my pedals need a board

Karmadog777

Karmadog777

New member
wanna help me set this up?
so I have seen some pretty great pedalboards on the forum, I have been itching to get my pedals semi-permantly chained together, but it looks too big to me. Here's what I got. I am wondering if the wah and vol. pedal should be mounted on the board. The amp channel switcher?
pb009.jpg

I feel like I need them all LOL the pedal in the lower left is a rocktron metal planet that I want to be able to swap out with a Landmine pedal,at will.

my thoughts Guitar>tuner>Vol.>wah>Nitro Boost>bad monkey>Metal planet/Landmine>Blackstar DistX>Hush>AMP

EQ>Chorus>Delay>Amps FXLOOP ...not sure how to achieve this I want the EQ always on and to be able to turn the Chorus and delay on simotaniously,independently.

I have a couple cheap AB Y boxes, but am thinking a loop pedal is needed here

yes I know, Im a distortion fiend, I use the Blackstar 50% of the time ,the Ultra channel on my amp about 40% of the time, but I like the metal planet for thrashy stuff,it is soon to be replaced by a Landmine distortion pedal
I like to push the metal planet with the bad monkey and also push the crunch channel on my amp with the monkey

I have a GodLyke power supply that works fine on upto 5 pedals, I think I will buy another to chain the rest together, they are relatively cheap,and Im broke.
Im thinking on building a pedaltrain type board, or I may rip off phils design LOL oh yeh the whole reason....this is too big....help me arrange this thing!
 
Re: my pedals need a board

Rip off my design as you please. It works really well, and I can't complain. Solid as a rock also. If you want the pedaltrain flexibility, just run strips of velcro across. Won't look as neat, but it works.

The only way to figure out what you want is to hook everything up and mess around with it, as you probably already know. The only major tip I could give you is, no matter what you do, cover it with truck bed liner.
 
Re: my pedals need a board

Karmadog777 said:
wanna help me set this up?
so I have seen some pretty great pedalboards on the forum, I have been itching to get my pedals semi-permantly chained together, but it looks too big to me. Here's what I got. I am wondering if the wah and vol. pedal should be mounted on the board. The amp channel switcher?
pb009.jpg

I feel like I need them all LOL the pedal in the lower left is a rocktron metal planet that I want to be able to swap out with a Landmine pedal,at will.

my thoughts Guitar>tuner>Vol.>wah>Nitro Boost>bad monkey>Metal planet/Landmine>Blackstar DistX>Hush>AMP

EQ>Chorus>Delay>Amps FXLOOP ...not sure how to achieve this I want the EQ always on and to be able to turn the Chorus and delay on simotaniously,independently.

I have a couple cheap AB Y boxes, but am thinking a loop pedal is needed here

yes I know, Im a distortion fiend, I use the Blackstar 50% of the time ,the Ultra channel on my amp about 40% of the time, but I like the metal planet for thrashy stuff,it is soon to be replaced by a Landmine distortion pedal
I like to push the metal planet with the bad monkey and also push the crunch channel on my amp with the monkey

I have a GodLyke power supply that works fine on upto 5 pedals, I think I will buy another to chain the rest together, they are relatively cheap,and Im broke.
Im thinking on building a pedaltrain type board, or I may rip off phils design LOL oh yeh the whole reason....this is too big....help me arrange this thing!
Click to expand...

This is the reason I got away from using alot of pedals,and went with the Vox ToneLab LE....:naughty: It seems like you are on track though,as far as your lineup of pedals.

Anyway....Use velcro if possible....Leave the wah and volume pedal(or bigger pedals in general) on the outside of the board....Measure the width of all the pedals you want to mount on your board and use George L cables between all pedals...Have your board setup,so you can pull a pedal(s) off the board and quickly plug your substitute pedal in and go...Get yourself some type of power unit..I use a Juice Box...Experiment with the placement order of your pedals before mounting them on your board.....Normally,I Like to run into my wah first,then my overdrive pedals,distortion....If you have an effects loop(which you mentioned you're doing),that's where you put your chorus,echo,flanger,and delay type effects....If you are running straight into the input of an amp...I'd run through the chorus,flanger,and the delay/echo last...Your volume pedal would work well between the last pedal effect in your chain and the input of your amp....By running your volume pedal last,you don't lose gain from your overdrive and distortion pedals....

