A huge part of putting together a pedal board is the actual board itself! What should you make it out of? Should you buy one? What about cases? There are lots of options and no one-size-fits-all solution!
Pedaltrain
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Pedaltrain. Their boards have become the de facto standard pedal boards and for good reason. They are light weight, come in a variety of sizes, and have soft and hard cases. The angle of the boards is convenient and allows for a Pedal Power to be stored beneath. The construction also allows for a really close layout because you can store cables beneath the board. My friend in Glacier is currently using this for his board and he loves it.
Pedal Pad
David and Corey both have boards made by Pedal Pad. The boards are built into the cases so you just lift the top off and plug in. They also have space beneath the pedals for power supplies and extras which they both take major advantage of. They come in a variety of sizes and some of their boards have power supplies built in.
Build Your Own
Are you handy? Got some saws, drills, and lots of extra time? You can build your own board to your own specs. This is the route I took. I went to a hardware store and had them cut me out two pieces of plywood. I went with 30 inches by 15 inches. It felt like a good balance between really big and manageable. I've previously had boards over 40 inches long and 20 inches deep and it just became too big to deal with. I grabbed some handles, some aluminum extrusions and some laminate for the surface. It's clean, looks great, and was inexpensive. A big benefit to this is the ability to have the board be exactly the size you want it to be. I don't have the extra space beneath that you would have with one of the other boards, but I like having everything right in front of me. The most expensive part of this were the custom cases from Stompin' Ground.
As far as sticking those pedals to the board? I had used carpet and Velcro for years and was never happy. I tried drilling holes in my board and getting extra long screws but that left no room for change. Finally someone has come along and made something that really works. Power-Grip. When we first started using it we used it like Velcro. Covered the entire bottoms of our pedals. Turns out it is so much stronger this made the pedals almost impossible to remove. A bit of this stuff in the corners goes a long way!
After all this add some cable ties and some cable tie holders and you've got yourself a board.
Want to hear some of these pedals in action? Check us out!
