I have been trying to get a pedalboard made for my effects pedals for probably a month now. I have been playing almost exclusively guitar rather than bass from just about 2 years ago and had broke out my collected assortment of oddball pedals at the beginning of 2019 following the boot to garage office and switching from acoustics (temp changes aren't good for these) to my electrics (much more durable against the environment).
Everything needed spark, so I was going through old power chords to see what matched each pedal then splicing in through the DC transistor batter connector mostly. I was able to get 3 of 4 operational again, when J.A.S. happened to visit.
My main concern was a lot of noise through this MXR "Commande Series" early 80s overdrive pedal. J.A.S. was very kind and swapped the MXR for another distortion, and suggested I get a daisy chain power supply. They are very inexpensive (I ended up paying like $12) and have a variety of different AC connectors.
Once I got everything powered I had to figure out a design. I had thoughts for a kind of box-like setup with hinges and lids and such, and was eyeballing some solid wood lying around in the garage. I also picked up a roll of Velcro tape, ha, which actually was not one sided sticky tape. This "tape" had hooks on one side and felt on the other (to make a wrap around bind).
So Friday night I used Elmer's school glue and glued the felt side of the Velcro tape on the bottom of the pedals. I already had the 9" x 12" rectangles of green felt for the hook side of the Velcro tape.
I ended up needing to ditch a dinette table at the dump (it was daughter's old one and supposed to go to good will, but during the move she lost bolts attaching all the legs).
The leaf for the table had a nice edge to it going round the out side, so when I chopped it in half the result was a long triangle shape perfect for a pedalboard. Plus is was almost exactly the correct width for the sticky felt pieces I was planning to adhese to the surface.
The only difference from my original conception is that I was planning a "landscape" pedalboard and ended up with a "portrate" layout pedalboard. Turned out to be a fair cop.
The pedals are (clockwise from 7 o'clock):
- DOD FX65 Stereo Chorus (1985-89);
- DigiTech DigiDelay Digital Delay (2002);
- Aria Pro II DT-1 Distortion (1980s?); and
- Systech Phase Shifter (mid-1970s).
