pedal board(warning this will be stupid)

[Dantesstudio]

I cant build things. My career as a carpenter has been a series of failures, granted i am 17 so i am not giving up.

I have built 4 pedal boards now, all of them broke. I have been using just free wood my dad i.e peg board and crappy ply wood.

I priced a few of them today and they were insanly expensive! I refuse to pay over a 100 for something i feel like i should easily be able to build myself. So i decided its worth another shot.

From my trial and error i have found that velcro tape is the best way to stick the pedals to the board. I was hoping that i could use some of that carpet like material on the inside. I dont know how to describe it other than it is usually black and it is found on a lot of amps. For example i have it my hartke keyboard amp. Where do i get some of that stuff and how do i stick it to the board?

What woods should i use? I want this one to be big and have a top or some way to "close" it. I would like to tier it.

If anyone has any tips for me that would be great. Also i would love to see some pictures with your pedals in them to help give me an idea of what i am doing.

As always, sorry for my ignorance i know this maybe one of the dumbest threads ever but i really am that bad at building things.

Thanks, Will.

[chaos731]

Originally Posted by Dantesstudio

I cant build things. My career as a carpenter has been a series of failures, granted i am 17 so i am not giving up.

I have built 4 pedal boards now, all of them broke. I have been using just free wood my dad i.e peg board and crappy ply wood.

I priced a few of them today and they were insanly expensive! I refuse to pay over a 100 for something i feel like i should easily be able to build myself. So i decided its worth another shot.

From my trial and error i have found that velcro tape is the best way to stick the pedals to the board. I was hoping that i could use some of that carpet like material on the inside. I dont know how to describe it other than it is usually black and it is found on a lot of amps. For example i have it my hartke keyboard amp. Where do i get some of that stuff and how do i stick it to the board?

What woods should i use? I want this one to be big and have a top or some way to "close" it. I would like to tier it.

If anyone has any tips for me that would be great. Also i would love to see some pictures with your pedals in them to help give me an idea of what i am doing.

As always, sorry for my ignorance i know this maybe one of the dumbest threads ever but i really am that bad at building things.

Thanks, Will.

For my main pedalboard (I've got several "modular" boards for special usage), I blatantly stole a design that I liked.
Here's what I used as a starting point:
http://www.lytpedalboards.com/produc...rds/superlyt32

They were silly enough to provide relatively specific dimensions on their site, so I took that basic design, extrapolated a little bit, tweaked the design, came up with a final "blueprint" (just a scale drawing on graph paper from the top and side views), and gathered my materials. For the "wood", I used a 24"X48" sheet of 1/2" MDF (medium density fiberboard; available for very cheap at any major home improvement center), a scrap piece of 2x4 for the "risers" (which I cut to be a bit taller and at a slightly smaller "angle" than the original design), and I guess I used about eight 2" wood screws. I covered the whole thing with Tolex (available at Stewmac) using 3M super 77 Adhesive spray and securing the "flashing" underneath with 1/4" staples. Then, I bought a pack of "industrial strength" Velcro self-adhesive strips (about 4 feet, I guess) and placed that stuff logically on the board. It sticks to the Tolex quite well. I attached two rubber door stops (the little triangle things) underneath the whole thing to provide a good angle and some inherent non-slip properties.

I'll eventually get around to posting pics of the finished product (along with the "companion" modular boards I built out of leftover materials), but looking at the picture of the "source inspiration" in the link I provided earlier will give you a very accurate idea of what my final pedalboard looks like, except that mine is "shinier" in places due to the Tolex, and mine is better-built.

Total cost of my project was about $25 USD, and it took me maybe two hours to design, cut, and assemble. It's built like a tank, and it looks pretty damned good. Anyway, you're not alone...most prefab pedalboards are heinously overpriced. It's super easy with a minimum of tools to make a very good pedalboard that you can customize to your specific needs/desires.

Hope that helps, man. Good luck to ya!

[Dantesstudio]

I dont know if i understand how you made the tier and secured it to the board.

Sounds cool, cant wait for a pic.

[elcid]

Don't use wood, its too heavy. I got mine off the bay, its aluminum and has a removable lid. It closes like a briefcase when you want to move it. It was under $50. There is also enough room between the lid and the bottom to put a tier. Under the tier is some cable management and my Voodoo Labs Pedal Power. The tuner, tremolo, flanger and Line 6 pedals are on the tier. I use velcro to hold the pedals on and it works well enough, although for something more secure I considered using the bike chain method. Here's my current board

[Dantesstudio]

How would I get aluminum?

[elcid]

go to the bay and buy the pedalboard already made. Im actually buying a second one to make a smaller board for my DRRI

[Gudster]

I agree with Cid. I built my own board and case out of wood and the thing weighs a ton when its packed up with the pedals in it. Thank christ I'm not gigging right now.

Pic-


It also has a second tier that I wasn't using at the time this photo was taken.

[Dantesstudio]

So yall say just forget the whole building thing. You want me to just buy one.

[elcid]

I built my first one and the one I bought is much easier to work with. To be fair the one I built was huge, but for the time it took to make it and what I spent on material, I would buy another one like the one I have instead of making a wooden one any day.

[elcid]

Here's my old wooden one. It was construction grade plywood with 2 2X4s cut at an angle to lift the back of the board and a 2X4 along the back The whole thing was 2 feet by 4 feet, it was too big, heavy and awkward to move around, but it looked good and was solid.

[chaos731]

Here are a couple of pics that I took of mine during the "test fit" stage. I've since added the Velcro and some handles:





...and one of the supplementary "outboard" units I made to go along with it:


And, just because I felt like it, here's a not very good shot of the custom amp stand that I built.

[GLG421]

I'm glad to see you got thing organized

I'm going to have to get a board soon. I went from a GSP 21 (all modded digital) to hating digital and wanting all analog. So my pedals are increasing.


Geoff

[Dantesstudio]

I like the tier design. I would like to figure out how to hide most of the wires.

[chaos731]

Originally Posted by Dantesstudio

I like the tier design. I would like to figure out how to hide most of the wires.

Many options. What I'm personally intending to do is cutting strategically-placed slots or holes in the board for cable-routing purposes. That way, I can run most of the cables underneath the board itself and secure them as needed with tiebacks and/or other methods.

Earlier, you said:

Originally Posted by Dantesstudio

I dont know if i understand how you made the tier and secured it to the board.

The tier supports (two pieces of two-by-four painted flat black) were secured to the upper tier with long, durable screws from the top BEFORE the tier was covered with Tolex. Then, the upper tier was secured to the base from underneath with screws AFTER the base was covered in Tolex. I had pre-drilled pilot holes to make lining everything up and attaching it all together much easier. It's a simple design, but I like it. Maybe later today, I'll scan in my 'plans' and post them here.

Yes, it's not the lightest board on the planet, but it's tough as nails and it looks damned good. Not ideal for extensive gigging, perhaps, but it's durable and highly customizable, and super cheap.

[Dantesstudio]

Thanks for the that, it really helps. I am afriad to drill it just because as i will probably end up reconfiguring and or adding pedals.