So I decided I learned quite a bit from making my first pedalboard, just in terms of layout and planning.  I also learned quite a bit after looking at the forums of Hamony Central about what people do to keep a nice, clean looking board.

I built this board with my final pedal structure in mind, not my current pedal structure.  So Eventually the ME-50B will be gone, and the Vox will move, and as a result some of the holes through the board don’t fit perfectly to keep the wires perfectly clean, but it’s good enough for now.

Here’s the wood that forms the basis of the board.  15 1/2 x 36 x 3/4 of Pine from Lowes.  Cost about $14.  I also got a piece of 1×4 from Home Depot cut to 36″ to form the rear riser.  You can see I’ve drilled the holes where the wires will go through.

While I was waiting for the drill to recharge I cut the carpeting that forms the loop part of the velcro.  It will completely cover it.  I got way more than I needed at Auto Zone for $10.

I drilled my pilot holes, and used wood glue and some long wood screws to mount a board on the rear to angle the panel.  It’s about 1/2″ – 1″ taller than I want, but I wasn’t going to try to cut that piece lengthwise.

After using spray adheseive to attach the carpet I started lining the edge with a canvas like fabric I got at Wal*Mart for about $2.  It’s there to protect the edge of the board and carpet, and keep it looking nice.  I had to buy the staple gun…  You can also see the corner braces installed on the underside to support the angled piece.

Here is how I managed to keep the board from slipping when I stomp on it.  Shelf liner along the edge of the rear board and little rubber feet on the front.  The rubber feet are originally from those little office baskets for laying paper in.  Six total, slightly trimmed with a utility knife and then screwed in.

Here’s the top of the finished board.  You can see a lot of staples in the top.  I found that the spray adhesive I got wasn’t holding very well, so even now I’m throwing staples in as I see it separate from the wood as I move pedals around.

Clicks to high resolution

Here’s the final board layout.  The silver box near the mixer is a bypass looper from General Guitar Gear that I built today.  The only thing in the loop is the mixer.  So basically it’s a way to switch the mixer in and out of my sound – since the mixer adds hiss and noise I don’t want it connected when I’m not using the mics.  If I do have mics and turn the volume of my pickup sound all the way down on the board I can use this switch to swap between the pickup only sound and the microphone only sound!  Pretty neat.

This is the underside of the board.  Power strip and wall warts and wires all get routed through here.

Obviously the board is far too big for what I really need right now, but the idea is that now I won’t have to build a new one as I get more pedals.  I have lots of room for growth, especially for big pedals I plan on getting, like the EHX Hog.

I did save on space by doing a mod on my RC-2 as suggested by Super Velcroboy.  The mini SPST-NC switches from Radio Shack work perfectly for this and they’re cheap.  I only installed one for the stop/tap tempo use, as I don’t use the saved phrases enough to warrant drilling more holes.  Here’s a detailed picture, clicks to high resolution:

I’ll be putting it all in a keyboard case by Road Runner.  The case dimensions are 44×17, so it should fit just fine (I hope).  As long as the 17 is wide enough I will have space for all my cables, mics, preamp, recorder and eventually the Hog expression pedal.