The pedalboard bug bites once again - UPDATE

[MLBob]

As if I needed anther project in the shop, I decided that I'd do another iteration of my acoustic pedalboard. I have a small "grab & go" board that I take to open mics , but this will be larger. Decided I'd really get fancy, with flush mounted jacks, etc. I cut and assembled all the pieces for the frame of the board out of a cherry plank. Will start drilling and routing all the frame inlets for the jacks next. Footprint is 17.5" X 12.5" -- 4.5" at rear tapering down to 2.5", so still fairly compact.

So far, this one will have an IEC inlet, a power switch toggle & jewel light mounted on the top, a TRS guitar plug in (all my guilds have dual-source K&K systems), XLR mic ins & outs from my harmony pedal, an XLR out from the pre amp for FOH, and an auxiliary 1/4" out from the pre amp. The top plate will hold the pre-amp, tuner , harmony pedal (TC Harmony Singer) , & 3 effect pedals. I know approximately where everything will fit, but waiting on delivery of the pre amp before I determine exactly where the slots for all the cable feeds in the top plate will need to go.

Going to work everything off a Radial dual-channel PZ pre-amp (PZ Pro), and therein lies the delay: I ordered it back on July 6th, but they're telling me it probably won't deliver 'til early September (and, most likely that's a "best-guess"). Seems like the shortages of everything are beginning to hit the audio components that manufacturers need to complete product. Anyway, my effects loop will be comprised of the LR Baggs Align Sesssion, Reverb, & Delay pedals with the Session pedal probably being on all the time. I was able to pick up all 3 Baggs pedals used at a great price. Will run the Harmony pedal right after the tuner, using the signal from the continous tuner out on the pre amp to trigger the algorithm. That way I can keep the harmony pedal completely out of the rest of the instrument/effect signal chain and insure it doesn't alter that sound in any way once it's dialed in.

Meanwhile, I can take my time thinking everything through and "measuring twice."

 

[ruedi]

Cool project! That cherry wood looks really nice. I whish I had the skills to do such things. Hope the missing parts will find their way soon keep us updated

 

[gibsonjunkie]

That looks magnificent! I just took a 24" shelf and stuck velcro on it...

 

[crank]

That looks magnificent! I just took a 24" shelf and stuck velcro on it...

Hey @gibsonjunkie, I have that same TC Helicon vocal efx and harmonizer pedal. I really like it, but the harmony setting keep on changing randomly to the point where I have to check it for pretty much every tune. Any similar issues with yours? Mostly I
have been using it without the harmony and just as a vocal processor and a guitar pre-amp.

 

[gibsonjunkie]

Never had that issue, but I like it mostly for the doubling effect. That actually adds a lot of presence to my voice.

 

[MLBob]

Update on my pedalboard build.
One upside to waiting on delivery of the pre-amp is that it's given me plenty of time to plan & think things through and not rush ahead.

Think I have figured out all the input / output jacks I want built into the board, and I spent the past few days locating all the positions and routing the holes for each of them.

-Will have the IEC power input jack and a 1/4" TS socket on one side (player's left).
-1/4" TRS input socket on the other (right) for the dual source signal from my passive acoustic pickups ( K&K ).

Front end of the board will have:
- an XLR port for sending guitar signal to mixer ( post, or pre EQ from the Radial PZ pre-amp which will feed it).
- two more XLR ports on the other edge of the front end ( M / F) will be mic in & out XLR's that run to and from the Harmony singer pedal. The guitar signal to the harmony pedal will come from the constant signal from the 1/4" tuner-jack on the Radial pre-amp; and therefore be completely isolated from the guitar/effects signal chain, while still providing the guitar signal needed to trigger the algorithm that works the pedal (....doing it this way as I don't believe for a minute that the "true bypass" claim on this pedal results in the guitar signal not being affected by passing through it).

Putting a finish on the frame will be next.

 

[gibsonjunkie]

By the way, the T-Rex fuel tank has all the different voltage outputs to run all these pedals, including the Acoustimax.

