My pedalboard finally complete!! (At last!) --pics!

[loki]

So guys, here's the images of my pedalboard...
After a year and a half of collecting, bulding, buying, selling, chain-order arranging pedals, i finally have made it!
here's how it looks:


and here's how the signal is routed (a la guitargeek style):


What do you think?

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the people on this forum who have helped me with their posts and who have posted schems and layouts here and there, and aron and steve@smallbear for the parts....
Only a year and a half ago i didn't know jack shit about electronics, let alone about building effects pedals.... thanks to this forum i've made it  :wink:
now that there's no more room on it for another pedal another phase starts: building pedals for friends  :?
see ya!

[Mark Hammer]

Congratulations on your personal growth as gadgeteer!  It's a nice feeling, isn't it?

Busy...but clean.  I'm not sure what is going to weigh more, the pedalboard or the amp!  :lol:

One thing you may want to consider...if, in fact, there is any room for it...is some sort of loop selector, or even some sort mixer for parallel processing.  There are, to be fair, a LOT of pedals there.  I wonder how many of them you use at any given time, and how many you have to switch on and off in combinations.  One of the nice things about a loop selector is that you can prepare combinations of effects and then turn them all on or off at once in one foot action.

I realize it would be hard, with all the creative possibilities available there, to decide that this pedal goes with this loop and that one goes with that loop.  On the other hand, there are some things that seem like reasonable tradeoffs.  For instance, you would probably rarely or never consider using your Cry Baby at the same time as using either the Q-Tron or the Microsynth.  You probably wouldn't use any of the distortion pedals, or the octave box, at the same time as the Microsynth since the MS produces its own sort of distortion voice and octave down.

Along similar lines, is there a way that you could group just a few effects into group A and others into group B?  This doesn't mean that they ALL have to fall into one or the other group.  Some could be common BEFORE the loop selector and some common after.  The question, for me, is "Are there combinations you regularly use without any of the others?".  If yes, then maybe a loop selector might be of practical use.

Again, that's not a criticism of the degree of neatness and organization I see in the photo, or any comment whatsoever on the sequence of pedals.  It's really more of an encouragement to consider something that might possibly be of use to help you navigate the many choices more quickly - series connection isn't everything.  Certainly, there is a LOT to keep track of on that board, and being able to step on one switch to get a sound you want is handy.

[aron]

It looks very neat and nicely done!

[80k]

cool!  did you make your own daisy chain there?

very nice selection of pedals.  more people should post their pedalboards... i love seeing people's collections, especially of DIY boxes.

here's mine:
http://images.filecloud.com/25363/Pedalboard_2005-05-14.jpg

my dog is only allowed to play with my mass-produced Boss/Digitech pedals
http://images.filecloud.com/25788/Sam_Playing_Delay_004.jpg

[Ben N]

Loki:

Very nice work--packed tight, but neat and useable.  And thanks for the cool diagram.  Which makes me sad, really, because none of us can ever leave well enough alone, and you'll be fiddling with it again in a month or less   :? .  (I go through phases of "less is more"/"more is more" as regular as a sine wave.  It's hell on the carpet covering on my pedalboard.)

Since it IS rather a long chain of pedals in that there loop, care to explain how you use it, starting with other gear: guitar or bass, amp and rack stuff, if any?  Then what kind of music do you play, in what kind of context (basement noodling, home recording, garage band, club gigs, stadiums...), and how do you use these effects, and in what combinations.  Also, mods to any of the commercial effects?  Some of those non-TBP non-buffered pedals look like they might be major tone-suckers strung together in a row.

Sorry to hit you with a laundry list, but when I see a large and fairly complicated pedalboard like that, I want to know not just what's on it, but how it is used.  Anyway, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, right?

Ben

[Melanhead]

Very cool! ... need more pedals though

Mine's almost done as well ... I'll post pix too ...

Thanks for sharing ...

[loki]

@Mark
thanks very much for the congrats....
yeah it sure weighs, but honestly when i lifted it up i was expecting it to weight much more... i was relieved it's not much. afterall just the digitechs and the wahs are heavy...
I've read your post thoroughly... I have considered making use of loops since there are so many pedals... for a short period i've even owned a rocktron patchmate switcher... but i realized i didn't really need it and so i sold it.
So what you said about placing effects in loops would surely be handy, and i guess i'd already done it.... if i played guitar  :wink:
with bass, or better, with the way i play bass, i just need two sounds: the clean one, and the effected one. and for that there is the main switch on the loop box. that's all i need really. i rarely use more than 4 pedals switched on together, two of which will most likely be distorsions. so i just activate the pedals i need before the song starts, and switch them off through the main loop switch. when it's time to kick them it, again it's just a one switch click.... ditto if i need to add a phaser or delay, just a step on them....
aside from that the problem is really that of your main question: there is not a combination i regularly use.... i like to experiment much so it would be a mess choosing which pedals to put in a certain loop and which in another one.... i would like to be free to kick in whatever effect i want without paying attention to the loop it's in...
i wanted it to be pretty straightforward and versatile as possible.
but who knows  :wink: i could change my mind in the future and run everything through several loops  

@aron
thank you  :wink:

@80k
hey, your pedalboard is cool too, and the pic with the dog it's really funny  :wink:
yeah, i made my own daisy chain.... it was really easy to do, and plus i could decide exactly how many plugs i wanted and the exact lenght od the cord

