How To Build a Guitar Pedal Board 

Rick looks like he's running away from home. "I don't need anything but this Fuzz Face. Nothing but this Fuzz Face and this reverb. Nothing but this Fuzz Face, this reverb and this tuner...and this chair..."

A useful tip - I always lay out my whole board with the Velcro covered in cloth or paper to stop everything sticking together until I’m ready. Saves a lot of effort seating and unseating pedals. When I’m ready, remove the paper and press the two velcro halves together

Rick, wow! Your home is like Disneyland for musicians. What a dream home!

The scene where you are holding all the pedals you want on the board is hilarious. It reminds of Steve Martin at the end of The Jerk. He keeps grabbing one more thing on the way out and keeps saying, “ This is all I need!”

My wife thinks it's amusing that I watch so many of Rick's videos because I don't play any instruments or read music. Just a music lover who enjoys watching someone who is not only a great musician but a damn good teacher.

One of the best and most important pieces I ever bought in all my years of purchasing guitar equipment... was a pedalboard... it’s a life saver and a must for live performances!!!

Love it. One thing that I picked up from somewhere was to use a heat gun on both sets of velcro to the point where the glue is shiny (but not bubbly). Then it's really stuck on there really well (and for good).

Hey Rick FYI your the first guy who actually gives you reasons for WHY you put things in a certain order. Thank you Thank you!

Thank you Rick and Brett, I had been waffling on buying a pedal board. You have shown me why I need one and how to put it together. Great information

"This'll be a good start." (Pedals falling out of his arms)

6:43 the most rock N roll moment on this guys video. The kid don't care, time to color.

Now I feel grateful that I stuck to acoustic guitar/music playing , nothing personal I feel that I don't need the extra stress on whether or not my equipment works when the power is turned on. BTW great vid and great info.

I wish you would explain the importance of power supplies and why daisy chaining isn't the standard. Also a bit more on the different power supplies out there for different needs (how you can daisy chain two or three pedals into one output if the mA's on the pedals are low enough and the output from the power supply is high enough, etc...). I honestly wish someone would have explained that to me when I was building my pedal board.

Thanks guys! Putting a pedal board together is easier that I thought. Wow!

I loved the demo with the Van Halen song. You really nailed it! Great explanation of how to set up a pedal board with really good suggestions.

Finally! PTMT rule just made my tone 100% better. Thanks Rick!

My pedalboard consists of an od and noise gate in the dry channel and a vibrato, chorus delay and reverb in the fx loop.

I like the P.T.M.T. approach when starting a pedalboard. With all of the synth pedals out there, I'd add "Timbre" before "Pitch", so T.P.T.M.T. Most synth pedals are monophonic and would work best before a HOG or POG style pedal to make things polyphonic. Loved hearing that Hendrix chain - thanks!

Can't wait to hear how this sounds!

It might have been good to mention (mostly because of particular fuzzes) the difference between buffered and true bypass as well as how you might consider having a fuzz be first in your chain if you getting crap out of it.

Very useful information indeed. I consulted this video before I build my 1st pedalboard. I am looking forward to having things nice n tidy.

I just got back from your masterclass, came home to watch the new rick beato video. business as usual

How cool is that living that close to Rick Beato 👍

I'm late to the party on this one. Rhett is using a good practice by crossing audio lines and power lines at 90 degrees but with DC current as the power it doesn't matter. There can be no induced noise in the audio cables with DC current running in the power cables.

When rick was picking all of the pedals he wanted on the board it reminded me of Steve Martin in the movie "The Jerk" when he was taking all his stuff out the office after they kicked him out... LOL

Great demonstration guys. I am about to build my own pedalboard too and wondered if I should put an auto-wah before or after my Noise Gate, Overdrive and Distortion pedals? I also will put a Chorus, Delay & Flanger on; do they go later in the chain too?

I need THIS fuzz pedal, and that's all I need. I need THIS tube screamer, and the fuzz pedal, and that's ALL that I need. Okay, THIS flanger, this tube screamer, and this fuzz, and that's ALL I need... and this chair. And this THERMOS! And the paddle ball game! And this remote control...

I think all I need is compression. I have a Gibson copy (Washburn F-hole), with a humbucker, tone gives me all I can use, because I just furiously strum. And sing. Bass to alto, with an error rate. I can sing "falsetto" that isn't false. Suck on that, Mr. Love Me Do, Paul McCartney, and Robert Plant. Think "Whole Lotta Love" meets Satchmo. I'm a legend in my own mind.

