How do you organize your multi-tiered boards?

[stevejamsecono]

Hey All,

So based on the discussion in the "multiple boards" thread I started, I ordered a PT Classic and am set to start trying to put this thing together once my final patch cables arrive in the mail today. I've done a few sample layouts and it seems like everyone will fit on there, but in the process of doing so I realized that simply arranging them "in order" might not be the most ergonomic layout for me based on what I used most. It also occurred to me that the pedals that get used least might benefit from easier reach than the more common ones because said pedals are more likely used as "effects" vs. dynamic control, so they'd need to be switched on and off more quickly for specific parts.

So my question to you all is this -- Is there any overriding design sensibility you have with your multi-tiered boards, and what have you learned through use that makes the most sense to you for layout? Obviously people are going to have different preferences and I'm not really ready to make the plunge to a looper in the front of board or anything yet, but I'd be curious to hear what you all have come up with.

[zhivago]

I arrange mine with how the path flows, with the odd exemption here and there, when the box sizes are a bit more awkward...

for example, the chain here is:

Volume Pedal > Tuner > Bicomp > POG2, EQ > Model H > Timmy > Tremolo > Freeze > DMM > HOF > HOF

[fuzzjunkie]

I just rearranged my board slightly Sunday night to fix an issue that’s been bothering me and it tightened up my layout and made it more efficient too.

I like to keep any time-tap controls on the front row, and in the middle, if I can. So time based effects up front, dirt in back, unless I use it a lot.



This is the previous arrangement and there were 2 issues. The one that bothered me the most was that the Eventide in/out jacks run left-right rather than the more common right-left. This led to awkwardly angled cables and longer cable runs. The signal ran from the tuner at top right, left across the top tier, down to the Throbak Overdrive/Boost and then to the Voodoo Vibe, so dirt to modulation. From there it went diagonal across the board to the El Capistan on the right and back left through the two Eventide pedals and out to my amps. The signal is mono until the El Cap, then stereo the rest of the chain.

My simple solution was to flip the Eventide Space to the front right where the El Capistan was, move that pedal to the center in place of the Timefactor, and the Timefactor is front left where the Space was. This arrangement has all the cables running right to left until the Timefactor and then left to right from there to the amps. So the power supply and cable runs all start and end on the right side now.

The signal still starts top right with the tuner, and runs left through the top tier. Then it drops to the El Capistan and the Throbak overdrive and up to the Voodoo Vibe. That part of the chain is mono and let’s me add dirt or a boost after the echo from the El Capistan, which I like. It also lets me put Tremolo before or after delay now.

From the Voodoo Vibe there is a stereo signal to the Timefactor and then into the Space. No more crossed cables or 2 foot cables running diagonally under the board. All my tap functions are closer to the center, along with my 2 most used dirt pedals. The Voodoo Vibe switch is easy to get to, and the Source Audio expression is right in the middle to control Wah filter sweeps, Tremolo rate, and tape echo speed.

The new layout is only a slight modification, but improved efficiency, fixed my OCD issues, gave new tone options, and shortened the cable runs. All the switches I use the most are within a 9” square. Before I mostly stood in front of the Timefactor and had to reach for the Voodoo Vibe and expression pedal. The Space is usually on for the whole song. Now I can stand in the middle in front of the Throbak and reach everything but the tuner without shifting. A win-win all around.

[somanytoys]

Some really good info there.

My suggestion may be for later down the road for you, based on what you said in your post.

For 1 pedalboard, I use a PT Classic (2, I think) and had the same problems for a long time, and I was using pedals for 2 chains on one board, which made it even harder.

I don’t really use the tap tempo functions all that often, so that was less of an issue for me, but I would attempt to set those closest to the front, but there was also the what goes on/off the most, and the sizes/ shapes of the pedals, and the flow order of the chain.

I solved the pedal on/off problem by buying midi- based controllers/loopers, and it’s made life much easier. If you don’t have to worry about which ones to have easy access to for on/off capabilities, it makes it easier to change the flow of them to what works best for you, between the in-line chain flow, tap tempos up front and box size & shape.

It doesn’t have to be midi, I just did that because it’s better in the end for what I was going to end up doing anyway, for controlling 2 chains per pedalboard.

You don’t need them, but if you can get one down the road, I think it will kind of change the game a bit. It did for me.

Just something to keep in mind for the future, you have some great info above.

