Suggestions for building my first pedalboard

[el murdoque]

The set that I'm currently GASsing for is: Mono pedalboard, Cioks power supply, Pigtronix chromatic pedal tuner, EQD The Warden, EQD Blumes, EQD Hoof, EQD Sea Machine, EQD Grand Orbiter, EQD Dispatch Master and some preamp with DI. But that would cost a fortune.

If you ask me, the Mono pedalboards are hopelessly overpriced. And I'm a gear snob that runs multiple expensive pedalboards.
Your money is well spent with a decent power supply. Cioks, Strymon, GigRig and the like. These are expensive, but they'll last you a long time.
When building a pedalboard, you usually start out with a cheap PSU and you will eventually come to the point where your power situation creates problems, where you bite the bullet and get a good one. If money is an issue, it's actually better to skip that step and buy a decent one from the start.
Same goes for the cables. Don't get the super cheap ones. I've bought a few of the Rockboard flat cables (copies of the EBS flat cables) and none of them lasted very long - the best I got out of it was maybe two years. WIth the original EBS flat cables, I had one failure in more than a decade.

The pedalboard itself should be sturdy enough so you can put pedals on it and then step on them, but that's the one point where you can save money, the cheaper models are fine.

 

[SLO Surfer]

-3M Dual Lock instead of Velcro
-quality isolated power supply
-Ernie ball or EBS flat patch cables

I won’t give any advice on pedals or specific pedal boards because that can be so subjective. But the above are the 3 things I wish I had known before I started using pedals.

 

[Ulevi]

Found my 17 years old EHX Bass Big Muff. If I remember correctly this has some issue that I never bothered to look in to. Most likely loose connection. If this works I have basically fuzz covered too. Even though I don't like this pedal at all.

edit: rattles when I touch the volume knob and loose connection on input jack, but should be an easy fix to resolder the jack on put some CRC on the potentiometers.

 

[Ulevi]

There's Cioks Schizophrenic and DC8 for sale on the used market. Is there any downside to buying an used PSU and if not which one should I get? And DC5 too, but I think that's going to need expanders sooner rather than later so I'll pass.

 

[KenSmithFan]

If you don’t know whether or not you need a pedal, you probably don’t. Getting suggestions from a bunch of strangers will get really expensive quickly.

The best way to do it is to analyze your sound, figure out what you want to change, then buy the pedal that fixes it. Don’t run out and buy a pedal just because everyone says you MUST have it.

 

[Ulevi]

I know what effect types I want and need.

 

[OnlyFlats]

There's Cioks Schizophrenic and DC8 for sale on the used market. Is there any downside to buying an used PSU and if not which one should I get? And DC5 too, but I think that's going to need expanders sooner rather than later so I'll pass.

Get the dc8 it's bomb proof. Mine was 2nd hand and still going after 6yrs.

BUT make sure it comes with the power cable and plenty of pedal connectors. Cioks use rca based pedal connectors so you can't use the generic ones. Don't let that put you off Cioks though they're totally worth it, Buy Well Buy Once.

Ps I hate reverb on bass and rarely use delay. Chorus is enough usually.

For delay, think through how versatile you need it. For just a bit of Joy Division vibe then a set n forget small digital delay is fine. But if you want delay repeats to adjust for each song you play, you'll want tap tempo (2nd foot switch either on the pedal or connected as an option separately). That drives the cost up.

I wouldn't prioritise either reverb or delay. You tend to know if you really need them and I doubt you do at this stage (I play your genres and styles you quoted). Focus on building up the board as it is first.

+1 to that post reminding you of your own individuality and assessing your own personal needs. Work with your current gear, identify gaps in fx through experience.

 

[mikef09]

-3M Dual Lock instead of Velcro
-quality isolated power supply
-Ernie ball or EBS flat patch cables

I won’t give any advice on pedals or specific pedal boards because that can be so subjective. But the above are the 3 things I wish I had known before I started using pedals.

^ THIS

 

[Ulevi]

Is that sound on the rhythm guitar a phaser or a flanger?

 

[OnlyFlats]

I think that's a distortion then cocked wah into a
phaser set slow. Hard to tell though as there are other sounds doing cool weird stuff.

If you're chasing weirdo vibes like that, experiment! I liked that track.

 

[_Obra_]

If I am to build a new pedalboard, first few things after the board itself would be Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 4x4 (or any other Voodoo Lab power supplie), Radial JDI passive direct box and a good tuner of choice. After that, it's all up to your creativity.

 

[Ulevi]

Do I need a buffer for anything if I'm presumably using around 5 pedals and playing on small venues?

 

[OnlyFlats]

No, don't worry about buffers.

 

[Ulevi]

I've decided to get a Bass VI to experiment on my noise rock project and I was wondering if there's any idea in splitting my signal on the pedalboard. The idea I had is to place a tuner and an overdrive pedal before the split box and run the other signal straight to the amplifier and on the other signal path would be a fuzz and modulation pedals. Would this do anything to prevent the loss of bass frequencies? I was thinking of this being a cheaper way to simulate bi-amping with only one amplifier.