@Ben N
Thank you too, i've been through phases like yours for a year and a half too... but i'm kinda set i think... i self-imposed no more changes.... i'll see if it will stand  :?
anyway... thanks for your question, and don't worry about the laundry list thing... i'm happy to reply.
first of all: gear
I have two basses, a 4 string Fender Jazz Geddy Lee signature (which I use 90% of the time) and an active 6-string Yamaha TRB custom fretless (for my Primus self-indulgence lol). the amp is a Gallien Krueger 700RBII head bi-amped to a Gallien Krueger SBX 4x10" speaker. no rack units.
I play mainly funk rock, things like early RHCP, early incubus, infectious grooves, primus, stuff like that.... and yes club gigs mainly (no major things yet unfortunately  :wink:)

to the effects...
as you could read in my reply to mark i basically switch between the clean sound and the effected one....

i placed my custom crash wah first in the chain because it acts as a volume pedal too (you can see a detailed description of it here
http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=32924)
and when used as a wah it delievers with all the distorsion pedals after it.
then the delay and the octave because i wanted to have them before the distorsions (the octave for a clearer octaved distorsion, and the delay for more mess). but mainly i wanted the delay between the two wahs, and especially before the 105q (which in turn had to be before distorsions) so i can wah the delay repeats... one thing i really like.

same for the q-tron and the microsynth... i placed them before the 105q so i can wah the sound coming out of them and actually notice it  :wink:  

as for distorsions...  the guv'nor is set to a very midrangy sound and placed before the 105q for that jason newsted-like distorted wah sound...
it is the basis for all the distorted wah sounds i use
since the 105q, though great with clean sounds, for its nature (bottom end is left uneffected) is pretty unusable with the big muff and the odb3, i turn on the guv'nor before it to actually hear the wah  :wink:
and the combination bridge pickup>guv'nor>105q>digitech bass driver (also set midrangy) gives the best distorted bass wah i've ever heard!
besides that for straight distorsion i generally use the tube screamer alone (for slight distorsion), guv'nor + digitech or guv'nor + TS (for regular distorsion), and digitech + ODB3 for full blasting.
The big muff i always use by itself since it sounds great like that... i've read a lot of complaints about its low end sucking, but honestly mine sounds just right.

Lastly i use the Eq if i want to twist the distorted sounds a bit, or if i want a  lo-fi sound i just cut all the bottom and boost the highs... i don't use it to shape my clean tone... there's the amp for that.
the other pedals (phase90, tremolo and microamp) are not worth specifical explanation i guess....
that's the basics... i use a lot more combinations though... like microsynth+digitech+phaser or i use the first wah as a filter and then distorsion and the other wah... they're just too many to mention....

None of the commercial effects is modded, except for tweaking the 105q delay in switching (it's a spring loaded one)... if you can call that a mod.
As for the tone sucking... i thought of that too... but i don't really notice it.... there is not a sensible difference when i press the loop switch and the signal travels all the pedals to the amp... compared to when it goes straight to it.... i reckon that one could notice some differences if analizing the signal spectrum, but i really can't hear it
so i hope i've made myself clear enough... if you have some more questions feel free to ask  :wink:

[Ben N]

Great response, thanks!

[nelson]

I want my pedal board to be twice as big and 99% DIY pedals. Currently it pales in comparison. I would use more signal routing options though. little mixers, loopers, ABY boxes, feedback loops. I want to hit 1 note/chord and be able to create an instrumental song just by switching on and off stomp boxes. :idea:  Ofcourse, it will sound horrible  :twisted:

[barret77]

wow wow wow Congrats! Beautiful sight.

[lethargytartare]

LORDY 80K -- did I count FIFTY-TWO KNOBS on that little collection of pedals on your board???  Did you write a 600 page user manual for yourself in case you ever had to change a setting :lol:

cool!  did you make your own daisy chain there?

very nice selection of pedals.  more people should post their pedalboards... i love seeing people's collections, especially of DIY boxes.

here's mine:
http://images.filecloud.com/25363/Pedalboard_2005-05-14.jpg

my dog is only allowed to play with my mass-produced Boss/Digitech pedals
http://images.filecloud.com/25788/Sam_Playing_Delay_004.jpg

[Mark Hammer]

Loki,

Hey, if a guy/gal has a pedalboard that works for them, more power to them!  Funny how guitar players and bass players can have such different needs, even when it comes to patching things.

[80k]

LORDY 80K -- did I count FIFTY-TWO KNOBS on that little collection of pedals on your board???  Did you write a 600 page user manual for yourself in case you ever had to change a setting :lol:

yep, i think it's 52  
actually the only pedal that is difficult to get the right settings is the Noise Swash (the multicolored one in the top row).  Everything else is surprisingly easy to use

[loki]

thanks Melanhead and barret77

Loki,

Hey, if a guy/gal has a pedalboard that works for them, more power to them!  Funny how guitar players and bass players can have such different needs, even when it comes to patching things.

Indeed... i sometimes plug my guitar through my rig (i play guit "for fun") and i realize i should literally tap-dance on the pedals all the time if i wanted to use it in a concert or at rehearsals..
see most of the times a guitar sound is more complicated so you need some pedals engaged even with your clean sound... pedal that you have to get rid of when kicking in distorsion... in that case a more complicated routing would be handy. luckily i play bass lol, even though i think i have too many pedals for a bass player .