Home made pedal board - worth it?

lincolnblue

I currently have a Kinsman Ultima pedal board which has served me well for the past few years. I've never had any real issues with it. However, when swapping pedals around it can be annoying to either have to make new patch cables or to have to lay the existing ones so that they end up flat to the board (often running round other pedals if they're long).

I imagine a pedaltrain style board would be easier so  I can hide cables underneath and out of sight.

So, is it worth making an Ikea (make-your-own) board and buying a hard case to fit or is it going to work out about as cheap to buy a used pedaltrain 2?

vasselmeyer

If you buy the Ikea Gorm shelves they are only £7 for two of the smaller ones or £10 for two the bigger ones. Even if you don't end up using them, it's a fun project . I'm slowly building mine up from pedals I'm buying here or there. Who knows, it might make an outing to an odd gig or two in place of my M13.

The main expense would be your time and, of course, getting or building a case for it.

smudge_lad

Defo! I've got one, and it fits perfectly into a Spider pedal-board case I bought off my mate second hand.

You see people with all manner of cases though, from old suitcases, to camera cases. I think you'd definitely find something cheap enough to justify it.

Mine is a great wee board, allowing for all manner of wiring solutions - I'm constantly changing my setup, so it's a no brainer for me

JDE

In my experience (two aborted pedalboard builds, one successful build which I used for years), the board isn't the problem, the expense and frustration of finding a suitable case is. I will say that an aftermarket flight case with a timber PT-style board full of pedals will weigh a lot. A PT will be lighter. If you have sufficient height in the lidded portion of your Ultima, you could raise the board and drill holes to allow cables to pass through and under - again, a bastard when swapping pedals, but looks neater. If you ever decide to sell the Ultima however, your resale value will drop because of the holes. If you can weld, or know someone who can, a PT style would be cool and lightweight. Only advice I can give is: find the case first.

digitalscream

My favoured approach with my own boards is just to have a sports bag which is waaaay to big for my leads, and then stick the board in that. Sure, it's not a hard case, but it's good enough as long as you don't pile stuff on top of it.

EricTheWeary

JDE said:

In my experience (two aborted pedalboard builds, one successful build which I used for years), the board isn't the problem, the expense and frustration of finding a suitable case is. I will say that an aftermarket flight case with a timber PT-style board full of pedals will weigh a lot. A PT will be lighter. If you have sufficient height in the lidded portion of your Ultima, you could raise the board and drill holes to allow cables to pass through and under - again, a bastard when swapping pedals, but looks neater. If you ever decide to sell the Ultima however, your resale value will drop because of the holes. If you can weld, or know someone who can, a PT style would be cool and lightweight. Only advice I can give is: find the case first.

I haven't done a home made pedal board but I have read a few things about it and it is always the case that is the issue and you could end up spending as much on that as just buying a ready made board.So, yes, find the case first.

It might be worth looking at what you can do that will still fit in the Kinsman case (I have one) as they have a fair amount of headroom, so a home made mini pedaltrain type board might fit within it or you could look at pedal risers. Some people make these themselves( bits of wood and some velcro) or there are some ready made ones you can buy ( from Diago or there are some other ones on Thomann IIRC - quick google, they are Stagetrix and it looks like Pedaltrain make some too). These will raise the back row which gives a more pedaltrain type look, although doesn't hide your cables. However, with the off the shelf ones you can run cables underneath them which tidies up your board to some extent. 

lincolnblue

Thanks for all your comments. The time and effort of making a board doesn't bother me. I actually think I'd enjoy the process.

I think your suggestions about finding a case first are great. I usually rush into things so taking time to find a case would be wise I think. Is it best to buy an Idea shelf set or would I be best to buy the wood from B&Q or Wickes? If so, what kind of wood do I need?

digitalscream

If you want an alternative to the PT-style board, here's a crap video of me making a flat board with a shelf (which I think looks neater than PTs anyway):

Cheap as hell - cost less than a tenner for everything, and you can bring the cost down further if you have spare bits of wood around.

EDIT: Probably worth mentioning that I've since removed the shelf, because I just don't need it.

vasselmeyer

lincolnblue said:

Thanks for all your comments. The time and effort of making a board doesn't bother me. I actually think I'd enjoy the process.

I think your suggestions about finding a case first are great. I usually rush into things so taking time to find a case would be wise I think. Is it best to buy an Idea shelf set or would I be best to buy the wood from B&Q or Wickes? If so, what kind of wood do I need?

Get this pack from Ikea. It will cost you £10 and they're legendary for having the right spaces for putting the cables underneath. You can lay out your pedals until you have it right then knock the pins out to cut it down to the right size. All you need to do after that is make a couple of wedges to get the board off the floor and at the right angle. You can use wood from the second shelf  to make the wedges.

lincolnblue

vasselmeyer said:

lincolnblue said:

Thanks for all your comments. The time and effort of making a board doesn't bother me. I actually think I'd enjoy the process.

I think your suggestions about finding a case first are great. I usually rush into things so taking time to find a case would be wise I think. Is it best to buy an Idea shelf set or would I be best to buy the wood from B&Q or Wickes? If so, what kind of wood do I need?

Get this pack from Ikea. It will cost you £10 and they're legendary for having the right spaces for putting the cables underneath. You can lay out your pedals until you have it right then knock the pins out to cut it down to the right size. All you need to do after that is make a couple of wedges to get the board off the floor and at the right angle. You can use wood from the second shelf  to make the wedges.

Thanks - I think I'll do that. 

JAYJO

digitalscream said:

If you want an alternative to the PT-style board, here's a crap video of me making a flat board with a shelf (which I think looks neater than PTs anyway):

Cheap as hell - cost less than a tenner for everything, and you can bring the cost down further if you have spare bits of wood around.

EDIT: Probably worth mentioning that I've since removed the shelf, because I just don't need it.

Those carpet tiles dont like being cut do they! well done mate and a few laughs in there.

dean2371

I've just made something similar to the Ikea stuff using pine wood strips from B&Q, some glue and a few screws. Easy enough to do and you can make the exact size board you need

strat84

Go for the DIY... I bought the £10 double pack and built one about the size of a laptop and a mini one with the scrap left over.. Still have the second shelf.. Took about two hours in total to take it apart and cut the slats down to size and build it again.. Just cant decide what colour to paint it!

mike257

I got the case first and built one to fit. Had an old briefcase style toolbox from my old job, I'd been using it to carry a few loose pedals around after downsizing from a giant board. Decided to build one to fit as it seemed a practical size.

I just measured up for the base board and a shelf for the back row, rang my local hardware store and they chopped some 9mm ply to the dimensions I needed. A couple of small offcuts of 2x1 made legs for the shelf and gave a place to hide my power supply. Bought door handles to go at either end to lift it out of the case. Finished it off with some feet I'd removed from a bit of gear when rackmounting it. Total spend was under a fiver and build time under half an hour. Few dozen gigs later and still going strong!