Custom pedalboard EU

[JONFROMJERSEY]

Hey
Does anyone here have any experience with having a custom pedalboard built? Here in the EU I mean. I mean one of those fancy board like from Gig Rig in the UK or something. Was it worth it? Any advice would be appreciated. I might be ready to take the plunge because I just can´t seem to get my act together and I might have the means... Thanks.

[Jaguar018]

Quick answer is no, but have you had the same pedals for a while, or do you like to change them up every so often?

I definitely have a few regular pedals, but every two or three years I get the urge to switch out a few here or there.

[JONFROMJERSEY]

Lately I have been switching a lot but I want to just settle down with some good stuff. I was thinking that a nice board would force me to do that.

[s_mcsleazy]

i always think the most important thing to do if you're "settling down" with a pedalboard is to make one the exact size you need. not bigger, not smaller. pedalboard planner is great for that. i dont think it's worth spending out for something like a gigrig made board. buy some good quality cables, find the dimentions of all the pedals you use on a regular basis and see how close that is to the size of a pedaltrain. also think about what fetures you need on the board. do you have a loop switcher? do you need one? what pedals do you turn on and off a lot, what pedals stay on for whole songs. do you need to access some pedals to change settings?

while i appreciate what daniel and the gigrig guys do, i dont think anyone knows what they need more than themselves.

[fuzzjunkie]

i always think the most important thing to do if you're "settling down" with a pedalboard is to make one the exact size you need. not bigger, not smaller. pedalboard planner is great for that. i dont think it's worth spending out for something like a gigrig made board. buy some good quality cables, find the dimentions of all the pedals you use on a regular basis and see how close that is to the size of a pedaltrain. also think about what fetures you need on the board. do you have a loop switcher? do you need one? what pedals do you turn on and off a lot, what pedals stay on for whole songs. do you need to access some pedals to change settings?

while i appreciate what daniel and the gigrig guys do, i dont think anyone knows what they need more than themselves.

what Sean said. The most important thing outside the pedals are the cables and power supply if you use one. Include that in figuring out the dimensions if it's not going on the underside of a Pedaltrain or similar.

For years I used a 3/4" plywood board in an old suitcase. Everyone did. The band and record store stickers were the only thing holding it together by the time I got a real flight case a few years ago. Everything is fancy, pedals, cables, power supply, except the board, that's still just a 3/4" plywood.

[s_mcsleazy]

i always think the most important thing to do if you're "settling down" with a pedalboard is to make one the exact size you need. not bigger, not smaller. pedalboard planner is great for that. i dont think it's worth spending out for something like a gigrig made board. buy some good quality cables, find the dimentions of all the pedals you use on a regular basis and see how close that is to the size of a pedaltrain. also think about what fetures you need on the board. do you have a loop switcher? do you need one? what pedals do you turn on and off a lot, what pedals stay on for whole songs. do you need to access some pedals to change settings?

while i appreciate what daniel and the gigrig guys do, i dont think anyone knows what they need more than themselves.

what Sean said. The most important thing outside the pedals are the cables and power supply if you use one. Include that in figuring out the dimensions if it's not going on the underside of a Pedaltrain or similar.

For years I used a 3/4" plywood board in an old suitcase. Everyone did. The band and record store stickers were the only thing holding it together by the time I got a real flight case a few years ago. Everything is fancy, pedals, cables, power supply, except the board, that's still just a 3/4" plywood.

mine is build from an ikea shelf and the case is a old gym bag

[JONFROMJERSEY]

Yeah I just like things to be neat and clean. My cables are mess, especially underneath, and I have a bunch of cables connecting the board to the outside word. 220V x 2 (one for the power supply and one for a mains powered multieffect), cables from the guitar and to the amp, and a MIDI cable coming in to the delay and looper. I bought some cheap adhesive-backed cable clips and I will start there. I realize I don´t want or need a complex switching system.

