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So, i've been mentioning getting a pedaltrain for a week or two now. i've the dollar for it, thanks to the good peeps buying my shizzle.

i've got three choices.

The JR, The Mini and The Nano.

Pro of all three boards: able to route cables underneath for cleaner cables. carrycases for all. you can attach the nano to your gigbag=less to carry in. JR has mounts for power bank.

cons of JR: probably too big for what i'd need.

cons of Mini: same price as bigger JR board. do i go large for future expansion?

cons of Nano: very limited, though orange foot-switch takes up most of space. can't mount power bank underneath (though getting a shredfreak supply)

what peeps think? think of future expansion? go for minimal if i'm keeping gear lean? go halfway between the two and get the mini? get the JR as it's more board for same price as Mini?

i cut my MDF home board down to nano size (14"x5.5") to get an idea of layout. obibously, i'd have the channel in the middle on a real PT for cables to go under. and i'd probably get haze to make me a mini-footswitch. that would mean i could stick an extra pedal on there (tuna melt).

couple of pics to show the layout (ish)

Other than having the cash for it I don't see a reason for getting a mini/nano if you've already make essentially the same thing for almost nothing. Although Pedaltrains are dead sturdy.

it's more for that sake of having a few pieces of quality gear. something permantly wired up, no fucking around. plus a pedaltrain looks better than a shitty piece of MDF.

I am really happy with my mini - it is a good size for really focusing your board on what you really need.
Think the nano would be a step too far for me though. I know in terms of number of items to carry there's no difference, but it's really nice not having to lug around my big/heavy Diago board any more.
You've never had too many pedals on your board Rob, I'd not get the jr unless you thought you thought you would use that space.

Personally I think they're incredibly overpriced and if you're that way inclined you should just man the fuck up and build something from wood.

Mike wrote:Personally I think they're incredibly overpriced and if you're that way inclined you should just man the fuck up and build something from wood.

+1

Honestly, you could make the same thing with your own fair hands, for a fraction of the price and it would serve exactly the same purpose.

There are folk on this forum who've made their own from wood, including myself; and had excellent results.

Really not worth the money....

You might want to buy all three and return the two that don' t work, unless you are planning to buy online.

Another good idea is to put the pedals on the floor, put tape around it, and then measure the space.

If it's just those 3 pedals, the nano might be big enough. If you want expansion room , go Jr. or mini.

I have a Pedaltrain pro and I never thought I could fill it up, but it fills up quickly. At one point it was full, but I sold some pedals.

You always want to leave a little room for expansion unless you are sure you will not.

Shot of Pedaltrain pro full:


Current Pedals (all vecroed down and wired to Voodoo Pedal Power 2)

haze is making me a footswitch for the Dual terror, well excited to help him in his new sideline. with the mini switch on the board, it means i can have 3 other pedals on the board. so i could fit my tuner, od and trem on nice and neat.

to be honest, when i factor in getting tools, parts and wood etc. i'd probably not be far off nano monies. hot rox are getting them in and should be £45.

As a guy that loves to build things who has spent many hours in the metal shop at work making engineering test fixtures, when it came time to choose a pedalboard solution, I always figured I'd just make one myself and be done with it. In the end, I ended up buying a Pedaltrain PT-2 with flight case for $150 USD after doing some price-matching.

As stupid as it may sound, I'm a guy that puts a lot of value in his free time. I work a normal 9-5 job five or six days a week, do music stuff two or three evenings per week, and spend the rest on trying to not make my ol' lady hate me. If I had to spend a few days of my precious free time sourcing a proper-fitting flight case, manufacturing something to fit, probably screwing something up and going through another quick design iteration and doing it again, I feel like I would have well exhausted the $150.

I liked the PT-2 because it was big enough for my needs, it was designed to easily mount the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+ Power Supply underneath (and probably others fairly easily), and already had the flight case. Between the PT-2 and the PP2+, I was a bit worried to spend $330 on a full solution, but since the day I assembled everything I haven't spent even one second worrying about the setup. The flight case was something I considered necessary, as I'm lugging the board around twice a week -- more if there happens to be a gig that week. If I had a smaller pedal footprint I think having a flight case would be a bit silly, but with a large board comes more weight and more damage potential, so I deemed it necessary.

I know most of this probably doesn't apply to you directly as you generally keep your ever-changing effects rig fairly small, but I thought maybe exposing something in my thought process might help with a decision.

My vote for you is for the Mini with soft case. It's a relatively small investment for a well-designed solution, and unless you someday decide to go pedal-crazy again, this is something you'll likely have forever. It's also something that will have resale value should you decide you need to flip it later.

used that planner thing on their site. couldn't find a polytune and they don't have made by mike (bastards!). the loop switch is to represent my HMBH mini orange switch. i think that will work out all right.

Mike, what's that fuzz face a 1590bb?

Eddystone BB.

Ikea gorm? Buy a big'un, and knock bits out of it until it's the size you need?

Probably easier starting from scratch. I built this in 2-3 hours... from some scrap bits of wood.

I was looking at the pedal train mini but was too short for my needs.

Quite proud of mine. Look a lot better since these pics. Cables tucked in & tied down.

Only down side I can think of is the lack of bag but I'm working on that too.

Tidy work Owen. Thread over then?

SELL ALL THAT SHIT AND GET LIKE THREE DIFFERENT FUCKING AMPS.

Forgot i had this in my gear cupboard. cleaned it up and stuck these in it. hazes foot swtich will fit better, but this works for now.

right, thought i'd dig this thread up. after much thought and the receiving of power tools for christmas, i've manned the fuck up and gonna build my own board again. scored a free sheet of 6mm MDF from work, most of which was used on the 2x10 to close the back. what's left should make a tidy little board. i've been thinking of how i wanna lay this out and got thinking. i don't want a bulky looking board, just something that holds them all down and in a line neatly.


i'm gonna use the base plate of the wah as a template and and make a t shaped mini pedal board. so there's very little board. gonna fix it all down with those links from shredfreak's site and make up some shorter patch cables. maybe one those back to back pedal connectors between the tuner and hotcake. power will be from the carl martin, it's quiet enough if your only running 2-3 pedals that aren't demanding.

Make sure you add enough space for 1 more, juuuust in case you want to add some sort of delay/modulation pedal. The T shaped board will look pretty slick, I must say.