[peterherman]

It goes into the Pareidolia > trem > Black Rose fuzz > MXR reverb > (cable run under the board) Whirlwind Gold Box > Minim > MXR Clone Looper w/outboard control switch

It's pared down to stuff I actually use. I like having the ability to run gain either before or after reverb, the Pareidolia sounds better before gain than after, and the looper goes last. Overall the path is a backwards Z, going in at the top right and out bottom left.

[stevejamsecono]

Some good stuff so far. Thanks everyone! I'll share my initial efforts when they are done this evening...

[stevejamsecono]

Some really good info there.

My suggestion may be for later down the road for you, based on what you said in your post.

For 1 pedalboard, I use a PT Classic (2, I think) and had the same problems for a long time, and I was using pedals for 2 chains on one board, which made it even harder.

I don’t really use the tap tempo functions all that often, so that was less of an issue for me, but I would attempt to set those closest to the front, but there was also the what goes on/off the most, and the sizes/ shapes of the pedals, and the flow order of the chain.

I solved the pedal on/off problem by buying midi- based controllers/loopers, and it’s made life much easier. If you don’t have to worry about which ones to have easy access to for on/off capabilities, it makes it easier to change the flow of them to what works best for you, between the in-line chain flow, tap tempos up front and box size & shape.

It doesn’t have to be midi, I just did that because it’s better in the end for what I was going to end up doing anyway, for controlling 2 chains per pedalboard.

You don’t need them, but if you can get one down the road, I think it will kind of change the game a bit. It did for me.

Just something to keep in mind for the future, you have some great info above.

Admittedly this is something that I've thought about casually but it seems a little too intense for how I use pedals so far. I guess once we get back to gigging if I'm finding it an issue then it'll be a good to explore because there will be precedent that the need is there?

[somanytoys]

Yeah, it doesn’t have to be all that, it’s just what worked for me. I knew I was going there eventually anyway, so I just went directly to that.

The ones I use are Decibel 11 Pedal Palettes as the controller, and their extensions to actually plug the pedals into on the boards (under the pedals or under the board itself - saves room). They aren’t made anymore, I got them during a close out sale at great prices, so that really sealed it for me. Saturn seems to make some nice analog ones with different #s of loop switches, and there are also the 6-loop Hexes (I forget who makes those). I’ve never tried any of those personally, tho.

But you will probably also need space on the board for that, to plug the pedals into without long leads, which kind of sucks since space is always an issue.

Also keep in mind that you will need an additional cable per pedal & loop switch...it’s another rabbit hole.

I would think that you will figure out whether it’s really something you need soon or if it can wait on until later, once you begin practicing and going through your sets.

You may find that something else works very well for you, like something mentioned above. It’s nice, but it’s also kind of an expensive last resort.

[stevejamsecono]

Yeah, it doesn’t have to be all that, it’s just what worked for me. I knew I was going there eventually anyway, so I just went directly to that.

The ones I use are Decibel 11 Pedal Palettes as the controller, and their extensions to actually plug the pedals into on the boards (under the pedals or under the board itself - saves room). They aren’t made anymore, I got them during a close out sale at great prices, so that really sealed it for me. Saturn seems to make some nice analog ones with different #s of loop switches, and there are also the 6-loop Hexes (I forget who makes those). I’ve never tried any of those personally, tho.

But you will probably also need space on the board for that, to plug the pedals into without long leads, which kind of sucks since space is always an issue.

Also keep in mind that you will need an additional cable per pedal & loop switch...it’s another rabbit hole.

I would think that you will figure out whether it’s really something you need soon or if it can wait on until later, once you begin practicing and going through your sets.

You may find that something else works very well for you, like something mentioned above. It’s nice, but it’s also kind of an expensive last resort.

Totally, that all makes sense, and I definitely appreciate the insight.

And here we are! The last of my patch cables showed up in the mail today, so I wired up my first attempt. All worked on the first try and sound pretty good so far!

20200701_172304 by Steve Bailey, on Flickr

The chain goes EB Volume > Tu3 > Duncan Vice Grip > EHX Pitch Fork > Maxon Flanger > Chicago Stompworks Mr. Vermin > Analogman Chorus > DOD Rubberneck. So far having the pitchfork and flanger up front worked well for the chain and my use -- since both are effects I wanted to use in limited quantities and therefore not have to struggle to shut off. The Vice Grip is mostly helping to drive my AC15 into a slight breakup, and with the Rat clone on top it sounds pretty nice. I may swap it back and forth with my SD1 to see what I prefer more.

Either way, a nice low-key explosion of my old setup while adding a few new flavors (pitch shifting, flange) that should help keep things interesting. Huzzah!

