Pedalboard Build Report!

After months of research, planning, sourcing materials, trial and error, building, procrastinating, and numerous modifications, I have a complete DIY pedalboard >.^* This report is meant to document my resources, experience, and to also celebrate!




 1. Purpose
 As a relatively big consumer of non traditional rock music, pedals and other gear have always been of very high interest to me. I slowly learned and researched on different forums before the times of PGS, GMD, and other good pedal demoers. Joson Pork was kind enough to lend me Wampler's book of FX pedal mods, which I used to mod his Boss Blues Driver and my Boss Trem/Rat. This led to a failure of a compressor project, of which I still must refund my comrades for their investments. Eventually I had enough pedals and built a DIY Ikea Gorm board with Soon and Chu. It was a lot of fun, but the collection kept getting bigger....



2. Constraints
 Which leads to the constraints I had to work with. At first I was considering letting a professional board maker do everything for me (Trailer Trash) but I felt I was competent at soldering and ambitious enough to tackle a DIY project. My criteria were as follows:
1. Minimize spending money
2. Be transportable by myself on foot via walking
3. Be large enough to accommodate pedals and power supplies and connectors
4. Have an accompanying soft case
5. Have GOOD CLEAN BYPASSED SIGNAL
3. Planning
 With the above constraints in mind and some opportune timing, I purchased a Pedal Train 3 @ MF with a 20% off coupon :) With that said I had to look at physical arrangement, attachment, and power. I measured all pedals and tried to plot where everything would fit, also taking account into minimizing cable runs and convenient stomp placement. The stomp placement was not so big a factor since I got a looper pedal which I'll explain in Section 7. Previously I had used "industrial strength velcro" to attach pedals to the board, well fuck that shit because I GOTTA SAY THAT 3M DUAL LOCK IF THE MOTHERFUCKING TRUTH BITCHES, more on this later. For power I looked up if I could run the pedal at higher voltage, how much current draw it needed, polarity, and normal operating voltage. I tried to minimize the number of orders to save money on shipping, but fortunately there was a lot of free shipping these past few months. Amazon super shipper options is pretty bauce sauce.





4. Resources
 Below are some of the links I used for research:
1. http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2007/Sep/Bypassing_the_Hype.aspx
2. http://pedalboardplanner.com/
3. http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2011/Jan/The_Premier_Guitar_Pedalboard_Survival_Guide.aspx?Page=1
4. http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1085783
5. http://www.tdpri.com/forum/burnt-fingers-diy-effects/352615-diy-pedalboard-patch-cables.html
6. http://trailertrashpedalboards.com/faqs
7. http://sixstringsensei.com/1058/guitar-buffer-pedal-knowledge-true-bypass-vs-buffered-pedals/
8. http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=529796

I'm missing a few more but google is your amigo ;D
5. Sourcing 
 Ok so I needed a buttload of materials to do this. TUBEDEPOT is pretty awesome, amazon is pretty good too. A list of all materials used in this project included:

- Staldt soldering iron w/ tip (pretty shitty but it more than sufficed)
- rosin core solder
- solder flux (this makes soldering so much easier and reduces the amount of time your iron is in contact with the wires and connectors!!!!)
- heat sink w/ rubber grip (also very useful for clamping down wire leads to the connector)
- helping hands (super useful for holding stuff, provides a stable working structure)
- wire stripper (the cable i bought had multiple layers of shielding)
- screwdriver w/ multiple bits
- hand powered drill w/ 1/8" drill bit (i borrowed this from the infamous Kevin Hom, much thanks)
- fuckload of straight 1/4" connectors (not gonna look it up or count)
- fuckload of right angle pancake plug 1/4" connectors (fuck you do the math)
- 20-30' of mogami w2524 cable (this cable fucking owns)
- plastic cable ties (to clean up the clusterfuck of wires when youre done asshole!)
- 10' of 3m dual lock (240/240 strength)
- good music (to work you to you dickhead!)
- goo gone (to smell like oranges. do you like oranges?)
- paper towels
- stovetop
- tape measure
- fine/light sandpaper (i dont know the grit sorry you dickass)







