Homemade pedalboard build

the_jaffa

After my brother gave me one of these ABS plastic cases for my birthday, I decided to use it to house a custom pedalboard:

After a fair bit of planning and plotting, a trip to the DIY store for some steel tube and some time in the garage with a hacksaw I came up with this:

I'm lucky because I work in a bicycle shop where we build our own frames (although I am not the actual framebuilder) so had access to welding and brazing equipment so after some playing with fire... 

...I ended up with a nice frame for a pedalboard.  With some nice 18mm phenolic plywood added for the pedal platforms I had this:

The brazing is not the absolute neatest but for a first go at it I am pretty chuffed.  Could do with a little bit of a clean up and maybe some paint but it all works really nicely.  The front row of pedals are dropped down inside the frame to keep the overall height as low as possible but there is a good size riser for the rear row of pedals.  The best bit though is that it all packs away into the case really neatly with the Wah pedal and One Spot power supply neatly enclosed in the foam beneath the board:

It's all held in nice and tidily and without any rattling with the lid shut.

Signal path for info is:

TU-2

Homemade Fuzzface clone (the grey box)

Wah

CS-9

TS-9

Soul Food

BF-2

TR-2

The space in the top left is for an imminent delay pedal, most likely to be a Carbon Copy or a DM-2w.

EricTheWeary

Definitely a wow although your bro has odd choice in present buying!

the_jaffa

Ah, the present was not entirely unprompted.

Rocker

Nice work my friend but the metal frame would look better if it is painted.  And you ought to do something about your workshop space - it is way to neat and tidy.  And everything is so new looking, needs some distressing.  

the_jaffa

I think I will probably get the frame powder coated but maybe not in traditional black.  Maybe a nice grey or silver.  We have a friendly coater that we use for the bike frames so that should work.

Sassafras

That phenolic ply looks massive. Does it not weigh a fair bit?

the_jaffa

It's 18mm so fairly thick but the plan area is not that big.  The board weighs nowt in relation to the pedals on the top of it really

markv

Been planning a DIY pedal board build myself but I won't manage anything nearly so competent as that. What do you reckon it cost you, if you don't mind me asking?

the_jaffa

I was lucky really.  The case was a pressie (but they're £50 at Maplins) and the ply was donated by a friend who owns a company that makes conveyors.  The metal bits were about £14 from B&Q.

I also spent about a fiver on rubber feet and tubing caps via ebay but have loads left over.

Pretty good really I reckon.

digitalscream

Mate...burn/singe the edges of the wood, and that'd have an excellent industrial and beaten-up look to it.

Nice work

Sambostar

Weird, I woke up this morning and there were two rectangles cut out of the floor of my Transit One Stop body.

usedtobe

That's great! Nice job!

the_jaffa

Cheers, I'm pretty chuffed with how it has worked out

lloyd

Looks like a pro job mate. Nice work