Great info as always. My big & obvious message to anyone building their 1st rig = make sure, are all pedals, cables & connections Work-Perfectly, before committing to Dual-lock and cable management or permanent tie-down. I learned this - the hard way.
As a guitar tech, I've found that staggering the top row of pedals compared to the bottom row helps insure the artist is less likely to hit a switch on a bottom pedal when hitting the switch on a pedal on the top row. This isn't always possible to do with some pedals and pedal board dimensions, but it's a good rule to start with when building a new board.
I used 3m dual lock to cover the top of my PT Classic Pro and actually attached my cable tie down mounts to small squares of dual lock essentially creating a sandwich so that my cable management mounts are modular. I’m constantly changing my board around and found this to be a time saver if your support line changes due to different sized pedals. Always good advice here, thank you for the tips.
First off, love all the videos, super helpful. Just soldered up my new rig with Mogami 2319 and SP500 plugs based on previous videos and reocmmendations from this channel! Its awesome! Second, We draw far different conclusions on the ease of fixing issues and replacing cables... Zipties are quiet possibly the hardest method to fix/repair/replace anything. Anyone can pull a short cable from a bundle in 5 seconds. It's a little bit dishonest to say this makes anything faster. It's best to just say, It looks better, thats it, thats the only reason to do this with zipties and perfect cable lengths. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for all the great content, even when I disagree!
I have always wanted a clean custom-built pedalboard. The Rig Doctor has demonstrated that a custom board is achievable. Moreover, a custom pedalboard is also the least expensive, quickest, & sonically superior way to finally get exactly what I want. Years of buying/selling, swapping, & settling for products not designed for my board are over! My build is not (yet) complete, but I have really enjoyed this project & learning new skills along the way. Your videos have been ... instrumental ... in guiding me along this journey. Cheers!
I love the fact that you take the time to answer most every comment. Be they negative or positive. Oh and the content is great too. Thanks for what you do!
I tear up and rebuild my boards about once a month. They all look like hell. Kinda like the munched and crunched post-car-wreck Civic smoking down the freeway. I'm always blown away by your work Mason!
Very clean, neat, and professional looking. I just consolidated 3 pedal boards into one and it's a bit of a mess so I'll have grab some of these tip to see if I can clean it up a little. Thanks for sharing!
My board is a mess right now, I have made so many changes and swaps in the last year. Too much time with COVID, I found the channel looking for ways to just overhaul things and this looks like a great place to start. Keep up the content I have subscribed and looking forward to more great videos.
Awesome- I'm starting a flat board build soon and these are just the kinds of tips I need! I'm likely gonna have to jury-rig one or more risers for the second row of my board, and have power supplies & some audio routing underneath. We've seen examples of that in your builds, but I'm wondering if you'll do (or have done!) a dedicated video on that?
A dedicated video on adding a tier to a pedalboard? Check out Rhett Shull's rig build or what we did for Anthony Best or even Erick Walls...we added a tiered second row to a flat board.
Great vid man! You should make a "review your pedalboard" series. I would love to see some tricks and tips on the pedalboards of viewers as myself. Something like once a month or so would be a nice change :D
As always uncle mason awesome 😎 video I’ve learned a lot about pedalboard solder cables and more thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and your time 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿💯
Mason, finally got all my parts and supplies to build my Temple Audio Duo 24 board. I appreciate all the past help and suggestions, from solder to cables. My next question is: do you have a preference on whether to run your patch cables under or on top of the board? (My power supply will be mounted underneath and the power cables will run underneath as well). Thanks again.
The main issue I’m having regarding arranging my pedals is keeping them in order according to how they will function best and having specific pedals on the front row that want to keep accessible while keeping my “always on” pedals on the back row where they’re out of the way; unfortunately this seems to make for crazy cable routing. I’m trying to grasp using junction box interfaces which is new to me. Thanks for your videos. I’m hoping this makes finding solutions to these issues more understandable for me.
Hey Mason do you have a video explaining how to route patch cables underneath a pedal? I got some that are on the top row and since my powerbank is underneath the board I need to loop the patch cable around the board which looks untidy. Is it just a matter of gluing some material so that the pedals are elevated so the cables can fit underneath? I'm aiming for a no cable look.
beautifully done. My best practice for pedal board management is i just don't have one (crying internally). Would be cool if you ever get an acoustic board to show some DI options and routing.
So glad you dig it! Tech Flex and big pieces of heatshrink is usually the move. I got for a decently flexible spiral shielded cable like the Mogami 2524 typically.
Second time watching this. I built a 20u rack on sunday and got two pull out shelves to rack my pedals so i can connect them to a voodoo lab gcx switcher. I want to make it look super clean like yours but its a little overwhelming. I need a lot more cable to give the racks enough clearance when extended outwards. I'll likely add a 2nd gcx so trying to plan for that as well.
Great tips Mason! I'm trying to clean up my rig the best I can but I have a pedal board that has to connect to different channels on a mixer where I have my mic. I play solo bouzouki and sing. Pedal board has a looper on it as well that goes into the mixer. I end up running about nine cables from the pedal board to the mixer so I can separate things for a better mix. Kind of a hassle to setup every time. If I put the mixer on the pedal board it becomes huge. I also thought of having a multipin snake that plugs into the pedal board and the mixer case. Sorry for the long post but wondered if you ever put together a rig with this situation. Could be a cool video! Thanks again!
Nice tutorial Mason. One question, do you ever have signal issues running the audio cables next to or on top of the DC cables? I’ve read and been told in the past not to run signal wires parallel and next to power line. Essentially make a separate run and to only cross perpendicularly.
