i'm starting to get enough effect pedals to where a pedal board will be handy, so i'm going to start planning on making one.

so i was just looking around at stuff, seeing what i think i'll need. and i came across theses stupid things:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=22669&item=3722134264&rd=1
to me they look exacly like the links off a bike chain. so if you have a chain breaker, you could make your own and not have to use velcro or anything.

does anybody have any other ideas like this?

That's a clever idea. The only thing that I don't like about is that you would need a screwdriver to move a pedal. But, they would be really secured to the pedalboard, so in that regard, I like it.

I use them and they work great for a more permanent setup.  The price for 50 of them is good too.  If you try to buy the links at a store they cost anywhere from $.50 to over a dollar each.

I use only 2 of them per pedal.

A long time ago, that was my brilliant idea #2. First, I had a black painted board with velcro. #2 was the same board with holes drilled through for two of the pedal's bottom plate screws, and countersunk on the bottom. You had to flip the whole thing over to remove the pedals or change batteries, but no one ever stole one of my pedals.  

That looks ok, and you can unscrew them from the top. No problem if you use a power supply. Leaves you the freedom to make any kind of board you want.

i have dozens of feet of bike chain in my garage  :wink: . me and my brother used to BMX race and where always working our bikes.

Use Vise Grips, and grind the pins ends off, the chain link will come right off with a screwdriver, they can also be broken quickly with a big cold chisel and a big hammer, then re-flattenned with the hammer.
 If you can find just the right sized flat screwdriver tip, and you don't mind that it'll get scarred on the sides, the wedge of the tip can span across the links on either side, and pry the link off the pin.
 Grinding is as easy as any method, just face the grind marks on the link down.

I have one of those bike chain pin removal tools. That makes easy work of it.

does anybody else have any ideas like this? i'm planning on having a couple 9v power suplies, maybe even a plug in for a walwart if any digital pedals are acting up, input and output for easy setup, ect. what other feature would be cool?

Wireless hidden under your pedals And lights can be handy on dark stages. Find a heavy-duty transformer that can supply around 300mA to a halogen lamp or something like that. I get tranformers that supply 9v 650mA twice One 9v thingymajib for your FX and one for 2 lamps. Something like that.

The venues can't seem to use bulbs, or have trouble turning them on.
 They all do have power, accesible from the wall outlet.
 Bringing a lot of light makes setups and teardowns muchmuch easier.
 I drag two things. a Quarts painters lamp 250w-500w. and string lights in a large plastic jar..these can be dropped, strewn around, stuffed in the plastic jar for a kool looking table or floor light. Very cheep and portable.
 And if one of the bulbs should fail, there are like 99 more to go before your'e down to zero light.
 I prefer the concept of a gooseneck lamp with a 60w halogen bulb [or two 25w's], in a large pedalcase.
 I ncandescent Light bulbs should be installed in fixtures, arent worth the tote even one time probly. One bump and they're done.

Hey Goosenecks are a darn good idea... Gotta find some goosenecks. Damn I have too much stuff to do. :mrgreen:

so how many mA's would i need for just a couple 9v's for my pedals?

depends!  Most analoge pedals draw as little as around 10ma, while some digitals go up to around 40ma, or more...

you should be safe powering a bunch with around 200-250...you probably won't be able to find much less than that anyway.

Modulation effects take up -much more power- than distortions. Depending on what those pedals are, I would go 500mA to 1A or even higher, just for future expandability (hey, you're here after all   :wink: ). The price difference isn't huge, but if you can only find 250mA adapters, go for them.

And yep, digital effects can take tons of power. My Digitech RP-12 takes 2.2A... luckily it has its own adapter.

i think i'm ganna put some outlets on it for walwarts if any digital effects act up with my power suply. sound like a good idea? i'll just run it off the wire to the powersuply but after the fuse.

-rock on

Quotei'll just run it off the wire to the powersuply but after the fuse.

even better would be to run it BEFORE the fuse, and give it it's OWN fuse.

well i want to keep it as simple as possible while having what i think i really need and want. how important would the extra fuse be?

and i also want a volume pot i'll put inbetween the return 1/4" jack and the output to the amp. how should i wire it and what kind of pot should i use?

and what kind of fuse should i use??

Take it, Nifty...

the reason you'd want two fuses is so that you can rate them independently of each other.

Because you may not know what type of wallwart you are going to plug into those extra sockets, you can't really decide on a one fuse solution. If you "play it safe" and over-rate the fuse it could be dangerous for your power supply.

Or, going the other way;  say your power supply draws 0.5A, you install an appropriate fuse.  Then you plug in a wallwart to your "extra sockets" and blammo, there goes your fuse!

Plus, with two fuses, if you're in a gig and a wallwart blows up, your power supply keeps working!   (and vice versa)

You can get cheap inline fuse holders that you just drop into the active wire going to the extra sockets.

You want slow blow.  To rate them you have to first work out how much current is the maximum you want to draw from your power supply / extra outlets.