6. Production/Learning Curve
 Ok when I first got all my shit, making cables was fucking hard. Not only did I have to master the traditional straight connector, I also had to deal with the fucking pancake plugs too. This video is pretty fucking priceless and the guy kinda reminds me of Bill Nye:
http://youtu.be/nDRu18-DoDQ

I fucked up and wasted 4 connectors before I started getting the hang of it. What started as maybe 1/2 hour per cable (most of it spent swearing profusely) became a 5 minute job at the end. Cable making was easily the hardest and most rewarding part.Cable measuring was done with a measuring tape and some eye balling. Below is what I did along with some personal observations.

1. Determine what connector ends you will use for your cable. Mine were all pretty much straight to pancake with exception of a couple double pancake cables.
2. Measure and cut your desired cable length.



3. Use your wire stripper to strip back the outer cable, I used the jaws of mine. About 1/4"-1/3" will do in both instances of the each connector type. You might want to strip more if youre just starting out, but over time you will become fucking pro as fuck and strip less of the cable end.
4. Take the copper strands (the shield) and twist them together and bend them off to the side. Dont be afraid of exerting force, they are very flexible
5. Use the wire stripper jaws to LIGHTLY make imprints in the insulator. You'll notice that there are 2 layers of insulation, 1 black and 1 clear. Strip maybe 1/6" off the black only, you'll actually use the wire stripper to strip the clear part off. My cable lead was 20AWG. Again twist together the newly exposed lead copper strands.




6. Now you want to prepare your connector. I found that it was helpful to use the fine grit sandpaper to sand off the contact areas that you want to solder. It made the job quicker and helped in letting the heat flow better from the soldering tip. If one of your cable ends are straight connector DO NOT FUCKING FORGET TO PUT THE SLEEVE CONNECTOR ON THE CABLE FIRST YOU FUCKING FAGGOT YOU WILL HATE YOURSELF IF YOU DO FORGET SHITTY DICKS.
7. The straight connector will require you to use the jaws of your wire stripper to bend the strain relief out to fit the cable. Now would be a good time to use your helping hands to help clamp the cable and connector together.
8. Apply some flux to both the shield and signal leads and then proceed to sparingly tin your cables by applying some solder to the tip and then to the leads. This will make the soldering process much easier. Now place the shield on the sleeve and signal into the tip hole.






9. For straight connectors I like to solder the sleeve/shield first. The heat sink is very helpful in securing the shield to the sleeve. I like using the one hand soldering technique for pretty much all cable soldering. Youtube it! Essentially you apply flux to any soldering surfaces, put a little solder on the tip and then apply to both surfaces. This lets you use your free hand to position the cable. The pancake plugs are a bit tricker to solder because you cant really use the heat sink effectively to secure the leads to the connector. You'll want to tin BOTH connector and leads in this case. I would make a video but Im too lazy balls =\ The one hand soldering technique is too good, especially in this case.







10. Clamp the strain relief on the cable and make sure you got good relief. Attach sleeve for straight connector and screw on other half for pancake plug.
11. BOOM FUCKING SHAKA LAKA, now go test if it works! My first cable did not work :(.