Here's my trimmed down setup....I have a volume pedal between the tonelab output and my wah is between the guitar and the ToneLab input....The Marshall Jackhammer and now a TS 808 is in the loop of the ToneLab...I can get just about any effect or tonal options I need with my setup....I run this straight into either my Fender Pro Reverb combo or my 50 watt NMV Marshall head into a 2x12 V30 Vox cab....

I don't keep my vox wah on my pedalboard,except just to store it there after I'm done using my board....I now have both a Tube Screamer and the JH pedal where the Vox wah is currently sitting on my board....I'm very happy with this setup...This setup for me,would be killer if I ran it in stereo,but I'm against carrying 2 amps!


TL5.jpg



ToneLab.jpg
 
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Re: my pedals need a board

yeh I have been lookin at the, Boss ME-70, that would simplify alot,but I like to have several flavors of distortion on tap, the Blackstar is unmatched and cant be replaced, I recently bought a landnine pedal, that thing kills for leads. For now Im going to work with what I have. I may end up with less on the board than shown here.
By the way your rig is pretty much straight up baddass.
do you run it into the front of your amp or thru the FX loop?
 
Re: my pedals need a board

Oh, dude, forgot to mention : If you are going to design something yourself, without a pedal-train design, use a piece of cardboard, lay everything out, and trace to see how you could fit everything.

Have that blueprint will save you a lot of grief. Also, buying your cables in advance will also make an important difference, as to how flexible you are, and how much space you can leave between pedals.
 
Re: my pedals need a board

Karmadog777 said:
yeh I have been lookin at the, Boss ME-70, that would simplify alot,but I like to have several flavors of distortion on tap, the Blackstar is unmatched and cant be replaced, I recently bought a landnine pedal, that thing kills for leads. For now Im going to work with what I have. I may end up with less on the board than shown here.
By the way your rig is pretty much straight up baddass.
do you run it into the front of your amp or thru the FX loop?
Click to expand...

I run it straight into either a Fender Pro Reverb 2x12 combo or into a 73 50 watt Marshall head and into a Vox V30 2X12 cab....

Nice thing....If later on you decide on the Boss unit,you can still use some of your external pedals...There comes a time where you start feeling like you have too many pedals...Then you ask yourself "Ok which pedal(s) can I take off the board and live without?" ;o) Plus the more pedals,the more cables between effects and more power wires also.Every once in awhile,I'd have an issue with one of the cables between effects..I still have all of my pedals(most modded by me) but I have them boxed up....It would be cool if I just got another peice of 3/4" birch ply,and made up that second board with all of my pedals on it...If I wanted to use the pedals once in awhile and not just the ToneLab,I can just plug my second board in and rock,leaving this ToneLab board home for a night of rest! ;o)....

My pedal board didn't have any chorus or flanging....Basically it was a TS 808,Marshall Jackhammer,CM Plexitone,Vox Valvetone,and a RAT pedal that I made....Sometimes I'd use a Verbzilla and a Boss delay unit,but I wanted to keep the chain of effects down to a decent minimum...At times I'd sub the RAT pedal out for a Marshall Guv'nor that I built or another overdrive or distortion pedal...I also used to use an SD1 and a Dan Echo pedal...Again alot of pedals and alot of choices!
 
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Re: my pedals need a board

When building a pedalboard I have only 2 pieces of real advise...

Take the time

Spend the money

If you do those 2 things you'll be amazed at the results you'll get!

Buy a nice, well made board that will hold all the effects you want to use right now and will leave room for more pedals in you need later as well as allow you do to pedal swaps anytime you want. I have, and love and suggest NYC Pedalboards. They are well made, completely covered in carpet allowing putting pedals anywhere on them, they can be ordered with whatever size riser you want or need and the lid just pops off allowing the bottom of the case to be the board.

After that add a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power II+...I know they seem to cost a lot but they are well worth every penny in terms of being able to power almost any battery powered effect under the sun, cutting down on noise and being built like a tank.