Most pedals will be diode protected against attempting to power them with a center positive power supply if they are center negative (and vice versa). The real issue is powering a 9V pedal with a higher voltage. Some can take it but pedals that use charge pumps like the Klon Centaur, EHX Soul Food, Idiotbox Han-Tuan etc. cannot.

Beginner here. How do you set-up a multi-effects processor pedal along with the other stomp effects pedals? Where does it fall on the signal chain?

Thanks for PTMT advice. Once I have more than 4 pedals I'll know what to do! However, it did seem more like assembling a pedal board rather than building but now I'm just splitting hairs.

Cool vid. Brings back memories...Dude, what is the beat that plays in the background every so often?? I love it.

I leaned a lot today! Amazing!! THANK YOU!!!!!

Gator board over 10 years ago, CryBaby, Bad Monkey, BBII, DS !, Vibro Thang, Behringer UC100. Wish there was room for my Holy Stain.

Thanks for using "unchained" to demo that flanger

How do you not pick the D&M Drive? It is EPIC!!

Nothing more satisfying than the wail of a tube screamer...

Did I miss something here?? He has 12 pedals hooked up to an 8 output voodoo lab power.. How is he powering the other pedals with batteries, daisy chained the other 4 with the poly tune or the voodoo? The voodoo lab doesn’t like to daisy chain pedals unless you get a special cable. Also daisy chains create noise.. Didn’t get to hear what it sounds like.. is there is any noise? Is he using amp distortion or using the overdrive as the distortion? That would change some of that pedal order..

Hi Rick! I think your videos are great! We are about the same age, and I like alot of the music you do. I have played guitar since the mid '70s too. Anyway, I just wanted to say Thanks for teaching me so many things about music and guitar. 😎👍🏻 PS - Could you please include a 'Harmonic Energizer' pedal in some upcoming video? 'TRISKELLION' is the pedal I've heard & it's Like nothing else. Thanks again & keep up the good work! 👋🏼

Gonna have to consider getting a fuzz now...lol I'm just starting out in the pedal journey... gonna start with polytune, at least one drive, and ditto looper...i think. In my wish list of drives is MXR Sugar Drive, TS Mini, and Soul Food...maybe something else... Aside from drives, eventially I may add a Cry Baby mini wah... also on the list is a Dyna Comp or similar, a Hall of Fame 2, Flashback 2, Phase 95, probably some kind of Chorus and/or a Mod11 or some other flexible pedal... hoping to collect 10-12 decent and flexible pedals... Any input on where to start after the tuner , looper, and an OD? or input on that list in general, like what it is missing? Looking to play a wide variety of 70s-now...blues, rock, etc...nothing super hard/heavy like metal... This video was great!

When I was jamming with my band, I used to just lay the pedals on the ground. Primitive.

Doesn’t matter if the cables cross each other. Arrange your pedals so the 1st row are the pedals you use the most.

Your 80’s is lacking. I would not dream of leaving out a chorus. I also like a few delays. Like at least three. Thanks for the video and the fun , rick you da man

I love how he selected the Hog but it didn't make the cut due to the massive amount of real estate required. I'm in the middle of a pedal board rebuild because I bought the hog2 and had to go bigger with my already huge board 🙈😂👌

Can someone be an angel and list the products on this Pedal Rick created as well as links to buying them?

Hehe ih my i had a Steve martin flashback while you were picking pedals.. ahaha Awesome stuff sir.. love the learning shared so very much as well

Rick: This is the first pedal I ever bought... Me: You still have one of your first pieces of gear??? How many guitarists have ANY piece of gear from when they first started??? LOL I wish I could get a few back.

This is great stuff, but can you get even more basic for people like me who know nothing about pedals. What would be is interesting is to hear each pedal separately, than gradually together and then the different things you can do together.

What was the first pedal you held up giving you near perfect tone for “unchanged”

I have a Hammond M3 as well!

Where’s the video of Rick playing through the board?

Rick please the POG (E.H.} goes at 18 volts? thanx

5:17 *He doesn't wah his fuzz sound, he fuzzes his wah sound

Good information. Thanks!

DOD Grunge pedal...nice..

The Pedal Power has 8 outputs. You had many more pedals than that. How do you power them? Batteries?

I use a Boss ME_80.

IMO it's a good idea to upgrade to Dual-Lock

Modulate a delay is the marvelous tho

Greetings from Greece Rick, great content as always! I have my pedals as follows: Guitar > Compressor > Overdrive (preamp) > Gate > Boost > Distortion > Amplifier. Any thoughts guys? Thank you!

