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Preserving pedal settings in a soft case

smeet

smeet

Gold Supporting Member
Nov 27, 2006
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Sammamish, WA
www.reverbnation.com
#1
I have a pedal train PT-2 with a bunch of pedals on it. I keep it in a soft case, not made by pedaltrain. It's made by Moog, a decent fit but maybe a bit loose, but it has straps to hold the board in place.

My problem is that when I cart it around, the knobs on some of the pedals get moved around by rubbing on the inside top of the case. Does anybody have a good solution to this? Does it happen with all soft cases? I've never seen anybody else complain about this.

I've thought about putting either a sheet of something hard (plywood?). Or a block of foam to cover the inside top of the case but I don't know if that would cause more problems. Any help would be great, I hate having to recheck all my settings at each gig, and sometimes I have to set up in the dark...
 
#3
I've kept my pedalboard in a shoebox since last summer and can't remember having significant knob movement. I used a thin sheet of foam over the top of the pedals and a rolled up rag or similar on each side.

Foam on top seems to work!
 
#6
Hi @smeet ,
I started a thread back in November about labeling the knob settings on pedals. Don't know if any of the info will help you, but you can click HERE to see the thread.

What may be a bit closer to your interest is the last message in that thread. It pertains to a something Digitech ships with some(?) of their pedals. They've named it a Stomplock. Check out the last message in that thread above for more info and to see pics of two types they have (they may have more, not sure).
What interests me about this is that with a bit of care in measuring and some familiarity with the proper software and you could design and 3D print this type of knob guard for any of the pedals you have on your board.

Hope that helps...
 
#10
Some interesting ideas here all, thanks and please keep them coming.

I am a knob tweaker, so I will often modify my settings during either a practice or a gig. So I don't want something that makes the knobs harder to get at. I just want the board to look the same when open the case, as it did when I put it in there.

So far I'm thinking maybe a "half box" inside the top might be the way to go. Like maybe appropriately sized and shallow Tupperware container, with foam to hold the board immobile...?

Of course pictures and tape are good for recalling long term settings, but I play with a lot of groups, and sometimes I tweak my settings at home before a particular gig.
 
#11
It makes me wonder why someone hasn't made knob protectors. Just like how we have pedal risers now, a small and adjustable piece of metal to cover knobs would probably save a lot of people a lot of pre-gig/practice re-tweaking.
It might be a space issue on some of the exceedingly tight-spaced Tetris boards, but I've always felt like those type of boards aren't really for guys who are overly concerned with knobs. The footswitch for a pedal that you step on all the time? Sure, but here's at least four other knobs within a three inch radius of it, usually right in front of it. Have fun stomping while playing on a dark stage.
 
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#12
My guitar buddy had some plastic covers that fit over knobs. He had a couple-three different sizes and they worked well.

Don't know where he picked them up but he was bragging on them as we were setting up for an Xmas gig 10 days ago. I'll ask him.

I snap photos and it's a pain to reset, even more when it's dark and you got like 5 mins before showtime, and you still have too pee. I try to handle my PT2 by the sides but you never know.
 
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#19
I make frequent tweaks to my settings, often as a practice is in progress - so marking my settings down isn't too practical. But I'm getting some good ideas here. Maybe a combination of ideas will work well.

I wish there was a cheap industry standard for saving and recalling pedalboard patches. Maybe someday the source audio system will evolve into that.
 

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