As stated in the video, if it's DC it doesn't matter. If it's AC then you'll have an issue. People that are saying that either don't understand or mean AC lines, not DC.
Great video, thank you. Great board also. One question please. Why did't you run the cables under laminate board? Surely it would be even neater if all the cables were underneath? It is nice to see the class cabling though .... 🙂
Im pretty fiscally challenged so I always use all velcro boards and i put my tie down mounts on a long strip as well, it allows everything to be easily reversable in the event i end up needing to redesign.
If you use 3M dual lock for your board (looking at all the other players out there that are constantly swapping things around), you can use short thin strips (mine are rouglhly 1.5"x.25") to pin cables down anywhere they cross the dual lock. Way faster than zip ties, only slightly less secure. You can also tuck away excess cable length using this method - great if you aren't cutting everything to size or want to make a temporary swap using an off-the-shelf patch cable.
Generally if you create cable "channels" and leave room for a few different effect sizes, you can maintain clean lines and swap out pedals easily instead of having to compromise. Of course if you're changing order, placement, and orientation of the board you're probably not optimized for this sort of "neat" set up anyway - I'd just stick with a organization system you can live with whatever it may be.
@@VertexEffectsInc That's a good point. This is definitely a compromise that works for me because I only have to clean up my rig for a handful of gigs per year. (And when my roommates start complaining about the mess of cables in the corner of the living room...)
You are really awesome, Mason. You have a lot of useful info and wisdom, and it is very generous of you to share it. BTW I bought some of your patch cables from the Tone Doctor... they are game changing. So much better than anything I have ever used. There is a noticeable reduction in noise. Great job on the soldering (shout out to Adam in San Diego!). Thank you.
Hey, that’s Room for Relaxation in E. The jam track made by Mr. Peter Honore!!! I knew I recognized that backing track you were using! Great vid to man. Thanks!
Little Velcro strips, at least in the assembly stage, can be useful when bundling the cables, and predicting how the cables will look. Great tutorial, nonetheless. Also, not related to the topic, and updates on the Boost? The reason I ask is because Xotic came out with their volume pedals, and possibly other companies have released volume pedals recently.
This is why I use either a multifx or modeling SW like TH-U. No time, no mess and infinitely customizable in an instant. Have fun playing with your cables, I'm getting back to playing guitar 🎸 😂
Mason, Good Day! How do you prioritize your pedal locations on the pedal board? Is it signal path or geography on the board? IOWs- if fit was an issue, would you put a pedal farther out of the signal path (& use a longer cable to reach it) to fit on the board? OR set up the board in signal path order and deal with the fit problems?
I've always followed Kimmo Aroluoma method with the safety clips instead of zipties. Keep it all tight and clipped down so nothing can come unplugged even when my board gets thrown around, but easy to swap out and add pedals.
Can you recommend a cable tiedown/clip with built-in release like ones found at a hardware store, so we don't need to mess with clipping and reattaching a dozen zip ties to swap a cable or pedal?
There are some that I use from Amazon that are like a C shape. The ends of the C come together at an adjustable depth and you can pull up on a notch to open the cable holder back up again. Only issue is the sticky feet that leave gunk.
I don't have a tested solution since I wouldn't use these on a rig. The zip tie thing won't loose tention over time, i've found the clip ones are not particularly robust if you're detaching/reattaching them regularly.
Adam, search for “VTECHOLOGY Cable Zip Ties, 8 Inch Heavy Duty Releasable Cable Ties” on Amazon, that’s what I bought for my pedalboard (100-pack for $6). The head is a little bit on the bigger side, but it works for me :)
Great vid, Mason. In other builds you've spoken about not running power and audio side by side, rather crossing as infrequently as possible at right angles. Have I misinterpreted or do you not feel this is that significant anymore? Thx!
Nice one Mason. I know you route your cables on the board, cut them to length and then solder. What tips do you have to achieve the perfect lengths that you do. It’s pretty easy to trim a cable that’s either just a little short and a little tight looking or a little long so that it’s a bit untidy. Practice?
Thanks for watching. Usually I solder one end first so that's already done and in place, sort like when you use the pre-made cables that come with your power supply and put the molded end in the pedal and only re-terminate a new end on the power supply side. By terminating one end first you can be much more deliberate about spacing and cutting exact lengths. I also will disassemble the plug that is going into the input or output jack of a pedal so that I can literally feed in the cable exactly where it needs to be in the plug and cut it perfectly to length, so when I assemble it, it's exactly where I measured it to be.
can you do a similar video but with a switcher like the es-5? I think its so difficult to do it neatly if you have pedals with ports on the side and some on top. Love your video, love vertex products.
Haha. I would never think on my own to use nearly that many tie down mounts, but it does look nice. I hope you left some for the rest of us, though ;-).
The great home designer Christopher Lowell always referred to tape as "a ruler on a roll!" Uncle Mason, your advice is absolutely invaluable!! Makes me wish I was building a board for something, but I digress... What is your feeling about wiping surfaces with alcohol prior to affixing self-stick components? Do you feel it helps adhesion? I've found that applying a little heat helps when applying Velcro. Your thoughts?
Mason, there are a few pedals that require low voltage AC or even power line voltage AC. There could be a hum issue if these are not properly routed. In theory, as far away as possible from the audio lines. The shielding in the audio lines stop most of the noise.
