# DIY Pedal board



## Simon Steele (Mar 6, 2013)

Just wondering if anyone has built their own pedal board and have any cool tips, tricks or designs they would like to share.

Thanks


----------



## keto (May 23, 2006)

I did one out of particle board and drywall screws, with an 'upper deck' at the back end. It wasn't bad, actually, but very heavy.


----------



## loudtubeamps (Feb 2, 2012)

Simon Steele said:


> Just wondering if anyone has built their own pedal board and have any cool tips, tricks or designs they would like to share.
> 
> Thanks


 Depends on how many u are using. I only have a few so they fit nicely into a road case/briefcase.Something like this








and this stuff to "schtick it doun wit". Velcro Industrial Strength Strips | Canadian Tire
Cheers, d


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

What some folks have done in past, where velcro was not feasible or advisable, and where the pedal chassis had screws on the bottom, was to use bicycle-chain liks (obtainable from any bicycle shop). These "8-shaped" pieces provide for one hole for the chassis bolt/screw to go through, to secure the bottom plate of the pedal, and another hole for a second screw to secure the pedal to whatever the pedalboard is made of.

Other strategies can include use of pegboard and cable ties. The cable tie goes around the pedal, and through the holes on the peghboard, secured on the underside of the pedalboard.

By far the most common strategy these days, however, appears to be use of velcro. The surface of the pedalboard can be just about any heavy-duty felt-like carpetting, and the barbed side of the velcro attaches to the underside of the pedal.

So much for affixing pedals to boards.

The other aspect of pedalboard strategizing involves power routing. If you have a power brick of some sort, part of this is taken care of. If you don't have a power brick, I would recommend fashioning yourself a power distribution box. This is essentially a small plastic box with a bunch of paralleled power jacks. The wallwart supply plugs into one of them, and you run short cables from the remaining jacks to your pedals. More deluxe versions of such a box might include power indicator LED when the wallwart is plugged in, perhaps some additional power smoothing, and maybe even some isolation between power outputs. each of these features involves slightly more complicated build.

The advantages of such a system, in its various configurations, are that:
a) you can simply unplug the wallwart and have a packable pedalboard with no wires hanging off,
b) you can make power cords to reach places with the least amount of slack or tension,
c) you don't have to worry about daisy-chain cables not reaching where you need them to be, or obligating you to put a particular pedal somewhere just for the sake of the power cable,
d) it is easily expandable (e.g., you could make two such boxes and simply run a cable from a jack on box 1 to box 2),
e) you'll be able to see if there is actually power to reach your pedals,
f) you can provide additional regulation and smoothing to whatever your wallwart is spitting out,
g) you can arrange for isolation between outputs to prevent interaction of pedals (digital pedals sharing a single power source can be particularly noisy).

...and probably other things I haven't thought of.

Switching convenience. A well-designed pedalboard should let you get at the things you need to get to easily. Loop selectors, like those made by Road Rage and others, can be very helpful in letting you position the switching at the front of the pedalboard, for easy access, even though the placement of the pedals might be different. Some loop-selectors even let you flip the order of pedals, which can be handy sometimes.

Many folks don't know it, but a lot of electronically-switched pedals (ANYTHING that uses a momentary footswitch, like Boss or DOD, et al.) can be remotely switched with an external momentary footswitch run in parallel with the internal momentary switch. I detail how to do this in this video: How to make a Boss pedal remotely switchable - YouTube So if a person had a bunch of pedals that used such and arrangement, your switchbox might be a row of switches like these: SPST Momentary Soft Touch Push Button Stomp Foots / Pedal Switch in a single chassis, arranged so that you could hit one at a time or even two, if you wanted to. And if such a box was a row of stompswitches poking out the top, connected to a row of corresponding mini jacks at the rear, any stompswitch could be assigned to control any feasible pedal, without having to rewire or rearrange your pedalboard; just plug the connecting cable into the appropriate jack on the switchbox and away you go.


----------



## Guest (Mar 13, 2013)

mhammer said:


> What some folks have done in past, where velcro was not feasible or advisable, and where the pedal chassis had screws on the bottom, was to use bicycle-chain liks (obtainable from any bicycle shop). These "8-shaped" pieces provide for one hole for the chassis bolt/screw to go through, to secure the bottom plate of the pedal, and another hole for a second screw to secure the pedal to whatever the pedalboard is made of.


Works awesome for heavy pedals:









I used the stuff you see hanging pipes up in your basement. Comes in a roll, in a box, and you snip it with wire snips to size. I think it's literally called pipe hanging strap. I found it easier to work with than bike chain links because they can be cut to longer sizes (I think the seafoam green pedal in that picture needed a 3-hole length) and it's pliable so you can bend it to conform to the shape of the feet on your pedals and what not.