How do you connect the patch cable from the top row left, to the bottom row right?

Fuzz first. Always try your fuzz in the first position.

Rick, thank you for your video. I gotta ask - do you consider Detune pedal a PITCH pedal or MODULATION pedal? I own BOSS PS-6, I use it often for its detune mode.

Still trying to figure out where to put the chase bliss mood

may i show you the pedalboots from austria? a pros solution without hook and loop fasteners..

I still think Tilly Shull is a great name for a rock band.

What's the best way to connect the top row of pedals to the bottom row on your board? Looks like you took a short quarter inch cable but is the rest of the cable ziptied or velcro'd to the bottom of the board?

All these pedals : like a kid in a candy shop 🙂so nice

I don't know where my first ten pedals went... You have the first one?!?

Your kids are so cute....That's basically life in my house as well.

"You dont really actually need that much of pedals in your setup" - 5 mins goes by and grabs tons of pedals; lol.

How long did this pedalboard actually last before it was pulled apart and re-configured?

Cool Rick So what's the best way to isolate or loop an unrooly fuzz into your system My base tone is a Diaz Ranger that's gremanium so need something so I can use another G fuzz Thanks

I saw a digitech pedal in there and I've not seen one of those old pedals in years and years. In the teenage years those were considered "budget pedals". IE: Pedals for poor people. LOL! Dudes would make fun of digitech pedals pretty hard but of course teenage boys are very wise.

What is the power source thing underneath the pedalboard for? Aren’t pedals battery powered?

Where's the wah guys? Why not let us hear the final product hooked up to the Plexi?

Good

Rick, do you have a pedal board for your bass rig? If so, would you care to share a pic?

Hey Rick did you ever follow up this episode?

if u had only 8 outlwts from the power supply who did u manage to plug 12 pedals ?

Hey how come no BK Butler Tube Driver? I thought I saw it in the thumbnail of this video ?

rick doin a malmsteen them pedals

theres a half slice of pizza between his stack of pedals up to his chin. like a stoner getting munchies

8:22 Rick looks like a hobbit

the hell with Axe FX. Why if you have a pedal board, plus I traded Axe FX for Bias FX 2

Salut from Brazil, Beato. I am the dentist, we talked by email about your book and Egberto Gismonti. Well, fractal/ Kemper vs Real Gear..... Can you talk about this? I don't have money to waste and make me sad.... What you REALLY think about this? Thanks, my dear ! Mario

11:55 "Ooops"!! Is a pedal gone?

11:54 notice the delay pedal didn't immediately drop to the floor -- it took a few seconds longer and bounced a few times

"Well I want a fuzz pedal. I definitley want a fuzz pedal on there." STORY OF MY LIFE

Now I want a pedal board. 😂 Enjoyed the video!!

no miku no buy

Rick, a "How To Build a BASS Guitar Pedal Board" video from you would probably give me a dopamine overdose.

Plugs in Flanger pedal..plays Unchained. You're so damn cool Rick!

I usually start the chain on the lower level of the board, because I find that I use things early in the chain more frequently (Drives, Wah etc.) wheras I usually am pressing the top row (reverbs and delays) less frequently.

Hi Rick - Looks like the power brick has 8 slots, plus the extra slot on the tuner, but the final board has 11 pedals. What's the magic ? Cheers

You’re like Steve Martin in The Jerk grabbing all those pedals!!

A tip if you want a more permanent solution than Velcro: Most pedals have screws on each corner. Remove 2 diagonally opposite screws. Get "master links" for bicycle chain, and use the flat figure-8 shaped sides (you can get a dozen for a couple bucks). Screw one end of the master link to the pedal corners, then you can screw the other end down to the pedal board It's a good solution if you don't change your pedal board often

When I bought my first two pedals, I quickly learned that it goes wah wah then big muff, not the other way around

Rick: I'm gonna take this pedal, that pedal and all these pedals Me: I'm just gonna stick with this broken $20 amp I found in a dumpster behind a Guitar Center

14:02 This urban myth will never die.… Avoiding to cross signal and power cables is only relevant if the power cables are AC. Only then they create an alternating magnetic field, i.e. electromagnetic waves which can be picked up by the signal cable. So when you build a tube amp you will want to think very carefully about where you put your signal and power leads and how they cross. On a pedal board with 9-24V DC, don't worry. And the picking up of radio signal is a complete different effect that can happen to any circuit with a long wire attached to it, if some part of the circuit happens to be sensitive to radio frequencies, demodulates the radio signal and amplifies it. Doesn't matter if cables are crossed or parallel.