Dee - he says at 1:47 - "...not enough to make a difference when talking about DC," a few seconds before that he says "It's not like AC". It's all there bro
Cool. So much better than duct tape and crazy glue!!! Didn’t even know those zip tie, tie down mounts existed. Actually I knew they existed just threw a bunch away since I didn’t know what I had. What a Ninney!😂
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I have a question about troubleshooting a rig. When I use a certain bass and run through my 19 pedal-board with 2 buffers and every pedal bypassed, I sometimes clip my amp pre. But when I plug straight into the amp with the same bass it never clips. The bass is passive, the buffers are TC Elec. Bonafide. Could the buffers be beefing my signal too much? The pickups are quite hot as is.
Aaron, it might be something else on the rig doing this. Have you tried, Bass - TC - Amp and seeing if you take them off the board to test if the buffer is doing this. A buffer is always unity gain by definition.
D*** Mason, that's one beautifully clean looking board! Do you recommend the 3/4" tie downs over the 1" for the power supply cables? Thanks in advance.
Thank you for the vid!!! It looked to me that when you routed the dc back to the supply from the farthest pedal, you zip tied it the entire way. So what do you do when you route for the next pedal and add another cable to the run? Do you clip the zips from the second pedal and then add then rezip the back to the supply? My biggest issue has been keeping things organized as I add pedals to a run.
You'd clip the zip tie where you were adding a cable, but in the video I didn't apply zip ties until a cable was added into the loom or row of cable leads. So tie down mounts go down first, then bring the cables as you got and zip tie them as you go, adding each additional cable to the wire loom.
Great posts Mason. Im building a pedalboard and it is difficult and confusing. Thanks so much for the advice man its priceless. I wish I could just send everything to you and have it all done to perfection !
You could apply this underneath the rails, if I use a Pedaltrain I do what I did with Kerry Marshall's rig (see it on our channel) or the John Mayer giveaway pedalboard rig we did with Sweetwater.
Have been waiting for something like this for ages. Thanks for putting it out there for us! Would be interested to see if there are any differences if you are routing your cables under the board (Pedaltrain/Rockboard/Temple Audio style) vs the flat boards like you've shown here? If you're using the power supply cables that came with your iso P/S, how do you deal with the extra length that may exist?
I don't recommend using pedalboard that wire underneath where the wires are exposed. These pedalboards aren't made by rig builders, so they lack an understanding of the realities of pro level touring acts and are really targeted toward hobbyists. You could take a similar approach on any of these types or rigs as we did here, however the ones that have holes everywhere become difficult because you don't have much surface area for cable tie down mounts for the adhesive to stick to so it can sometimes not work out well using smaller tie down mounts, and you're force to use at least 1" mounts to get enough "stick". For the cables for DC, see our DIY power cable video, it shows you how to do this and the materials you'll need. There are diagrams for every cable you can think of for DC.
I was going to ask the same...I used the standard cables from my power supply and ended up having to make a loop at the end and Zip-tied that...not nearly as elegant as making your own custom lengths...but then again, I'm using a PedalTrain with all the wiring underneath as well as the torroidal power supply. Mason got very mad at me for doing this! LOL
@@VertexEffectsInc jokes. I know you don’t like that setup but I got all that stuff years ago before I saw your vids. I haven’t gigged in a year now so not in a hurry to change anything up yet! ;)
Those were pretty small 1.25” mounts. 😝 I like to roll those zip ties so that the sharp edge is facing down against the board-once they are cut. But looks good. I much rather use a Pedaltrain type of board, where all the cabling and powers adapters are underneath! 🤘🏻😝🎸🇺🇸
Ok Mason, I have a question that I’ve not heard mentioned much, if at all. What do you recommend for cables to go from your pedalboard to your amps? Good pre-made 15-20’ guitar cables? (I use two/two amps) Or the same cable that you use between pedals? Great channel!
Ideally low capacitance and flexible. I like Mogami 2524, Belden 9778, and a few others, but if you've got a good buffer on the output it really doesn't matter too much compared to the input cable. The cables on the board should be smaller and flexible like the 2319 or 2314 and not as robust as the instrument cables.
I’m enjoying the videos. Both my sons are learning guitar and bass and they want pedals and all that stuff, but I never played much electric guitar and don’t really know much about pedals. I learning thanks to your videos.
You would ideally loop around your power cables and leave more slack, there are too many variables if this is what you'll ultimately be doing to really show a good solution.
We use the provided cables with the power supplies and shorten them to length. You don't need a "Mogami" or something like that for DC power, the properties of the cables and things like capacitance aren't a factor for the low current/voltage DC power.
i have a suggestion for future update to this one and that is to demonstrate what this would like with the pedaltrain format. i think most of us have that kind of pedalboard and would be interested to see if these suggestions take on a modified form. Thank you for your awesome content!!
The basic technique is the same but you'd do it under the rails of the pedalboard. I don't use these style boards because they're inferior and I don't recommend them typically to flat board for a professional context. I understand not everyone is a pro, but there are some drawbacks to this format that make it untenable for a lot of applications so I try not to work with materials where the deck is stacked against me.
@@VertexEffectsInc thanks for being direct about it! 🙏🏼 I see and understand now why it’s superior. I am shallow in the sense I like the image of being a “medium pedalboard guy” despite having Tetris’d a plethora of pedals on that board. I’d imagine if I went flat it would call for a large size board esp considering midi IO and PSUs
@@Keysounds0 if you're still on the PT boards, I think you just use the rails as your borders and wire up through to the pedals where needed is the best advice I can give.
You can put DC anywhere, doesn’t matter. AC however, you do want to be careful of and isolate it as much as possible and cross the audio in a perpendicular fashion if you need them to touch.
