New Pedal Board + Two Pedal Builds (rambly with too many pics)

[storyboardist]

For years now, I've primarily been a bass player, as far as actually playing out goes (mostly at church). But that's changing up and I'll be playing lead guitar primarily going forward. Been wanting to build a new, small pedal board for a while, so perfect time to get on it. The main parameter was it had to all fit in this old Soviet ammo crate:



It makes for a footprint of about 14" x 12," which is a good size for a small rig, but the kicker is the height. It's just under 5", so mounting anything under the board was gonna be tight. I put the hinges and latch on the box and lined the inside with some cheap felt.

I don't have any pics for the actual woodworking part of this sadly, but the frame is made out of some clear 1" poplar. I used rabbet joints and gave it a nice slope (can't remember the angle I cut). I decided I was going to try running an MXR Mini Iso-Brick under the board, as it's basically a 1590A size. Then decided if I was going to put that under there, I could run in/out jacks on the side. Power too. Here's the finished board:





The top is just 3/8" MDF painted matte black. The poplar sides I finished by shou sugi ban (which you essentially just burn the heck out of it with a propane torch, then use a wire brush to scrape off the charred wood. It burns the growth wood and the grain stands out more) and a couple coats of poly.

Time for power. Ended up recessing a small area on the bottom of the MDF to give the power supply a bit more room. Ended up having to use a different 18v power supply for the Iso-Brick, as the one that came with it was a massive wall wart and wasn't gonna work. Grabbed a small brick off Amazon and cut the cord and wired it directly to the power jack on the back side of the pedal board. Wired up the in/out jacks and made a few custom patch cables too.





Wanted a volume pedal but didn't want one to take up 1/3rd of the board. I picked up DOD mini volume pedal when the Harman was discontinuing DOD and blowing out stock. Wanted a tuner out jack, so I tacked one off the input jack. Lots of gears to clear, but it turned out ok.







Wanted a preamp at the end of my chain that could both go the the amp and PA, so I whipped up this pre/DI box based on the Roland JC-120 clean channel and combine it with an active DI.





Yes, I know, I need longer screws for the XLR jack.  Box is just a white powdercoated 125B from Tayda with graphics printed out on medium weight paper and Mod Podged to the enclosure with about 3-4 layers. Then hit it with about 5-6 coats of matte clear and then flat sanded to remove brush strokes from the Mod Podge. One more coat of clear and it was super smooth. It was kinda humid the day I shot all the clear, so I think that's why there's some weird speckling by the footswitch. Oh well, lesson (probably not) learned.

Next up, I decided I needed a chorus after I'd built a CE-2 clone for a friend. Got lucky off Ebay getting the MN3207 and MN3102 (seller: activeparts if you're needing some). They were a little pricier than what the Coolaudio ones used to go for, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. They appear to be NOS Panasonics? IDK Finished the enclosure similarly to the Paladin, but got lucky and didn't have overly noticeable brush strokes, so I skipped the sanding step.





With that all done, time to put everything together. That was a bit of a struggle as I had to wrestle with the solderless patch cables I'd gotten (never doing solderless again), and needed to adjust the throw of the treadle on the volume pedal. Just speed bumps really. All came together before I actually needed to use it last Sunday and I'm really happy with it.











Signal chain goes in to the DOD Volume (split to the Rockstock Nano Tuner) > Thunderwave drive (modified Greer Lightspeed circuit) > DRV clone > DOD Rubberneck analog delay > Walrus Audio ARP-87 digital multi-function delay > Second Sea chorus (CE-2 clone) > Native Audio Ghost Ridge reverb (which is fan-freaking-tastic btw) > Paladin Pre/DI > amp/PA

[Bio77]

That's awesome! There's a lot to digest here   

I was wondering, is the PCB for the CE-2 4-layers?  I just started making layouts and I can't get my head around getting everything lined up like that.  It looks great.

[gordo]

Just ordered one of the Paladin boards because...well it's a JC-120...

Nice job on the pedalboard!!

[jubal81]

Holy smokes, what a feat. Looks great!

[jimilee]

Daaaaaammmn, so I just whipped one up, oh, I just added a thing here and a that to there. Why didn't you whip up some screws? You have so much talent, I'm envious. That project came out well.


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[cooder]

That's quite some excellent ammunition in that crate! Bang for bucks I'd say. Well done!

[G.G.]

that is slick. I saw this thread over on Insta but it's much easier to look at over here. Would be cool to get a little audio demo vid of your setup 

[storyboardist]

Thanks guys!

I was wondering, is the PCB for the CE-2 4-layers?  I just started making layouts and I can't get my head around getting everything lined up like that.  It looks great.

Thanks! It's a 2 layer board. My Eagle library has slightly smaller pads than the ones in Brian's, so it's a bit easier to route traces between components when using 0.01" thick traces.

Just ordered one of the Paladin boards because...well it's a JC-120...

Nice job on the pedalboard!!

Thanks Gordo. Hope you dig the Paladin.

Daaaaaammmn, so I just whipped one up, oh, I just added a thing here and a that to there. Why didn't you whip up some screws? You have so much talent, I'm envious. That project came out well.

Hahaha I said I'd been wanting to build it for a while and had some stuff ready. My screw foundry isn't up and running yet tho, so the screws were from the bone pile and/or Lowes. lol

That's quite some excellent ammunition in that crate! Bang for bucks I'd say. Well done!

Excellent puns. I approve.

that is slick. I saw this thread over on Insta but it's much easier to look at over here. Would be cool to get a little audio demo vid of your setup 

I suppose I could dig up my SM57... pan the amp to the left and Paladin to the right... hmmm...

[diablochris6]

That's a nice and tight board! Those are some great pedals for a grab and go gig, especially with that Paladin pedal at the end. It really saves wear and tear on the back.

I'm trying (really, I am!) to clean up some of my PCB stash, but that JC120 board is awfully intriguing...

[jjjimi84]

Dang man this looks great! You have been pumping out killer boards lately, my wallet hates you, but I love you.

[Willybomb]

A JC120 pedal is something I've been kicking around for a while.  Tagboard have a vero layout... but your board looks great.  I might have to start building again...

[gordo]

The Paladin is cool.  I have to trouble shoot the bass control as it seems to do nothing till the end of the rotation and then it cuts bass, but it's either a bad pot or a dumb mistake.  This thing has a stupid amount of output on tap.  Silly good front end for a power amp or FOH though.

[storyboardist]

A JC120 pedal is something I've been kicking around for a while.  Tagboard have a vero layout... but your board looks great.  I might have to start building again...

The Paladin is cool.  I have to trouble shoot the bass control as it seems to do nothing till the end of the rotation and then it cuts bass, but it's either a bad pot or a dumb mistake.  This thing has a stupid amount of output on tap.  Silly good front end for a power amp or FOH though.

Yeah it's stupid loud. I haven't gotten the volume pot past about 10:30. lol Sounds like a bad pot?

Dang man this looks great! You have been pumping out killer boards lately, my wallet hates you, but I love you.

Thanks man!

[Willybomb]

Hey.... does the Paladin have any cab sim built?

[storyboardist]

Hey.... does the Paladin have any cab sim built?

Sadly no, didn't have room without stacking boards or moving to a bigger enclosure.