Guitar Pedal Board

As a casual amateur guitarist, I needed a low cost pedal board to create effects for rock and blues rock. This DIY board was built with a range of (mostly) affordable pedals, some purchased new, some second-hand, some built from kits.

The Board

The base board was constructed from scrap pieces of timber. The sides are two wedge shaped pieces, angled so that the board tilts up from the floor at about twenty degrees. Four slats were screwed to the side pieces, spaced apart so that cables could be passed in between. After a quick sanding it was sprayed with a few coats of matt black paint.

Heavy Duty Velcro was used to attached the pedals to the board. I had purchased 50mm but this was too wide, so I cut it down the middle into two 25mm strips, sticking the felt side to the wooden slats. Small strips of the hook side were used for the pedals. To improve adhesion, I heated up the glue with a hair-dryer before sticking them on to the base of each pedal.

The Pedals

The pedals are listing here in the order they are connected in the signal chain, starting at the bottom right of the board:

• Valeton Coral Chromatic Tuner
  A chromatic tuner which a large, easy to read, display.
• KOKKO Mini Compressor
  A basic analog compression pedal, to thicken up the tone and add sustain.
• Factory Fuzz Pedal
  Built from a Musikding kit, this fuzz pedal likes to be early in the signal path.
• EHX Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker
  Because everyone needs more fuzz!
• The Range Treblebooster Pedal
  Built from a Musikding kit, this pedal has been named after Rory Gallagher who used it to define his sound.
• TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Octaver
  This polyphonic octaver pedal, allows you to mix the dry signal with one octave up, one octave down and two octaves down. The TonePrint app can also be used to tweak a multitude of settings on the pedal. I mostly use the dry with some one octave down to emulate a bass guitar playing in the background.
• Tom's Line Bluesy Vintage Blues Overdrive
  An overdrive pedal inspired by the Marshall Blues Breaker pedal.
• Donner VERB Square Evolution+
  This pedal has seven modulation reverb effects; Room, Hall, Church, Spring, Plate, Mod & Darksea. I only use a small amount of the Plate reverb in some songs to add some space to the tone.

Power & Patching

• Caline Guitar Pedal Power Supply
  This unit has 10 x isolated DC Outputs, 9V/12V/18V, only the 9V outputs are currently used.
• Donner 15cm Flat Patch Cables
  These cables have flat connectors, which take up less space on the board.
• Gotham GAC-1-12 Inch (30 cm) Patch Cables
  These cables have pancake type connectors, which take up less space on the board.

Overall, a reasonably versatile pedal board which meets my needs, for now! In total, it probably costs less than one boutique pedal.