First board build - share your wisdom!

vinnimunro

With some gigs on the horizon (fingers crossed) and my trusty Boss multi-fx not quite cutting it anymore, I've decided it's time to combine the pile of pedals on the floor into my first proper board! I have a pedaltrain, a decent power supply, and some dual-lock coming tomorrow and wanted to hear if any of you have any wisdom before I start sticking things together - so share your rig building stories and top tips! 

DesVegas

Be prepared to change the order of the pedals on a regular bases so don't 'glue' anything down too hard to start off with and beware the fuzz and delay rabbit holes. But in the whole, welcome to the board and enjoy yourself.

PS tremolo before reverb ; )

Teetonetal

DesVegas said:

Be prepared to change the order of the pedals on a regular bases so don't 'glue' anything down too hard to start off with and beware the fuzz and delay rabbit holes. But in the whole, welcome to the board and enjoy yourself.

PS tremolo before reverb ; )

Of course @desvegas is wrong as tremolo sounds awesome after reverb.

Which only leads to one bit of good advice, there are no rules in pedal setups, just general starting points. Use your ears, play around, have some fun and don't believe anyone who tells you that their way is the only way.

Ps fluffy side of velcro belongs on the pedal!

meltedbuzzbox

@Teetonetal has got you covered, apart from his very wrong stance on velcro. The hook stuff goes on the pedal.

Always wire with a bit of extra length in mind for Jack cables and power for the inevitable introduction of new pedals. 
There is nothing worse than having to buy new cables after your 50th new, last time ever (honest) delay/drive pedal rocks up

abw1989

Try to keep your cable lengths to a minimum plus a bit and try not to have signal cabling running parallel to power cabling.

Some cable tie bases like this will keep everything in place on the back side to avoid cables getting snarled up every time you move the board and are a great help for cable routing.



Do not put any cable ties down until about a few days after to make sure you are happy with pedal order, location etc. 

Watch out for your pedals' mA draw and match them to your power supply accordingly, no use putting a 100mA drive pedal onto a 500mA outlet and then struggling for power on your super snazzy digital delay for example.

Just recently I realised that although having the power supply underneath might be good for a neatness point of view, having it top mounted makes it much easier to wire up and also troubleshoot any power problems along the way. If you have room to do so I'd recommend it.

Jonathangus

meltedbuzzbox said:

@Teetonetal has got you covered, apart from his very wrong stance on velcro. The hook stuff goes on the pedal.

This.  Although the OP's already said he's using Dual Lock.  In which case, use it sparingly.  It's strong stuff.

As others have said, experiment with pedal order (personally I'd just put them on the floor and have a play around, then move them to the board when you're happy).

Sassafras

The best advice I can give you is don't use a chorus pedal.

Gassage

Spend 1/3 of your available budget on high quality cables, high quality PS and a high quality buffer such as the @ThorpyFX ;
FLIR

AntonHunter

Sassafras said:

The best advice I can give you is don't use a chorus pedal.

Wis awarded for consistency of argument.

english_bob

Get a patchbox.

I went through many iterations of my pedalboard before I got one, but it makes life so much easier in terms of running cables, particularly if you have an amp footswitch on your board, or if you run 4CM. It'll cost you £50 or less from somewhere like Bright Onion, and probably ten or fifteen quid to make yourself if you know how to solder. 

gatheredinsong

english_bob said:

Get a patchbox.

I went through many iterations of my pedalboard before I got one, but it makes life so much easier in terms of running cables, particularly if you have an amp footswitch on your board, or if you run 4CM. It'll cost you £50

Speak to me before you spend that, I have a 4 in 4 out patchbox that I no longer intend to use that you could have for half that price. 

vinnimunro

Teetonetal said:

DesVegas said:

Be prepared to change the order of the pedals on a regular bases so don't 'glue' anything down too hard to start off with and beware the fuzz and delay rabbit holes. But in the whole, welcome to the board and enjoy yourself.

PS tremolo before reverb ; )

Of course @desvegas is wrong as tremolo sounds awesome after reverb.

Which only leads to one bit of good advice, there are no rules in pedal setups, just general starting points. Use your ears, play around, have some fun and don't believe anyone who tells you that their way is the only way.

Ps fluffy side of velcro belongs on the pedal!

Have gone for a fairly compact board precisely for the purpose of avoiding rabbit holes. Still on the lookout for a used Phase 95 and small box reverb but there don't seem to be many about.

Curious as to the justification regarding velcro - I've heard the opposite on the basis that putting hook on the board turns it into a large metal fluff collecting tray.

abw1989 said:

Try to keep your cable lengths to a minimum plus a bit and try not to have signal cabling running parallel to power cabling.

Some cable tie bases like this will keep everything in place on the back side to avoid cables getting snarled up every time you move the board and are a great help for cable routing.



