Hi you all,
Pedalboard planning & building is fun! It never stops. I truly believe that there is no such thing as the ultimate pedalboard which suits ALL of your needs. I stopped counting how many pedalboards I have assembled and rebuilt since. For many years I was on a quest for finding and building my perfect pedalboard. Almost needless to say, it would have been (or even was) gigantic and way too heavy. Hence, totally unpractical! So, three years ago I came up with the idea of a modular pedalboard (system). What if I had a “basic” board that woul provide the option of integrating rarely used effects? This concept turned out to be a real game-changer in my pedalboard world.
Especially as a bass player, most of the time the only effect I use during live performances is an octaver or light distortion. But if the setting and the people fit, I often feel the desire to go a little crazy with delays, synthbass and modulation pedals such as e.g. phaser, tremolo or chorus. The question arises that, if I play at an improvisational gig where a sub-ringmodulator is not seen as the reason to cancel a gig, how do I integrate this sub-ringmodulator (e.g. the FreqencyAnalyzer of EHX) into my “basic” board? I found patchboxes for pedalboards, which have a so called “SMART” functions, to be the answer.
When two connectors aren’t connected, there are short wired. This is idea for an insert. I have got two boxes of them with a total of three inserts. I used that system extensively over the last year and it turned out to be the perfect solution. The basic board is (relatively) compact and for certain projects or in certain circumstances, I can easily “expand” the pedal game. Back in the day, I knew that I would build another board which wiould be my “last” board: I knew that my basic pedalboard was part of a practicability test phase. That being said, I can now say that this testing phase is completed. Within the scope of my master studies in Maastricht and some other factors combined, the time had come to build my ultimate board. Properly!
While studying endless youtube tutorials, blogs and other sites and books regarding pedalboard building, I thought that it would be a good idea to document the process and the progress of getting this rig together. Last Sunday, I met up with a carpenter and we are going to build the chassis together each Sunday. Et voilà, every Sunday, will try to publish an article and/or an update, video documentary or another post regarding my pedalboard building experience. Starting with my own draft of the creation. Let’s not wait but see where this leads us…
Have a great week!
