Putting together first board tomorrow.. UPDATE board finished

RichValentine

As the title says... Bought a fair few pedals while I was away and finally ready to start testing/creating my pedal board tomorrow. Would be intrigued to what the mistakes/problems people had their first time. Gone a little overboard on the OD pedals and because I was away probably didn't appreciate purchasing other types of pedals... Oh well always more gas.

So far it will be turbo tuner > Wilson 12 pos vintage wah > one/two over drive pedals > 4 knob blueface memory man (annoyingly with power cable attached) > boss rc 3 looper > amp

OD pedals available are: original ts808 (definitely going on), Timmy, prince of tone, menatone foxy brown, lovepedal englishwoman and colorsound overdriver (no 9v jack so likely not being used)

Would appreciate any advice. Will be using pt 2 and pedalpower plus

Branshen

Hook side of the Velcro goes on pedals. 

ThePrettyDamned

Branshen;81751" said:

Hook side of the Velcro goes on pedals. 

If you're making your own board, I'd go the other way around and fluffy on the pedals. Means that they are easier to clean and don't pick up crap from the carpet at home!

mike_l

for your drive pedals have one for higher gain and one for lower gain.

Don't worry about what order they're in as long as they sound good in that order.

Col_Decker

And so it begins. You will never be satisfied with it, I think I'm on my 500th version now.

JAYJO

If you have to buy velcro its Hook and Loop not Rough and fluff!!

I put the Loop on the pedal as loop picks up more crap than hook.

mike_l

Col_Decker said:

And so it begins. You will never be satisfied with it, I think I'm on my 500th version now.

Only V.500? you're slacking....

dogload

Get a carpet tile or something similar for the base, and just buy the hook part of the Velcro from a haberdasher (they tend to sell it separately from the loop part if you ask them). It works out a lot cheaper. Believe me!

stickyfiddle

ThePrettyDamned said:

Branshen;81751" said:

Hook side of the Velcro goes on pedals. 

If you're making your own board, I'd go the other way around and fluffy on the pedals. Means that they are easier to clean and don't pick up crap from the carpet at home!

But then every time you buy or sell a used pedal the velcro needs removing and swapping??

dindude

Things I've learned:

The temptation is to make everything permanent and for a long time I used that 3M mega strong one-sided velcro - what a pain in the arse, it's like glueing your pedals down - use good quality loop and hook - the T-rex stuff is just the right amount of strength vs easy to remove.

If you're wanting tidyness then cables you can cut to length (George L and the type) are good, so long as you're not making constant changes.

Also, for £30 the Gig Rig distributer is ace, allowing you to cut the 9v cables to the exact length.

Make your own board, it's just cooler that way.

EricTheWeary

I'd buy good quality patch cables, probably with pancake plugs.

dogload

stickyfiddle said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Branshen;81751" said:

Hook side of the Velcro goes on pedals. 

If you're making your own board, I'd go the other way around and fluffy on the pedals. Means that they are easier to clean and don't pick up crap from the carpet at home!

But then every time you buy or sell a used pedal the velcro needs removing and swapping??

I don't sell as many as I buy, so that's rarely an issue (except to the old wallet!)  Mind, I find that it's not too difficult to remove and transfer the Velcro generally.

Bidley

I would put every pedal into the chain(s) one-by-one - hook it up, turn the amp on, check everything works, rinse and repeat. The amount of times I've put my board back together only to get shitloads of noise or complete silence drives me mad. If you piece it together methodically it can save you a good while trying to isolate the problem. Of course if you find you have no problems by the end it's a bit of a false economy...

I also put the loop velcro on the pedals, and hook on the board. Loop usually wears out first, and it's easier to replace it on a pedal than the entire board, and also the pedals don't stick to your carpet!

stickyfiddle

Bidley said:

I would put every pedal into the chain(s) one-by-one - hook it up, turn the amp on, check everything works, rinse and repeat. The amount of times I've put my board back together only to get shitloads of noise or complete silence drives me mad. If you piece it together methodically it can save you a good while trying to isolate the problem. Of course if you find you have no problems by the end it's a bit of a false economy...

Have a wisdom! Might take an extra minute or 2 while putting it together but saves a big headache later. 

RichValentine

So far I'm learning that the fender patch cables I had are far too stiff to fit on a board and that testing drive pedals is fun. Looks like I'm narrowing it down to my ts808 with either the Timmy or englishwoman as a boost. Can anyone recommend decent pedal to pedal patch cables that aren't stiff and don't take up loads of room with the jacks...

Testing underway:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/rsavalentine/IMAG0122_zps21200cff.jpg

mike_l

Kabl, but they're quite expensive.

not_the_dj

These from Rob who posts on here:

http://www.kablonline.com/hicon.html

 http://www.kablonline.com/instrument.html

RichValentine

Think I've decided on the drives now... TS808 > Timmy (> Englishwoman)

 

Does anyone have 3 OD pedals on their board? I realise it is a little overkill but love the sound the Englishwoman makes. Decided I will look for a smaller/non wall socket delay pedal, as good as the vintage Memory Man sounds it takes up massive amounts of room and I want to power the whole thing from a single Pedal Power. Will probably end up selling the Colorsound/Memory Man and Prince of Tone in the forums.

not_the_dj

RichValentine said:

Does anyone have 3 OD pedals on their board?

Oh yes.

I'm currently using a Timmy, into a Catalinbread Formula 5F6, and then a Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret, and then a Suhr Koko Boost after those.

I don't use the 5F6 togther with the DLS, so the Timmy is there to boost either of them, and the Koko for a pure volume boost after them. That's running into a clean amp.

In the past I've had various other combinations with various other drive pedals...bloody silly really, but I do like these little boxes with LEDS.

MikkiMcMurderer

My only thought is that the tubescreamer will stack well into another more full range sounding drive than the other way round cos of its mid hump. So perhaps have the Timmy after it (dunno what the others sound like)

stickyfiddle

I've always run at least 3 - one clean boost, one middly drive and one filth. 

Currently that's SHO, Hotcake and Rat, though I use single pedals in front of a practice amp more often than my full board atm anyway.