For the last few years, this vintage suitcase has been the home for my DIY pedalboard:
It may not look like much, but for only costing $3 at Goodwill it did the job…with style! I had made a custom pedalboard by carpeting a 18″ x 24″ piece of MDF that fit inside the suitcase. All in all it was an affordable project! But as I travel around with all my gear, I’ve quickly learned that this pedalboard setup will not do…It was like taming a sea of snakes getting all the power strips and cables into the case! The board itself held all my pedals very well, but I wanted to figure out how to decrease its overall footprint and get rid of my wall warts and power strips.
I needed something sturdier, cleaner, and easier to transport . After a lot of research, I decided on the Pedaltrain 2 w/ flight case. The PT 2 measures 12.5X24X2.5 inches and weighs about 4.5 lbs, the flight case measures 25X18X8 inches and weighs in at 17 lbs. Just big enough to hold my essential gear (talk box didn’t make the cut) and just small enough to realistically fly/travel with.
There is even extra space in the flight case for a wah and any extra cords. A great feature of the Pedaltrain is the ability to mount a power supply underneath the board, saving valuable space on top:
The pedalboard itself is incredibly light and sturdy. The slat design allows for easy and tidy routing of patch and power cables underneath the board, allowing you a cleaner, more compact pedal layout.
I’ve already toyed with several different layouts and really enjoy how easy it is to move pedals around. I currently have all the pedals from my original pedalboard on the pedaltrain (wah is off the board since I don’t always need it and I can still carry it around in the flight case). This current configuration, including wah, expression pedal, and misc cords, clocks in at 43 lbs all packed up in the road case…7 pounds to spare when it comes to checking it on a flight!
I have a Lava Cable mini elc kit in the mail and will be putting together my own cables for a better fit and for better tone. This will also allow for a tighter, cleaner layout.
If you are in the market for a new pedalboard, I’d definitely check out the Pedaltrain series!
I am currently exporting some of my soft synth/ambient/rhythm tracks from the “This Valley” protools files so I can play them live. I normally use Ableton Live to trigger my loops/tracks live, but the lately I’ve been having trouble making my loops warp to Ableton’s built in click (which I hacked and replaced with a Boss DB-90 rimshot sample). Sometimes it works, but almost any song in 6/8 won’t properly warp.
So I’ve been saving for a long time to eventually purchase a new guitar. My main guitar right now is a stock American Tele. I do have a few ’80′s hair metal mayhems around but I only play them when I where my tights.
Originally, I planned on purchasing some type of Les Paul to really contrast my tele and fill out my sound, but after more research I’ve decided I want the semi-hollow E-335. From Chuck Berry and the 3 Kings of Blues to Eric Clapton and John Mayer, this guitar brings the tone, the feedback, and the bite. I personally am a sucker for the tobacco burst. Now this is obviously a blues/Jazz guitar…no Enter Sandman on this fine instrument.
So, here are the stats:
Maple Back & Sides
Single-ply top, back and fingerboard binding
Free Gibson hardshell case
Two volume controls, two tone controls
Three-way pickup switch
Rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets
Nickel or Gold Machineheads
Mahogany Neck
Two ‘57 Classic humbucker pickups
Dot Inlays
If you happen to have on sitting in your room in mint condition give me a call! At the same time, in this economy, I don’t feel right about shelling out 3 G’s. Then I’ll need a new Top Hat amp, pedals, and new outfit!
So, I currently use Finale Notepad and Printmusic, which are perhaps the hardest, most stripped down programs ever, but they are free/cheap. I have been looking at upgrading to either Finale or Sibelius, and after a lot of research, I am looking at Sibelius. From my experience, the interface is much more intuitive, and it offers more options for interfacing with midi programs/sequencer. Seems like Sibelius has been getting the popular vote, while most schools seem to get group licenses cheaper for Finale…Kinda like the mac you have at home and the pc you have to use at work.
So my buddy Jay just got Line 6′s Verbzilla…and I gotta say that pedal is pretty awesome. While it delivers everything a verb should, its octo setting generates the reverb an octave higher, creating an ethereal pad-like layer…and for around 10 bucks! Definitely a great tool to add to the arsenal.
The pedalboard itself is incredibly light and sturdy. The slat design allows for easy and tidy routing of patch and power cables underneath the board, allowing you a cleaner, more compact pedal layout.
