# Saturday Project: Mounting Some Pedals To A Pedal Train



## keto (May 23, 2006)

So, I've been thinking about doing something like this for a while. Especially the Mooer small form factor pedals do not want to mount with just velcro. Every time I open up the bag, they're hanging off by the cabling. Time to get off my ass and fix it.

So, I had bought some strapping for another project years ago. It's a little rusted, but meh don't care. Grabbed the tin snips and first cut some triple-hole links:









and put them under the screws on the bottoms of the pedals. Then did some test fitting, and realized I just needed double links, not triple.









Now the nervy part: drilling thru the pedal board. 

*Hint* do not do this in the kitchen. Do it in the garage or on the deck or something. Mrs. won't like the aluminum chips all over the table and floor. 

I used a bit just smaller than the holes in the strapping to start, then enlarged the holes with a bigger bit. I left the velcro on because I FREQUENTLY change my pedals around.









And screwed down the pedals. I didn't do my mini tuner because the screws are very short and sit in a recess, so I couldn't get the strapping links in. I even tried putting them between the box and the box bottom, but there is a lip there that prevents doing so. So, I just zip tied it down for now.









I ran to Home Depot and bought some 1 1/4" and 1/2" bolts and matching wingnuts, to make for faster removal in future.









And here's my full board. The green 'Rocket' is an op-amp Muff clone, the red unfinished box is a Red Llama clone. The 2 loopers bottom left and middle are home built. The DL8 and Tremolo are in one loop, my old Volz phaser and Verbzilla are in the other, of the black looper.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

I have a few small footprint pedals and did notice that they can be a bit wonky just velcroed down.
Some of my pedals have stayed put, but others come and go.
I just can't see myself bolting them down though, although, the wingnuts are brilliant.

When I mod my PT1s, I'll throw some pics into this thread.
Thanks for taking the time to post Kent.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

More than enough accomplishment for a single Saturday!

Any issues running the Verbzilla and Hardwire looper off the same PSU?


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Mark, not so far. I have 2 Dunlop DC Bricks under that board - I know they aren't universally loved, I know they aren't isolated outputs, etc etc. And you are right, both the VZ and DL8 are on the same Brick. But I have owned about 4-5 Bricks now, and they just work...have never had a failure, don't get interference or other unexplained electrical noise. I mean, I have a big long chain so yes there is noise, but nothing I can't deal with.

And, yes it was lots to accomplish - it took me 3-4 hours including the hardware store trip, for what I thought would be a 1 hour job. lol.

I do have a Decimator/GString on order. Jock, you said somewhere else that yours failed, did you get that sorted out?


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Last night, I checked on that pedal again.
I pulled it apart to see if there was anything obviously wrong.
I didn't notice any burnt components, or anything disconnected,
so I threw it back on the board to see what was going on.

I'd get guitar signal to go through, but anything in the loop would not work at all.
I'd get a slight buzzing when I'd turn the knob down on the Gstring.
It would then go away when I'd turn it up again past noon.

When I first had trouble, nothing worked, not even signal through from the guitar.
I'm not crazy about the configuration of the Gstring, the inputs and outputs.
Rather than something straight forward, like the NS2, ins and outs for guitar and loop on either side of the unit,
the Gstring has three on one side and one on the other.

It wasn't wired incorrectly, as I had it working for a long time on the board without issues,
it just stopped working one day. Last year, I picked up a used Decimator in the forum,
that was supposed to go onto another board. I just rewired a few things and threw that on the PT Pro.
The reason for the attempted change, was that the NS2 seemed to be letting too much noise though.
I don't know why, as it seemed to be Ok before. The Decimator seems to be doing the trick for now.

The loop is a cool feature on the Gstring, but if you're just going to run everything through it,
save the $80 and just pick up the regular Decimator.

I'll have to get the Gstring to a tech, I suppose. I'd like to know what the problem is, for one anyway.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Sorry for highjacking your thread Kent, but I thought that I'd add a bit more about the noise gate.

The Gstring was superior, in the sense that it would let a lower level signal through well and still clamp down on the residual noise.
After I reconfigured my board to put the regular Decimator on it, now there's a problem.
To have it set where it does the proper amount of supression, it chokes off the clean signal, to a certain degree.
Certainly not the same as the Gstring, where that would be set to clamp down,
yet still pass a clean sginal through without a problem.
That is the benefit of the loop on the pedal, apparently.

So, that said, I would have to take back the recommendation to just get a regular Decimator.
One way around that, I suppose, would to use a looper system that only enacts the Decimator when it was needed,
leaving it off when playing clean. This was a recent realization, sorry to lead you astray with the previous comment.

My first choice would be a Gstring (that works), then the NS2 and the regular Decimator last,
unless it was run as I stated with a looper system.

I've played around with a supressor in the loop of the amp for a bit, not enough for a confirmed opinion though. 
The regular Decimator may work that way too. When I did try that, I used just the Decimator in the loop,
but I found some funkiness going on in the front end with the dirt pedals.
It did completely silence the whole rig that way though, worth looking into further.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

No worries, I already had the GString on order when I wrote the first post. Don't have it yet.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Yes, that's the way to go.

I hope you don't have the issues I have. I've got to get that back up and running again.
I just played around a bit more, the Decimator just isn't cutting it as I have it configured.


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

I'm surprised you had to do this. Are you covering the whole bottom surface of the pedal with hook-side velcro? And letting the adhesive cure for a while before you try to mount it?

I have trouble getting pedals off my board. They NEVER come off on their own.


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2013)

Me too. I have to use a screw driver to pry them off, and I only use 2 strips of Velcro.


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