GigRig Bespoke Pedalboard Service

peteri

I've built my new board this week, from scratch.

New case from Custom Pedal Boards, G2, all the Gig rig power stuff.


I reckon it took me maybe 5 hours to have it up and running (not including programming the G2) - including making up George L cables as I went.


Firstly - I loved doing it and wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Found it much easier and more satisfying than previous PedalTrain based solutions - and looks much tidier, so would say get the right case and then do it yourself.

I've found Gigrig patchy in the past when calling/talking about my Quartermaster questions - but have to say they have been amazingly helpful and quick to reply with G2 questions - really couldn't have been better. Maybe this is luck, maybe this is where the interest is now.

Kebabkid

Dominic said:

I'm going to get a Lambourghini .......and then pay somebody to drive it for me

I've got a £2k guitar. I'm going to watch a couple of YT instructional vids and then attempt a refret. 

Kebabkid

Bellycaster said:

Dominic said:

I'm going to get a Lambourghini .......and then pay somebody to drive it for me

This is not a good analogy though, is it? KK is taking his Lamborghini for a Tune Up, these guys are the Mechanics, not the Drivers.

Thanks J  
Edit: as we're using cars here as an analogy, I enjoy the process of searching for one, reading the reviews, looking and test driving them and finally making an informed purchase. I then enjoy driving them and giving them the little, basic care and maintenance that I personally can i.e. topping up the screen wash, checking the oil and tyres and the occasional clean. Beyond that, that's for someone else.

Bringing it to gear/guitars, there are some luthiers that send out for certain aspects of a job for whatever reason that might be. They don't do it all.

If you can do this sort of stuff, even if basic, then great. It must be satisfying and penny-saving. Alas, I can't and my DIY attempts are testimony to that. What I can do is set up sounds and play.

To be clear here, mine is a small job on a board with about 10 pedals that have been with me for 4-7 years. It tells me that they're probably not going anywhere, that I like them plus I don't change stuff around that often and don't suffer from "The Emperor's New Clothes".

It also tells me that for ergonomic reasons, and as a treat to myself, I'm willing to invest in the board to get it looking tidier, working at its optimum with the chosen Generator power supply and modular system (it's those add-ons that cost, not the couple of hour's labour) and sounding good. And to answer someone's question, the cost does include the programming, the pedal path diagram and planning, a personal consultation at either end of the process, although with mine, it's a planning of the loops and QMX flip-flop switches but obviously, that would take more time with a G2. The 10 hrs someone was quoted here for the latter does sound a lot but watch the most recent TPS video or the one where Dan works flat out under duress making up Andy Timmon's board prior to a gig on the day. However, if 10 hrs it is and someone's going for that, they probably have an impressive board with decent pedals, maybe expensive ones - the labour is the cost of a Strymon - and to me, it doesn't matter whether your pro or not, or gigging and doing something for your own enjoyment.

I did not find making up my own Lava Cables a particularly satisfying experience and all the chasing of circuits when they didn't quite work. Plus I'll be working with new power products like a Distributor, 2 X Isolators and a Time Lord. If that's a basic thing to you, then you're probably getting a better handle on where my cack-handness is

What's slightly disheartening here is that I've had a few PM's from people that have used the service or have GigRig systems and they felt the need to go "underground" to avoid being judged or laid open to derision. That shouldn't be what this place is about.

Fez

To quote Dirty Harry (I think unless someone knows different) "A man must know his limitations" If you don't enjoy doing that kind of thing and don't think you are good at it then pay to have it done, so long as your'e not staving the kids to do it. Personally I don't like messing with cars, engineering is my day job when I get home I want to play guitars not change the clutch in an old banger.

kjdowd

Fez said:

To quote Dirty Harry (I think unless someone knows different) "A man must know his limitations" If you don't enjoy doing that kind of thing and don't think you are good at it then pay to have it done, so long as your'e not staving the kids to do it. Personally I don't like messing with cars, engineering is my day job when I get home I want to play guitars not change the clutch in an old banger.

Exactly. I've been playing for years and still pay to get my guitars set up. I did my own pedalboard but it's a bit of a dogs dinner and I'd pay someone to do it if I had the spare cash. That sort of thing just isn't my forte. 

