I've made a few custom size boards for people over the last 6 months or so and each time I intend on doing a photo diary of the process but time is always tight so I end up focusing on getting the board finished and out to the customer, and the diary idea disappears.
Well this time I'm going to build a custom size for myself and time isn't so important, so I thought I would document it here for anyone who's interested, so long as you can put up with my idle ramblings and be a little patient, as this will take a good couple of weeks to come together.
I'll show the thought process behind my decisions and also an insight into the build process of the board.
I REALLY do over-think my boards, what pedals go on them, what stays off (often overlooked), power, layout etc. I guess that's how I came to start making my own, and then making them for other people. And I know I'm not alone here, looking at some of the boards on this here forum.
Smorg btw is very much a labour of love, it doesn't put food on the table, I just get a kick out of making them and seeing them in use from other players.
So after that little intro, the first question is what is the board for?
If you are someone who chops and changes pedals all the time then I always recommend a standard size, off-the-shelf job, choose the right one and it will have enough flexibility to see you through.
However, thats waaaaaay too easy!, my intention with this is to make my chosen pedals really work for me, from a space point of view and a practicality point of view.
This has pretty much been my board for the last 6 months or so, very simple, very effective, and on a standard Grab600.
Over the last month or so, I wanted to make it just a little comprehensive, whilst still keeping the "simple as possible mantra" that I have.
A few things needed fixing for me, fundamentally I wasn't happy with my high gain sounds. The Sick As is the best low gainer I've tried, the LGW the best mid-gainer - and the Amber on its own or the SA stacked into the LGW provided the high gain.
Both were great sounds, but just not quite what I was looking for. High gain is tricky one for me as I don't want the traditional modded Marshall bite or the smooth Boogies sound either - not really sure how to describe it really, but I want a gainy but lively extension of an overdrive sound, not "distortion" as such.
I also missed having a Trem pedal after getting rid of my Tremulator, and after going Snark for a while, I wanted a pedal tuner too.
So after much faffing around and experimentation these are the pedals I'm gonna go with, for me they really represent the best of the best for their respective roles that I've tried.
This is them on a standard Tier500. Now any sensible person would just go with it and relish the challenge of filling that remaining space. Nah, I don't want anything else on there, and I've thought long and hard too. Anything else just messes with the vibe maaaan. Having said that I may still keep an off-board fuzz for those moments - but it will be a battery only, no led, guitar input first unadulterated fuzz pedal.
So two things came to mind, a). I can make it more compact and b). I want to overcome some tap-dancing issues with the various drive stacking combinations and also getting to the pedals on the back row.
More on this in the next instalment.
So lesson number one - if you're going custom board, be very sure of your pedal selection.
Comments
In the words of Roger Waters "is there anybody out there....."
Anyways, I've decided I'm def going for the Gigrig QMX option 3. So this is the bit where I've got my pedals sorted and I make contact with myself regarding a custom build option.
Time now to draft up a few different options on what the board could look like, but I also need to consider what power supply I'm going with and cable options too (soldered vs more compact solderless ones) as this will also help determine the board size and height.
More musings on this to follow....
My music:- https://soundcloud.com/hubobulous
I see there's a review of your boards in the latest Guitar and Bass!
I'm off to read it now...
@dindude
9/10.... impressive!
My music:- https://soundcloud.com/hubobulous