After that I suggest George L's cables...some guys have had issues wiht them but if you make them correctly they last foreer and sound great...Just ask Eric Johnson, Jim Weider, Marc Ford and countless other pros!

Once you have those 3 things you can do whatever kind of board you want...all you have to do is spend the time planning it out to work it's best. If you need one (or more) you can add some looper/switcher/mute/router units do make the board more versitile and in some cases even sound better. I have and use these types of units from Loop-Master and they are well made and do exactally what I need!

Like I said, spend the time to plan it out and spend th emoney to make it happen and you'll be fine. If you get in a rush and just do it in a hurry and use junk to make it happen it'll work for a while but it can and often will have a negative impact on your tone and will have issues that will be a pain in the neck during live shows.

Good luck and have fun!
 
Re: my pedals need a board

Hmm...

Here is my 2005 board layout (notice it's not even wired up yet)...really, REALLY needed a router box but at that time I didn't know that was an issue for me. This board sounded alright but did need the router. Also note, this is NOT my NYC board and this board lacks a power supply...once it was wired up it looked like hell and had constant issues...



Here is an early 2007 (maybe late 2006) board shot...not the best use of space and could have really used a router box...



Here is another 2007 board which really suffered from not using a router box and in it's own way poor planning. It didn't last long in this form...it sounded pretty terrible!



2008 version, not very clean at the time of this pic...I was short a few cables and was still trying to decide on a layout.



I don't have pics of the last 3 or 4 set ups and I don't have the pics of my newest set loaded yet on webshots but would be glad to if someone really wants to see them...the newest set up (which is sort of always changing depending on how I feel at any given moment) is using a router/switcher/mute box and is really working out quite well.

I took my own advise of PLANNING and it really paid off...it's a full on stereo stereo set up and is really easy to use and the Loop Master unit makes switching a breeze.

It'll never be done per se but it's getting close...I have a few pedals on the way to get my set up like I want it for now and as soon as they get in I'll have to make a few changes but I'll see about getting a few as-is pics for now...
 
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Re: my pedals need a board

Well we all know it's never really "done". ;) Are you still using the Si Analogman Fuzz Face?
 
Re: my pedals need a board

...There is that! I know I'll never be done per se but I am waiting on a vibe and a comp for my current board...

That grey Fuzz Fuzz is an AM modded Arbiter UK with NKT275's and I still have it and it has a long term place on my board however...at this very minute ()just swapped last night in fact!) it is sitting side line duty in favor of an AM modded Dunlop Fuzz Face that I ordered with Mike's high gain NKT275's and it screams...MUCH higher gain that any vintage Ge Fuzz Face (i'd wager even more than any Si Fuzz face) but just killer sounding. I've got a few more Ge fuzzes in the mail but Im looking for a good Si FF as well...thinking about, again heeding my own advise and getting that new Dunlop/Hendrix (which IS killer) but thinking about another AM fuzz...maybe something besides BC108's...not sure yet. too many fuzzes, not enough dollars!
 
Re: my pedals need a board

heh heh no prob, just change the title to the history of theguywhoinventedfire's pedalboard :lmao:
I will take time,but money is not something i have a abundence of right now. I will blueprint it out. Im makin my own cables to save $. also a carpeted board or a board with velcro on it is not something I would pay someone to make for me.

I is a carpenter :P
Im mostly trying to get layout ideas.
All input is appreciated,keep it comming,my brain is a sponge:eyecrazy:
 
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Re: my pedals need a board

Hell, if you is a carpenter then make your own board for sure...if you don't play out much or at all then a case is not really needed.

Making cables saves some money but look at the total cost...buying cables might be about the same or less in some cases...

The power supply is the biggie...there are all kinds of ways to cut costs and still get a top notch piece, the power supply is not one of them IMO...

Past that planning is the key...lay it all out and make it happen. If you decide you need any router units then do them when you have the extra cash to do so.

When it comes time to put the pedals on the board use 3M brand Dual Lock...nothing else.
 
Re: my pedals need a board

the guy who invented fire said:
Hmm...

Here is my 2005 board layout (notice it's not even wired up yet)...really, REALLY needed a router box but at that time I didn't know that was an issue for me. This board sounded alright but did need the router. Also note, this is NOT my NYC board and this board lacks a power supply...once it was wired up it looked like hell and had constant issues...