Really don't see an issue here. 

samzadgan

KK if I was still in London, I'd offer my services...

a few months ago I took my pedalboard to a "professional" to get it rewired as what I wanted was a bit complicated...$250 later it looked like shit, he asked me the questions I was asking him and I realised I knew more than he did.

so fast forward to a few weeks ago and put up a though on a local FB pedal group about wanting to setup a hobby business of setting up pedalboards...the response was overwhelming. Within 30 mins I had 10 customers lined up and had to turn down the rest as it's not a full time job.

the point is there are a lot of players who want someone else to sort it out for them, much like I still like my guitars setup by a luthier. Mainly because I want it done right, I just want to play the guitar at its best highest potential, no do it myself and fuck it up and think the guitar is shit.

It's the same thing with pedalboards, you get it done and it comes back all perfect...so you pay a bit of money...compared to how much we spend on gear I think this cost in most cases is a bit of a drop in the ocean.

Kebabkid

thanks so much for the offer @samzadgan and I'd forgotten you're now in Oz. Good luck with the pedalboard business. Other than GigRig and Pete Cornish, I'm not sure who else offers a service over here.

Yeah, I think I'm pretty decided on the GigRig service now and comms between us have been very good and helpful.

I did toy with the idea of getting a used Fractal FX8 instead  and as good as it is, there's just something about the "little personalities" that are pedals and I've no gripe with mine. There just needs to be a more ergonomic way of accessing certain sounds without 4 pedal depressions!!

Cheers everyone and much appreciated

peteri

Kebabkid said:

Bellycaster said:

Dominic said:

I'm going to get a Lambourghini .......and then pay somebody to drive it for me

This is not a good analogy though, is it? KK is taking his Lamborghini for a Tune Up, these guys are the Mechanics, not the Drivers.

Thanks J  
Edit: as we're using cars here as an analogy, I enjoy the process of searching for one, reading the reviews, looking and test driving them and finally making an informed purchase. I then enjoy driving them and giving them the little, basic care and maintenance that I personally can i.e. topping up the screen wash, checking the oil and tyres and the occasional clean. Beyond that, that's for someone else.

Bringing it to gear/guitars, there are some luthiers that send out for certain aspects of a job for whatever reason that might be. They don't do it all.

If you can do this sort of stuff, even if basic, then great. It must be satisfying and penny-saving. Alas, I can't and my DIY attempts are testimony to that. What I can do is set up sounds and play.

To be clear here, mine is a small job on a board with about 10 pedals that have been with me for 4-7 years. It tells me that they're probably not going anywhere, that I like them plus I don't change stuff around that often and don't suffer from "The Emperor's New Clothes".

It also tells me that for ergonomic reasons, and as a treat to myself, I'm willing to invest in the board to get it looking tidier, working at its optimum with the chosen Generator power supply and modular system (it's those add-ons that cost, not the couple of hour's labour) and sounding good. And to answer someone's question, the cost does include the programming, the pedal path diagram and planning, a personal consultation at either end of the process, although with mine, it's a planning of the loops and QMX flip-flop switches but obviously, that would take more time with a G2. The 10 hrs someone was quoted here for the latter does sound a lot but watch the most recent TPS video or the one where Dan works flat out under duress making up Andy Timmon's board prior to a gig on the day. However, if 10 hrs it is and someone's going for that, they probably have an impressive board with decent pedals, maybe expensive ones - the labour is the cost of a Strymon - and to me, it doesn't matter whether your pro or not, or gigging and doing something for your own enjoyment.

I did not find making up my own Lava Cables a particularly satisfying experience and all the chasing of circuits when they didn't quite work. Plus I'll be working with new power products like a Distributor, 2 X Isolators and a Time Lord. If that's a basic thing to you, then you're probably getting a better handle on where my cack-handness is

What's slightly disheartening here is that I've had a few PM's from people that have used the service or have GigRig systems and they felt the need to go "underground" to avoid being judged or laid open to derision. That shouldn't be what this place is about.

Makes complete sense.

As part of buying my G2, they kindly provided me with a power supply diagram - made life so easy, plugging in it was basically following the pictures.

No shame in getting help, I took an afternoon off work - and really enjoyed the therapy angle of doing it, yes there's no pleasure in the cables - but it was nice when it worked. (and it nearly worked first time!).

octatonic

I've built a couple of pedalboards for people charged at around £30 an hour.
If you are making cables up precisely to fit the board then it is quite time consuming.