I think the total bill of materials for that board up there was ~$40. It was a $20 sheet of 1/4" ply from the small board section at Home Depot. Had them rip it down to size. A sheet of sandpaper to round the edges and take the sharp bits off. Two packages of rubber feet for the bottom. The two handles are there so I can get it out of my flight case (it's a snug fit). A box of short wood screws with wide heads for the securing of all the things to the top of it. And the pipe hanger strap.


----------



## Jaybo (Jun 3, 2010)

Buying the "Gorm" shelf from Ikea seems to be a popular way to go. Just search something like "Ikea Gorm pedal board" and you'll run in to various threads and youtube vids. 

I had a friend do it, with pretty great results actually!


----------



## neldom (Apr 29, 2009)

Depending on how much effort you want to invest, this is the board I built.




It incorporates true bypass looping, aux switches and vol/exp pedal switch right into the board.
It's all powered underneath by a Voodoo Labs PP2+ and every loop and output is configurable under the board.
Took a bit of time to get it together but I absolutely love the board now that it's complete.


----------



## ronmac (Sep 22, 2006)

Very elegant! Would love to see a picture of the underside wiring, if you don't mind sharing.


----------



## Jaybo (Jun 3, 2010)

That is an awesome pedal board neldum!


----------



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

That is a beautiful board neldom!

Are you taking orders yet? 8)


----------



## neldom (Apr 29, 2009)

sulphur said:


> That is a beautiful board neldom!
> 
> Are you taking orders yet? 8)


Originally when I built it the intent was to make them available for sale, but in the end I realized my profit margins (without getting Cornish priced) were better going in for an extra hour or two of work at my regular job.
I already have a hard enough time getting out to actually use the thing as much as I want, let alone if I spend my "spare" time building more of them.

Thanks for the kind words everyone, I will try and remember to post a "gut" shot in the next couple of days.


----------



## washburned (Oct 13, 2006)

keto said:


> i did one out of particle board and drywall screws, with an 'upper deck' at the back end. It wasn't bad, actually, but very heavy.


o i c u've a cc2 2.


----------



## keto (May 23, 2006)

washburned said:


> o i c u've a cc2 2.


Sold it about a year ago, shipped it east to someone on this board though I forget who offhand.


----------



## Simon Steele (Mar 6, 2013)

Thanks everyone for the great ideas and craftsmanship. I am still a few pedals short (need a delay, and curios about f-pedal's phasevibe, and a volume) but I like to research before I need to do things.


----------



## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

I put some strips of fuzzy-side velcro on a piece of hard board that was cut to size to fit in a laptop carry bag.

Cheap as dirt, really. I think the velcro cost about $15 for a 10 foot roll? It's been a long time.

I already had the carry bag, and stole the hard board off the back of an old combo amp i had in the garage.

It's not fancy, but it works.


----------



## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

Search "Ikea Pedal Board" online and you'll see some neat home made examples.


----------



## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

Here are mine
First is the new one.
View attachment 2486


And second is my Gorm old board.
View attachment 2487


----------



## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

I took my own advice and checked out a lot of Ikea Gorm Pedal Board threads on various forums and got down to it. 
The "Gorm" shelf pieces come in pkgs of two and there are two sizes. Since the nearest Ikea is a bit of a drive I picked up a two pack of both sizes!

Rather than build the slope out of the unused Gorm shelf I saw someone use a modified shelf bracket. Great idea... stole it! While searching for the shelf brackets I came across a pair of adjustable ones... Bonus!
Three screws on each side and done!















Then, while perusing some other threads I saw that someone made and upper tier on the front which allows better access to the "upper deck". Great idea... stole it!
I took two boards off the front and cut the second shelf to size for the second deck (added bonus of extra room underneath for power supply)















Final steps were to add one of the remaining boards from the second shelf to the front to hide the power supply, add a few coats of paint then velcro the boards. After that I fastened a power bar (low tech for this go around) and zip tied the necessary adapters and then added pedals. As you can see I'm not a real "boutique" guy when it comes to pedals but these serve my needs. 















There you have it! Very easy solution. The Gorm shelves cost $10 for a two pack (3 boards) and $15 for a two pack of 5 boards. I ended up using one 5 board and one 3 board for what you see here. 
The shelf brackets were about $10. I already had a big roll of Velcro but I can't recall what it cost. Another $10 for paint. I wasn't doing this to be frugal but it works great for a fraction of what a commercially built board costs.


----------



## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Nice job. You've got a nice selection of pedals too.

Is this going to stay in the basement, or do you need to lug it around? 

Size and weight was one of the reasons i stayed away from a bigger pedalboard, but then I knew that I needed to sling it over my shoulder while carrying two guitars.


----------

