Pedalboard Newbie Questions

[meb]

I do acoustic guitar and vocals, mostly sitting. I am delving into the world
of pedalboards. Is it worth it to mount a Ditto X2 and a Harmony Singer 2
on a board? I may add a Red-eye Twin. Obviously something small
or very small would do. I have seen the Gator Bone Mini 12" (no holes),
Pedaltrain Nano and Nano Plus, On-stage GPB2000, Rockboard.
All my pedals will run off a 1-spot. Are there any words of wisdom
for a newbie to this? Do folks prefer angled models vs flat?

Thanks for your advice.

Michael

[mitcher16]

Originally Posted by meb

I do acoustic guitar and vocals, mostly sitting. I am delving into the world
of pedalboards. Is it worth it to mount a Ditto X2 and a Harmony Singer 2
on a board? I may add a Red-eye Twin. Obviously something small
or very small would do. I have seen the Gator Bone Mini 12" (no holes),
Pedaltrain Nano and Nano Plus, On-stage GPB2000, Rockboard.
All my pedals will run off a 1-spot. Are there any words of wisdom
for a newbie to this? Do folks prefer angled models vs flat?

Thanks for your advice.

Michael

good questions Michael, I was also going to post a similar question!
Looking forward to hearing some opinions.
Cheers.

[BT55]

My preference is an angled board with Velcro. You can move your pedals around to find the best placement. The 1 Spot is a budget PS and I’d never use one as it can introduce static in your signal. You should use a PS that has isolated power outlets to each pedal. The Donner DB3 is a good board that offers the ability to mount your PS and wiring on the underside.

[krisls]

This one a them... depends what ya wants is tryin' ta do.. things.

My pedalboard.. Pedaltrain Jnr... HSinger (v1) 12v... Comp, delay, chorus, 9v... Ditto 2... 9v... PZ deluxe 15v... Polytune 9v from the PZ. .. out to PA.

The major things to work on are... levels from each to the next and then from the PZ out. Gain staging is a thing. Then your actual effects levels, different from previous.. less is mostly more here.

As for power.. you can run all but one of these from a Onespot, though I do wonder how long that 12v would be a good idea. thus I got a Cioks DC 10 to run all mine. Looked at putting it underneath.. but ultimately for ease and visual/access put it up top. This is a great rock solid board that was worked without fault for a couple of years now. Not light or the most compact, but...

Like I said.. it depends.

Kris

[YamahaGuy]

Here's my rig: LR Baggs Para DI, tuner, delay, chorus, reverb, looper. Only bad thing for my rig is the first pedal runs off 9v battery. All others off 1-spot. Relatively "quiet" as far as noise. Advice: run the looper at the end of the chain, tone shapers near the beginning of the chain.

[The Kid!]

I'd go with isolated power.

I'm using a Strymon Zuma R300 to power a Tonedexter > Sunnaudio Stage DI > Line 6 HX Stomp > Boomerang III Phrase Sampler > Aphex Acoustic Xciter (only as a DI) > Mixer.

I have power strips in the upper corners to power everything else off of. Makes for a quick setup.

[meb]

Thanks to all. I had to do some research on the various components
mentioned. It seems the power supply is a key ingredient. Do you
really think I would have noise issues with 2 pedals on a daisy chain
to a 1-spot plugged into the wall? II do not have issues when I set
it up without the pedalboard. I can see the point of isolated power
on bigger boards. Would the Cioks Adam ($109) be an alternative to the
DC-10? vs a $200 Strymon?

Are there alternatives in the 12" - 14" range to the Gator Mini-Bone (12"0
and PedalTrain Nano 14" wide. It seems there are many choices once you
get to 18". I prefer an 'angled' board.

yamahaguy, as I understand, you simply daisy chained your pedals
and plug the 1-spot into the wall....nothing fancy?....seems like all I need.

Thanks to all.

[rmp]

Originally Posted by meb

Thanks to all. I had to do some research on the various components
mentioned. It seems the power supply is a key ingredient. Do you
really think I would have noise issues with 2 pedals on a daisy chain
to a 1-spot plugged into the wall? II do not have issues when I set
it up without the pedalboard. I can see the point of isolated power
on bigger boards. Would the Cioks Adam ($109) be an alternative to the
DC-10? vs a $200 Strymon?

Are there alternatives in the 12" - 14" range to the Gator Mini-Bone (12"0
and PedalTrain Nano 14" wide. It seems there are many choices once you
get to 18". I prefer an 'angled' board.

yamahaguy, as I understand, you simply daisy chained your pedals
and plug the 1-spot into the wall....nothing fancy?....seems like all I need.

Thanks to all.

I am using a one spot to power a compressor, eq, holy grail, two timer delay and a ditto looper. I use in ear monitors almost all the time, I don't hear any signal noise with this. I have a tonedexter in line too, but I run that off it's own power supply. Actually, as I'm not sure if that can run on a pedal power PS. haven't looked into that yet, only had the TD for a few weeks.

