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  1. Guitars
  2. Guitar Accessories & Components
  3. Pedalboards

How to build your first pedalboard

Tuition
By Total Guitar ( Total Guitar ) published 11 August 2009

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Getting started...

Getting started...

Chances are, you may have already delved into the world of stompboxes, but if not it’s time to think about the pedals you’re going to need. We’ve nailed it down to some of the most common FX to get your pedalboard started.

Page 1 of 10
Page 1 of 10
Overdrive

Overdrive

A good distortion or overdrive pedal will serve as the foundation for your sound, and you can go from a mild overdrive to all out bone-chilling metal. Try a few to see what’s around.

Page 2 of 10
Page 2 of 10
Delay

Delay

Delay is one of the most common effects, and at the same time one of the most versatile. Equally great on clean or distorted tones, you can use delay to fill out your sound. Some models have extra features like looping and reverse.

Page 3 of 10
Page 3 of 10
Wah

Wah

In short, there are a couple of options: an expression style pedal gives you manual control over the pedal; or you can let the box do the work by going for an auto wah.

Page 4 of 10
Page 4 of 10
Chorus

Chorus

Chorus adds ‘space’ to your sound. A sprinkling gives a polished glassy tone, and more extreme settings go from lo-fi pitch wavering to lush washes of swirly goodness.

Page 5 of 10
Page 5 of 10
The board itself

The board itself

Commercially made pedalboards start at around £25. If your pedals are all different shapes and sizes, you could take the DIY route and build your own custom tone castle!

Page 6 of 10
Page 6 of 10
Power

Power

Most pedals can be powered from standard nine-volt batteries, but we recommend getting a pedalboard with a built-in power supply or buying a power distributor.

Page 7 of 10
Page 7 of 10
Polarity

Polarity

When powering your pedals from a battery, the little blighter will only fit one way. Plug into a transformer, however, and you need to get the polarity right or you risk frying your pedal, and it won’t be under warranty!

Page 8 of 10
Page 8 of 10
Routing

Routing

Try experimenting with different routing options. Connecting your pedals in a different order can produce some cool sound variations and will unlock the full potential of your gear!

Page 9 of 10
Page 9 of 10
Cabling

Cabling

Once you’ve decided on the order of your effects, secure them (Velcro works well) so they don’t move when you play or when you carry them. Avoid excess cabling by buying some short (30cm) patch cables to connect the pedals.

Page 10 of 10
Page 10 of 10
Total Guitar
Total Guitar
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Read more
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Nail the sound of a holy grail tube amp with a pedal you made yourself
Red Witch Apothecary Series Pedals: these beautifully crafted stompboxes have colour-coded aluminium dials, floral designs and some unique analogue circuits.
Exquisite stompboxes, built to last a lifetime, meet Red Witch’s new Apothecary Series
Fortin Meshuggah Pedal: this preamp/distortion pedal puts the signature high-gain drive tones of Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström.
The Fortin Meshuggah head is the amp every metal player wants – now you can get its crushing tones in a pedal
Catalinbread Proto Club Triton Pitch Echo
“The Tritone was universally loved by the crew but the vibes clashed with the palette of the Soft Focus Deluxe”: Catalinbread is selling off its prototype guitar pedals, and the first is a “B-side” pitch echo from its smash-hit shoegaze stompbox
Darkglass Electronics Anagram Bass Workstation: The new multi-effects unit for bass guitar has a sleek design with a touchscreen and 6 high-resolution endless rotary knobs for fine-tuning each parameter.
Darkglass unveils multi-effects for bass with neural amp model support and 7” touchscreen
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