I am new to this, can you show us how you use the plastic square pieces? I am thinking of getting a small pedal board going for my 4 pedals, no idea. But you are very neat. Beginners tutorial needed.
Thanks for the video........great stuff. I converted my board to a wet/ dry based off of on of your recent video's. Is there a trick (or maybe a future video) to have a custom interface to quickly change from a wet/ dry (2 amp setup) to a single amp (all pedals in series) setup? I put a splitter under my board, but would rather have an interface box (a la your input/ output buffer box). There is no room on top for an A/B/Y.
You can use the trick that we showed with using the switched jacks to bring them all out of one amp like an effects loop amp would be, it's the same principal and application. We have a diagram for that in our 4CM diagram.
@@VertexEffectsInc Thanks Mason. I just looked at that video. I did not mention that my amp does not have an effects loop (Victoria 1-12 , Champ clone).
@@berteau doesn't matter, if you're doing wet/dry as I showed in our videos you'll need a line out box no matter what to get the line level output off your output transformer on the dry amplifier.
@@VertexEffectsInc Is there an advantage to a line out box out of a non-effects loop amp to a wet amp vs putting a splitter at the begging of my chain to carry the signal to my wet effects to amp #2? In your scenario with the line out box, the dry signal (distorted sound) gets carried over to the wet amp. (my pedals do not have a wet only mix-pot). This is how I am currently running my setup with a volume pedal between my wet effects and amp #2 to 'blend' end delay/ modulation with no 'distortion' effects with the splitter at the beginning of my chain. I am super curious to hear your answer, and really appreciate your views.
![Building A Pedalboard For Paul Davids [The Most Complex I've Ever Done?]](/img/n.gif)
Thanks to this videos I managed to solder and do cable management like a pro on my pedalboard, valuable stuff!
Amazing! Great job!
Great info as always. My big & obvious message to anyone building their 1st rig = make sure, are all pedals, cables & connections Work-Perfectly, before committing to Dual-lock and cable management or permanent tie-down. I learned this - the hard way.
Thanks for sharing that Michael! Thanks for watching!
Lol same
@@VertexEffectsInc Loving the Chairmen of the Board episodes. Can't get enough. Great information presented.
Videos like this make my OCD happy...
Mine too!!!!
I wish you were my OCD friend that would clean up my pedalboard for me🤣🤣
Hahahahha
You probably got Fulltone
FINALLY a vid dedicated to clean cables! Cable management is what separates the pros from the bros, thanks for the help!
👍👍👍
As a guitar tech, I've found that staggering the top row of pedals compared to the bottom row helps insure the artist is less likely to hit a switch on a bottom pedal when hitting the switch on a pedal on the top row. This isn't always possible to do with some pedals and pedal board dimensions, but it's a good rule to start with when building a new board.
I used 3m dual lock to cover the top of my PT Classic Pro and actually attached my cable tie down mounts to small squares of dual lock essentially creating a sandwich so that my cable management mounts are modular. I’m constantly changing my board around and found this to be a time saver if your support line changes due to different sized pedals. Always good advice here, thank you for the tips.
Thanks for watching!
First off, love all the videos, super helpful. Just soldered up my new rig with Mogami 2319 and SP500 plugs based on previous videos and reocmmendations from this channel! Its awesome! Second, We draw far different conclusions on the ease of fixing issues and replacing cables... Zipties are quiet possibly the hardest method to fix/repair/replace anything. Anyone can pull a short cable from a bundle in 5 seconds. It's a little bit dishonest to say this makes anything faster. It's best to just say, It looks better, thats it, thats the only reason to do this with zipties and perfect cable lengths. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for all the great content, even when I disagree!
I have always wanted a clean custom-built pedalboard. The Rig Doctor has demonstrated that a custom board is achievable. Moreover, a custom pedalboard is also the least expensive, quickest, & sonically superior way to finally get exactly what I want. Years of buying/selling, swapping, & settling for products not designed for my board are over! My build is not (yet) complete, but I have really enjoyed this project & learning new skills along the way. Your videos have been ... instrumental ... in guiding me along this journey. Cheers!
Thanks so much for watching!
thanks to you i made a good pedalboard myself DIY. A hug from italy
Amazing! Thanks for watching Luca!
I love the fact that you take the time to answer most every comment. Be they negative or positive. Oh and the content is great too. Thanks for what you do!
sure thing! Thanks for watching!
I tear up and rebuild my boards about once a month. They all look like hell. Kinda like the munched and crunched post-car-wreck Civic smoking down the freeway. I'm always blown away by your work Mason!
I’ve been one of those requesting this video. You’ve made an obsessive very happy. Thank you!
🙏🙏🙏
SO many great ideas, thank you! I'll be using many of these concepts on my next build.
Amazing! Thanks for watching!
I was literally hoping you would make a video about this last night! Thanks so much for sharing the knowledge 🤘
Our pleasure!
Very clean, neat, and professional looking. I just consolidated 3 pedal boards into one and it's a bit of a mess so I'll have grab some of these tip to see if I can clean it up a little. Thanks for sharing!
Our pleasure!
This is an amazing technique. I swap out a pedal now and then, so I like the 3M mounted cable secure tab that opens and closes.
Perfect! And we sell all this stuff on the Rig Doc website if you want what we use www.therigdr.com
My board is a mess right now, I have made so many changes and swaps in the last year. Too much time with COVID, I found the channel looking for ways to just overhaul things and this looks like a great place to start. Keep up the content I have subscribed and looking forward to more great videos.
Thanks Brad!!!!
