Pedalboards - Pedaltrain vs Mono vs Amazon cheapo

[InkCow]

I have a cheapo “Soyan” that I got from Amazon: https://a.co/d/1MI0ACe. It’s a little heavy, but I don’t really see why I should worry about it letting me down. The bag, maybe? But for my needs it’s fine.

 

[Church-Bass]

I have a Mono Rail Small, which fits your dimensions. It's lightweight, solid, and comes with a great Mono bag. I can recommend.

 

[smeet]

I have a ghost fire board that came with a bag. It’s a very nice quality board, and the bag is great as well. I can’t speak to the other off brand boards, but Ghostfire has been great for me ( I gig typically 30-40 times per year, so I’m no touring pro, but it does get played and moved and tossed around a little. After 2-3 years, it’s still in excellent condition.

I .ooked at ghost fire, but they didn’t have the dimensions I’m currently looking for.

 

[MtManiac]

I find pedaltrain very overrated, having owned a Classic Jr.

I’d bought a couple of Soyan ones on Amazon for my daughter and then started using one of those after I gifted my PT to a guitar player I knew. They worked just as good at a fraction of the price.

Later bought a Fender board, the medium sized one - very strong, and comes with a very spacious and well padded soft case. Has cable management clips included and an adjustable deck for power supply, plus some rubber no-slip feet. Lots of options for cabling.

Invalid Link Removed

 

[FightMilk]

Temple audio duo 17 is pretty close to what you’re describing.

 

[Maxi Funkl]

Ghostfire has multiple options of which I would completely trust. Having now had one of their pedalboards with cioks DC7 & DC8 underneath 3.5 years.

 

[el murdoque]

I've had several in the past. Currently using a Schmidt Array as my big board (heavy and EXPENSIVE, but also awesome), a Pedaltrain Jr. as the middle and a Nano as the small one. I really like the Mono in terms of looks, but in my experience, Mono is overpriced for what you get (€250 for the small with bag in my market). The Rockboards are quite nice as an option, especially since they have those neat terminals you can mount into them. Their ABS cases suck, though - If I ever was to purchase another, I'd go with the bag. I'm a bit reserved about the cheapos, since they basically rip off someone else's design and make it in a slightly cheaper quality - and having boutique pedals and power supplies, I don't want to cheap out on the quality of the platform I mount everything on.

 

[smeet]

I find pedaltrain very overrated, having owned a Classic Jr.

I’d bought a couple of Soyan ones on Amazon for my daughter and then started using one of those after I gifted my PT to a guitar player I knew. They worked just as good at a fraction of the price.

Later bought a Fender board, the medium sized one - very strong, and comes with a very spacious and well padded soft case. Has cable management clips included and an adjustable deck for power supply, plus some rubber no-slip feet. Lots of options for cabling.

Invalid Link Removed

Pedaltrains have always worked for me, but yeah they are not perfect. Last night I ordered the Classic Jr and the Mono case.

But, the Fender actually looks pretty nice! I don't know if there is as much room underneath as I would want, but the little cable management slots/clips are cool. And the case does look good. Maybe next time.

 

[bassbrad]

Cheapos from the 'zon have done well for my needs. there are a lot of choices with different features and sizes, many come with a bag, velcro,cables, ties and other gizmos.


This is an angled board that has lots of room underneath and came with a bag. Very Pedaltrain-ish.

 

[smeet]

I was looking at one of the better looking cheapo Amazon boards (don't remember what brand), and in the big info section in the middle they have a little note about where you don't want to put a wah pedal, as there is a risk of the rails snapping off.

 

[sunbeast]

I’ve been using Pedaltrain for years- using old suitcases or other hard cases (the Harbor Freight ones can be decent depending on the board size, but I’ve found cheap used Pelican cases as well) I have sourced rather than the included bags- but I’ve always bought used so for me they have always been totally worth it. I’ve never seen the need to buy something like that brand new when there are so many examples on the used market and the boards themselves aren’t exactly fragile. Never seen a problem with them apart from the bags (and I’ve never understood the tendency to carry around something as heavy as a pedalboard can be in a cheap bag! Any hardcase solution with strong clasps is a million times better). I think it’s inevitable that any bag will eventually wear out if used regularly for this kind of purpose. I’ve been using a vintage Samsonite hard suitcase for my main pedalboard for 18 years or so without issues- it was $20 on EBay, or easy to find similar in thrift stores.

