I'm looking to get a pedal board. Right now, I only use 4 pedals, but I could use enough space for six. My current board is a cheapo and is falling apart. I don't really need a powered board, since I can rip out the power strip from the old one. But I'm not opposed to buying a powered board.

Here's some that I've found:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... 3010.html#

http://www.nycpedalboards.com/

http://www.music123.com/Core-Equipment- ... 8.Music123

http://www.pedalboards.com/

I like the hardshell cases with enough room to put guitar cables and a power strip in.

If there was a post on this already, just kerble and I'll use that link. I didn't find any in a search.

Have you considered making one yourself? That's what I've always done and I've found it to be pretty rewarding and way more econo!

*Determine what dimensions are necessary to include your pedals.

*Have a piece of plywood cut to those dimensions.

*Arrange your pedals on the plywood board as your use dictates.

*Screw corner braces (into the plywood) around each side (top, bottom, left, and right) of every pedal to keep them in your desired place. You might prefer to fool around with velcro, but I've developed a preference for this method instead.

*Go to a thrift store and find a cheap hinged suitcase that meets the dimensions of your new pedal board. Keep the pedals on one side of the suitcase and use the divider to keep your cables/power sources on the other.

Now you've got a pedal board that's custom built to your needs!

I bought a cheap-o, $50 pedalboard from Sam Ash years ago. Recently, I began holding down the pedals with bike chain links.




It works great. However, almost as soon as I did it, I got the desire to cut way back on my pedals, as I've noticed a bit of tone sucking with the four Boss pedals.

Ben Adrian

Yeah, I second the building a pedal board yourself. It's pretty straightforward, especially since you are not gonna power it.

I was going to make one myself some time last year, but I have really stripped the number of pedals I use so didn't bother.

benadrian wrote:

What's the DM2 like? I have always wanted one, but never had the balls to just go and buy one off ebay.

I was thinking of building a powered one and buying some supplies from pedalboards.com

though, my family is asking what i want for christmas and i can't really think of anything other than money for records or a new pedal board.

chairman_hall wrote:What's the DM2 like? I have always wanted one, but never had the balls to just go and buy one off ebay.

The DM-2 is great. It's not so colored and analog sounding that it's a distraction, but also it's not so clean that it sounds distracting and overwhelming in a U2 or Big Country sort of way.

Ben Adrian

benadrian wrote:

chairman_hall wrote:What's the DM2 like? I have always wanted one, but never had the balls to just go and buy one off ebay.

The DM-2 is great. It's not so colored and analog sounding that it's a distraction, but also it's not so clean that it sounds distracting and overwhelming in a U2 or Big Country sort of way.

Ben Adrian

How long have you had your DM-2? I've heard that they either disintegrate completely or last forever.

They do sound great, though. My pedalboard has a PODxt bean that used to be the primary dirt generator but is now relegated to strictly delay/reverb duties, so I can personally attest to Line6 delay goodness w/r/t convenience vs. faux-analog-warmth. The sweep echo is addictive, as is the ability to sync up a Space Echo sound to tempo instead of vice versa.

FuzzBob wrote:How long have you had your DM-2? I've heard that they either disintegrate completely or last forever.

They do sound great, though. My pedalboard has a PODxt bean that used to be the primary dirt generator but is now relegated to strictly delay/reverb duties, so I can personally attest to Line6 delay goodness w/r/t convenience vs. faux-analog-warmth. The sweep echo is addictive, as is the ability to sync up a Space Echo sound to tempo instead of vice versa.

i got my DM-2 in 1998 for $40, before the whole DM-2 price expliosion. The power jack gave me problems, but nothing a little touch up with a soldering iron couldn't fix. Other than that, it's been great.

I have a PODxt as my computer interface at home, and it's fun, but it's never sounded all that great running into the front of an amp.

As for the DL-4 delay, I used to love it. As I used it more and more, I realized I actually really hated the mix knob, because once you go over half, the dry signal goes down before teh wet signal goes up. I much prefer the ability to keep the dry at unity gain and add the wet signal at whatever level I desire. Plus, it just never sounds nice to me as an echo; the repeats just never seem to sit right for me.

I keep the DL-4 in as a looper and for the occasional bit of extra delay texture on top of another delay.

Ben Adrian

benadrian wrote:

FuzzBob wrote:How long have you had your DM-2? I've heard that they either disintegrate completely or last forever.

They do sound great, though. My pedalboard has a PODxt bean that used to be the primary dirt generator but is now relegated to strictly delay/reverb duties, so I can personally attest to Line6 delay goodness w/r/t convenience vs. faux-analog-warmth. The sweep echo is addictive, as is the ability to sync up a Space Echo sound to tempo instead of vice versa.

i got my DM-2 in 1998 for $40, before the whole DM-2 price expliosion. The power jack gave me problems, but nothing a little touch up with a soldering iron couldn't fix. Other than that, it's been great.

I have a PODxt as my computer interface at home, and it's fun, but it's never sounded all that great running into the front of an amp.

As for the DL-4 delay, I used to love it. As I used it more and more, I realized I actually really hated the mix knob, because once you go over half, the dry signal goes down before teh wet signal goes up. I much prefer the ability to keep the dry at unity gain and add the wet signal at whatever level I desire. Plus, it just never sounds nice to me as an echo; the repeats just never seem to sit right for me.

I keep the DL-4 in as a looper and for the occasional bit of extra delay texture on top of another delay.

Ben Adrian

Line6's approach is that "unity gain" is at 5 as opposed to 7 or 8 on a Boss delay pedal. L6's approach works for me, as I can crank the mix to 10 to run the bean with zero dry signal in parallel to my main signal. I mix the two with my Loop Station, since it accepts two inputs with trim control.

An added advantage is that I can add some additional time domain, filter or distortion effects fom my bean to the delay repeats only. That's about the extent to which I find Line6 stuff useful on a pedalboard.

I *do not* advise using a bean to drive an amp, even if the amp is full range, no matter how tempting it sounds in theory. It is *not* voiced for it. I tried it with my last project, thinking that it was only a matter of time before I could dial in some cool and different sounds-- and in the meantime I drove the ex-drummer batshit and ran him off, since I could only dial in different versions of fizz, muddy low end and notchy frequency response while the drums played.

I couldn't fathom how my bean could sound so shitty even though it was "superior" to my "crappy" COSM and SansAmp sounds I used in full-range setups for years which worked great in a band situation. I slowly realized that the bean was voiced to sound super-pro through crappy computer speakers and not much else, while the others didn't necessarily emulate anything in particular (which I really don't care about, since I tweak them to sound weird anyway) but were voiced to actually be used in a live band.