 

[MLBob]

Finish applied to frame. Because of cherry's tendency to darken naturally, I decided to go with a liquid, penetrating polish called Milsek's as my finish.
A fellow carver who specializes in antiquing recommended it to me some years back, and I had half a bottle left on the shelf in my shop.
This is what it looks like after I rubbed in a base coating, followed by light sanding with #0000 steel wool when it had dried. A second coat of the polish was rubbed on after that. Result is just what I wanted, as it really popped the figure in the wood!

 

[MLBob]

Jacks w/ wiring all fitted into the frame. Now everything has to sit and wait on delivery of the pre-amp box before I cut all the slots and wire-feed holes for the pedals, switches, & jewel lamp, into the top plate. I want to be sure to locate all the feeds in the optimal positions.

 

[MLBob]

Finally get to do an update on my peadalboard project.
Initially my Sweetwater rep. was telling me that Radial had pushed back delivery dates on the PZ Pro dual channel acoustic pre-amp I had on order (July 6th) 'til NOVEMBER
Then on Monday I got a text from him saying the unit came in and would be on the FedEx truck by Tuesday. Sure enough, it was delivered to me on Wednesday at mid-day.


Finally, I would get back to sitting down with all my assembled pedals, gadgets. & wiring and put everything together. Now that I had everything I needed, I could tweak accurate & exact measurements.
The first order of business yesterday morning was to lay out & cutt all the inserts & holes into the top that I planned to route my wires through. I then painted the top and let it dry for 24 hours.



Today (Friday), around noon, I started to attach the pre-amp & effects pedals and run all the wiring.



It took me about 6 hours to get everything done, but everything went pretty much as planned. The wait on my order actually worked in my favor, as it gave me plenty of time to think things through without rushing.



it was a very good feeling to throw the switch and see everything light up ! At least all my electrical connections seem to be correct.



Too tuckered out to do anything more today. I'm going to wait 'til tomorrow to hook up a guitar & run everything to powered speakers or amp. Then I can start to experiment with all the possibilities and begin to dial everything in.

 

[GAD]

Very nice!

Question: I'd be crazy worried about that flip-top on the tuner snapping off. Why did you choose that solution?

 

[MLBob]

Very nice!

Question: I'd be crazy worried about that flip-top on the tuner snapping off. Why did you choose that solution?

Gary,
I've had that Peterson tuner for well over a decade now, and the flip -top hasn't posed any issues yet. I just put it up & down as needed. That Peterson strobe is an older model, but has always been a really solid, dependable tuner for me, so I couldn't see not using it on this latest board ( "If it ain't broke..."). As I said in an earlier post, I run the designated "tuner out" ( which is always live) from the PZ directly into it, then send the signal from the pass-through out jack on the Peterson tuner on to that TC Harmony pedal which then feeds an XLR right to the amp or board without touching the guitar signal. That way, the harmony pedal doesn't affect the guitar signal at all , since it's coming out of a separate, post-EQ, XLR circuit on the PZ , once it's been dialed in.

One thing I've also noticed is that two high-quality luthiers / builders that have done work for me have this same older model Peterson strobe unit right there on their work benches.

 

[Guildedagain]

I've been needing to do this for years, if anything, just to keep the dust off while not playing.

 

[MLBob]

Last week, I did some tweaking and brought the board over to a good friend's recording studio where we EQ-ed everything. Decided that the LR Baggs "Session" pedal (compression) was sucking the tone out of the sound, so I removed it and replaced it with the little compact SP box. at the friend's recommendation. Guitars now sound great plugged in ( K&K dual systems)!
Did a set at a Fall harvest festival this past Saturday, and it was a pleasure to hand the guy running sound the post-EQ, XLR leads out of the board, and tell him to just plug them into the board with everything set flat. Only thing he needed to adjust was volume. Worked like a charm, and I had lots of good comments on how good everything sounded.