Make a small board that fits in the compartment of your bass case?

Dr Tony Balls wrote:Make a small board that fits in the compartment of your bass case?^This. I took a piece of wood from Jim's basement that would be small enough to fit in the pocket of my gig bag, attached 4 rubber feet, and then placed the 3 pedals I used on it w/ the velcro and all that. Even with only 3 pedals it's way more convenient.

The sound he gets in Low is almighty. Saw them last month and it was crazy loud. Felt like I was having a panic attack in an avalanche during one wall of noise section. In a good way. I think.

n.c. wrote:i've put this Low performance on the laptop (aka kitchen stereo) a bunch lately. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I45V99gx25Yit drives me nuts that Alan is playing with like 8 pedals and they are all taped to the floor. is this an aesthetic thing? in my mind, once you get over 3 pedals you might as well stick them to a piece of plywood or something.I can totally see why. He might like changing around pedal order and probably hates vertical pedal placement as much as I do.

When I saw Kinski and Bottomless Pit about 5 yeas ago(!?!?) in L.A., the kinski folks had all their pedals laid out in semi-circles on the stage. No boards. Probably about 10 pedals each. Plus, there were very few pedals made in the last 15 years.Given my personality, I should have been annoyed at this. However, I was charmed. It took me back to my pedal heavy days of the early 90s, before there were standardized boards. A lot of bands I loved did the exact same thing; huge string of pedals, no boards, sometimes issues with crackles and noise and power. It gave me good feelings from youthful memories.

I have two words for why you would do this - "Big Feet". I am always amazed by people who have tiny feet wearing stride rites and are able to navigate crowded boards full of mini pedals compressed to the minimum space. With a compressed board like this size 12 extra wide feet would be setting off multiple pedals and kicking around knobs. Additionally I have having seen a lot of bands I have believe in this equation Big Feet = Big sound.I usually spread my pedals out to claim some space on the stage and usually in groups and loops so that some used a lot are together and others always on are out of the way. Some guys in jam bands go bare foot to touch the switch with their big toe and tweak the knobs using some foot style monkey gripping.I have special shoes for my effects stomp work and am surprised that the major effects manufacturers do not manufacture shoes or insoles that interact with the pedals through Bluetooth. Or just have pointy tips like cockroach stompers with some kind of toe build up that fits the switch.Have wondered if I should have Dr Balls install some LEDs in the eyes as my smoke guy is always putting out too much fog and the light show guy has the lights down for the lasers so seeing what I am stomping on is difficult.

If you're a big enough band and you don't have to hustle all your shit off state in 15 minutes and/or you have <=3 pedals, I think you're fine not having a board.If you have >3 pedals (including tuner) and you have to get your shit offstage in 15 minutes, pedal board for sure.Right now for bass I've got, uh, 8 pedals including a big ass expression pedal. I like the Gator aluminum pedal board, but the Pedaltrain stuff seems great too.

n.c. wrote:whats the deal with the fancy power supplies some of you have? when i made my board i just grabbed the wall wart daisy chain thing that my local brick and mortar music store stocks. what are the advantages of the brick power supply with the individual cables?Sometimes pedals make noise if their power supplies are connected in parallel as is the case with a daisy chain. Sometimes they make noise if the ground connection is connected both through the audio cables an the power cables. Fancy power supplies usually have every power plug electrically isolated, eliminating these issues. Sometimes they can put out more current for modern digital pedals as well. Also, I found that my one spot power supply caused noise in certain pedals even if I was just using that one pedal only. This is because it's a switchmode power supply rather than a transformer based power supply.In short:- Old pedals and power supplies usually work just fine. - People stared using more pedals, so daisy chains came about. We're still pretty much good.- Digital pedals came about. These need more current. So switchmode power supplies came about to put out high current in a small package. Noise becomes more prominent as modern tech poorly interacts with other modern or other vintage tech.- Fancy power supplies with isolated outputs get popular to hook up all these modern pedals without noise.Cheers!

llllllllllllllllllllllll wrote:If you think this is bad you should see what kind of shape my car is inThat is looking good but I think you need more tonal options!On a side note of less fun, When I am at thrift stores or yard sales I pick up old laptop cases I find they are the right size for a small jam style case and have two one for bass and guitar not using my bigger set up but with enough versatility to cover a fun get together type thing. As I get a lot of calls to drop by and play with different friends I can just grab and go. There are lots of pockets and the big flap pocket in the front is good for some 3 foot cables and a pouch with slides, picks and strings.