Pedalboard cleanup

C

ClintN667

Well-known member
So I have been putting this off for awhile but after seeing a recent thread on pedalboard snakes I am wanting to clean up my pedalboard finally.

Just a couple questions though I want to get some sort of pedalboard snake and I would like to get some sort of patch panel or interface to use for the send and receive of the effects loop. Can you guys make some recommendations? I only have like 7 pedals on a metro pedalboard. I was originally going to just get it setup by BTPA but they quoted me $800 and while I would love to just let them do it my bank account disagrees.

My cable management is atrocious so any tips, suggestions, tricks etc would be a great help.
 
You can get the parts and do it yourself. I got the BTPA mounts and drilled into my Pedaltrain and mounted them myself. I got parts from Redco for all the feed through jacks and wired it up myself.
20190516_220903.jpg
 
This is coming from a guy who still uses George Ls cables I made over 20 years ago...all top mounted (including power supply) on a piece of plywood spray painted black.

Keep it simple imo.

Sometimes I look at TGP pedal boards and they are too immaculate/perfect with the obligatory Altoids container. It's like they dust it off every night before bed even tho they didn't play it.

Then look at most pros pedalboards. Messy, dusty, not perfectly coifed.

Two long-ish cables sounds like all you need. :)

Here's mine from a year or 2 ago. I've used this since the late 90s and I cut it to fit in that old cheap suitcase that was going to get thrown away.

20210621_165910.jpg
 
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BeZo said:
You can get the parts and do it yourself. I got the BTPA mounts and drilled into my Pedaltrain and mounted them myself. I got parts from Redco for all the feed through jacks and wired it up myself.View attachment 110021
Click to expand...
This is what I'm wanting to do like the 3 jacks you have on the right coupled with a cable snake. I'm terrible with tools so how hard was it to drill these and install?
 
ClintN667 said:
This is what I'm wanting to do like the 3 jacks you have on the right coupled with a cable snake. I'm terrible with tools so how hard was it to drill these and install?
Click to expand...
It was easier than mounting the brackets to the board for the power supply. With the breakout panel, you line it up and mark it, and drill it out. I don't have a drill press or anything, and I did it by hand fine. Aluminum is pretty easy to work with.
 
If you didn't want to go that route, there are plenty of companies that make breakout boxes. Then, you can do the same thing with an effects pedal sized box on the edge of your board. I know Friedman, One Control, Saturnworks, and Hosa make them to name a few.
 
You can make your own patch box pretty easily and mount under/at the edge of your board. Lots of ways to customize it for your own needs.

If you're not handy with a soldering iron, it's a good beginner project. Much easier to make your own stuff where possible.
 
beej said:
You can make your own patch box pretty easily and mount under/at the edge of your board. Lots of ways to customize it for your own needs.

If you're not handy with a soldering iron, it's a good beginner project. Much easier to make your own stuff where possible.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty capable with a soldering iron but thats about it.
 
Techflex F6 is great to make your own loom. Measure how many cables you want to include and grab the smallest diameter loom needed. Amazon was selling Techflex. You can use cable velcro ties every few feet to keep the loom tight. It worked well for me snd was durable to gig with.
 
Another area I'd suggest focusing on for your cleanup is DC pedal power & how you connect external AC cord(s). Common source of suffering, one of the worst things to troubleshoot at gigs and rehearsals with different AC power sources. Particularly important If your pedals take different voltages/amperage/polarity, LABEL EVERYTHING to avoid frying something fumbling around in low light on stage. BTPA and others sell nice AC power jacks that lock, a cheap & simpler solution I use on practice board is a short female to male IEC cable that avoids having to dig around under the board to connect DC pedal power to AC source.

Rockboard makes modestly priced "Mod" units that combine input/outputs and power, they fit in the front slats some PedalTrain boards, and can be surface mounted anywhere as well. The apparently have expanded the available models to include a ton of other features, probably Mod 1 or Mod 2 for your needs:

https://www.rockboard.de/en/all-in-one-patchbays
 
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