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.
Phil McKnight showed that you can cover the bottom of the pedal, particularly the label with painters tape and then the velcro will stick just fine, and the label is preserved. The only thing I've found it doesn't work well with is denelectro mini pedals, because the bottom is almost entirely textured rubber. For those, I just stick the velcro right on it. It's a plastic danelectro pedal....how much value is there to worry about? lol
Just purchased the Voodoo ISO-5, Question: This power supply has one input for 12V 300mA, I have 2 pedals that require that much power can I daisy chain the two pedals into that input?
Hi, Rowland! Thanks for your message, hope you're well and safe. If each pedal requires 300mA, then the split won't work. The output is halved when you connect two pedals. You also no longer have the pedals isolated since they share the same tap. Please contact us direct with other questions as you have them! Robert Williams, Senior Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 2371, robert_williams@sweetwater.com
Hi, Gary! Thanks for your message, hope you're well and safe. The M237 Brick is not an isolated power supply. The M238 ISO brick and M239 Mini ISO brick are isolated. Please contact us direct with other questions as you have them! Robert Williams, Senior Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 2371, robert_williams@sweetwater.com
Thanks for your question Adam, hope you’re well and safe. Your PB1000 is a great surface to mount your pedals. Please use every connection on the Pedal Power before anything else. That power supply is isolated and grounded with sufficient voltage and amperage for about any pedal available. It will make your rig much quieter overall than the power available on the Behringer board. Please contact us direct with other questions as you have them! Robert Williams, Senior Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 2371, robert_williams@sweetwater.com
Yo, Rig Doctor. I just bought a moded Ibenez tube screamer, a Koko mini compressor (i know its a cheep pos), a Peterson strobostomp and a Dunlop cry baby...What order do you think i should chain them? Thanks
I always appreciate Mason’s help! Why are musicians so judgmental? We all make mistakes. I’ve made a ton! Thanks to Sweetwater for working with the Rig Doctor!
@@CharlesWillisBonsai lof of dick moves from this person in past and if you check his channel, lot of clickbaits with poor videos 🤷. Looks like he has great pedals though, but in these times with lots of superb pedal builders, I rather avoid this person.
I have found his channel to be exceptionally informative and with links that I sure wish I had a few years ago when I started building pedalboards. The other super informative guy with clear explanations of the origin of not only his designs but of others as well is Josh from JHS. he flat out will say it's a Muff variant, or Tonebender type or what have you.
@@tommasocatervi6617 well lot of things, selling gooped and relabeled products for 3x the price, lying about his education, using others pedal boards to promote as his, using existing circuits and promoting them as his brand new revolutionary design etc etc.
Anyone have thoughts on the MXR M238 Iso-Brick? Seems to be a pretty good value for isolated power. Also need a few parts with higher mA things and it seems to have all that I need.
I've owned both and I prefer the zuma just because you have all of the 500ma outputs on it so you don't have to worry about where you plug in your pedals. They all have a looot of headroom to work with especially for my digital pedals like my h9 and digitech whammy
@@andybungert yeah definitely, if you need that 10th input and you're on a budget, definitely go for the mxr lol I got the zuma because I needed 14 outputs so I got the ojai along with it for more. Buy what you need!
Dear Sweetwater, I've done a lot of business with you lately, but this relationship might cost you some customers. Please don't sacrifice your integrity just for the sake of some views or an extra sale or two. I promise you, it's not worth it.
That pedal train app is a joke. Locks up my iPhone to where the whole damn thing freezes. It’s never worked. So tell me this hack isn’t getting a kickback from them. Can’t trust anyone I swear!
Mistake #1: taking pedalboard advice from a man who knowingly ripped out off other designers without due credit and over charges for bland regurgitations 🙆♂️
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.
@@thepipejunkie8359 No, it's not cheaper; it's way BETTER. Pedals stay right where you put them. You get what you pay for. That's kind of how the free market works. And it's just a roll or two of Dual Lock. It's not like you have to finance it for 15 years.
When you're a sole provider for a family of 3, you kinda have to use whatever you can afford. I'm glad you're so passionate about Dual Lock though, you keep doing you, bro
This section comment is just sad. This guy apologized for his mistakes years ago, pay back what he owed. There is even an open letter in his vextex website and still most of these sour “keyboard warriors” missed the point. The guy is sharing information of what he does for a living Jesus Christ, he shouldn’t have to but he is willing to give back. Most of other skill individuals won’t share what they know, is risky. But keep judging people behind your keyboards you John Mayer wannabes, keep throwing all your “moral advices” on RU-vid like if could go through life without making mistakes. You learn by your mistakes and this guy did, now is time for you behind the keyboard/pretending to be special, to grow the f up. Geez . Thanks Sweetwater for this informative video.
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.