Awesome- I'm starting a flat board build soon and these are just the kinds of tips I need!
I'm likely gonna have to jury-rig one or more risers for the second row of my board, and have power supplies & some audio routing underneath. We've seen examples of that in your builds, but I'm wondering if you'll do (or have done!) a dedicated video on that?
A dedicated video on adding a tier to a pedalboard? Check out Rhett Shull's rig build or what we did for Anthony Best or even Erick Walls...we added a tiered second row to a flat board.
Great vid man! You should make a "review your pedalboard" series. I would love to see some tricks and tips on the pedalboards of viewers as myself. Something like once a month or so would be a nice change :D
That would be fun! Good idea!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing this. Any chance to see this done on a slanted board with the the power supply mounted underneath?
Same technique, you'd actually already have rails set up for you to follow that are straight so the painter's tape might not matter.
So clean! Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
of course, our pleasure!
As always uncle mason awesome 😎 video I’ve learned a lot about pedalboard solder cables and more thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and your time 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿💯
Thanks for watching!
Thanks alot from Morocco for your advises to make my dream pedalboard .
Glad to hear that!
Mason, finally got all my parts and supplies to build my Temple Audio Duo 24 board. I appreciate all the past help and suggestions, from solder to cables. My next question is: do you have a preference on whether to run your patch cables under or on top of the board? (My power supply will be mounted underneath and the power cables will run underneath as well).
Thanks again.
For our style rigs we put them all on top so we can trouble shoot more easily. That's normally a best practice among rig builders.
@@VertexEffectsInc Thanks so much! That’s exactly what I was hoping for. Makes a lot of sense as well.
@@jojo9535 great!
this is any artist save style to look more pro. outstanding info. thanks.
Thank you ever so much for this great video! I've been looking for this for a really, reeeeaaally long time! Thank you!
Our pleasure! Hope you enjoyed it
Thanks Mason, this is very helpful to me as I'm going to rebuild my board very soon.
I'm so glad!!!
I appreciate your vocabulary. Excellent presentation! 👏🏻
Glad it was helpful!
This is great I’m building a board soon, I did my Volume Pedal Mod off of your vid and it’s Amazing u da man!!
I'm so glad! Hope you dig it!!!
Would love to see a video on mounting pedals in a rack shelf/drawer. Thanks.
Thanks for the idea!
The main issue I’m having regarding arranging my pedals is keeping them in order according to how they will function best and having specific pedals on the front row that want to keep accessible while keeping my “always on” pedals on the back row where they’re out of the way; unfortunately this seems to make for crazy cable routing.
I’m trying to grasp using junction box interfaces which is new to me. Thanks for your videos. I’m hoping this makes finding solutions to these issues more understandable for me.
Thanks for watching! Let us know if we can assist!
A loop switching pedal. There are cheap and expensive options.
This was an excellent video. Thank you Rig Doctor.
my pleasure!
Hey Mason do you have a video explaining how to route patch cables underneath a pedal?
I got some that are on the top row and since my powerbank is underneath the board I need to loop the patch cable around the board which looks untidy. Is it just a matter of gluing some material so that the pedals are elevated so the cables can fit underneath? I'm aiming for a no cable look.
Thank you for additional tips Mason and Vertex Team. Did these for making my board. :)
🙏🙏🙏
beautifully done. My best practice for pedal board management is i just don't have one (crying internally). Would be cool if you ever get an acoustic board to show some DI options and routing.
good idea! We need to do one of these!
Thanks Mason! Absolutely great advice and tips. Any insights on building pedalboard snakes?
So glad you dig it! Tech Flex and big pieces of heatshrink is usually the move. I got for a decently flexible spiral shielded cable like the Mogami 2524 typically.
@@VertexEffectsInc cool, that will work. How about shielding AC from signal? Is it a concern?
@@scottratell3705 I wouldn't put the AC in with the audio if I were doing it.
Awesome video! What extra tips would you give for under the board cable management?
Same tips can be used in terms of the clean lines. I generally don't do this for trouble shooting reasons and exposure of the cable.
@@VertexEffectsInc thanks a lot, I’m re-doing my pedalboard and all these tips really help.
Second time watching this. I built a 20u rack on sunday and got two pull out shelves to rack my pedals so i can connect them to a voodoo lab gcx switcher. I want to make it look super clean like yours but its a little overwhelming. I need a lot more cable to give the racks enough clearance when extended outwards. I'll likely add a 2nd gcx so trying to plan for that as well.
Great tips Mason! I'm trying to clean up my rig the best I can but I have a pedal board that has to connect to different channels on a mixer where I have my mic. I play solo bouzouki and sing. Pedal board has a looper on it as well that goes into the mixer. I end up running about nine cables from the pedal board to the mixer so I can separate things for a better mix. Kind of a hassle to setup every time. If I put the mixer on the pedal board it becomes huge. I also thought of having a multipin snake that plugs into the pedal board and the mixer case. Sorry for the long post but wondered if you ever put together a rig with this situation. Could be a cool video! Thanks again!
Never anything with an on-board mixer. I would still treat the mixer like the "amp" in this case.
@@VertexEffectsInc Thanks!
Great info man! Thanks, regards from Argentina.
With some of your helpful Videos , my G2 equipped pedal board is working perfect. No excessive noise etc. . ,.
Great to hear!
Rig doctor you are a genious!! 😍😍 just one question; So you put together the audio and power cables right?
Yes as long as it’s not AC
Used this video to help get my board built and tidied up underneath.
