Pedalboards

[melodiaopus]

Okay, I'm diving in deep with pedals and for the first time in the 12 years I've been playing. So it seems that my pedal tastes are for some of the largest pedals out there on the market. For example, Moog LPF, Moog Ring Mod, Markbass SuperSynth. There is no end in sight for the other pedals that I want as well (i.e. MarkBass Compressore, Tronographic Rusty Box) just to name the last few in my list. I'm looking for some sort of pedalboard that will be clean, organized and be able to house these monsters. On top of that a power source to push out enough voltage power for that kind of setup, ugh! What have I got myself into, damn obsessions.

Any and all suggestions are welcome, even comments about my crazy obsessions are welcome.

Thanks.

- Adam

 

[mcascone]

I make my pedalboards out of common shelving boards. They're cheap and come in several sizes. I get mine in black too. Drill holes in it and use long zip ties to secure the pedals to the board. This also eliminates messing up your expensive pedals with Velcro tape. At first I only drilled the holes I needed at the moment, now I just drill the crap out of them with as many holes as I have patience for, which provides more flexible mounting options as you tweak your board. I think you can get pre-drilled pegboards, but they're more expensive.
There's also a product out there that uses this concept, the name escapes me now. It's actually really well designed and beautiful, in my opinion. But expensive.

For power I've always used radio shack daisy-chain adapters. The wall warts are pretty small now. I have one that outputs 1000mA which is more than enough juice for a lot of pedals. Of course some pedals have special power needs which can get messy. I also use a One Spot adapter on one of my boards, I can't tell if there's a noise difference between that and the radio shack version.

There's an interesting product out there called the Pedalsnake which combines your pedalboard's output audio cables and pedal power lines into a single thing that runs to your backline, cleaning the cable mess up. I haven't tried it in person but it looks quite compelling.

 

[JohnDeereJack]

Regarding powering your pedals; I've been using a Diago Powerstation lately after my own obsession for pedals got out of hand and my collection started growing. It's small, churns out 3000ma (more than enough for anyone's needs) and is capable of powering up to 30 pedals. With a host of adapters (12v, 18v, 9v battery clip & centre negative) you can pretty much power anything out there.
PS - I have no affiliation with Diago, I merely like their product. A lot!