Atttaching stompboxes to a pedalboard...

[moritz]

Hi,
This may be slightly off-topic, but I'm trying to figure out a way to attach stompboxes to a pedalboard other than using velcro. Until now, all that I have come up with is to use a board with holes in it (such as masonite peg-board), and use cable ties to attach my stompboxes to it (through the holes in the board that is)...

Do any of you DIYers have another way of doing this?

[cd]

Hi,
This may be slightly off-topic, but I'm trying to figure out a way to attach stompboxes to a pedalboard other than using velcro. Until now, all that I have come up with is to use a board with holes in it (such as masonite peg-board), and use cable ties to attach my stompboxes to it (through the holes in the board that is)...

Do any of you DIYers have another way of doing this?

Using the holes you've already drilled (or drill some more) you can use screws to screw the pedals directly to the board, in the same holes that the pedal's bottom plate uses.  Or if you don't want to lose the existing bottom plate mounting screws, and don't want to drill holes completely through the board, go to your local hardware store and look for a metal part that looks like a "figure 8" or a "B" (I forget the technically correct name).  You use one hole of the "8" to screw into the existing bottom plate, then the other hole is used (with another screw) to screw into the board (from the top).  Obviously, this only works if the mounting plate holes are close to the corners.   But you can find/make longer/shorter "8"s to mount to the board.

[MartyMart]

Get hold of an old motorcycle chain, clean it up with meths and disconnect the links.  "8  8  8  8"  --this is what you end up with.
These will fit around most pedals bottom corner screws, or you may need a few washers, then you have four "lugs" sticking out, bolt these through your board   done !
Very cheap and secure, does'nt make a sticky mess of your pedals either!
Also try a cycle chain, as these links are a bit smaller.
Marty.

[moritz]

wow, that "8" thing is quite ingenious... why didn't I think of that?  :?

thanks guys!  

[Steve C]

Hammond (and some other companies too) makes some enclosures that have lips on the bottom plates with slots for mounting them to surfaces via screws or bolts.  That way you just need screws and the rest is already there.  Something you might want to check out for your future DIY builds.  

EDIT:  It's called a flanged lid, or bottom plate.

[Ansil]

why not build a pedal board with injection molded foam and covered in felt to hold your pedals like they were queen for a day.

sorry thats what i do.

[Paul Marossy]

When I made my pedal board out of an old bass guitar case, I constructed it in such a way that the top half secure holds the pedals in place with thte use of some some that I bought at a arts & crafts store. The bottom half has wood strips that divide the pedals, and the interconnecting wires are bundled like a wiring harness and fastened to the bottom of the pedalboard with some cable hold downs. It has been working very well for me for about 3 years now.



You can read more about it here:
http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/NewPedalBoard.htm

Of course, I'm sure your pedalboard isn't custom built, so the bicycle chain trick is probably what I would do also if I had some commercially manufactured pedalboard to use. IME, the Velcro thing never worked well.

[Mike Burgundy]

Paul, I just stumled across your "why I don't like digital" site:
Here's a nice thing to try to experiment with sampling rates or at least high-freq. hearing - it's more than just time delay.
I have no idea what explains this, but it works wonders to illustrate people may only hear pure sine waves up to 20KHz (which noone really does anyway), but complex waves is something else entirely.

Set up a good quality tone generator, capable of generating both sines and  square waves at user-set frequencies,  quality amp and good speakers/monitors.
Get a test-team together.
Play a 1 kHz sine.
Play a 1kHz square wave.
establish everyone hears the difference.
Ok, that's theoretically fine - 1kHz fundamental, first harmonic 2kHz, that we can hear.
adjust the amp down a tad - these tones can get a bit abrasive,
Play a 5kHz tone, same procedure. That's a 10kHz octave, everybody should hear that difference too. Verify.
Once again, you may want to adjust the amp.
Try the same at
8kHz (first harmonic: 16kHz, getting a bit high)
10kHz (first: 20kHz, surely nobody hears this...)
12kHz
14kHz (first harmonic 28kHz! Unhearable!)
and on if you want.

You might be surprised - and this is analog, too

[Johnny Guitar]

Somewhere between the cable tie hold down (which is what I've been using, though I haven't played out in quite a while) and the more secure methods of screwing the directly to the box (either through the existing holes or drilling new ones) is an idea which I had, though never used -- plumbers tape!

This is what is (was) used to secure pipes and water heaters to beams, studs and joists (boy, that's a great name for a band, eh? -- or maybe Beams Studs and Joints!). The tape is metal and easily bended and is about 3/4" wide and comes in rolls a few feet long with a hole drilled once an inch or so.

I was going to use this or bend my own custom brackets out of corner braces ("L" brackets), but I decided to use cable ties since removal only requires a pair of dykes.

Also, with the prevelance of screw guns though you might investigate some of the rather cool new self taping screw hardware that is available. Just get your box lined up just right and come through the bottom of the box from the other side of the board.

J

[niftydog]

there's velcro, and then there's VELCRO!

Velcro comes in all manner of shapes, sizes and types. Some, like the common variety, is designed for repetitive use and hence is rather weak. Other varietys are designed for more robust attachments and is very, very strong, but as a consequence, does not survive many attach/separate cycles.

I once owned a car whose entire front and rear bumpers were attached using industrial velcro. It had the same velcro to attach the headlight protectors, and I often fell flat on my ass when they suddenly gave way when removing them for cleaning. I wish I could buy THAT velcro down at my local hardware store!

I have obtained sample quantities of a strong velcro from my local Velcro rep, but have not had a chance to test it yet.

[Rich G.]

3m Dual Lock

[Paul Marossy]

Mike Burgundy-

Actually, someone else wrote that page. I just linked to it. Your point is well taken, though. I still think that digital sounds harsher, whatever the reason. If the sampling rate is high enough, digital can sound very good. There must be a substantial difference between the stuff you can get at Musician's Friend (or fill in the _____) and what the pros use. I have some DDD CDs by various jazz artists, and they do sound quite good. I would be willing to bet there were some analog devices used somewhere in the recording process to get such warm sounding recordings. On the other hand, some DDD albums seem to be lacking something... maybe they sound too perfect or something?!

Johnny Guitar-

I think you are referring to metal pipe straping. I have used that on my pedalboard to secure the wall warts to the the bottom half. Plumber's tape I think is what people call the teflon tape that they put on pipe threads to help seal it...

[Mark Hammer]

As noted above, there's velcro and there's velcro.

Lee Valley Tools (and I imagine other places as well) carry rolls of velcro ribbon for the purpose of safely securing tomato vines and other garden plants to stakes/posts.  It comes in rolls of what I think are 30 ft or so for somewhere around $5-6.  It's about 1/2" wide and has the two requisite velcro surfaces, one on each side.  Just cut to length (or longer if you want max flexibility) and wrap around the pedal as you would cable ties (i.e., through holes in the board underneath).  I'm planning to finally get a pedal-board together over the next week and will try it out.  I'll let you know whether it's as good an idea as I think it is.  Certainly the nice thing about it is the low risk of damage to the pedals' finish.

[Paul Marossy]

I like to use something similar to that velcro strip to bundle my guitar cables together inside my pedalboard case when I pack it all up. Works great for that sort of thing. I suppose it could also work for fastening pedals to a pedalboard as well...