah.