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Board out my Head


steve mac

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Fed up with trailing wires and the time taken to set up and tear down, I decided to get a pedal board, however the small ones are too small and the large ones are...well too bog, plus I couldn't believe the cost. So I trawled the web and found homemade ones. Now I am no DIYer in fact just about useless but I thought I would give it a go. As the majority of the ones shown where based around a shelving unit from Ikea called "Gorm" so off to Ikea I went. Unfortunately Ikea don't stock that particular item anymore but I did spot a set of pine slats for a single bed for hardly any money at all. Now a day of obtaining blisters and using many expletives. Here it is. The pedals are held on with Velcro and there is a power strip underneath. Needs a spot of paint but so far so good. makes my music room a lot tidier and takes a fraction of the time to move to venues.

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I am facing a similar situation [for my solo rig...with the addition of the 2 units for the BeatBuddy added to the RC30 and the VL4, there are a lot of stomp pads down there!], and I have an advantage that I am fairly handy. I want mine to anchor into the cutout of my mic stand, and be on an arc, so I can just pivot my foot, plus I want all the pedal pads either at the same height, or gradually stepped so I can tell where I am [not sure on this aspect yet]. I will likely hinge it in the center for portability.

I also have not decided which unit goes where, but I know I don't want to have to 'step over' the way yours is set up, Steve, not that there is anything wrong, just not the way I envision mine. I'm curious if you specifically placed units based on how often they were used, or size, etc?

 

Up to now, with just the RC30 and VL4 I was barely able to keep it together [looping and harmonizing on/off simultaneously is just mind boggling, and I am eliminating much of it from my performance...just not worth the risk!], but the BB presents a whole new set of demands, and all of these units are 'timing critical'...audiences have no idea how much time we put in trying to make these performances look seamlessly simple...

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Daddymack, the design I used was based mainly on to things, firstly my limited skill set (to say nothing of the fact I had literally no tolls and had to buy a saw and screwdriver!) secondly I needed it to fit in my stage bag so the dimensions were fixed. The bottom two pedals are the VLP which I use for vocal effects, harmonies and looping and the Zoom G3X for electric guitar effects and also looping (yes I am that dumb that I use two loopers simultaneously sometimes) so they are ideally placed. On the top is an acoustic effect pedal which is there to add a bit of resonance and take the "quack" out of the Peizzo, so that is left permanently on and therefore I don't have to touch it. The other top one is the Airturn which I have to change songs and start BTs on the iPad. As this is bluetooth and battery powered, I am going to see how easy it is to reach live, bearing in mind I don't need to touch it during a song so not under any pressure like the front two. If that is too awkward I will leave it on the board for storage but will simply take it off and put it at the side. On my left I have my Beatroot stompbox which was too big to fit the new pedal board. I currently have it set up at home and am finding it a steep learning curve all this tap dancing. I like the idea of yours of fitting it around the Mike stand, just not sure what sort of case you will carry it in.

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And I was thinking your Zoom G3X would eliminate the need for other pedals. That's what I liked about those acoustic gigs I use to do. One speaker, one reverb unit, quick setup. Close to what I use at the nursing home gigs. I just add a laptop with BT and lyrics. The easiest setup I ever had was acoustic guitar & music stand. No amplification!

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I have a lot of respect for keeping it simple Bob, but I am trying to get as big a sound with the most flexibility from my guitar to make up for my lack of talent. I have two cables from my guitar, one from the peizzo which goes into the acoustic side and feeds the TC Helicon with the key for harmonies and the other cable from the mags into the GX3. I have leveled both which means I can control both sides from the guitar ie all acoustic, all electric or a mix of both. Both sides have loopers so I can lay down a simple acoustic chord progression and noodle over it with the electric side. Only set it all up a couple of days ago so still ironing out the kinks, but as someone else mentioned on a post here recently it has gave me a renewed enthusiasm and I am revisiting some songs I have shelved to see if I can now give them a new approach.

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I have to blame you guys for complicating my solo performances!:angry19:

When I started out, I was a happy go lucky troubadour, just playing guitar and singing... but noooo, you all with your fancy backing tracks and vocal harmonizers made me jealous, and then the whole looping thing...and now drums and...as Fagin sings in 'Oliver', "...I think I'd better think it out again! "

:bangheadonwall:

 

 

A case for the pedal board? Umm, yeah, well, I'll probably have to build that too [not too big a stretch, I used to work in the custom case biz]...now, see what you guys are doing to me?!?!?:facepalm:

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  • 1 month later...
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So this is the completed prototype, I am going to gig it for a couple of months and then go to a proper joiner to make a proper on for me, as Clint says " a man should know his limitations" the pedals, if anyone is interested, are, from top left clockwise, an acoustic modeller (this receives the piezzo guitar lead) a mini 5 channel mixer, an Airturn to turn the pages on my ipad ( this only lives here whilst in transit at a show its removed ((its on velcro))) a Voicelive Play GTX, which receives the signal from the modeller and the microphone and adds harmonies etc. a Zoom GT3x which recieves the signal from the mag pickups and finally in front is the Beatroot stompbox which goes into the mini mixer. The blue lead out is all that goes to the venue speaker or mixer and the only other thing I have to plug in is the electrical out. Its certainly not pretty, although I hope the next one will be, but cuts my set up time tremendously, I can control the volumes easily and its more difficult to forget anything.

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  • 3 months later...
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so, after all the thinking was done...I went from trying to deal with this:

 

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to dealing with this:

 

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admittedly the H1 does not hold a candle to the Vocalist, and the Ditto doesn't do anywhere near all the stuff the RC30 does...but guess what?

 

I don't think I need a board any more, and this setup is so simple to operate, I don't look down hardly at all! Everything more or less fits in the same footprint as the VL4, and I only pack one carry case for all 3 units, power supplies and short cables included!

 

So, the RC30 is for sale, as is the VL4, [both complete, box, manuals, including the power supply]...make an offer or they go on Reverb.com next month...

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I am all for simplifying and hope to buy the TC Helicon Voicelive 3 when the price comes down a bit, which should mean it will be the only pedal I need as it is vocal effects, electric guitar effects, looper and acoustic modler all in one.

 

I did go to Ikea to buy a Gorm shelving unit but they said they where no longer selling them, so I bought the slats off a single bed and used them.

 

 

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