[timtam]

Gigrig seem to be at the forefront of the movement that see pedal boards as the most expensive part of one's total rig - potentially more than your guitar and more than your amp. If you go along with that, want a one-stop solution that 'just works', probably with some features that you will never use, and considerable funds, then by all means go for it. Gigrig will build a medium size board (not including pedals) for around 1400-1700 GBP ...
https://www.thegigrig.com/custom-boards

The basic functional elements of gigrig are a single control / bypass switching system that switches each pedal either in or out (so pedals not currently selected/'on' are completely out the circuit), and clean isolated power. If your needs are simple (fixed pedal order, no presets, no MIDI), you can achieve both far, far more cheaply. Get a reputable isolated power supply. Then you want to build a passive switching station, which is about as simple as soldering can get. You just need to duplicate a simple circuit in one big box, as many times as you have pedals. About $10 per channel plus the box ... eg
https://www.musikding.de/Bypass-Looper- ... sic-module ... get one of these, for one pedal in/out
https://www.musikding.de/Addon-Bypass-Module .. plus as many of these as additional pedals you want to switch in/out
https://www.musikding.de/long-enclosure-big-enclosure ... choose a box, pre-drilled if you want, daisy-chain more than one if you want

You can also go for custom-length, solderless connection cables (that gigrig seems to use) if you want, or just use the much cheaper standard length cables. Tidying things up is mostly a matter of layout and lots of cable ties (incl the ones with adhesive bases).

As for the board itself, mine is made of spare narrow fence palings I had lying around.

Other example resources ...
http://shanekirk.com/2014/07/diy-guitar ... io-looper/
https://www.loop-master.com/looper-wtun ... p-141.html
http://www.roadrageprogear.com/staggere ... opers.html
https://www.americanloopers.com/collect ... ix-6-loops

[JONFROMJERSEY]

Dude thanks!

[fortytwo]

Save your money, you can do it just as good yourself.

Find a board you want, find out what kind of power you really need, find the perfect order and placement of your pedals, and then put the thing together, because a year or two from now, you are likely to redo the board in one way or another.

Do you know how to solder?
If not, now's a great time to learn, as it will save you a lot of money.

[JONFROMJERSEY]

Decided to go with a Rockboard. I like the patchbay thing. Good product, especially for the money. I don't need a loop switcher... I will post a picture soon. Thanks for all the advice!

[somanytoys]

Save your money, you can do it just as good yourself.

Find a board you want, find out what kind of power you really need, find the perfect order and placement of your pedals, and then put the thing together, because a year or two from now, you are likely to redo the board in one way or another.

Do you know how to solder?
If not, now's a great time to learn, as it will save you a lot of money.

I fully agree with this. The only thing I might disagree with is the year or 2 thing - my setups don't last more than a few months, tops. If you play out a good bit, you may need more consistency in your sound, and leave it alone for much longer than I do.

I keep buying new pedals, changing orders, trying different settings along with different settings on other pedals, swapping pedals and orders - it's a never-ending quest, especially the more you learn. Maybe it's me, but I'm constantly reading some great ideas from people (especially on this site) or just looking at my pedals and suddenly getting ideas, "well, what if..." Luckily, it always ends up sounding better, but my pedalboards can't seem to stay neat for long.

[JONFROMJERSEY]

It ended up being this. But guess what? Moogerfooger chorus on the way...

[somanytoys]

That's really nice, good decision. I went & took a look at those pedalboards after you mentioned it above, I'd definitely get one of those if/when I need to replace one of mine.

Cool setup. How do you like the Immerse? I've looked at those for a while. I have a Saraphim, and I think the shimmer is great, but the Wet is meh. It's also mono, which may make a difference. What are the 2 discrete pedals (non-branded)?

So, do you have room to just slide in the new MF chorus, or are you going to start doing the board shuffle already?!? haha Seems like you have a little room to work with, but it always comes around sooner or later, because GAS.

Really cool, though I like it. Thanks for posting the pic.

[JONFROMJERSEY]

Thanks! Yeah I am very happy withe the Rockboard decision. It came out nice and clean too. I should post a photo of the bottom. One of my goals was to cut down on the mess. I debated making custom cables but it was not worth the money and the tips would have taken up a lot of space.

The two home-made pedals area a plexi-in-a-box (on the far right), and a phaser (next to the looper.) I will just substitute the MF Chorus for the phaser. I don´t have any more 9v slots on my power supply, and the MF Chorus does all kinds of modulation.

The Immerse is awesome. I was all set to get an Eventide Space but the Immerse sounds just as good and is 3/4 the price or cheaper, takes up less space, uses less power, etc... No presets but I don´t bother with that. I really love the Sustain mode as well as the Shimmer mode.

Looking at the photo now, I realize I should have taken the red sticker off the top of that Mod 2 Patchbay insert. It looks weird peeking through the board there!