Nice tutorial Mason. One question, do you ever have signal issues running the audio cables next to or on top of the DC cables? I’ve read and been told in the past not to run signal wires parallel and next to power line. Essentially make a separate run and to only cross perpendicularly.
As stated in the video, if it's DC it doesn't matter. If it's AC then you'll have an issue. People that are saying that either don't understand or mean AC lines, not DC.
Great video, thank you. Great board also. One question please. Why did't you run the cables under laminate board? Surely it would be even neater if all the cables were underneath? It is nice to see the class cabling though .... 🙂
Nice and very useful tips Mason...Hopefully your business will more success and growing in this year.
Thank you for the support!
Im pretty fiscally challenged so I always use all velcro boards and i put my tie down mounts on a long strip as well, it allows everything to be easily reversable in the event i end up needing to redesign.
That's another way to do it!
Excellent tip!
1:20 ironically, your use of the word "misnomer" is a misnomer 😂😂😂
😘
Great tips! Been wanting to clean up my messy cables and this is a great solution
👍👍👍
Thanks for adding value to my day.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks For the great advice!💜
Our pleasure!
If you use 3M dual lock for your board (looking at all the other players out there that are constantly swapping things around), you can use short thin strips (mine are rouglhly 1.5"x.25") to pin cables down anywhere they cross the dual lock. Way faster than zip ties, only slightly less secure. You can also tuck away excess cable length using this method - great if you aren't cutting everything to size or want to make a temporary swap using an off-the-shelf patch cable.
Generally if you create cable "channels" and leave room for a few different effect sizes, you can maintain clean lines and swap out pedals easily instead of having to compromise. Of course if you're changing order, placement, and orientation of the board you're probably not optimized for this sort of "neat" set up anyway - I'd just stick with a organization system you can live with whatever it may be.
@@VertexEffectsInc That's a good point. This is definitely a compromise that works for me because I only have to clean up my rig for a handful of gigs per year. (And when my roommates start complaining about the mess of cables in the corner of the living room...)
You are really awesome, Mason. You have a lot of useful info and wisdom, and it is very generous of you to share it. BTW I bought some of your patch cables from the Tone Doctor... they are game changing. So much better than anything I have ever used. There is a noticeable reduction in noise. Great job on the soldering (shout out to Adam in San Diego!). Thank you.
Awesome! Thank you!
Hey, that’s Room for Relaxation in E. The jam track made by Mr. Peter Honore!!! I knew I recognized that backing track you were using! Great vid to man. Thanks!
Yes...Pete was kind enough to let us use them!
Little Velcro strips, at least in the assembly stage, can be useful when bundling the cables, and predicting how the cables will look. Great tutorial, nonetheless.
Also, not related to the topic, and updates on the Boost? The reason I ask is because Xotic came out with their volume pedals, and possibly other companies have released volume pedals recently.
Very soon! Stay tuned!
This is why I use either a multifx or modeling SW like TH-U. No time, no mess and infinitely customizable in an instant. Have fun playing with your cables, I'm getting back to playing guitar 🎸 😂
What you save in time, you loose in tone :)
Mason, Good Day! How do you prioritize your pedal locations on the pedal board? Is it signal path or geography on the board? IOWs- if fit was an issue, would you put a pedal farther out of the signal path (& use a longer cable to reach it) to fit on the board? OR set up the board in signal path order and deal with the fit problems?
Usually signal path is the priority but sometimes there is a specific placement someone prefers that defies the signal path.
Super helpful! Thanks for doing this!
🙏🙏🙏 our pleasure
I've always followed Kimmo Aroluoma method with the safety clips instead of zipties. Keep it all tight and clipped down so nothing can come unplugged even when my board gets thrown around, but easy to swap out and add pedals.
You can go that direction, you'll have some limitations however on the size of the loom, and a zip tie isn't that hard to cut and replace if needed.
Can you recommend a cable tiedown/clip with built-in release like ones found at a hardware store, so we don't need to mess with clipping and reattaching a dozen zip ties to swap a cable or pedal?
There are some that I use from Amazon that are like a C shape. The ends of the C come together at an adjustable depth and you can pull up on a notch to open the cable holder back up again. Only issue is the sticky feet that leave gunk.
I don't have a tested solution since I wouldn't use these on a rig. The zip tie thing won't loose tention over time, i've found the clip ones are not particularly robust if you're detaching/reattaching them regularly.
I use these velcro things made for sewing. Basically a velcro strip with hook on one side and loop on the back and cut it into thin strips
@@Sharkbate211 if it works, use it!
Adam, search for “VTECHOLOGY Cable Zip Ties, 8 Inch Heavy Duty Releasable Cable Ties” on Amazon, that’s what I bought for my pedalboard (100-pack for $6). The head is a little bit on the bigger side, but it works for me :)
Great vid, Mason. In other builds you've spoken about not running power and audio side by side, rather crossing as infrequently as possible at right angles. Have I misinterpreted or do you not feel this is that significant anymore? Thx!
This is only with relationship to AC power, DC won't matter.
Dude, you're a perfectionist! Me too )))) Thank you so much
Thanks for watching!!!
great vid Uncle Mason! Diggin' the background music too!
Had some great contributors there, Danish Pete provided a few tracks which are pretty slick, as did Tim Marco.
I wonder if this can be done on my Pedaltrain Nano, I have a couple of very tall pedals... Will try it next week together with dual lock.
Nice one Mason. I know you route your cables on the board, cut them to length and then solder. What tips do you have to achieve the perfect lengths that you do. It’s pretty easy to trim a cable that’s either just a little short and a little tight looking or a little long so that it’s a bit untidy. Practice?
