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HOW TO BUILD an ANGLED PEDALBOARD: MATERIALS, BUILD STEPS & INSTRUCTIONS

Posted bySpencer

How to build angled pedalboard is as straight up, meat and potatoes tutorial as your gonna find, lets rock this thing! Here are the ingredients and order of assembly in one simple page!

This article pertains to angled hardwood pedalboards and plywood covered in tolex or tweed.

  1. SIZING: Step 1 is ALWAYS: determine your size; the type and/or style of pedalboard doesn’t matter. Lay all your pedals out accounting for power & patch cables. Also remember, your an addict and its 99% likely that you’ll be adding more stuff to this board so plan ahead and you may as well make it future proof with an extra 8-12″ of width ;-D
  2. WOOD CHOICE: Decide what wood to use and then choose your joinery type. Now, if you get some nice wood, make sure you do it justice by being fully capable of making proper joints, cuts and routes. Nothing like botching up a 60$ piece of hardwood and wasting a bunch of time to make firewood. If your scared now, its ok, I got you… We sell complete Hardwood Board Kits that are EXCELLENT for the person that loves a killer DIY project, but doesn’t want to fool with setting up a dovetail jig and messing around with a joiner & thickness planer. We sell specific wood specie and pre-determined sized kits, but also offer custom kits, just have to call or email Spence!
  3. TOP DECK: Next, your gonna need a piece of wood for the Top Deck. We use 3/8″ void-less ply (Baltic/Russian/Latvian Birch ply) on smaller boards, and .5″ on larger boards with a wider span. Id say 34″ and wider, go with 1/2″ thickness. Try a local cabinet shop for some scraps, Home Cheapo type stores usually carry crap plywood, so don’t get anything there. Go to an actual cabinet supply shop or a cabinet shop. We use Super Loop as the covering for that, it works awesome and is compatible with all types of velcro found on the backs of pedals.
  4. POWER & AUDIO JACKS: Determine the type, quantity and locations of jack ports for AC power and Audio wiring. Audio and Power features are the most popular add-on components in our pedalboard business. The typical configuration is two 1/4″ audio harnesses and incoming power input to connect a pedal powering device.
    1. One (1) quarter inch for audio input(guitar into the board) and (1) for audio output (cable from side of board to the amp).
    2. Then a power harness that is built to feed your brand of power supply.
  5. POWER SUPPLY: Choose a power supply device or method to power your pedals. The most popular and recommended method is to use a quality isolated power supply that meets the voltage and amperage requirements of your pedals, specifically. There are many vendors but the 2 that stand above are Voodoo Lab and Strymon, we sell both so make sure you buy them from us since I’m getting you all this super valuable information…
  6. CASE: Are you going to need a case? Sheeesh…, another blog segment… Suffice to say, there are many options for that, we have 3 case versions that we offer; we can make them for all sizes and shapes and brands of pedalboard. We have a section of DIY parts dedicated to case building, and I promise a segment on case building coming very soon…

PARTS LIST:

BUILD STEPS:

  1. MILL WOOD & CUT PARTS FOR YOUR CHOSEN DIMENSIONS
  2. ASSEMBLE FRAME USING CLAMPS ASSURING A SQUARE FITMENT, ALLOW TO DRY MINIMUM 24HRS – WE LIKE TITEBOND II OR III
  3. CUT TOP DECK WITH 1/8″ SPACE ON TOP & SIDES TO ALLOW CARPET TO WRAP AROUND THE EDGES – VIDEO INSTALL GUIDE
  4. ROUTE CABLE ACCESS SLOTS, RACK HANDLE HOLES ALONG WITH POWER HARNESS LED & TOGGLE SWITCH IF APPLICABLE
  5. SAND ROUGH EDGES DOWN & SCUFF UP TOP DECK WOOD
  6. ROUTE ALL I/O ACCESS HOLES & COUNTERSINKS ON BOARD FRAME. FILL ANY CRACKS OR IMPERFECTIONS & ROUND OVER EDGES
  7. HARDWOOD, SOFT & EXOTIC WOOD = FINISH SAND TO 220G
  8. PLY BOARDS ROUND OVER EDGES & SCUFF USING 80 OR 60G
  9. ALL WOOD WORK PREP SHOULD BE FINISHED & WE ARE NOW PREPPING FOR FINISHING OIL FOR WOOD BOARDS OR APPLYING A FRAME COVERING ON PLYWOOD BOARDS & APPLYING THE SUPER LOOP CARPET ON THE DECK TOP
  10. INSTALL SUPER LOOP CARPET ON TOP DECK ALONG WITH RACK HANDLES & COMPLETE FINAL ASSEMBLY OF TOP DECK
  11. BOARD FRAME – HAND OIL, LET DRY, POLISH & REPEAT AS NECESSARY OR…
  12. WRAP FRAME COVERING WITH TOLEX, TWEED OR OTHER FRAME COVERING
  13. SOLDER & ASSEMBLE ALL POWER & AUDIO COMPONENTS UNLESS YOU PURCHASED THE PRE-ASSEMBLED HARNESSES
  14. INSTALL FEET TO ELEVATE BOARD & PREVENT SCRATCHING/SCUFFING
  15. INSTALL ALL POWER & AUDIO HARNESSES & LET SAFELY LAY
  16. INSTALL TOP DECK
  17. INSTALL POWER SUPPLY AND PEDALS
  18. AFTER TESTING FOR 100% SUCCESSFUL OPERATION, SECURE ALL CABLES WITH CABLE CLAMPS AND SCREWS

INSTRUCTIONS & VIDEOS

Spencer

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Talk to Spence!