Here is an early 2007 (maybe late 2006) board shot...not the best use of space and could have really used a router box...



Here is another 2007 board which really suffered from not using a router box and in it's own way poor planning. It didn't last long in this form...it sounded pretty terrible!



2008 version, not very clean at the time of this pic...I was short a few cables and was still trying to decide on a layout.



I don't have pics of the last 3 or 4 set ups and I don't have the pics of my newest set loaded yet on webshots but would be glad to if someone really wants to see them...the newest set up (which is sort of always changing depending on how I feel at any given moment) is using a router/switcher/mute box and is really working out quite well.

I took my own advise of PLANNING and it really paid off...it's a full on stereo stereo set up and is really easy to use and the Loop Master unit makes switching a breeze.

It'll never be done per se but it's getting close...I have a few pedals on the way to get my set up like I want it for now and as soon as they get in I'll have to make a few changes but I'll see about getting a few as-is pics for now...
Click to expand...

LOL.......Man can I relate to you buddy! That's why recently I took the route of least pain! You might be saying to yourself "ToneLab LE" what is he thinking"? But I manage to coax some good tones....Give me some decent stuff to work with and plenty of time to tweak,and I'll coax out some good tones! Funny thing is,I still have all of my pedals that I pulled off the board..:biglaugh:

Some nice pedal board/setup ideas you have and have had...
 
Re: my pedals need a board

crap! looking at what I still need ..more power supply, loop pedal(router),upgraded cables
Im still a couple hundred $ away I have all the materials plywood,velcro already, I ended up with more pedals than I actually thought I had and 1 is on the way still.

maybe I should sell everything but the Blackstar and buy a ME-70 :scratchch

or maybe just downsize
heck when i was in a band all I had was a vol pedal a chorus and a delay.
 
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Re: my pedals need a board

^^ I had the ME50 and I wouldn't go back to a single multi-effect processor. They do everything, but master none. Also, you can't have 2 modulation effects at the same time. I know I am weird for using 2, but I can almost get synth sounds with some of my combinations. Just something to keep in mind.

If you want to downsize, sit down with each pedal, and evaluate if it's super important to you, or expandable. If you use it every time you play, keep it. Things you never use, sell, and buy a Voodoo Labs PPII+. You won't regret it.
 
Re: my pedals need a board

yeh, I just found that the ME-70 dont have a loop lke the tonelab , I dont know how it would interact with other pedals. the only Modulation I use is a Chorus and I like to match a delay with it so thats no problem really.
seriously I have a clean crunch and Ultra channel on my amp ,but reeeeeeallllyyyyy I NEED a Boost, a OD and 3 distortion pedals...so of course the duel Hush pedal is mandatory LOL
but crap the sample/looper and the harmonizer on that ME-70 are freakin awesome
 
Re: my pedals need a board

Karmadog777 said:
yeh, I just found that the ME-70 dont have a loop lke the tonelab , I dont know how it would interact with other pedals. the only Modulation I use is a Chorus and I like to match a delay with it so thats no problem really.
seriously I have a clean crunch and Ultra channel on my amp ,but reeeeeeallllyyyyy I NEED a Boost, a OD and 3 distortion pedals...so of course the duel Hush pedal is mandatory LOL
but crap the sample/looper and the harmonizer on that ME-70 are freakin awesome
Click to expand...


Just me and my opinion,but the ToneLab LE is a more "toneful" unit...That lil ole 12AX7 it uses in it's Valve Reactor stage really works! I'm pretty fussy about my tone,but I've got some great presets dialed into this thing...At least worth checking out....The Boss stuff tends to be very deep and harder to learn on..I also did look into some of the multi Boss boards..

What you run the multi-effect out of is very important also!
 
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Re: my pedals need a board

actually all I have had running at once here are the Nitro/Blackstar/and EQ/Chorus/Delay in the loop that pretty much is all I need.

I just sold my Rocktron Utopia a couple months ago it had great modulations and delays but the amp models couldnt be shut off,clean amps were ok ,but the distortions sounded way fake,and adding a pedal to the clean model sounded like crap.

If someone will send me a Mesa I will end this thread
 
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