[somanytoys]

That looks cool, and seems very functional. Congratulations on success on the first try!

Nice pedals, too. The Vice Grip is a dirt pedal? Seems like a good name for a compressor, is why I was asking (not familiar with it).

Is your AC15 one of the blue ones? I love those. Mine is one of the blue & cream ones.

I haven’t used my volume pedal in quite a while, but I used to always put it first. I think I may try hooking it up and putting it last, as a mute and also to bring the whole pedalboard sound up and down. I think Fuzzjunkie was the one that mentioned that here somewhere, and it made a lot of sense to use the guitar volume for taming or ramping up the input to the pedals, and the volume pedal to do a volume swell effect for everything that’s on being fed at full tilt.

So much I want to do, but I’m pretty preoccupied with finishing up a speaker cab right now. I don’t think it’s going to turn out quite as nice as I’d hoped, but it’s my first time at it. It won’t look like total shit, and it will have some nice speakers in it, so there’s that...

[stevejamsecono]

That looks cool, and seems very functional. Congratulations on success on the first try!

Nice pedals, too. The Vice Grip is a dirt pedal? Seems like a good name for a compressor, is why I was asking (not familiar with it).

Is your AC15 one of the blue ones? I love those. Mine is one of the blue & cream ones.

I haven’t used my volume pedal in quite a while, but I used to always put it first. I think I may try hooking it up and putting it last, as a mute and also to bring the whole pedalboard sound up and down. I think Fuzzjunkie was the one that mentioned that here somewhere, and it made a lot of sense to use the guitar volume for taming or ramping up the input to the pedals, and the volume pedal to do a volume swell effect for everything that’s on being fed at full tilt.

So much I want to do, but I’m pretty preoccupied with finishing up a speaker cab right now. I don’t think it’s going to turn out quite as nice as I’d hoped, but it’s my first time at it. It won’t look like total shit, and it will have some nice speakers in it, so there’s that...

Thanks! So the Vice Grip is a compressor (a really nice one at that, good blend and a "Hi-Mid-Full" switch that's useful for switching between guitars) and I'm using it to drive the Vox a bit.

And yep, it's a blue AC15 with a greenback. Sounds great.

[somanytoys]

Cool - that reinforces my appreciation of the name! Nice to hear it’s a good comp. I have quite a few, each is pretty different but I’m continually learning to dial most of them them in a little better.

Love those amps. Mine came with a nice Greenback as well, but it has been replaced.
Twice.

[Shadoweclipse13]

Before I get into anything else, I'll say this. It may not help with cable routing, etc., but I discovered Modular Grid a few years ago when I first got into Eurorack. The site is cool and they have a pedal section. You can build a pedalboard, and arrange them any way you want. Occasionally the pedals aren't scale to each other (one will be too big/small), but usually they are. Might not make a huge difference in planning a board out, but it's fun to mess with anyways Here's an example of the one I keep current based on my main guitar board. If I sell or buy something, I update the Modular Grid page of mine.


Usually, when I'm building my own boards or planning one out, I do a couple things:
1) I keep the pedals that need to be turned off and on frequently (and on the pedal itself) in front. Things like loopers, delays if tap tempo is needed,
or just pedals that you turn off and on during a song. In that same line of thinking, I keep the pedals that I won't change during a song in the back if I
can (gain pedals, some reverbs or delays if I use them as a preset sound).
2) As for which is goes in front vs back if that doesn't apply, I try to arrange them so I use as little patch cable as possible. Having longer power cables
shouldn't make a huge difference, but longer patch cables could weaken your signal, so I try to keep them as short as I can.
3) I try to arrange them so the board itself can be as short as possible, and so the rows can be even with no wasted space.

For example, in the screenshot above from my Modular Grid page, my signal path goes as follows: Gig Rig Three2One > Tuner > EQD Grand Orbiter > C.B. Naga Viper > Greer Lamplighter > EQD Afterneath > Boss LS-2 (M.E. Solar Bender > M.E. Lonely Robot > EQD Westwood > EQD The Dunes) > Caroline Parabola > Lehle Volume > Lehle Y-splitter (for wet-dry mix; not shown here) (dry side going straight to jack to amp) > Boss LS-2 (C.B. Echorec > Caroline Kilobyte > EQD Space Spiral) > Red Panda Context 2 (haven't changed the image yet) > EHX 720 Looper. (EHX Pitch Fork Plus not added since I haven't gotten it yet, and don't know where I'll put it in the chain).