General Music Chat

I have multiple stomp boxes. I prefer this to a multi effect, but the problem is I still hook them all up loose at gigs which can be time consuming, and leaves them at the mercy of over zealous dancers. What company(s) out there make a decent pedal board. Are these things equipped with their own power supply, or do you need to buy that separately?

You can't beat Boss. I've always used their analog pedals so I decided to buy one of their ME-70 boards. I believe it came with the power supply. You can find them for under $300 US. They also have the GT-10 which you can find for under $500 US.

$300 is a bit much for a pedal board, but I know you are at the mercy of pedal board makers.

You could make an easy pedal organizer by making an moderately heavy aluminum strip the width of the longest pedal. Then simply take off the bottom plates of all the pedals and space them as you want them. Then drill holes in the aluminum strip to match the bottom plates. Then screw the pedals to the strip and put the bottom plates in storage. That grounds every pedal and gives them a solid mount.

I never had any problems when using multiple pedals that were set up like that. I just plugged in the power cord the guitar and the amp and that was it. Maybe it's not for everyone, but I preferred it to lugging around a heavy wood suitcase.

A thin wooden strip of hardwood screwed to the front edge looks nice, adds support to the strip and puts the pedals at the proper angle.

But it doesn't cost $300.00 or take up much room. It only does what you want it to.

As I mentioned, not for everyone but I sure liked doing it that way.

Hell I've got a small one I'll send you.
No power supply though. As Jimmy stated BOSS, though people like to bad mouth them, they are durable and the tuner has an output for daisy chaining other pedals from one converter. I doubt I will ever use stomps again.
I am considering an in line EQ for my guitar rig however.

You can't beat Boss. I've always used their analog pedals so I decided to buy one of their ME-70 boards. I believe it came with the power supply. You can find them for under $300 US. They also have the GT-10 which you can find for under $500 US.

Actually Jimmy what I'm talking about is just a board by itself to house the pedals I have already. It needs to be large enough to accommodate the following...Dunlop Crybaby, Tremolo, Uni-Vibe and Fuzzface...MXR Phase 90, Micro Amp, and Carbon Copy delay...Boss TU-2 tuner, CE-2 chorus, and DM-2 delay...Fulltone Fulldrive 2

I've made a cpl for friends that simply held the pedals down with velcro. They seemed to work okay for them.

Get a Rocktron Patchmate with a Rocktron Midi Mate as a footcontroller. Then you can house all your pedals in a rack unit (Safe, off the floor, out of the way), and program midi channels to have a specific combination of effects.

I run this for my effects that I use through stomp (although I still have a TC Electronics multi-effect in my rack for most stuff).

So, the way this works is, all my pedals are on at all times in the rack unit. The Patchmate determines which of those signals actually gets put into the loop.

I can program midi channel 17, for instance, to have my Boss Chorus and my BB Preamp "on". I can program a different midi channel to take the Chorus out of the loop, but leave the BB Preamp in...

It makes it really easy. The Midimate is built like a tank. My floor spaces is then really compact. I have the Midi Mate for all my patches and effects, and then a volume + wah + tuner (which I use as an on/off for my piezo bridge, but that's another thread).


Like I said, I use a rack mounted effects unit for most stuff, but even if I were going to go with all pedal based effects, I'd still rather use the Patchmate and get all those pedals off the floor. Plus, once they are patched into the Patchmate and housed in a rack, I don't ever have to touch them again. No setup/teardown. I just drop the rack on the floor and plug in.

Dajax,

Im using a pedal pad board, I found it used on CL for $100, I think retail they go for around $300.

Youve got a lot of pedals so you are going to need a bigger board. Ive included a picture and at that time I didnt have my Whammy Pedal on there. I had to use a seperate power supply for my Whammy and and my Line 6 Delay modeler. If you use these pedals one thing I found was that I had to keep the power supplys from crossing each other. They make a lot of noise in my board. I finally took it back apart and jsut rerouted the power supplys until I lost the noise.

The advantages are huge. I can just throw this on the floor, open it, run power to it and a wire to my amp. I use a wireless from my guitar. At the end of a gig, just throw the chords for the guitar on top and put the top on, and its ready to load.

Disadvantages, mine is really heavy, it gets in the way of my mic stand. Ive been meaning to make a mount in it for my stand but Ive been lazy and havent done it. Also it makes such a huge footprint on the floor if you get on one of those corner or really small stage areas it takes up a lot of space.

But Im willing to overlook the disadvantages to keep my pedals housed, I remember doing a few shows a couplf years ago and lining up my pedals and wiring them, plus all the 9 volt batterys, then our singer getting caught on a chord and pulling my pedals apart.

If you only do the occasional gig, it probably doesnt matter but if you are playing 2-6 times a month its really nice to just be able to close it and go.

I like your floors JW. That's real hardwood yeah, not a laminate? Looks shiny.

Yeah Colors thats real hardwood.

This was before the flood lol.

Last summer my waterheater in a closet in a room next to this room ruptured. Water got on that floor up to where the pedal board is sitting. I had to rip that whole room out and have it replaced. This picture is a couple of years old. I built the house 10 years ago and put in the good hardwood thinking I would never have to fool with it again. Just another example to me of never saying never.

This is my great room with a vaulted ceiling. Big open room, i love the way my amps sound in this room. Very very lively. The crazy thing is I practice by myself louder than I play with the band these days. But man I sure like to crank it up in this room!