Removing the annoying rubber feet, rubber backs, and manufacturer stickers was a pain even with the help of goo gone. For dual lock to adhere properly you have to prepare any surface you attach it to. The adhesive also cures a lot faster if you heat it up. To heat it up I held the dual lock over an open stove fire and then applied it to pedals and the board. I believe I let all applications of dual lock cure at least 12 hours before putting the pedals and board together. Heating up the dual lock also aids in preventing air pockets upon application that will weaken the bonding strength of the dual lock. 
7. Detailed Description of the Board
My flow is as follows:
Telecaster/Jazzmaster->Wampler Buffer->Empress ParaEQ->Input of MarkOne Audio Looper
Looper Details:
Send(1)->Digitech Synth Wah->Return(1)
Send(2)->Crybaby Classic->EHX Polychorus->Return(2)
Send(3)->Proco Rat->Return(3)
Send(4)->Muza FD-90->Return(4)
Send(5)->EHX Big Muff NYC->Return(5)
Send(6)->EHX Freeze->Return(6)
Send(7)->MXR Phase 100->Return(7)
Send(8)->DOD FX96->Return(8)
Output of Looper->Eventide Timefactor->Boss Trem->AC4TV/AC4C1-BRG
I also use a 3 switch AUX switch to control the timefactor.



First and foremost I like noisy/aggressive sound textures. Also as primarily a tele guy, I NEED MY CLEAN CHIME. That means the bypassed signal has to as close to or same as the tele straight into the amp. For this purpose I have a dedicated buffer at the beginning of the chain to drive the signal through the mass of cables, ending with the boss trem which also has a decent buffer in it to get through the amp cable. Though the looper does substantially help with minimizing cable runs when running the bypassed signal, I am still very thankful for the beginning/end buffer pedals. The synth wah is also an envelope filter so having sweep characteristics is at the beginning, I think that is generally considered pretty standard. However also having fuzz sounds, it can also serve as white noise when used in conjunction in FRONT of a wah. I used to have a fender blender but tired of it (you were right all along Joson) and it also took up a ton of space. The EQ is also at the beginning as a major tone shaping option before anything else happens. Can definitely get some cool strat sounds from my tele HUEHUEHUE.
I also think that having some modulation before dirt can sound pretty awesome. For this reason the polychorus comes before both rat and the muff. I also like the rat into muff because it gives the muff  a lot more hair. The other way around just like mush to me. The fd90 reverb/delay goes before the muff to have epic shoegazing soundz. For more traditional reverb I plan to use the timefactor for that. The Freeze was very interesting, I'm still not quite sure how to maximize its use but the way I have it now is you can layer clean/dirty sounds on top of eachother... I think lol... I'm a huge turd. I think I only got the freeze cause PGS has a 150 off 600 coupon XD. I WILL master this pedal. The phase goes after the muff cause it sounds more prevalent to me, again I am not of the subtle sounds. The fx96 follows purely as a noisemaker and too add space/dirty repeats. Finally the versatile delay and trem round off the chain. Settings is a whole other story that I will digress from. As for pedal placement I put the wah, EQ, and timefactor at the bottom for easier stomping access. You might have noticed that I actually don't put multiple pedals in a single loop except the chorus/wah. For me the purpose of the looper was to get a good bypassed signal tone, prevent me from stomping more on the twichy switches of my rat and fx96, and also allow for more placement options in that I really dont have to worry about placement for looped pedals since they are all in one area. I originally wanted a straight lined looper but some asshole outbid me on ebay and I was getting impatient. I think that would have allowed me to use more space saving pancake plugs and have better placement but o well. I toyed around with at least 3 different configurations of placements before I settled on the current and final configuration. For power I have a voodoo lab PP2+ and a trex chameleon. I run a lot of shit at 12V and really like power sag of the pp2 for my muff. I attache the pp2 with the supplied bracket and actually used dual lock to secure the trex at the bottom.

8. Lessons Learned
 DIY or DIE bitch. Do not be afraid to turn the heat up on the soldering iron. This fear of high heat was the cause of me failing on the first cable making attempts. Flux is super clutch, its like steroids lol. One hand solder technique is overpowered as shit. Maybe buy a bigger board next time (just kidding Im done with pedals lol). Cable ties are very nice for cleaning up cable runs and preventing disconnections. Theres plenty more lessons but I think these are the main ones
9. Closing
This shit was really fun, if you are interested you should do it too. I think I saved a couple hundred from the DIY approach. DIY or DIE bitch. Time to jam