Okay folks, I hope everyone had a good weekend. I took it pretty easy still recovering from being sick and all but I feel a little better today. I actuality felt like doing something today and I haven't felt that way in a couple of weeks. I managed to get a little time in at my shop this afternoon late. Its still like an oven outside here in SW Arkansas but that's pretty normal for late July. It gets a little hotter before it cools off a little. A lot of people tend to stay inside as much as possible during July and August around here because its just too hot to want to get out and do anything. If you want to mow this time of year its best to have some headlights on your riding mower because the only time it gets cool enough to mow is close to dark thirty.
But back to the pedal board .... The one I've chosen to build and show picture progress with is a 14" pedal board. That just means its 14 inches long. Just right for holding 4 normal size pedals like the Boss TU-3 tuner pedal for instance. Personally, I have a Boss TU-3 Tuner on my board but you can always get a good clip on tuner and use that spot for something else. I pedal I will always keep on my board, and always last in line, is a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor. That was the very last pedal I bought and probably the best pedal I ever bought. I also have on my board a Wampler Brad Paisley Overdrive Signature Pedal. I've always been a little tight when it came to buying pedals. I've always actually had a little something against using them at all. I love the sound of a good guitar plugged into a good tube amplifier. Nothing beats it when you have a person operating the guitar that's pretty damn good at playing it. Something else about that, it keeps you on your toes and keeps you honest. The cleaner you play, the more telling you are of your skills. If you're a sloppy player who rely's on pedals to get by, you're probably not going to have a good time. Just sayin'
So the pedal board .... I took a 1x4 piece of pine and cut it into two strips about an inch and a half wide using a table saw. I had already cut my 1x4 to 14 and a quarter inches beforehand with finishing the length on my miter saw.to 14 inches + I put the plus mark in there as to mean about a sixteenth of an inch over isn't a bad thing. We'll see why when we get to the end of the project. So, yeah, keep in mind to feel free to add a sixteenth of an inch to that 14 inch finish we want to come out with, Its really freakin' cool what we'll do here, trust me.
Everyone pretty much knows a 1x4 isn't actually one inch, right? Its more like .750 inches or 3/4"
The 4 isn't 4 inches either. Its more like 3 1/2" or 3.500" ......... so I set my saw guide at around 1 1/2" to 1 5/8" and ran the 2x4 through twice. Using the straightest side against the guide and then using the cut side of the left over (wider) piece run it through the saw again and you'll have two pieces from 1 1/2" to 1 5/8" wide. That's a good width because it provides plenty of room between the pedals to work your patch cords. You can also buy a roll of Velcro from Wal-Mart or wherever else you might find Velcro. What I use for my boards is 1 inch wide, black, and has a very sticky back on it. You can get a 1" by 36" roll of it for about 8 dollars by the time you pay tax on it.
As you can see above I have my main 4 pieces laid out in separated pieces. The ones in the middle are the 14 inch + 1x1 1/2" boards. The angled pieces were made using a 1x6 standard piece of pine and setting my miter saw at 10 degrees. I don't actually measure anything when I make this cut. I use a piece of my miter saw to "eyeball" it where I want it to be and it comes out at about 1/2 - 3/4 inch at the small end. Depending on how I chose to eyeball it I guess. Keep in mind I was just making this up as I went along. I just happened to measure it later so I could reproduce it if I wanted to. After I give them all an initial sanding I will put some Gorilla Wood glue to them and carefully piece them together while clamping them into place for an overnight stay. On my first pedal board I used wood screws, but in hindsight I think its a little overkill. I used nothing but glue on the 18 inch pedal board I made and I think its probably fine that way. But I am thinking about sticking some finishing nails in it just for good measure. After I pre-drill the holes of course. You don't want to split the wood. You want to drill the hole just a little under size so you get a good grip with the finishing nail. Squirting a little glue in the hole with a syringe ain't a bad idea either. Another old carpenter trick I learned a long time ago was to tap the sharp end of your nail with your hammer a couple of times to dull the end of the nail a little. Its keeps from splitting the wood, trust me ;)
And this is how it will set together once we get it sanded and glued. I'll try my best to make that happen tomorrow evening-night sometime. On my first pedal board I used a piece of 1/4" plywood for the bottom piece. It gotten the job done quite well on several gigs after I built it. Before that I was laying them side by side in the floor poor boy style. You can still consider this pedal board "poor boy style" I guess. I've seen a lot of these pedal boards people pay a lot of money for and to me, it ain't worth it. Especially when you have the means to build your own. I'm more set up for working with steel in my shop. It is a small machine shop after all. But I do have some wood working tools. I've got a few more things I'd like to have but I'm working on that. Last but not least is a picture of my first ever home built pedal board, minus the Velcro. I took the Velcro I had on it off so I could put a full strip on it like I did with my last one. Since I had stained it I wanted to show the wood color as much as possible so I just used 2" wide Velcro pieces and cut them into pieces just big enough for each pedal. I also used wood screw in this one and did not try to hide them. The Velcro will cover them anyway when I put a new strip on it.
Pretty simple and straight forward so far. Next we'll look at a front view of this board and you can see where and how I mounted my keeper.holder for the One Spot harness end piece. I used a simple door latch like you might use on a storage shed or even a chicken house door. I think they cost about 2 dollars for a brass one and its perfect size for making a good tight grip on the One Spot jumper harness for you pedal power.
More on this later ... thanks for looking in.
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