DIY Pedalboard Build

[Alex Kenivel]

Grab a bag for puke JT because this is gonna be angled 20 x 11 monstrosity..


Cutting some not so fancy wood for the top:

and the sides:

Raw wood is ready for abuse:

And the family is home. Off to dinner duties.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Cut some angles and other pieces

Screwed it together with odds and ends

Need to sand down that middle plank and it will be almost ready for some play, need to get more dual lock and eventually drill some holes for a patch bay I'm hoping to add after I find the parts.

 

[dronerstone]

Looks great so far!

Probably gonna end up on the heavier side tho, right?

PS: Ugh, family time. The neverending scheduling nightmares.

 

[ptb1]

Nice.
I made a really small one for the pedals I use the most:

Often my Little Big Muff or RB1011 is used instead of the looper and/or drummer. I barely use more pedals than that.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Went for a DIY solution too, but I used case plywood and the guy at the case company offered to cut everything for another €5 tip, so my part has only been to measure things and slap them together.
Anyhow, IMO DIY boards beat all premade boards by a mile. Mine isn't heavier than any metal boards, either.

 

[laxu]

I think it's really hard to get lower weight than something like Temple Audio's aluminium boards. You'd have to use some really lightweight wood.

I've been considering making a DIY board out of paulownia since I have some left, I just would need to figure out the perfect form factor first. I like that I can cram a lot of stuff under my Temple Audio Trio 21 and the size of it is often just right for a lot of pedals without running out of space.

I recently built a small desktop board from Makerbeam aluminium profiles. They have a nice system where it's easy to build a lot of stuff by screwing things together.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I think it's really hard to get lower weight than something like Temple Audio's aluminium boards. You'd have to use some really lightweight wood.

Sure. But we're pretty much talking diminishing returns here already. 9mm case plywood is pretty lightweight already (unfortunately I didn't weigh it and I won't take things apart just for that).
I mean, my entire board with case kicks in at around 18 kilograms, so there's not much to gain by saving 500 grams or so.

 

[laxu]

Sure. But we're pretty much talking diminishing returns here already. 9mm case plywood is pretty lightweight already (unfortunately I didn't weigh it and I won't take things apart just for that).
I mean, my entire board with case kicks in at around 18 kilograms, so there's not much to gain by saving 500 grams or so.

It adds up. I hauled my pedalboard yesterday from one city to another on a train and it was a heavy thing to carry for a length of time - and that's with an aluminium board!

Out of curiosity I looked at what a Schmidt Array (wood/metal) of similar size would weigh and it's Temple's 1.5 kg vs Schmidt's 5.7 kg. That's a huge difference.

 

[Sascha Franck]

It adds up.

Sure. But really, in my situation, there's not much to win, so it's 17 vs. 18 at best (possibly less of a difference). I actually thought about building an aluminium chassis for a while, but wood is just easier to modify.
If I was using it without the actual case (which I'm not and never will), things would possibly be different.

 

[Coalface1971]

Cool stuff. I'm not much of a pedal board guy, though am a DIY addict.

Built this whole road case setup for my expanded Axess FX1 controller just in case I landed a world tour to the next-door neighbor's. Got most all the stuff from Penn Elcom. I had all of the construction pics on Photobucket (GONE!!), I think I have them on an old laptop, but it was surprisingly easy to make.

The internal triangular thing (wife called it a planter box) was to protect the connections from wayward feet.

The silver box on the left was a custom piece I built that handled the whole board to the rack with one 7-pin XLR cable, including MIDI, Phantom power and tuner signal switched remotely. There was no audio on the floor.

I still have the case, though pulled down the setup after ~10 years, as sold off the FX1's expander (for the same price I paid in 2006), as I'm switching to an RJM GT22.

The whole setup weighed about 35kg - yep - a real bitch to move on my own (the things we do).

The EBMM pedals had the toe switches for enabling Whammy IV and Wah (over MIDI), the dB Instrument amp thing allowed the wet and dry signal volumes in the rack to be varied independently (also over MIDI), and clock with the Polytec 34One.

 

[Sascha Franck]

my expanded Axess FX1 controller

Fwiw, what did you use that with?

 

[Coalface1971]

Probably fucked up here and bombed this thread (maybe need a DIY section), though being a mad experimenter (and you asked):

Last rig was this one 2019 (Framus WDW 3-cable method with old Axe Ultra/Matrix poweramp)

This setup before that with my SLO (2016), Axe ii, Atomics, 3-cable method again, similar Axe grid layout

 

[Coalface1971]

And originally this rig ~2010/2011. I'd used an All Access before this.

I'm an electrical tech by trade, do all of my own wiring, power supplies, mods etc.

Cheers

Chris.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Wow, Huge Racks Inc. all the way.
What kinda stuff did you use all that for?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Re: Weight
The chassis of this little board (basically my older big one size reduced to be suitcase/backpack ready) kicks in at 520 gram. For comparison: A Pedaltrain Nano still weighs 450 grams and is quite a bit smaller. In addition, my board is suitable to hold both a DI box and a PSU below things, something impossible with the Nano.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Dig the build @Alex Kenivel ! Looking forward to seeing the finished product \m/

 

[Coalface1971]

Cut some angles and other pieces
View attachment 6381

Screwed it together with odds and ends
View attachment 6382
View attachment 6383
View attachment 6384
Need to sand down that middle plank and it will be almost ready for some play, need to get more dual lock and eventually drill some holes for a patch bay I'm hoping to add after I find the parts.

Great to see you some DIY stuff. Build it, and they will come

 

[Coalface1971]

Wow, Huge Racks Inc. all the way.
What kinda stuff did you use all that for?

Yes, the old HRI caused me to spend lots of money.

Playing wise, still just the same cockrock 80's/90's metal, so these rigs might have been overkill.........But they're like hotrods to me, Sunday drivers.

I love rig/gear building. If I could make a living out of it, I'd quit the coalmines.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Looks great so far!

Probably gonna end up on the heavier side tho, right?

PS: Ugh, family time. The neverending scheduling nightmares.

It's not very dense wood, it's pretty light and it's not much heavier than my old pedaltrain. Of course I sold it and I can't directly compare.

And originally this rig ~2010/2011. I'd used an All Access before this.

I'm an electrical tech by trade, do all of my own wiring, power supplies, mods etc.

Cheers

Chris.

This is how you threadbomb! You make the racking, too?

 

[Sascha Franck]

so these rigs might have been overkill

That's what they always turned out to be for me. Never had as elaborated rigs as you, but there's been some rather fancy (for me at least) WDW, WD and stereo attempts. Couldn't afford the great stuff people like Lukather would slap into their Bradshaw rigs (back then the toppermost of the poppermost was something like an SPX 90 for me, fortunately some while later things such as the Intellifex/Intelliverb were showing up for vastly more affordable prices), but otherwise I went kinda all in with rack splitters/mixers and what not.
But then, while things sounded absolutely impressive in the rehearsal room, when it came to live playing (which happens to be my main job), it always got nasty. Started with the hauling, then you had to look for a space on stage for all that stuff, cable things up, etc. Only to find out that the house mixer didn't understand how to mic (or rather mix) a WDW setup, so either everything was bone dry or soaking wet FOH. Also, given that I'm not a big name hired gun, the venues I'm playing in aren't exactly asking for guitarists with a big @ss setup but rather the opposite (and since a few years sometimes even demand silent stages).
Whatever, that's why I'm always curious whether and how people are putting these rigs to good use.