I have a few pedals that up until now I have used just loose on the floor. I am building a wooden pedal board, 12" X 18" and will be covering it with rough Blonde Tolex to match my Fender ToneMaster Twin Reverb amplifier. I have a Voodoo Pedal Power 2 Plus power supply, power switch, Fender style jewel light, jacks patch chords etc. Just waiting for the Tolex and adhesive to arrive today and I can get the board covered and electronics assembled. Can’t wait to get the pedals off the floor.
I need to do something like this myself, the few I have are a mess. I am looking forward to seeing your progress.
1 Like
Post pictures when done will like to see
1 Like
I will post pictures when I have it all assembled. My first time covering a wood cabinet, in this case the pedal board, so I hope it turns out well. The Tolex did arrive today so I will apply it tomorrow, hopefully…
Great!!
Can’t wait to see the result…
1 Like
Cool project Ben.
For sure let us know how it works out. I’m for sure interested as I’ve thought about one of them boards too. I’m pretty slow moving though as the arrangement I’m using seems to work well enough as they are lined up in a row just right in ft. of me.
Wondering why you want the “pedals off the floor”?
That’s where mine are. Is it easier to operate pedals that are off the floor? Or perhaps the consolidation of the wire mess that comes with pedals. I could see pedals on a board being easier to move from here to there too.
Good idea ya have using the tolex that matches your amp.
Side note, very cool amp your color matching I might add. Only in my dreams do I ever get a twin reverb…
1 Like
I primarily want them off the floor and onto a board so I can have the power supply mounted underneath the board and have the cables managed and not all over the place. Also easier to move everything mounted to a board rather than loose. I doubt that it will be easier to use the pedals on the board, just more convenient.
1 Like
Thanks for the follow up Ben @BHopson
That was what I wanted to know.
fwiw, I would guess I’ll still be slow to move on a board.
The way I ended up arranging my pedals seems to work well enough for me. The wire mess just runs behind my pedals that are all lined up in ft. of a amp. I can add one, or take one out easy. I got my power supply on a power strip. So it’s easy to turn on or off. That power strip and power supply are under a table where I stash my meager supply of shoes. Will say that is where the wire cluster is the worse. Under a board would be a upgrade for me. But being under my shoe stash is unused space anyways and it’s not like I get under my shoes to much. I also don’t transport my pedals much. I’ll take one or two out of the train once in a blue moon. That’s about as far as I go.
In favor for me would be, I have a amp under my desk, there is space next to it for another small amp, or, I could easy put a pedal board there too (any amp is not on my wifes list of things I will be getting). It would be less cluster for me I think. Just don’t know how fast I’ll move as what I use works for me.
Thanks for the useful info and I’m looking forward to seeing you build and how it works out for you.
1 Like
HappyCat, I worked on the board assembly all day and it went quite well. I got the Tolex covering done, which took most of my time having not done any covering like this before and all the electronic components installed. It is all wired and ready to go. I have ordered some flat plates for the bottom of my Boss pedals so the “Hook” half of the hook and loop will have a surface to adhere to. I hope the plates arrive in the next couple days so I can mount the pedals on the board. I didn’t get any pictures today. I will take some tomorrow of the board without pedals mounted on it.
Regarding your pedals lined up on the floor, that is how mine have been up until now. It works and is perfectly functional. There is no room in my home office under the desk or tables for the amplifier, guitars and pedals. They pretty much sit out in the open floor area in the room. The pedal board will look good and hopefully make a little difference with the cable mess. I have been thinking about building the board for quite a while and decided to go ahead with it now and enjoy a fun project. In all honesty, I could have kept things the way they were and it would have been fine. I love tinkering with projects like this and it has been a fun one.
1 Like
I was wondering why you don’t buy a pedal board? Is it the fun of making something or that you want something that matches the amp?
Would be great to see pictures.
1 Like
As some who has a pedal board (a bought one because I have limited DIY skills) I’d say that it’s tidied up my setup a lot. I have about 6 pedals and at that point you’re looking at a lot of exposed wires, with the possibility of them getting loose as pedals are kicked on and off. With my setup now the only exposed wire is the one from my board power supply (which is neatly underneath). Also if I need move my pedals (my guitar rig is in my living room) I just disconnect the power supply and can move it all as one unit.
If your setup works for you then there’s no reason to change it but I see definite advantages once someone has more than a few pedals.
1 Like
Prof_Thunder, For me it is more just enjoying putting it together myself. I could have bought a metal board for less probably, but I like the process of doing it myself and learning something new while I’m at it, in this case wrapping the pedal board in Tolex. I took it slow and careful and it was surprising how well it went on.