 

[MrDinsdale]

I love the look of the Mono and Ghostfire ones but can’t do without holes for cable routing on the top row of pedals.

I ended up with a Rockboard Tres 3.0 which isn’t as pretty but has plenty of cable routing options and is easy to mod. Templeaudio boards look great too.

 

[BioDriver]

I bought a Gokko pedalboard off Amazon five years ago and it’s been rock solid. The one I got is discontinued but I’d wager multiple brands come from the same factory.

https://a.co/d/fLfDcmK

 

[Meriphew]

I have around 7-10 various pedalboards, most of them Pedaltrain. I do have one Mono pedalboard (the largest they make) and I'm not a fan of it at all. The padded case is really nice, but the board itself is a PITA to mount power supplies underneath, and the board flexes too much. Personally I'd stick with Pedaltrain.

 

[Aric Bjorn]

I have a cheapo “Soyan” that I got from Amazon: https://a.co/d/1MI0ACe. It’s a little heavy, but I don’t really see why I should worry about it letting me down. The bag, maybe? But for my needs it’s fine.

That's the one I have. It does the job, solidly built. The difference in price bought my Lekato looper / tuner, roughly, so no complaints.

Cheapos from the 'zon have done well for my needs.

Some on the 'zon look too cheap, ymmv?

 

[bassbrad]

That's the one I have. It does the job, solidly built. The difference in price bought my Lekato looper / tuner, roughly, so no complaints.
View attachment 7400856View attachment 7400855

Some on the 'zon look too cheap, ymmv?

There are always a few items that get returned, that's one advantage of the 'zon.

 

[Bodhi46]

I have a Mono Rail Small, which fits your dimensions. It's lightweight, solid, and comes with a great Mono bag. I can recommend.

I second the mono rail small. I just built a new board on the same model. The bag alone is worth it! If they release integrated patchbays like temple or rock board, that would be great.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

I'm currently making my own with a giant bamboo cutting board I scored for cheap at TJ Maxx and will mount a Ciokolate power supply. If you have the time and ability, get crafty with it

 

[Pep]

The back of that looks like the older Pedaltrains, which had a small opening, where the new ones are pretty open so mounting things is easier there. Also, the new Pedaltrains have an extra inch underneath, and it looks like these (Strich) might be closer to the ground (?).
I don't want the built-in power supply, as I have the Cioks DC7 already, and I trust that.
But I'll definitely take a look at them.

How is the carrying case? I don't want a heavy hard case, and Pedaltrain's soft cases are terrible.


Yes, my pedals are pricey and boutiquey, so I don't want to cheap out. But IF the cheap ones are as good or better, I don't want spend extra money on Pedaltrain, especially since there are lots of complaints that their quality is not as good as it used to be. But if I'm not convinced, the Pedaltrain is something I trust.

On the other side, Mono has a way nicer case. And the board itself is (maybe?) nicer too. I don't mind spending the extra money if it really is better, but I haven't seen one in person. And their pricing is sometimes strange. The board + hard case costs the same as just the case. whu?

One thing I know about Pedaltrain is that the hollow aluminum construction makes it easy to drill holes if I want to mount things underneath. Is the Mono easy to attach things to? There's always velcro, but for some things I wouldn't trust that.

I have a Pedaltrain Metro (24”) and bought the CIOKS S07. I also bought the bracket to mount it under the Pedaltrain and it was a “piece of cake” to mount and it works great!

 

[Pep]

I wanted to add this in because I’m quite protective of my equipment and only buy high quality, so I need to add this. If you buy a cheap Amazon pedalboard make sure all of your pedals are $50 or under and from from Amazon. They deserve each other.