Making/buying a Pedal board

nightmarenny

Hey so I've decided to expand my Guitar Pedal selection and also to get a pedal Board to go with it. I'm wondering how difficult making one would be or if it would be better just to buy one. Also I haven't purchased most of my Pedals so I was hoping to get advice on what kind to get and if I forgot a type that it would be important to have. For reference I play in a slightly classic-like rock band with overtones of a lot of styles. My solo recording stuff is more progressive.

So my list-
1) Blues Driver
2)DS-1 Distortion(which I already have)
3)Modtone Aqua Chorus
4)Big Muff
5)Flanger
6)Delay
7) Wah-Wah

So have I missed anything?

garroad_ran

Oh man, welcome to a world of unending dissatisfaction.

What pedals to buy is entirely up to you and your answer will vary depending on what you want to spend, what kind of sounds you want/need, and what best fits suits you in terms of pedal manageability.

For example, I have a super-powerful TC Electronic G-System, but it's only good for shows where I know exactly what songs I'm going to be playing in advance, because creating and modifying sounds on the fly is next to impossible with that beast.

For everything else I have a smaller board that fits about 12 regular-sized pedals. I keep the pedals on it with velcro right now, but 3M Dual Lock is really the way to go. It's expensive as hell, but sooooo good. Especially if you're like me and alter your setup frequently.

A couple of suggestions, if you like:
#1 - I hate not having a tuner on my board.
#2 - I can't live without a volume pedal
#3 - I like having two delay pedals on the board. One short, one long (with tap-tempo, if I want it). This gives me a lot of flexibility on stage. Mind you, for recording my delay setup would be a lot more intricate.
#4 - Check out an Xotic EP Booster or RC Booster. They're basically "push here for good tone" pedals ^_^

Nappuccino

I, personally, have never been happy with my Bigmuff. It is so limited in sound and its hard to get a nice thick fuzz from it- it always sounds a bit thing.

I have, however, heard amazing things about the Swollen Pickle

Dark_Side

It's almost always easier to build your own pedal board in my experience, it can be as simple as a chunk of plywood from home depot with velcro on it, to as complex as modifying a road case or converting something like a pelican case for your uses. (In my opinion a chunk of plywood is plenty, unless you're gonna be doing dedicated touring.)

Must haves for me would be a tuner and power supply chain. A volume pedal is pretty great too.

Aioua

Yeah as far as the board itself goes, you can make a damn nice one yourself. I made one and a case for it once.
I found an old hard-shell suitcase (like this) at a thrift store, glued some chunks of foam into it, and then cut a piece of plywood to size. I ordered some velcro loop fabric off the interwebs, and stapled it onto the plywood. Then you just get some sticky velro strips and bob's your uncle.

EVOL

You need a loop pedal man. So much fun.

Pirusu

Making your own is probably a lot easier, but my old roommate actually bought one of these and I'm pretty sure, if his bed was big enough, he'd sleep with it.

twmjr

For #6, I highly recommend the Boss RV-3 Reverb/Delay pedal. They don't produce them any longer as they've replaced it with the RV-5, but most people agree the sound on the RV-3 is better. I love mine ever since I got one off of ebay not that long ago.

nightmarenny

EVOL wrote:

You need a loop pedal man. So much fun.

Any brand? What are some good ones?

Typhoid Manny

the red Boss one is pretty good. you can even kind of fake a loop pedal with a digital delay with the time set all the way up

Jeedan

Go to Ikeas website and look for a shelf called a "gorm", lots of people find them perfect for home made pedalboards.

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?2162433-Official-IKEA-GORM-Pedalboard-Appreciation-Thread