Some random pedal board/power questions.

[Silver Hammer]

My Christmas present to myself (and partly funded by my parents by asking for money in my bank account instead of presents this year) is to get a nice pedal board going. Believe me I know I won't match half you guy's boards but I'm sick of getting effects envy all the time or going "this would sound great with flanger... dammit no flanger!".

So anyways I already have a 3xFx Fatman coming my way (thanks nad!) as well as a Boss BF-2 (thanks ebay!) and tonight I should be ordering a Korg Pitch Black (been using the tuner on my old Crate Bt 50 haha inconvenient) so that's my start. Now for the questions.

I know the Pitch Black can power other pedals through a daisy chain but will just any do? Like can I buy the daisy chain that usually goes with the Godlyke Powerall and just use it with the Pitch Black instead? If not I'd appreciate a link to a usable daisy chain. Also there are Hosa cables for connecting effects pedals together on Amazon for cheap- are they horrible? I'm not one to spend a lot on cables so I'd rather get a pack for $10 instead of buying individual ones for more or soldering my own. I mean I'm 16 anywhere I play isn't gonna have that great of a set up where you would hear the difference right?

And last but not least (sorry for putting the questions all in the same thread but they are all semi related) my dad and I are going to build me a pedal board as he has the wood working skills and I'm just wondering if I plan to build up to a medium size (maybe 10 pedals?) board including some larger pedals what dimensions should I be looking at?

Thanks for putting up with a relative effect noob!

[Silver Hammer]

Hello hello hello is there any body out there?

[bongomania]

Ain't nobody here but us chickens!

Originally Posted by Silver Hammer

I know the Pitch Black can power other pedals through a daisy chain but will just any do? Like can I buy the daisy chain that usually goes with the Godlyke Powerall and just use it with the Pitch Black instead?

Yeah, that one should work fine. I'm not a big fan of daisy chains, but as long as all of your pedals take center-negative polarity and/or have no particular problems sharing a ground plane with other pedals, then they are fine.

Originally Posted by Silver Hammer

Also there are Hosa cables for connecting effects pedals together on Amazon for cheap- are they horrible?

Yes, unfortunately IMO they are bad. Don't get me wrong, they do work and are not like "nightmarishly bad", but the improvement in sound and reliability when moving up to a better cable is definitely noticeable and worth it, to me at least. But as you say it probably doesn't matter much in the short term for you, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Originally Posted by Silver Hammer

my dad and I are going to build me a pedal board as he has the wood working skills and I'm just wondering if I plan to build up to a medium size (maybe 10 pedals?) board including some larger pedals what dimensions should I be looking at?

Check out the DIY pedalboard threads, there are several, and they contain lots of good info about dimensions. Also you can just go to the websites of pedalboard manufacturers and look at the pics featuring some larger pedals attached, and take note of the dimensions they state for that model of board.

Welcome to the TB FX forum! Helpful tip: if you spend some time searching and reading past threads most of your questions will be answered, and then when you have a question that doesn't seem to be answered, the rest of us appreciate it greatly when you can say "I did the research but need more info". Then we are glad to help.

[nad]

I usually say never skimp when it comes to cables, but if you are just putting things together and aren't gigging yet, a cheap set of jumpers are fine. Then once your board is more finalized replace them with some good cables of the proper length, angle, etc.

I just checked the Korg Pitchblack manual, it doesn't state any specific cable you need so I would assume any typical daisy chain would work fine.

I've done board mockups before, I found dimensions of pedals I was planning on buying and made little notebook paper cutouts of the exact size to arrange on the floor deciding what board size I would soon need. Sure, I stumbled upon them a few years later in some random box and sort of laughed, but they served a purpose.

Enjoy the Fatman/V2.