On my iso brick, all of my pedals sounds sound about 50% less powerful than plug directly without the brick. Fuzz, Friedman OD, delay just sound very weak? Is it my cabling? They all sound fine with an single power supply. Any suggestions?
Hey, mmasterdp. Thanks for reaching out! The biggest things to make sure you have are good cabling and the proper amount of power going to your pedals. Each pedal draws a certain amount of amperage, usually milliamps (mA). So, you will want to make sure you have enough mA going to each pedal from your isobrick. Each power out will show you how much each pedal has to draw from and you should be good to go. If the isobrick is possibly defective then you will need to reach out to wherever you purchased the unit from to see if there is a warranty. I hope this info helps, but let us know if you have any more questions. Good luck! Jack Wellington, Sweetwater Sale Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 3240, jack_wellington@sweetwater.com
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.
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.
Agreed. "Don't use solderless, because Sweetwater sells this other stuff." I'm over here looking at my Evidence SIS thinking "I dunno. These were good enough for Pink Floyd, I think I'll be fine."
@@KlockoFett Sweetwater sells solderless. My recommendation is based on what's the best quality and will have the most longevity. David Gilmour uses the Evidence Lyric HG - a soldered cable, with a Neutrik 1/4" connector, not the SIS. Also, professionals aren't immune from making bad gear choices. I've seen few to zero technicians on the road with acts like David Gilmour using solderless cables for the exact reason that I mentioned in this video.
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
2:47 stop this mason please!!!!! there is nothing wrong with solderless cables that are made properly! a soldered cable is only as good as the person making it same as a solderless! you literally sound like a broken record at this point. People if you want to use solderless as you change your board around alot, move pedals, are a player at home do it! you dont need to spend the time constantly making up soldered cables also some of the patch cables you are showing though good quality ive had plenty of those type of cable fail aswell! in your mind the crappy coloured cables you can buy of amazon are better as they are soldered
Andy Bassist I’ve heard this gripe from many other people (one being Rhett Shull- has a popular guitar RU-vid channel)- so that may be your experience with solderless cables , but it’s not too uncommon of a problem.
Andy, it's totally fine to use solderless - it's just not equal to a soldered connection mechanically or electrically. This is physics - not something I'm pulling out of thin air. If you prefer soldeless cables, I can't dispute a preference.
Vertex Effects nothing to do with preference, I don’t prefer either, but you just point blank start from the point that soldered is better, which just is your opinion that you are calling fact a badly made soldered cable is a bad cable. A cheap soldered cable is still a cheap poor quality cable which is very likely to fail.
israel hernandez its a gripe yes however many big bands use solderless cables without issue on big boards, a badly made cable is a bad cable regardless of it being soldered or solderless
Andy Bassist I’m a cable specialist in the aerospace field. I have same opinion with you. I can’t say there is no signal difference. If solderless has any problem, was mostly from assembler mistake or using wrong tools or parts. If I have to choose btw, might say soldeerless. Actually solderless stands longer in stress
Mason what do you recommend as instrument cable? I’m using Van Damme at the moment. I want as true a signal as possible hitting my board and amp!! Many thanks.
Thanks for making this video Sweetwater! I think this will be very helpful now that many of us have a bit more time on our hands and want to make some tweaks to our pedalboards.
I've been using solderless cables for years and never had a problem. I think I only had to readjust them a few times. Of course I wouldn't take them on world tour, but for everything else they work just fine.
"You may know me from that time I swindled hundreds of people and lied through my teeth about it..." Seriously, Sweetwater. This fraud?? Get outta town.
Delbert McLaughlin He got caught with his pants down gooping and re-branding/upcharging BBE Ben Wahs. He lied about a bunch of other stuff and never really apologized. Now he's allegedly on the up & up but his newer pedals are still just clones of things like the Jack Orman Boost. Pop a bag of popcorn and Google "Vertex scandal".
JME WILLIAMS In the same way someone would only fess up to and admit what they've directly been accused of. There was plenty that he flatly denied right up until it was unequivocally proven he was lying.. then he walked back his denials and apologized little by little. Doesn't sound too sincere to me, but if you prefer dealing with snakes then be my guest. Also, this isn't exactly groundbreaking information he's providing. Yes, it's conveniently packaged in a video format- but anyone willing to do some light googling could dig up all of this and more.
JME WILLIAMS When Joe Bonamassa posts a write up about how crappy Mason’s work is then that’s enough for me to avoid him. I think it’s scary how a guy who did so many bad things can now be supported by companies like Sweetwater.
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
Prasanth Selvadurai Yeah, they don't have everything. You can input your own dimensions or, even easier, sub in a pedal that's the same size (which is what I typically do). If the goal is to see what will fit, that will get the job done a whole lot easier than taping off a section of a desk, table, or floor.
