Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I built my board on the cheap. 1x12 long enough for my pedals, a little under 3 feet, some 2 inch wide industrial strength velcro, (that's what the label says) and a multi plug power splitter I made myself, one wall wart in, 4 outputs. one is a volume pedal, it needs no power.

I just pick it up and walk off with it, pedals still attached. I can pick it up with any pedal, the velcro is that strong. I've used it for 10 or 15 years, never had any problems.

My Arion analog delay has mono in, stereo out, so I ran it for a while into a dual amp rig for stereo, using it in the effects loop of a Peavey MX amp. worked great. Since the Peavey effects loop is after the preamp section of the amp, it already has all the EQ and gain and such, it's a line signal, so I ran it into a Radio Shack 4 channel PA amp on the other side, with a 1x12 cabinet, once I got main volume set, everything was handled from the guitar amp.

I have an old Morley Power Wah, big silver box, that died a long time ago, great pedal. I had to replace the light bulb when I first got it, worked perfect for 15 years, then it fried a resistor and that burned some of the contact strips on the circuit board, never was able to get it working again. Sure do miss the old thing...also have a newer black box one I got at a yard sale cheap, never did work. Good thing it only cost a buck or two...

Don't have any pictures of the pedal board, but it works fine, for a cheap home built thing, and eliminates a lot of set up time. Everything already wired except two patch cords, I have to unplug the input side of the Ibanez SD 9 distortion because it still has a battery, only works that way sometimes, and another going to the volume pedal because it hangs out too far and I worry it might get yanked out. Everything else stays plugged in, plug in 2 cables and I'm ready to go. Added a A/B switch to the end later on for running dual amp or both channels of the Super reverb, it stays too, just unused. Built the power splitter from a radio shack project box, wall wart is a 9VDC 1000 mA box, plenty to power all 4 at once, usually only 2 working at most times. Most pedals require 200 - 250 mA to run.

I'm currently running -

Arion Analog Delay, been using it since the 80's
Ibanez Phaser bought used 10 years ago
Marshall Bluesbreaker Overdrive, yard sale find at least 20 years ago
Ibanez SD-9 Sonic Distortion, friend gave me in about 1985
Schaller Fooschweller volume pedal, another yard sale find from the 90's.
A/B switch

I keep a modified Boss DS 1 on hand as a standby in case the Ibanez decides to flake out, and have several others sitting around unused. Rocktron Distortion, made some time in the 80's, rocktron Metal Planet distortion, KDS digital rack mount reverb, Tom Schultz power soak, Boss 10 band EQ, Behringer tuner, Dan Electro Rocky Road, seems like another one or two I cant remember. Gear heads would freak, mostly vintage stuff. Hell, the mic I use was used and well abused when I got it 30 years ago, Shure PE 35 L . Been using another one lately, Nady I got for $15.

The Morley wah/volume is 110v, it's the Radial that is 15vdc. I used to have a (9v) Morley compressor, neat-half-size case, but in the years it sat idle it died on me.

According to the comments at right, someone used on on a Small Clone, probably the same thing, probably should work, as long as polarity is right.

I made up mine from wires and plugs I cut off dead wall warts. Since I made it myself, I could swap polarity easy enough with a little soldering. I tried each one individually before plugging in the whole board, all works fine. I originally had one with that same 1/8" plug, all the others were the usual 1/4" or so round ones used in most pedals. I think mine was a DOD compressor. I eventually got rid of the thing and swapped out the plug to use a different pedal.

Anyway, the plug looks like the right one, at least according to the comments. as long as polarity is correct. If one from that company uses that plug, they most likely all do, most companies stay consistent with plugs and polarity. That was a problem with mine, it was the only one that was tip positive, I had to figure out the wiring before it would work. Try it by itself, if it doesn't work it's most likely polarity, it should be possible to cut it in half and swap the wires, solder it back and you should be good to go. As I said, mine was internally wired in a project box, so I could just swap polarity inside, no wire clipping. Most are set up tip negative, the DOD was the only one I've seen that was the opposite, but other may exist, I don't know.

There are polarity reverse adapters you can get for power supply chains, too.
I never liked those 1/8" plugs for power - if the power is on, you are actually doing a quick short circuit to the pedal as you plug it in - so leave the supply side unplugged until you've got it plugged into the pedals.