My First Homemade Pedalboard | Hacker News Reader

My First Homemade Pedalboard

0ut3r.space

31 pointsh0ek20 comments

If the author is reading--definitely use wood glue for the next one, not just nails. I know waiting for glue to dry sucks (that's why I do metalworking as a hobby) but it adds incredible amounts of strength. For something like a pedal board, glue is a necessity. Stomping on it will gradually loosen the nails. Plus, glue holds across the whole joint, not just at the 3-6 locations that have nails. For a proper glued joint, the wood itself will fail before the glue will

Not a bad looking project for a first-timer with limited tools though, the end result looks great. Fine woodworking is hard, but the end result is worth it, just like anything else that is difficult. And I can definitely agree that having some other hobby besides CS/IT is a good thing to keep sane.

Edit: to provide some background , the reason I know a fair bit about wood construction is from building experimental aircraft with wood wings. Still hated the woodworking aspect, but the plane flies and I'm confident it's solid.

As a former senior structural engineer turned software developer, I just wanted to comment regarding the glue +/vs nails. Although glue adds rigidity to the whole board, glue does not add strength, meaning their strength is not additive. The glue needs to fail in order for the nails to provide their function. In tension, the glue prevents two pieces from separating, and the nail just sits there not being engaged. In shear, the glue prevents two pieces of wood from sliding past each other and therefore prevent the nail from being engaged.

The nails are used with wood glue to keep the pieces together while the glue sets and then left in because it would damage the piece to try to remove them.

Wouldn't screws be a much better option than nails as well?

I was looking for small screws and I didn't find as small as small carpentry nails. In addition, this plywood is very delicate and I am afraid that the screws could damage or delaminate it.

Thank you all for good advice and kind words :)

Always nice to see music oriented projects on here. I highly recommend checking out VCVrack for broadly exploring possible tones. I was just playing with a "wah" effect patch i made controlled with game driving pedals.

Holy moly looks like a lot of knobs and buttons!

Great looking board - for your use case (playing at home/practicing) it should be great. That is a nice basic set of pedals too!

But a tip as you get started on your guitar gear journey:

1. DO NOT go on the gear board - it will just get you to spend money on stuff you really don't need. I would avoid it until you are at whatever proficiency level you have set for your self.

2. Seriously consider a multi-fx as a way to try many types of effects - so you get an idea of what they do, and how they might interact with each other.

3. And the most important advise - tone is in the hands! 99% of the time, that new flavor of the month distortion/overdrive won't make you a better player, it will just drain your wallet.

After spending thousands on pedals and pedalboards (boards, cables, power supplies, etc.) I sold all of my pedals and basically use a Helix Effects, a boss TU-3 Tuner and a OneSpot CS6 power supply on a Pedaltrain Metro 16. Does everything I need. And will do everything I ever need to in the future or am capable of doing. Total cost of complete setup? $875. Sounds like a lot, but I spent more than $5,000+ over the years on pedals, boards, cables,power supplies. Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) is a real problem for guitar players - so beware.

Welcome to the life long tone chase!

Mulit FX was always something too expensive for me. When I was young I had second hand Korg A5 Multi Effects Pedal and it was nice. I will definitely buy what you recommended when I decide to expand the range of effects. Thanks!

Looks great man. Once you have your main board set (like you do), don't forget to think outside the board you've built to add things like a wah and volume pedal. For me these have both been staples of my rig that sit outside the "effects" part and can be be added/subtracted as necessary.

Wah was always something I would like to give it a try, but first I have to work on technique :)

I've started building my own pedals from scratch. I gotta say the sanding, painting and decal is one of the relaxing things I've done in ages.

True story. People have already forgotten how pleasant it is to create various things. Even when it requires physical work.

Nice work!

I gave in to the digital world, trying out a Scarlett Solo (audio interface) with Neural DSP plugins at the moment.

Thank you. Once I learn to play and try to record something, I am thinking of buying Scarlett 2i2 to build mini studio. (I still have to persuade my wife to sing) LOL.

I used to have a Scarlett interface and found the software buggy and without much UX thinking having gone into it. Gen 3 might be shipped with better software better but in the end I switched to Behringer UMC404HD (four channels for less than the price of two) and really haven't looked back! Plug and play as well, with physical knobs only, so no confusing software to configure.

That sounds interesting. Do you use any microphone with this interface? Like BEHRINGER C-3 for example. Do you recommend something?

Looks great! I also built my pedalboard(s) from scratch like this and they've held up really well.

Nice!

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