Visually Impaired Pedalboard

Nunny

Hi people,
I'm visually impaired and wondered if anyone had any experience / ideas of how to put together a tactile pedalboard? 

I was thinking along the lines of  edging all my pedals with fluorescent tape (as I cant really distinguish between them), placing them in specific positions, maybe adding rubber nibs to the pedals etc.

The other question I have is that of using a tuner - these are really difficult for me to see, so if there is anything out there with a large screen, or maybe even an app, then I'd be very grateful for advice.

Thanks

revsorg

I've never had to actually do this but I can see it's an interesting challenge.  My first thought is that making the pedals entirely different might help, so rather than stick to one particular manufacturer and shape, go for difference.  For example, it would be hard to mistake Boss, TC Electronic and MXR pedals, and you've got mini and non-mini pedals as another variant.

Another thought might be when you have standard click switches on your pedals you could put pedal toppers in very different colours on them if your visual impairment allows you to distinguish these - you could go for different shapes and sizes as well as contrasting colours.  They would also give you a larger surface to target with your foot too.  Barefoot Buttons are good, cost more but I reckon it's worth paying the extra.

And while on the subject of controlling with your feet, MXR pedals have rubber things plopped on top of their knobs which enable you to adjust them by foot too, but you'd need to consider that it's then harder to see what the setting of the knob is on its rotary scale because the rubber conceals some of the marker on the knob that it's covering - so you might need to add an extra marker on these knob covers - a dash of Tipex maybe.

I wonder - you're talking about tactile - do you plan to touch the pedals to control them, or largely control them with your feet.  It would help me to understand a bit more about this.

EricTheWeary

Looking at some of the Johnny Hiland stuff, he is registered blind and uses a lot of pedals. His set up varies a lot but he seems to usually use GoGo tuners like the GoGo Horizon which is a small pedal with a big read out and the colour changes between in and out of tune. Unfortunately no UK distribution so possibly a useless suggestion but if one popped up.There are ones on Reverb and eBay but USA dealers.   

He was using a Carl Martin Octaswitch to switch pedals and said it was because it is bright and easy to see. The older versions of his board don't have this, he just tended to use larger pedals, invariably in different colours and from different makers as @revsorg suggests. No mini pedals and no all black boards. Johnny says he also puts his own boards together and I think that's partly about developing familiarity with what is on there.  

Nunny

revsorg said:

I've never had to actually do this but I can see it's an interesting challenge.  My first thought is that making the pedals entirely different might help, so rather than stick to one particular manufacturer and shape, go for difference.  For example, it would be hard to mistake Boss, TC Electronic and MXR pedals, and you've got mini and non-mini pedals as another variant.

Another thought might be when you have standard click switches on your pedals you could put pedal toppers in very different colours on them if your visual impairment allows you to distinguish these - you could go for different shapes and sizes as well as contrasting colours.  They would also give you a larger surface to target with your foot too.  Barefoot Buttons are good, cost more but I reckon it's worth paying the extra.

And while on the subject of controlling with your feet, MXR pedals have rubber things plopped on top of their knobs which enable you to adjust them by foot too, but you'd need to consider that it's then harder to see what the setting of the knob is on its rotary scale because the rubber conceals some of the marker on the knob that it's covering - so you might need to add an extra marker on these knob covers - a dash of Tipex maybe.

I wonder - you're talking about tactile - do you plan to touch the pedals to control them, or largely control them with your feet.  It would help me to understand a bit more about this.

Thanks revsorg,
That actually helps alot as I didnt realise you could get pedal toppers! That might also solve the tactile issue (the intention here is to be able to feel where the  on/bypass switch is with my bare feet because I've found that with my existing pedals I'm catching the switch with the blade of my trainer rather that the middle of the sole, so I'm thinking tactile is the way to go here).