Pictures coming tomorrow I hope.
2 Likes
Look forward to the photos.
Yes, it’s nice building things for yourself. I built a cabinet for my Vox amp a few months ago, even though I didn’t actually need to build one. It was a great experience and then I had something built just as I wanted it.
1 Like
A couple photos of the pedal board. I am waiting on the flat bottom plates for the pedals to arrive so I can get the hook strips applied and install the pedals on the board. I want to get that done before securing the pedal power supply cables to the board. There are two rows of slots cut into the board top. The material covering them is currently sliced down the center of the slots to pass cables through and I am debating whether or not to cut out the loop material and completely open the slots. I am leaning towards doing that.
8 Likes
Top notch build ya did there Ben.
Very well done. It looks great. You’ve done very professional looking work there.
Thanks for the follow up w/pics.
1 Like
That looks Really, Really good, Ben! Very professional look, I’m impressed! Looking forward to seeing the pedals installed… also, about how many pedals do you think you’ll get on a 12"x18" board?
Additionally, how do you like your Blues Driver? Does it do the job you want? Do you get a bluesy, crunchy tone? I’ve never heard one outside of online reviews…
I was just about to buy one when I saw that Boss has teamed up with JHS… they took a Blues Driver + an Angry Charlie = Angry Driver pedal… looks pretty cool but it’s a lot more expensive too…
Kudos to you for a successful build!
Tod
1 Like
I was just having a look at my board which is 12 x 24 to answer this…
On a 12x18 board you’re going to get 2 rows of regular sized pedals and typically 4-5 pedals on each row (I’m talking about your normal Boss-sized pedals here). It’s going to partly depend on having low profile cables with right angle connectors to maximise space. Clearly if you have jumbo sized pedals you may get fewer and with careful placement you may squeeze 6 mini pedals per row.
You would have to consider the signal chain as well as some pedals naturally live next to each other and different pedals have sockets in different places which can complicate placement
2 Likes
Tod,
Thanks! This is a fun project as I had hoped it would be. This morning I had to re solder the wires to one of the jacks on the side of the pedal board case. There were only a couple strands of wire that were intact. I probably broke the wire strands when I screwed the fitting in place on the backside. I laid out pedals on the board to get an idea of spacing and like mattswain said, the 12" X 18" board will hold 8 regular Boss sized pedals, more or fewer depending on pedal size, location etc. I like the Blues Driver and it does deliver a nice crunchy bluesy tone. It took me some time and experimentation to determine how to get the tones I wanted dialed in. YouTube helped with that. I don’t have enough experience with different pedals yet to be able to make comparisons, but the BD-2 sounds good to me. The Blues Driver + Angry Charlie sounds like a wicked combination.
Ben
1 Like
Sounds pretty good to me too… Josh Scott has a video that shows him going to Japan to work with the sound guys at Boss… it’s pretty cool & yes, the combination has a really good sound! I am a newbie to getting Tone - I play way more acoustic than electric & still need to work on reducing string noise with the electric… when I do play electric it’s usually very “clean” but I’ve watched a ton of YouTubers using various Overdrives to fatten up their Tone. It sounds good & I think the Blues Driver is probably where I want to start… just not sure.
The only pedals I own now are the BOSS RC-1 Loop Station & the Boss SY-1 Synthesizer & a Dunlop Volume (X) 8 Pedal (never even unboxed this one yet). The Synth pedal is a lot of fun to play/noodle with but at least so far it’s not really usable in a song…
I’ve kinda put myself on a budget with pedals, it seems like for a guy who loves to get new stuff, I could go in WAY TOO DEEP in a hurry!!! So, I’m just dipping a toe into the Pedal Pond… don’t want it to turn into a rabbit hole! I’ve been thinking that a small pedal board along with judicious purchases & a self-imposed restriction to only have pedals that would fit on the board might contain the GAS… wishful thinking at least!!! 
Can’t wait to see the finished product with pedals installed!
Tod
I completely understand this thinking but a couple of things to consider…
If you buy a small board then you’re almost immediately going to have to buy a new board when you buy another pedal… which you will, we all do
Also some small boards aren’t really big enough to take a power supply (I made this mistake) so you either have to buy a tiny power supply (which isn’t future proofed), or have daisy chain power supply (messy) or not have the supply under the board (not taking full advantage of having a board). As a result of this I now own a great big board which has more empty space than pedals and a power supply with tonnes of capacity but I shouldn’t have to upgrade either for years, if ever
At least consider the above before spending 
1 Like