A problem I run into is going from my last pedal on the lower tier to the first of the upper or rear one.the input always seems to be opposite of the out on the previous lower pedal and I end up using a longer patch than what is ideal.Is a custom cable my only answer? Also will pedals ever become uniform with inputs on top or the side becoming standard? I think I like top input - output the best.
I ran into this same problem, from what I can tell you need a custom one or a specific size like the Ernie ball ones he mentioned, I have yet to check those out
If you have an ES-8 (or other switcher where the jacks are stacked), good luck not using solderless. You certainly can't use right angle soldered patch cables unless you want them sticking straight up or something.
Switchcraft 380 is a good alternative sold here at Sweetwater that works great and is solderable. I personally use the SquarePlug SPS4 and SPS5 on switchers.
Mistake #1 Not having Ciokolate to also power your synthesizers Mistake #2 Not having Ciokolate to also power your synthesizers Mistake #3 Not having Ciokolate to also power your synthesizers Mistake #4 Not having Ciokolate to also power your synthesizers Mistake #5 Not having Ciokolate to also power your synthesizers Mistake #6 You bought Ciokolate instead of DC7
Great Stuff: But all I wanna know is Can a strymon Zuma or Ojai power an Electro Harmonix Mel 9 as it’s 9v+ without any problems ? .. any advice would be greatly appreciated 👍🏻🌞⭐️
Isolated power is by no means always needed. I have used them in the past but find that 90% of the time a 1 Spot will be just fine. The main instance you will need an isolated supply is when mixing digital and analog pedals. In my opinion, start with the cheaper option (especially if you are using all analog pedals) and if you have noise issues, go for the more expensive option and keep the other as a backup. Also, dual lock is fine and all, but 90% of pedals on the used market and even some new pedals will have or come with some version of Velcro (I always use the industrial Velcro personally) and many pedal boards will come with it as well. These are the main 2 that bugged me a bit based on real world scenarios. I completely agree with you on going with soldered plugs because I have seen a bunch of guitarists cut out over the years because of their solderless connections going south. These are just my opinions. I really don't think anything you said was wrong, but perhaps should be expanded on.
@@TxBassMan31 Isolated power will be necessary, if for example, you have poorly power filtered pedal, digital effects combined with analog, pedals with clocks in them that perhaps not well grounded - I've seen this on many high end boutique chorus', flangers, phasers, and more in fact. This may not fit everyone's needs, but now many of us are mixing digital and analog and spreading these all apart from each other on a board, and with a daisy chain you're just increased your ground potential greatly to the point where you could have ground loops. Dual Lock is unparalleled if you don't want your pedals to move around - but can be tricky if you are changing pedals regularly and don't know how to remove pedals with it. An upholstery crowbar is the best too for removing pedals with Dual Lock without damaging them. Thanks for the feedback!
Vertex Effects O K I got a question that I've asked before. Never got an answer. I got a Caline P-1 pwr unit. It's high power on all 8 outlets. I think the only digital pedal is a Boss DD-5 that has it's own out. I run a couple 3 out daisys and power a total of 15 pedals, not all on board. I get a small bit on noise but nothing I can't live with. I don't think it is a isolated power unit. But would like to know if this is all I think it is. I only paid $23 with EBay bucks but it's only $35-40 to this day. In a yr plus I never had a problem or real bad noise unless I leave certain pedals on. Wah, phase shifter or Tube Driver can make noise if left on . Check it out and review it cause maybe could give it a like for others boards. Big savings over $100+ big power units.
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.
Today i'm just using two pedals, compressor and reverb, whats your best advice for minimalist like me? Do i need pedalboard, Isolated power supply etc ? Todays i'm using 9V batteries for both of my pedals, do i need iso power? and adding extra carry gear?
I find that 9v batteries can get expensive with multiple pedals. you could use a daisy chain power supply (amazon for ~$10USD) assuming both pedals have the same polarity (usually center negative)
Khalazia Faqih Batteries are sort of like the original isolated power supply, so you won’t get much in terms of reducing noise. One really good device that I didn’t mention on here that is very well priced, it’s a Voodoo Lab X4 - it’s $79.99. It has four isolated outputs and you can use any 12 V wall wart to feed into the input and it’s super small, light weight and can tuck under just about any Pedalboard. The only real advantage would be that you wouldn’t have to change the 9 V battery devices every so many gigs. Or you can watch the video with RJ Ronquillo, where I made him a battery power supply box so he could have the batteries external to the products for easy changes but all housed in a nice enclosure.
Strymon pedal switches (Capistan, Deco, Sunset) are 2.5" apart. My 3 Strymons are situated so that the right-footswitch of one is 2.5" apart from the left footswitch of the Strymon to its right. So all 6 footswitches are 2.5" apart from each other.....pointy shoes not necessary.