I did a G2 board for someone just after they were released and it was a 2 day job at around 6 hours a day but with a bit of faffing about.
I charged for 10 hours IIRC.
I can make cables up at less precise lengths a hell of a lot quicker. but when you are measuring down to an exact fit you need to be pretty precise- there is a lot of measuring and double checking.

I thought about trying to make it a bit of a bigger business rather than doing a few one-off builds but decided it wasn't going to be busy enough to warrant creating a website and then advertising it etc.

english_bob

BBBlues said:

Hang on, they're in Swindon? How can we not be certainly Dan isn't actually Andy Partridge in disguise!

Because Dave Gregory plays in Dan's band and he probably would have noticed.

Kebabkid

Thanks @peteri and @octatonic and that's interesting to hear.

James, I know you're handy with a soldering iron and tools and can make guitars etc so to hear it can take as long as GigRig quoted is reassuring and also, that it can be a PITA.

vasselmeyer

If you're in the UK then I can suggest Chris at @CustomPedalBoards who did a brilliant job building and wiring my BOSS ES-8 board. It's so neat and everything is put together so perfectly, it's almost a work of art.

octatonic

Kebabkid said:

Thanks @peteri and @octatonic and that's interesting to hear.

James, I know you're handy with a soldering iron and tools and can make guitars etc so to hear it can take as long as GigRig quoted is reassuring and also, that it can be a PITA.

Yes, it is non-trivial to make a product that is 100% working and neat.

If you've ever seen some of the rack builds on Huge Racks Inc- they must have taken weeks to do.
Some of them are works of art.

peteri

Actually to add - it was Chris at CustomPedalboards who made my case - love it, very cool

saint_ivey

I've just used them for my large board build. Some comments:
* doing it yourself is easy, even if you have no previous experience 
* I can't see why it takes as long as they say. I wired the same pedals on my Pedaltrain board myself in half the time & I'm no expert. 
* In my opinion £35 per hour is overpriced. You can get a highly skilled tradesman for £10 less.
* I went to them as I wanted a once for all job & wanted to see if I'd missed anything or should consider something else. I also wanted a board with a flightcase. It turns out I hadn't missed anything and they didn't raise anything new. 
* The board was returned to them today because there were some issues with the work they did. Once these have been rectified I will be very happy.
* overall they do a reasonable job but it's nothing you can't do yourself and you pay an extremely high price for what you get in return.
* my advice would be to go directly to Custom Pedalboards and speak to Chris. He is extremely helpful and it will save you a lot of money. The GigRig basically just act as a middle man, buying the case from Custom Pedalboards & then charging a lot to wire it. 
* Dan from GigRig appears to be a bit of a genius and has wired many pro musician's boards. However he does not wire the boards for general customers himself. 

saint_ivey

octatonic said:

I've built a couple of pedalboards for people charged at around £30 an hour.
If you are making cables up precisely to fit the board then it is quite time consuming.

I did a G2 board for someone just after they were released and it was a 2 day job at around 6 hours a day but with a bit of faffing about.
I charged for 10 hours IIRC.
I can make cables up at less precise lengths a hell of a lot quicker. but when you are measuring down to an exact fit you need to be pretty precise- there is a lot of measuring and double checking.

I thought about trying to make it a bit of a bigger business rather than doing a few one-off builds but decided it wasn't going to be busy enough to warrant creating a website and then advertising it etc.

I used Evidence Audio cables on all 3 of my boards & I'm pretty anal about it being exact. It really didn't take long at all & is almost impossible to get wrong. 

I just think the rates the GigRig charge are really high. Particularly if you consider you can employ a skilled electrician (who has trained for years) in the Bristol area for less than £30 an hour. 

I guess whether it's worth it will have to be down to the individual. 

hotpickups

If you ever want to move on your EA plugs @saint_ivey give me a shout ? Forever an opportunist me lol

Kebabkid

@saint_ivey - thanks for your comments and insight.
Mmm...starting to feel slightly polarised but for balance, I'll speak to Chris at Custom Pedalboards as well

Teetonetal

@Kebabkid if you don't fancy doing it, why not send the info to @CustomPedalBoards too and ask for a quote?

Kebabkid

Thanks @Teetonetal and that's what I'll do today.

Oh, anyone know where custom pedalboards are based and is that also a face to face service?