Thanks for watching. Usually I solder one end first so that's already done and in place, sort like when you use the pre-made cables that come with your power supply and put the molded end in the pedal and only re-terminate a new end on the power supply side. By terminating one end first you can be much more deliberate about spacing and cutting exact lengths. I also will disassemble the plug that is going into the input or output jack of a pedal so that I can literally feed in the cable exactly where it needs to be in the plug and cut it perfectly to length, so when I assemble it, it's exactly where I measured it to be.
@@VertexEffectsInc this! Thank you!
🙏🙏🙏
can you do a similar video but with a switcher like the es-5? I think its so difficult to do it neatly if you have pedals with ports on the side and some on top. Love your video, love vertex products.
Haha. I would never think on my own to use nearly that many tie down mounts, but it does look nice. I hope you left some for the rest of us, though ;-).
You can use fewer as explained in the video, depends on how set the rig is.
lol. hum, but with shipping shortage now, who knows?
Hey Mason! Do you think that I could use 1 trs input to be the mono in and mono out of my board?
Sure, that's what most inserts are
The great home designer Christopher Lowell always referred to tape as "a ruler on a roll!" Uncle Mason, your advice is absolutely invaluable!! Makes me wish I was building a board for something, but I digress... What is your feeling about wiping surfaces with alcohol prior to affixing self-stick components? Do you feel it helps adhesion? I've found that applying a little heat helps when applying Velcro. Your thoughts?
Thanks for that! Glad you dig the content. That's a good idea regarding cleaning the surfaces, absolutely a good idea!
Mason, there are a few pedals that require low voltage AC or even power line voltage AC. There could be a hum issue if these are not properly routed. In theory, as far away as possible from the audio lines. The shielding in the audio lines stop most of the noise.
That is correct, in fact I think it also says this exact thing in the video, and certainly makes the distinction of DC.
Dee - he says at 1:47 - "...not enough to make a difference when talking about DC," a few seconds before that he says "It's not like AC". It's all there bro
@@g.w.thurmond3691 there you go...
Cool. So much better than duct tape and crazy glue!!! Didn’t even know those zip tie, tie down mounts existed. Actually I knew they existed just threw a bunch away since I didn’t know what I had. What a Ninney!😂
That’s pretty slick Doc.
🥰🥰🥰
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I have a question about troubleshooting a rig. When I use a certain bass and run through my 19 pedal-board with 2 buffers and every pedal bypassed, I sometimes clip my amp pre. But when I plug straight into the amp with the same bass it never clips. The bass is passive, the buffers are TC Elec. Bonafide. Could the buffers be beefing my signal too much? The pickups are quite hot as is.
Aaron, it might be something else on the rig doing this. Have you tried, Bass - TC - Amp and seeing if you take them off the board to test if the buffer is doing this. A buffer is always unity gain by definition.
D*** Mason, that's one beautifully clean looking board!
Do you recommend the 3/4" tie downs over the 1" for the power supply cables?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you for the vid!!! It looked to me that when you routed the dc back to the supply from the farthest pedal, you zip tied it the entire way. So what do you do when you route for the next pedal and add another cable to the run? Do you clip the zips from the second pedal and then add then rezip the back to the supply? My biggest issue has been keeping things organized as I add pedals to a run.
You'd clip the zip tie where you were adding a cable, but in the video I didn't apply zip ties until a cable was added into the loom or row of cable leads. So tie down mounts go down first, then bring the cables as you got and zip tie them as you go, adding each additional cable to the wire loom.
Love this DIY tips!
Heck yea! Thanks for watching!
my board is a 2' by 4' plastic folding table from home depot. this is great info, by the way
This will work for that too!
Great posts Mason. Im building a pedalboard and it is difficult and confusing. Thanks so much for the advice man its priceless. I wish I could just send everything to you and have it all done to perfection !
Happy to help!
Amazing video! What’s your take on pedaltrain builds? Would this information apply?
You could apply this underneath the rails, if I use a Pedaltrain I do what I did with Kerry Marshall's rig (see it on our channel) or the John Mayer giveaway pedalboard rig we did with Sweetwater.
Keep it up guys, these videos are great.
Glad you like them!
Have been waiting for something like this for ages. Thanks for putting it out there for us! Would be interested to see if there are any differences if you are routing your cables under the board (Pedaltrain/Rockboard/Temple Audio style) vs the flat boards like you've shown here?
If you're using the power supply cables that came with your iso P/S, how do you deal with the extra length that may exist?
I don't recommend using pedalboard that wire underneath where the wires are exposed. These pedalboards aren't made by rig builders, so they lack an understanding of the realities of pro level touring acts and are really targeted toward hobbyists. You could take a similar approach on any of these types or rigs as we did here, however the ones that have holes everywhere become difficult because you don't have much surface area for cable tie down mounts for the adhesive to stick to so it can sometimes not work out well using smaller tie down mounts, and you're force to use at least 1" mounts to get enough "stick". For the cables for DC, see our DIY power cable video, it shows you how to do this and the materials you'll need. There are diagrams for every cable you can think of for DC.
I was going to ask the same...I used the standard cables from my power supply and ended up having to make a loop at the end and Zip-tied that...not nearly as elegant as making your own custom lengths...but then again, I'm using a PedalTrain with all the wiring underneath as well as the torroidal power supply. Mason got very mad at me for doing this! LOL
@@PeterPug I did!??? Where?