Do not put any cable ties down until about a few days after to make sure you are happy with pedal order, location etc. 

Watch out for your pedals' mA draw and match them to your power supply accordingly, no use putting a 100mA drive pedal onto a 500mA outlet and then struggling for power on your super snazzy digital delay for example.

Just recently I realised that although having the power supply underneath might be good for a neatness point of view, having it top mounted makes it much easier to wire up and also troubleshoot any power problems along the way. If you have room to do so I'd recommend it.

Great stuff, thanks!

MattBanshee

Get a tin of zippo fluid (the petrol stuff, not the aerosol) and use it with some kitchen roll to clean the pedalboard surface and the bases of the pedals before applying the velcro. This will clean all the manufacturing grease and floor grub off them and the velcro will stick perfectly.

Vintage-T

'Have gone for a fairly compact board precisely for the purpose of avoiding rabbit holes.'

Ha ha ha you fool! You know it's going to happen

Don't skimp on power. I used a shitty MXR brick for a while, went to gigrig (too faffy) then went to Strymon Power....never been happier.

I also wouldn't use Dual Lock until you're 1000% satisfied with both your pedals and the order they go in. Normal Velcro is way less of a ball ache.

Patch bays are ace.

You can never have enough OD's or Fuzzes.

If you don't use a lot of modulation but want to dip in and out, the boss MD200 is a diamond and can be picked up for around £150.

Consider a HX Stomp before splurging on loads of Drives, Modulation etc....it might do everything you want, but will certainly give you a flavour for trying things that you might then want to acquire in pedal format.

RaymondLin

Buy a packet of cable ties, it will help in cable management.
Get into DIY patch cables for much neater board
Save up for a GOOD PSU with a little more power and sockets than you need.
Get a board slightly larger than you think you will need
Consider getting a Looper or Midi switcher if needed.

Plan everything, get a spreadsheet out, go to the pedal maker's page and get all the mAh rating and "map it" to a socket, added it up to make sure it will handle it.

Get a tree diagram on paper what goes where, which cable goes where.

This is probably just me but I even thought about the wear on the first pedal in and last pedal out and the wear on the socket so i did it in a way that pedal is a cheap one.  I put a buffer on the front and a Ditto on the back of the chain.  It would be easier to replace a Ditto than a Timeline (or any of my other delay pedals really).  I might not use the Ditto much but it will save the wear on the Timeline.

Philtre

Never put jam on a magnet.

english_bob

RaymondLin said:

This is probably just me but I even thought about the wear on the first pedal in and last pedal out and the wear on the socket so i did it in a way that pedal is a cheap one. 

Another good use for a patchbay, particularly if you make it yourself because you know you'll be able to replace any jack sockets that do crap out. Good quality jack sockets are still cheaper than cheap pedals.

Gassage

I disagree re patch bays. Remove anything from the signal chain that doesn't need to be there.

Also, the best tip I could possibly give

NEVER USE SIDE MOUNTED OR BACK MOUNTED jacks on the side of your board- I guarantee you'll stand on the jack lead barrel at some point and break an expensive instrument cable- always have some form of support underneath or put them where you don't walk.

Gassage

RaymondLin said:

This is probably just me but I even thought about the wear on the first pedal in and last pedal out and the wear on the socket so i did it in a way that pedal is a cheap one.  I put a buffer on the front and a Ditto on the back of the chain.  It would be easier to replace a Ditto than a Timeline (or any of my other delay pedals really).  I might not use the Ditto much but it will save the wear on the Timeline.

I agree for mono - but for a multi amp rig, use an amp switcher and place it so there is some support for the jack barrel sleeves underneath, to save your size 12's breaking it. You'll do more damage that way than any other.

DoctorX

Gassage said:

I disagree re patch bays. Remove anything from the signal chain that doesn't need to be there.

I agree, patch bays are handy if you need to attach expression pedals or something but as a simple in/out they’re unnecessary.

english_bob

Gassage said:

I disagree re patch bays. Remove anything from the signal chain that doesn't need to be there.

A patchbay itself contains maybe four inches of cable. If you wanted to, you could use the same shielded cable you use for instrument cable to connect the sockets. It might necessitate another foot or two of patch cable on your board, but even that won't have any tonal effect, particularly if the OP follows your advice and puts a good buffer on the board too.

Extra potential points of failure? Sure, maybe, but on a big pedalboard it's a drop in the bucket, and you have to weigh that against the ease of setup, teardown and troubleshooting that a patchbay gives you.

Gassage said:

NEVER USE SIDE MOUNTED OR BACK MOUNTED jacks on the side of your board- I guarantee you'll stand on the jack lead barrel at some point and break an expensive instrument cable.

Spoken like a man who can't solder. Getting a broken jackplug out of a socket is going to be a pain, but replacing a broken jackplug on an instrument cable is no big deal.