Guitar Pedal Board

Doonhamer

I want to make a pedal board for my 14 year old son for his birthday. I thought about 4 or 5 pedals. I've seen Behringer pedals for about £20ish so thought I could make something for about £120. But I don't know much about guitar effect pedals. What effects should I get and what order do they go in? And do I need a power supply? What about the cables for linking them together?

Any help greatly appreciated.

random456

you need these little patch cables, they look like ordinary guitar cables but much shorter, they sell these in music shops and maplins. As for pedals, your basic ones to go for i would say would be distortion, chorus, flanger, compression, delay...or you could do the much easier option and buy an all in one pedal with hundreds of effects like a boss, pod or zoom? depends on how skilled he is i suppose, if i was going to play live id prefer the pedalboard set up but just in my room i'd prefer a multieffects personally.
here is a step by step guide on how to attach stuff to the board: http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/12/how-to-build-your-own-pedal-board/

niceguyrichy

I'd be inclined to get him a multi-effects pedal personally, there are some crackers out there. I use a multi programmable Zoom pedal (home page) , it's really quality, and will allow for a lot more freedom of use for the money ahead of buying individual pedals and linking up

ManAtHome

As previous posters said, likely to be as cheap and a lot more convenient to go for the all-in-one. I'd also recommend Zoom - Boss and Pod have at least as good reputations, but I haven't used them.

Another alternative is the Korg Pandora http://www.musicstreet.co.uk/korgpandorapx4dpersonalguitareffectsprocessor-p-698.html which has effects, drum and bass backing patterns and headphone output. Had one of the earlier models for years and use it more often than the other effects and amp.

Zoom have something similar with recording built in - looks pretty funky, but around £180...

Doonhamer

Thanks, he has a Behringer FX100 pedal, but he really want a pedal board. I think it's partly the fun and challenge of building one, and he just wants one cos they look neat. So if I do go for 4 or 5 pedals what ones? Distortion, chorus, flanger, compression, delay like Pumpa says?

Stompa

Or even something like one of the Line 6 POD models:

http://line6.com/products/pod/

Doonhamer

Here is where i got the Fx100. But there are so many! I need to know what order to put them in too.

random456

those are kind of your bread and butter pedals if you like, yeah, your basic major effects.

Doonhamer

But what order do they go in?

ManAtHome

I used to put the compression first, delay/reverb last then others in any order.

Would recommend you make them reasonably easy to move around though - he's almost certainly going to want to shift them around... (Dad! you got 'em the wrong way round!) Will see if I can dig out the Zoom (all-in-one) manual, might mention what order they use.

Avoriaz

One way of building a pedal board is to use foam and make cutouts into which you can secure the pedals.

If all the pedals are approximately the same size, you can swap them round into any order in a few seconds.

Alternatively use Velcro. Put a few strips of Velcro on the base of each pedal and a big sheet of the opposite Velcro on the board.

Ideally a pedal board has a built in mains power supply so you don’t have to keep buying batteries. Most pedals are designed to run on 9 Volts with negative centre but it can vary. You need a small transformer capable of supplying at least four or five pedals at the same. Each pedal probably uses about 200 milliamps so get a transformer of about 1,000 milli amps. (one amp) . Check the precise requirements of each pedal. Use a “daisy chain” output cable. This has multiple connectors, one for each pedal.

Ebay is full of bargain guitar pedals. You can sometimes pick up good pedals for £5.

Behringer are OK but they are plasticky and very flimsy and won’t last long if he starts gigging. They are fine for home use. Metal pedals are far more durable.

Boss, Marshall, Digitech, Danelectro, Ibanez are all good makes.