@@VertexEffectsInc jokes. I know you don’t like that setup but I got all that stuff years ago before I saw your vids. I haven’t gigged in a year now so not in a hurry to change anything up yet! ;)
@@PeterPug I hear ya! Thanks for watching!
Great video! Thank you.
Glad you liked it!
Hey Mason, what is your pedal riser solution in this video?
No sure what you mean...there isn't a riser on this board.
Awesome vid as always.
Thanks for watching
Those were pretty small 1.25” mounts. 😝
I like to roll those zip ties so that the sharp edge is facing down against the board-once they are cut.
But looks good. I much rather use a Pedaltrain type of board, where all the cabling and powers adapters are underneath! 🤘🏻😝🎸🇺🇸
I like to use flush cutters so that there is no exposed sharp end.
I watched this specifically for that purpose but I have a dozen pedals on my board. This oughtta get interesting lol
love the neat rig setup
Nice video. Thanks
Our pleasure!
Ok Mason, I have a question that I’ve not heard mentioned much, if at all.
What do you recommend for cables to go from your pedalboard to your amps?
Good pre-made 15-20’ guitar cables? (I use two/two amps)
Or the same cable that you use between pedals?
Great channel!
Ideally low capacitance and flexible. I like Mogami 2524, Belden 9778, and a few others, but if you've got a good buffer on the output it really doesn't matter too much compared to the input cable. The cables on the board should be smaller and flexible like the 2319 or 2314 and not as robust as the instrument cables.
What are your thoughts on the Temple pedalboards?
Thanks for sharing! I always learn a lot from this channel!
I like using lithium batteries like Volto. Are there higher quality lithium power supplies you recommend?
Not that I know of, I don't have much experience with them.
Cool. Thank you for your reply
@@robwessels6899 of course! Thanks for watching!
Very helpful video. It looks like you made your own patch cables of the perfect length in some of these clips. Do you have a video on how to do that?
ua-cam.com/video/YDowhQxmN88/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/Z88EXSn9QY8/v-deo.html
I was just looking these up :)
We have many patch cable tutorials and all of our rig build videos showcase this as well :)
Thank you both for your responses! Very helpful.
I’m enjoying the videos. Both my sons are learning guitar and bass and they want pedals and all that stuff, but I never played much electric guitar and don’t really know much about pedals. I learning thanks to your videos.
Rock on!
Can you make a video with tips like these but for a more modular pedalboard?
You would ideally loop around your power cables and leave more slack, there are too many variables if this is what you'll ultimately be doing to really show a good solution.
i see u have a link to the plugs u use for ur dc power but what cable are u using for ur dc power?
We use the provided cables with the power supplies and shorten them to length. You don't need a "Mogami" or something like that for DC power, the properties of the cables and things like capacitance aren't a factor for the low current/voltage DC power.
i have a suggestion for future update to this one and that is to demonstrate what this would like with the pedaltrain format. i think most of us have that kind of pedalboard and would be interested to see if these suggestions take on a modified form. Thank you for your awesome content!!
The basic technique is the same but you'd do it under the rails of the pedalboard. I don't use these style boards because they're inferior and I don't recommend them typically to flat board for a professional context. I understand not everyone is a pro, but there are some drawbacks to this format that make it untenable for a lot of applications so I try not to work with materials where the deck is stacked against me.
@@VertexEffectsInc thanks for being direct about it! 🙏🏼 I see and understand now why it’s superior. I am shallow in the sense I like the image of being a “medium pedalboard guy” despite having Tetris’d a plethora of pedals on that board. I’d imagine if I went flat it would call for a large size board esp considering midi IO and PSUs
@@Keysounds0 if you're still on the PT boards, I think you just use the rails as your borders and wire up through to the pedals where needed is the best advice I can give.
This looks great! I thought that power cables and audio cables shouldn't be perpendicular. It looks like those are???
You can put DC anywhere, doesn’t matter. AC however, you do want to be careful of and isolate it as much as possible and cross the audio in a perpendicular fashion if you need them to touch.
I am new to this, can you show us how you use the plastic square pieces? I am thinking of getting a small pedal board going for my 4 pedals, no idea. But you are very neat. Beginners tutorial needed.
They're 'cable tie bases'
They're linked in the description. Tie Down Mounts :)
Thank you
You're welcome
Thanks for the video........great stuff. I converted my board to a wet/ dry based off of on of your recent video's. Is there a trick (or maybe a future video) to have a custom interface to quickly change from a wet/ dry (2 amp setup) to a single amp (all pedals in series) setup? I put a splitter under my board, but would rather have an interface box (a la your input/ output buffer box). There is no room on top for an A/B/Y.
You can use the trick that we showed with using the switched jacks to bring them all out of one amp like an effects loop amp would be, it's the same principal and application. We have a diagram for that in our 4CM diagram.
@@VertexEffectsInc Thanks Mason. I just looked at that video. I did not mention that my amp does not have an effects loop (Victoria 1-12 , Champ clone).
@@berteau doesn't matter, if you're doing wet/dry as I showed in our videos you'll need a line out box no matter what to get the line level output off your output transformer on the dry amplifier.
@@VertexEffectsInc Is there an advantage to a line out box out of a non-effects loop amp to a wet amp vs putting a splitter at the begging of my chain to carry the signal to my wet effects to amp #2? In your scenario with the line out box, the dry signal (distorted sound) gets carried over to the wet amp. (my pedals do not have a wet only mix-pot). This is how I am currently running my setup with a volume pedal between my wet effects and amp #2 to 'blend' end delay/ modulation with no 'distortion' effects with the splitter at the beginning of my chain. I am super curious to hear your answer, and really appreciate your views.