[MikeBmusic]

My pedalboard (now dismantled) had a PZ Pre, an old distortion pedal, tubescreamer clone, chorus and delay into a Ditto X2 with all the pedals except the PZ powered by a 1-spot (the PZ uses 18 volt, not 12). I have a Korg tuner plugged into the PZ's tuner jack (so its not in the signal chain), and powering that with the 1-spot created a hum, so I left it on battery.

I can understand wanting a sloped board for sitting use. You do get used to non-sloped ones for standing, specially when you have multiple rows of pedals.
I had mine mounted in an aluminum case with removable lid.

[YamahaGuy]

Originally Posted by meb

yamahaguy, as I understand, you simply daisy chained your pedals
and plug the 1-spot into the wall....nothing fancy?....seems like all I need.

Thanks to all.

Yes, I daisy chained all mine with the 5-way cable and I use a Snark, which is basically the same as the 1-spot. The big thing for AC issues is to plug your pedal board into the same power outlet as the amp or pa system is plugged into. Whenever I set up all AC powered devices get plugged into the same outlet and I never have a problem. A few times I got noise when I had to plug in my pedal board into a different wall outlet, which was on a different circuit.

I also have a very expensive isolated power brick device for my electric pedal board and I get some "noise" with it if my board is plugged into a different outlet than the pa or amp. So then you have to buy a noise gate pedal -- which I have -- but they clamp down your overall volume when armed to be effective on high noise levels.

Good luck with your build.

One final thought, some pedals require 12v or 18v, or AC power. That is why I got the brick device for my electric board.

[The Kid!]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

Whenever I set up all AC powered devices get plugged into the same outlet and I never have a problem. A few times I got noise when I had to plug in my pedal board into a different wall outlet, which was on a different circuit.

Yes, they should all be on the same circuit.

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

I also have a very expensive isolated power brick device for my electric pedal board and I get some "noise" with it if my board is plugged into a different outlet than the pa or amp. So then you have to buy a noise gate pedal -- which I have -- but they clamp down your overall volume when armed to be effective on high noise levels.

No, you just need to have the amp and board on the same circuit. Why would you intentionally create a problem just to have to buy a noise gate to fix it?

[YamahaGuy]

Originally Posted by The Kid!

Why would you intentionally create a problem just to have to buy a noise gate to fix it?

I got the noisegate as a failsafe -- an absolute last resort in the rare event I do get noise. I wouldn't intentionally create a problem, but some venues I play have their FOH amps plugged in elsewhere (my board has a tube pre- so I often run direct into a DI then PA), and they use stage lights which make lots of "noise."

[zhunter]

Since I am spending your money? Gator small aluminum board. Angled, sturdy, space underneath for power supply and power cable routing. And it comes with a usable bag. Bigger yes but you have to allow room for jacks and invariably a pedal or two pops up that you want to add.

If all your pedals run at 9v, a one spot type supply has plenty of supply current capability to power even pretty heavy loads. Some pedals (digital pedals and internal charge pump pedals) do not like to share power sources which is why isolated becomes important. If you are successfully powering your setup with a one spot, a pedal board will not change that. Just be aware that you can get interactions that create noise like digital clock static and high pitched whines from charge pumps and if you add or swap a pedal you may run into problems. Back when I ran a daisy chain, I added a compressor to the power chain and the noise went through the roof. Had to run it off batteries until I got an isolated supply.

I like Cioks and have gotten good results with a DC5 and of late a DC7. Not cheap though. I ran Fuel Tank Juniors for a long time until my voltage and current draw needs out paced its capabilities. Not sure you can even buy em any more. You do need to read Cioks specs carefully since not all outputs on all supplies are isolated.

hunter

[The Kid!]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

I got the noisegate as a failsafe -- an absolute last resort in the rare event I do get noise. I wouldn't intentionally create a problem, but some venues I play have their FOH amps plugged in elsewhere (my board has a tube pre- so I often run direct into a DI then PA), and they use stage lights which make lots of "noise."

If you're getting noise, there's likely a problem with your pedal power supply or somewhere in your signal chain. A noise gate isn't a terrible idea, but it's just a band-aid on a broken arm.

I had a 60 cycle hum that was driving me crazy last year after I added a pedal. It wasn't the pedal, it was the lack of isolated power. An isolated power supply isn't as much fun as a new pedal, but it alleviated the problem immediately.

To the OP:
You can make a board out of a lot of things, but I like the pedal train stuff. I decided to get their aftermarket black road cases because the consumer grade hard and soft cases won't stand up to my schedule. They're light, sturdy, and well thought out. Cable management is easy and many power supplies fit underneath.

[meb]

I have been doing my homework and pondering options. The
small Aluminum Gator Board seems to be the front-runner. I think
the 15.5" size will be perfect for a Harmony Singer 2 a Ditto X2, and
a TC Spark mini. And I like the fact that it is angled. With agf's help,
I am over my confusion of the installation logistics, and now just
need to decide what to put on it.

I also am looking at the Rockboard 2.0 ( an older 12 5/8" model)
and just mounting the X2 and HS2.

I am in 'hold' mode now looking for a small preamp/DI with Boost, phase,
and gain to replace the Spark. Meanwhile, I bought some cables to
clean up the routing on the floor, as well as, work with a pedalboard.

Thanks to all for your input.