Why I might actually buy a real pedalboard

[JimmyM]

Last night my band opened the bowzer show. when we open, the guitarist and i have our pedals downstage because we sing leads. when bowzer and the stingrays (his singers, and we play the instruments) come on, we have to pull them back by the amps to get out of their way. to save time and not look so obvious i was doing work, i slid my little scrap wood board with my foot. in doing so, i unplugged a wire and missed a large part of a song because i didn't realize it. not good.

i so don't want to buy one, but it looks like i might have to. can't have this anymore. too much is on the line to douche out.

[Gashaponcito]

I'm actually thinking about it even though I just have 5 pedals, my guitarist has like 10 pedals and he always gets everything connected very quick (he has a pedalboard) I guess its a necessity for all pedal users

[shaggy45]

i recommend a pedaltrain board

[Low Sound Love]

Is there an alternative for the pedaltrain pro? I wants it, I needs it, but d****t, €170 is a lot of money for cleverly designed piece of plastic.

[dannybuoy]

Agreed, but it's not a bad price for a cleverly designed piece of aluminium!

[LiF]

Just got a Pedaltrain mini. Works very well. A lot neater.

[Mudfuzz]

Originally Posted by Low Sound Love

Is there an alternative for the pedaltrain pro? I wants it, I needs it, but d****t, €170 is a lot of money for cleverly designed piece of plastic.

Tis metal!

Yes a Pedal train of some size is nice do to that you can zip-tie all your cables to the frame so nothing is lose or unplugable.

On the other what I don't like about them is all our cables are under the board and there is no bottom to them, I just don't like this for some reason.

Right now I'm at a point where I am out-growing a PT pro and need a bigger board to do every thing I need because my board keeps getting closer and closer to a synth, and because of this I need more control devices. I'm tired of rearranging every time I need a different setup so I'm going to look into getting a board made by NYC Custom that is over a foot longer then a PT pro and do some pricing too on DJ table cases too and see where I end up with.

Then I'll have that and do a real small board for blues gigs.

[KarateKid25]

Originally Posted by Low Sound Love

Is there an alternative for the pedaltrain pro? I wants it, I needs it, but d****t, €170 is a lot of money for cleverly designed piece of plastic.

The Pedaltrains are a sturdy metal frame, but I get what you're saying. The PT Pro is hugely expensive here in Australia as well. My smaller board is a Pedaltrain Jr, but for my larger board, I went with a Gator Pedal Tote Pro. It's a solid bit of gear and is nice and big. Possibly a touch larger than the PT Pro from memory?

Anyway, the price difference was huge. About 1/3 of the price.

[JimmyM]

i'm not liking any of them. even the small ones are gigantic. i have to be able to fit it in a small suitcase and fly with it. that's what makes the piece of wood so attractive. i only have 3 pedals and a wireless for most road trips.

maybe i'll just make a bigger board and add a velcro kickplate around it. hey, not a bad idea...

EDIT: an even better idea is just to cut a larger piece of wood where the wires don't hang off the side. maybe that'll do it. my big "pedalboard" doesn't have wires hanging off the side and i have never unplugged it. yeah, that's it...total cost should be a few bucks. right on!

[Mudfuzz]

Or you can do what I did with one of the board I made a long way back and have it hollow so all the cables are inside the board. I had the pedals velcroed and zip-tied to the board so nothing could move. You could literally pick it up and throw it and nothing would ever come lose.

[jordie65]

http://www.nycpedalboards.com/standard.html#lunch

http://prostagegear.com/products/pedalboards/nano/

how do these suckers do for size? im looking at the NYC lunchbox..i only use 2 or 3 pedals but im obsessive about my cables being tidy and a clean stage

[RickenBoogie]

How's about the new PedalTrain Nano? Seems to be right yup your alley there, Jimmy. I actually downsized from an SKB PS-45 AND Gator pedal pro, to a single PedalTrain PT-2. But, that's still it's own suitcase.

[warwick.hoy]

Originally Posted by jordie65

http://www.nycpedalboards.com/standard.html#lunch

http://prostagegear.com/products/pedalboards/nano/

how do these suckers do for size? im looking at the NYC lunchbox..i only use 2 or 3 pedals but im obsessive about my cables being tidy and a clean stage

Not picking on you but just quoting since you posted the link I pulled these photos from.

Sneaky how in order to make it look like you can put a great deal of pedals on here they are using units with top mounted jacks in the 1st shot and thin footprint pedals and forced the perspective on the bottom shot.

Not that the PT Nano wouldn't be useful but unless you used pedals with similar arrangements you'd probably be hard pressed to get 4 or 5 pedals on this PT Nano.

(I do have to say it looks like a great little grab and go board though.)

[faulknersj]

When I was on the road, I purchased some clamps at Home Depot and fastened them securly to my pedal board. I could open the clamps to plug the cords (instrument cable + cable to my rig) into my pedals, and then tighten them down so that the instrument cables were incapable of moving at all. I could grab either cable going into the board and pick the whole thing off the ground while it dangled in the air without losing a cable. It never failed me once on hundreds of shows. I will try to find a photo of one to show u. This would allow you to keep your current board by resolving this issue once and for all.

[lowfreqgeek]

Has anyone tried a Gator pedal board/bag? It's a nice concept if it works and holds up. Saw one @ GC yesterday, but didn't want to spend the $$.

http://www.gatorcases.com/Default.as...atalogID=11571

Like JimmyM, I only have a couple pedals: Petersen Strobostomp II, VT Bass, and occasionally a Boss Chorus and/or Octave. I'd possibly put my Radial JDI on it, too.

[doctorpunch]

Just make one. Grab a 1-spot, a piece of wood, a powerstrip, and a roll of velcro. It did me good for a while but now I own a nice $200 SKB.

[JimmyM]

thank you guys for the input. have to say, though, the larger piece of wood has won out. i will wait for the vt deluxe to cut it, though. once i get that i'll probably stop bringing the british on the road.

[Mudfuzz]

Yeah in the end you should do what you like. I still say dilling hole though the wood so you can tie down every cable is helpful, as long as none of your cables die...

Actually cablage is the only thing I like about pedal trains, other then that I don't really like them.

I would build my own again if I didn't do woodworking all day everyday.... But do to not wanting to take my day job home I'd rather pay someone else to do it.

[ninepoundjammer]

Piece of wood! Yay!

I've actually made a few innovations in the piece of wood department that you might find useful. I like my little wedges, but they were certainly the trickiest part of the build. What I thought might help you, Jimmy, is my little velcro loops that I attach with a staple gun. I don't use that many, as I'm not that paranoid, but you could go crazy with it. Easier to undo than zip ties and the staples pop out easy enough if you need to rearrange.

While we're at it, I've never seen anyone mount their pedals as I do. I drill holes to either side and then put in a loop of shock cord which I bought from a local outdoor supplier (it's the elastic cord they put on backpacks). I just tie a knot in the cord on the underside of the board. My pedals slide around a bit more than if I used velcro, but I don't have to install velcro so my pedals stay like new.

YMMV, I like it.

[JimmyM]

interesting concepts, 9 lb. funny you mention the shock cords. i used to do that, too, except instead of drilling through, i'd just staple them to the wood. unfortunately, they would occasionally pop off. your way is a lot better. very nice work. seriously thinking about stealing the velcro loop idea.