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New Pedal Board Mark II

2K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  GentleHands McCoy 
#1 ·


The last home made one I built was pretty good. But pedalboards are one of those things where what's good in theory isn't always good in practice. After using it for a bit I decided there were quite a few fundamental changes I wanted to make so I knocked a new one together pretty quick. WIP obviously.

There were a bunch of changes I wanted to make. The ultra nice 3' Boss cables that I got for using with the other one for connecting the FX loop and the front of the chain to the amp input ended up being too short and restrictive in terms of usability. So I went back to a big ugly detachable snake for the footswitch-amp/loop/front end. I wanted a design where all the cables from the pedalboard to elsewhere were firmly battened down. I wanted it to be higher off the ground, shorter and wider, strong enough to stand on, angled rather than parallel to the ground. I wanted the power supply mounted on the bottom rather than on the top. I wanted to have more room for expansion. Etc. Etc. Etc.

The point of having the perforations on the other one was to avoid velcro all together. Securing the cables as well as the pedals with standard zip ties and the nicer reusable cloth ones. I fucking hate velcro. Unfortunately, the cable tie thing almost never works well because the areas where you can fasten the tie around the pedal are resticted by the location of knobs and jacks and displays on pedals. So I just get the ultra strong Godlyke stuff and only use it where I place the pedals. If I want to switch configs I just chisel it off and resand the top. Regular velcro is weak as fuck, but the Godlyke shit rules.

I wanted as few holes as possible. So instead of making the whole thing perforated like the one I made a couple months back, I kept the main wiring holes to four sections of 9. There are smaller holes at other intersections that can be used for fastening and securing stuff I'm not super thrilled on having the small holes there, but as you can see under the Talisman, they are useful for keeping cable runs tidy because you can feed a zip tied through it and crank them down.

On the last one I wanted to keep it clean by running almost everything under the board, but I changed my mind and decided I wanted the patch cables up top but the power connections as underneath as possible. I actually wish I didn't have them as visible as they are here, but I don't want to drill holes through the bottom angled wedge supports for running cables.

This one is actually not done, because I'm giving it a trial run to see if the layout is going to work before I do the final finishing/sanding/etc. I wanted to have a grid type thing, because it's easier to place pedals neatly and evenly if you have lines for reference, so another wood is going to be inlaid in the parts that are roughly gauged with carving tools to give a general idea of where the grid will be. I learned from the last one though that before going through the trouble of completing the final steps I should first give it a test period to see if the layout works. Which is why it's pretty ugly now.

As it is, I am pretty satisfied. Although the angle of the board could be steeper by like, 5-7 degrees and the board could be another .5-.75" higher off the ground. It's bearable though. Instead of flat gloss black I tried a textured "distressed aged metal" black paint. Not sure if I like it or not. It certainly looks gnarly. Kind of like a nasty old leather couch actually. With some more layers and clear it might be cool.
 
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#7 ·
When I clicked the link I was thinking "I bet this is going to look like a Garret board", I was not let down.

How heavy is that thing? I dig the distressed aged metal paint.
Uh......between 15 and 30 pounds with everything on it maybe? I'm terrible at estimating that sort of shit. :lol:

The paint is Rustoleum's "Hammered Metal" series. I love that shit. It looks gnarly as fuck. I redid my entire 412 in the copper variant of it a while back.
 
#5 ·
The lighting is uneven as fuck. I need some more flashy pedals on the left before I worry about ambient backlighting. :lol: Walrus uses epilepsy seizure triggering grade LEDs. The stupid little unreasonably clock pedal I had to get because most delay pedals only have tap tempo and/or a pot and don't let you input an exact BPM like it's the 21st century also has a tacky lit knob. So the right side has way more flashing lights than the left.

Although the clock pedal is cool. I need two more BPM sync pedals since it has two more outs. It's cool being able to control multiple pedals/processors BPM settings with one pedal.
 
#6 ·
It's sick as fuck. Walrus is my second favorite "boutique-ish" brand behind Catalinbread. That said, I wish I had sprung for one of the colored versions. They made a limited edition red and green arp.

The only Delay pedal I like as much is the Caroline Lo-Fi one, but this one has more options as well as a Lo-Fi mode. It has some really cool uniquish features too. The switches both have momentary functions. You can hold one down to temporarily set repeats to infinite on a particular note or something.

That being said, it ends up being more expensive than just the pedal, because if you actually want to use if with precision you have to get a separate clock pedal. Since all it has for adjusting timing is tap tempo. I don't care how good you are at doing tap tempo, you can't hit a BPM exactly on the nose tapping it in.
 
#13 ·
I'm a pedalboard minimalist. :lol: Delay and reverb are all you really need IMO.

I do use a fuzz up front too, for lead sounds, used in the David Gilmour Big Muff fashion. It's not necessary, but often I like it more than a high gain channel for leads.

The only other things I would get would be the Walrus Tremolo or another Mel-9 or similar unit.

I had the Mel-9 and the C-9. Shit tons of fun, but for actual recorded mellotron or hammond sounds I play them on keys into NI's Kontakt. Great units though.

Make the next one out of poured concrete :2c:
I was thinking the next one would just be made out of a full moose skeleton.
 
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