Of late I’ve been talking a bit downsizing and portable-izing (is that a new word?) my guitar rig. This is partly because I can’t be bothered to lug big heavy stuff anymore, partly because I’m trying in vain to get it all on my motorcycle (yes really!) and partly because I think so many dream rigs that guitarists covet and copy are really overkill for what we do in the average church worship band setting.
One important but oft overlooked piece of equipment is the actual pedal board itself. A well thought out pedal board saves you set up time, hassle and in the long run money as cables will last a lot longer if you don’t have to plug and unplug all the time.
The thing is with pedal boards is that most guitarists at some point dream of their ‘ultimate’ rig. This invariably involves a 37 pedal set up with every sonic eventually covered, just in case they need that sound. So in preparation for when they can afford the dream rig they order a full flight type case. Its big, it’s rugged and the thing ends up weighing as much as John Candy’s coffin. I remember one of my guitar student’s proud home-made effort. It was genuinely made out of half of a full sized metal door! They actually had trouble fitting it in one of their cars!!
So because I downsized my pedal set up I took a punt on an ex demo Pedaltrain Mini that I found at a music show for about £25. I’ve still got an original Pedtrain that I bought about 9 or 10 years ago when they came out and its still going strong. So this looked like a no-brainer.
Like its big brother the Mini has an aluminium (or alloooominum for my American friends) base board, some heavy duty Velcro to stick your pedals to it, and case to carry it in. In this case, a nice nylon gig bag with an extra top pocket to house picks capos, strings and other gubbins.
It can only house about five pedals but for me, with the Line 6 M9 I got and a couple of overdrive pedals, it’s enough. I can even put an expression pedal in the top pocket to give me control over the wah, volume swells, Uni-Vibe etc.
So here are a few tips, learnt the hard way about assembling a useable pedal board.
Other posts you may like:
12 Tips for Electric guitarists (from our 50+ Tips series)
Top 10 do’s and don’ts- lead guitarists
The Intermediate Electric Worship Guitar DVDs – lots of pedal advice on these