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I decided it was time to organize the pedals. After a new volume pedal, the situation was getting out of hand—pedals all over the place in different locations.
I looked at pedal boards at the local guitar place. $119 seemed a bit steep to me.
So I went down in the woodshop, got some scraps, and made my own. Used birch ply for the top, and walnut for the sides. Took about an hour. It actually took longer to put the Velcro on the pedals and board than to cut the pieces and screw them together. (That Velcro adhesive is sticky!)
I don’t use pedals much. I keep the reverb and tremolo on all the time for color and “to provide my signature sound”, kind of a Bill Frisell meets Jim Hall kind of thing. The B9 is bit of a novelty, not something I gig with, but sometimes I use it to provide some color in the comps or just for a change of sounds when practicing. I haven’t used the Ditto looper as much as I should have because it hasn’t been hooked up to my main music room amp—the Epiphone Valve Jr. Putting it on the pedal board in easy reach fixes that problem. (I wrote elsewhere about the problems with the effects knob, but the actual looping stuff works fine.)
The volume pedal I just got yesterday and is off the board so it’s not tilted up so much. I thought it would be nice to add some swells when playing behind a singer and pianist for an upcoming gig. Specifically, she is doing Adele’s version of Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love. I read a ton of reviews, and the Ernie VP Jr. seemed the simplest and sturdiest for the price.
Jacqueline really likes RnB from the 70’s and 80’s, so time to work on my Whitney Houston and Anita Baker.
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01-27-2024 11:03 AM
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Love seeing a nice DIY.
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Always good to save a few bucks on something as utilitarian as a pedalboard. When it comes to velcro, I often just stick the bottom piece across the whole board. That way it is easy to pull off and put on new pedals of different sizes.
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That board looks great. Nice work. I too was to cheap to cough up money for a cheap-o board when I have some wood and tools laying around so I've built a couple myself in the past.
I used dual lock to mount the volume pedal to the last board I made and it worked out real well considering it was a big clunky Fender pedal. The velcro wasn't working all that great. I will probably stick to the dual lock from now on for everything. Catches less crud in it than velcro and really holds.
When I was gigging I converted the lid of an old tweed suitcase to mount all my pedals too then the top could be secured with a couple extra latches on the back so my boxes had full protection for the ride. Take up the extra space with a pillow or hunk of covered foam and it worked out good.
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I love a little tremolo too. How is the Choka? I had a Strymon Flint which was nice but too many settings for me. I now have a Mr. Black Deluxe which has reverb (spring) and tremolo in one pedal. But the tremolo in my brownface Stapleton Princeton beats them all.
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I love the Choka. I got it specifically to get a vintage Fender trem tone for playing I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You. I used a slightly long interval for that one, but I find with it at about 25% (9 o’clock) it provides a nice warm warble along with the reverb. I used to use a little chorus but find this even better. Tremolo is an underused effect IMO—it doesn’t have to be Born on the Bayou level, it can just add some color to your tone.
Originally Posted by alltunes
The price on the Choka is great—$49. Sturdy metal case too.
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Try 3M Dual Lock instead of Velcro. Been using it for years, much stronger and no lint mess.
3M dual lock - Google Search
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