6 Pedalboard Mistakes You Don't Want to Make

Mason Marangella from Vertex Effects presents six common mistakes guitarists make when building their pedalboards, and shows you how you can avoid them.

0:00 - Intro
0:19 - #1 Preparation
1:22 - #2 AC-DC Power Unit and Audio Cable Management
2:36 - #3 Use Soldered Cables
4:31 - #4 Using Non-Isolated Power Supply
6:06 - #5 Use A Connection Cleaner
7:06 - #6 Use Pro Velcro
8:10 Thanks For Watching!

#Sweetwater #VertexEffects

[sweetwater]

Great advice from the Rig Doctor! Get more tips and tricks like these by hitting like and subscribe!

[cmet]

I bought a piece of wood and some velcro, ten minutes later I had a finished pedalboard!

[kentwyngaard]

If I close my eyes and listen to this video, I can see the yellow bird from Angry Birds doing this video

[markkirschenmann]

Very useful and informative video, thanks for posting. I'll be applying these ideas to further refine my trumpet-based pedalboard.

[shannonjones]

Very helpful, since I’m in the process of building a fresh board! Thank you for taking the time to make this!

[c.j.skamarakas]

It was worth watching the first minute or so of this video to learn about Pedaltrain's online pedalboard planner. Thanks!

[zacharykarras]

Thanks very much for the information. The cabling information is especially helpful, as I am building a new rig for the first time in years.

[paulrainey]

Great advice. I'd also add to keep buffering strategy in mind as well. It's probably less important for two or three pedals, but once you start adding a lot of pedals, especially if true by-pass, and cabling, you may need a well placed buffer for capacitance purposes.

[peterzlateff-fhyt]

Great pro tips here. You are absolutely spot on with all your recommendations.

[thepipejunkie]

Very great advice, my man! One thing I might add for beginners, like myself, is that you don't have to buy name brand velcro made specifically for guitars if you don't want to. Walmart sells industrial grade velcro that I have used before for different things and it is easily as good as the name brand stuff that these guys talk about, and most likely cheaper too. I understand though that they're salesmen and they want you to buy their stuff, free market and capitalism and all that.

[singaporepinoy]

Thanks Mr Schneeblay, really helps a lot

[slipknotrob]

I don't like Velcro on my effects pedals at all... so I got a piece of used rubber belt material that was big enough, and I cut the pedal spaces into it for my pedalboard (similar to the Boss BCB-60, but with rubber belt material instead of "foam rubber"). I'm happy with the results I got from doing this... all 48+ pedals stay where they are supposed to, and there's no Velcro trying to rip the bottoms off of my pedals. Some pedals HAVE TO have the label on the bottom intact or they become basically worthless and not even pawn shops will take them. I don't plan to sell my pedals, but I also don't want to destroy their value.

[michael_caz_nyc]

Also: I've seen many unhappy musicians - when they put their pedals Too Close together. During a Live-gig: you need to either-wear pointy-toe-shoes, or be "super precise" when tapping a tempo or activating a pedal. Also increases the chance of stepping-on-a-pedal that you did not want activated, or changing settings by mistake.

[iamgawd]

Fantastic advice I have a drop pedal that gives consistant buzzing I think I will try a different power supply I been trying everything to fix my problem.

[brendanfisher]

You speak very well Mason. Excellent presentation skills. Great video 👏🏼

[LIGHTintheHALLS]

Extremely helpful and informative! Thanks for sharing this.

[deanallen]

Those pancake jacks often don't work because pedal makers aren't thinking when they decide where the 9V input is going to go. I wrestle with this all the time because MXR, Catalinbread and others put it too close to the i/o jacks instead of up on the front of the pedal where it belongs, so not only will they not fit, it also makes it difficult to deal with the proximity effect. Sometimes they put all three jacks on the front, again, too close together.

[XxmecaxX]

Good tips for cables. I just took all of my pedals off of two boards that I made from wood. 19 pedals... I want to sell this pile and just go rack mount for everything but I don't have the money. I need to make a 3 shelf pedalboard or something because I want my favorite 20 pedals on one board

[gamepad]

Great advice. One mistake I made early on was using batteries to power my pedals. lets just say I found that out the hardway and have went AC power ever since then. it's the same now with my Korg RK100S2 keytar. and that thing eats 6 AA batteries for breakfast. I had to go AC power for it as well by purchasing an aftermarket adapter.

[brunomillan]

If I want to have in, out, send and return jacks mounted on my pedalboard, is there any advantage on using locking jacks? I see many brands using them, and even though they look very professional, I feel that they might be worse than regular jacks since if something happens and the cable is pulled from them, it will just handle all the stress instead of going out of the jack