Nunny

EricTheWeary said:

Looking at some of the Johnny Hiland stuff, he is registered blind and uses a lot of pedals. His set up varies a lot but he seems to usually use GoGo tuners like the GoGo Horizon which is a small pedal with a big read out and the colour changes between in and out of tune. Unfortunately no UK distribution so possibly a useless suggestion but if one popped up.There are ones on Reverb and eBay but USA dealers.   

He was using a Carl Martin Octaswitch to switch pedals and said it was because it is bright and easy to see. The older versions of his board don't have this, he just tended to use larger pedals, invariably in different colours and from different makers as @revsorg suggests. No mini pedals and no all black boards. Johnny says he also puts his own boards together and I think that's partly about developing familiarity with what is on there.  

Thanks EricTheWeary - that is massively helpful! My brother in law lives in America and could potentially get hold of one of those tuners. Also, I must check that guy out and try to figure if his setup would also work for me .... sounds as though it could lead me down the right path

Roland

Something like the Octatonic switch has other advantages. Your pedal choice isn’t constrained by whether a pedal is visible, or capable of taking a pedal topper. You can position the buttons based on where you want them, not on where the pedal fits on your board. For example, buttons which you hit during a song can go on a front row, or at the end of the row nearest to your right foot. Buttons which you normally select before a song can go on the back row.

Nunny

Roland said:

Something like the Octatonic switch has other advantages. Your pedal choice isn’t constrained by whether a pedal is visible, or capable of taking a pedal topper. You can position the buttons based on where you want them, not on where the pedal fits on your board. For example, buttons which you hit during a song can go on a front row, or at the end of the row nearest to your right foot. Buttons which you normally select before a song can go on the back row.

Ah, so similar to what I've read about a GigRig I'm guessing?

Legionreturns

Could be complete overkill, but lots of people are now putting LED strips on their boards. You coukd literally surrounded key pedals with different colour lights. 

The tuner is more difficult, but if you use IEMs and could get the signal from a tablet headphone jack somewhere in your signal chain, you could use a tablet based tuner mounted on a mic stand in front of you, and set the colours up as high contrast. Most app tuners also use pings to indicate the correct pitch. (Hence the IEM suggestion). 

Ché

I have a Carl Martin Octaswitch for sale that might be of use to you. You can cut florescent tape and stick it around the foot switches to have a colour code for different pedals. You can also memorise the position of each switch.

Nunny

Legionreturns said:

Could be complete overkill, but lots of people are now putting LED strips on their boards. You coukd literally surrounded key pedals with different colour lights. 

The tuner is more difficult, but if you use IEMs and could get the signal from a tablet headphone jack somewhere in your signal chain, you could use a tablet based tuner mounted on a mic stand in front of you, and set the colours up as high contrast. Most app tuners also use pings to indicate the correct pitch. (Hence the IEM suggestion). 

Thanks very much - I didnt even consider LED strips (which would be miles better than tape actually! And I do actually own some IEMs, so I'll try to figure something out there

Nunny

Ché said:

I have a Carl Martin Octaswitch for sale that might be of use to you. You can cut florescent tape and stick it around the foot switches to have a colour code for different pedals. You can also memorise the position of each switch.

Thank you for the offer, but I will wait until I have the pedals I feel I would need and then decide whether that warrants an octave switch

paulnb57

I reckon Gigrig Quartermaster would suit you - pedals are always on, you could tape over their leds, and the gigrig does the switching. footswitches are in a line, all at the same height and distance apart, so quite easy to memorise and could easily be colour coded so you can see which is which

keithf

I'm visually impaired also, I use the boss tuner on my ipad and a midi foot controller with a pretty large red display.
Its a compromise but it works for me

Nunny

keithf said:

I'm visually impaired also, I use the boss tuner on my ipad and a midi foot controller with a pretty large red display.
Its a compromise but it works for me

Thanks Keith,
That sounds like a feasible option. Based on another recommendation in this thread, I saw that Johnny Hiland uses this tuner that changes colour when the guitar is in tune which might also suit me. I'm also liking the idea of these GigRig / OctaSwitch controllers .... just need to win the lottery now haha