I love the fact that you take the time to answer most every comment. Be they negative or positive. Oh and the content is great too. Thanks for what you do!
I tear up and rebuild my boards about once a month. They all look like hell. Kinda like the munched and crunched post-car-wreck Civic smoking down the freeway. I'm always blown away by your work Mason!
beautifully done. My best practice for pedal board management is i just don't have one (crying internally). Would be cool if you ever get an acoustic board to show some DI options and routing.
Hey Mason do you have a video explaining how to route patch cables underneath a pedal? I got some that are on the top row and since my powerbank is underneath the board I need to loop the patch cable around the board which looks untidy. Is it just a matter of gluing some material so that the pedals are elevated so the cables can fit underneath? I'm aiming for a no cable look.
Proper cable management makes a pedalboard easy to troubleshoot and easy on the eyes. Today, I'm showing you how to route your cables like the pros, so you can get beautiful photo-worthy cable looms with ease! Please tell us any of your best practices for cable routing or any questions you have about this video! BUY Vertex Zip Ties, Tie Mounts, Velcro: www.therigdr.com/products/tone-essentials-kit
Mason, there are a few pedals that require low voltage AC or even power line voltage AC. There could be a hum issue if these are not properly routed. In theory, as far away as possible from the audio lines. The shielding in the audio lines stop most of the noise.
Dee - he says at 1:47 - "...not enough to make a difference when talking about DC," a few seconds before that he says "It's not like AC". It's all there bro
Mason What is your connector cable labeling standard? Do you label both ends, the straight and pancake?🤷🏼♂️ IN , OUT, SND, RTN, Using a mobius pedal; MB SND, MB IN…. Etc Thanks for the help!
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YDowhQxmN88.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z88EXSn9QY8.html I was just looking these up :)
Can you recommend a cable tiedown/clip with built-in release like ones found at a hardware store, so we don't need to mess with clipping and reattaching a dozen zip ties to swap a cable or pedal?
There are some that I use from Amazon that are like a C shape. The ends of the C come together at an adjustable depth and you can pull up on a notch to open the cable holder back up again. Only issue is the sticky feet that leave gunk.
I don't have a tested solution since I wouldn't use these on a rig. The zip tie thing won't loose tention over time, i've found the clip ones are not particularly robust if you're detaching/reattaching them regularly.
Adam, search for “VTECHOLOGY Cable Zip Ties, 8 Inch Heavy Duty Releasable Cable Ties” on Amazon, that’s what I bought for my pedalboard (100-pack for $6). The head is a little bit on the bigger side, but it works for me :)
Hey, I am brand new into the pedalboard/pedal world of guitar playing, and I am bummed it took me so long to start. But with that, I was overwhelmed to try because I didn't understand how to start. Do you have a step-by-step guide where you place the pedals and connect them? PS: This is the first video I have watched that has made me feel like I could figure it out. So thank you for this video!
If you don't have enough space for larger mounts, you can put cable tie-down mounts using the "Omilion Technique" but tie the power cables on the even mounts and the audio cables on the odds. Also, if my power supply is underneath, why not run my power cables under the board and my audio cables on top?
Mason, I have an old Roland Phase II, AP-2 that takes TWO 9-volts. What would you recommend as a DC input. I’m assuming I’d have to drill a hole, but that’s about as far as I know. I’ve tried using adapters to connect to the power supply, but that does not seem to be working, so back 2 9-volts.
You could take the battery leads and re-terminate them as their own DC jacks and clip off the battery clip. OR you could get those pigtails from Voodoo Lab that allow you to clip to a battery clip inside the pedal and bring it out the main power supply. You'd have to drill it either way. Ideally put a grommet or something in the hole you drill do you don't cut up the cable rubbing against the drilled hole.
i prefer the reusable cable tie anchors that dont require the zip ties. the strap may over hang a little but it is still very neat and less material, esp. for a home pedalboard.
How about cutting your DC cables?...like if they are too long,do you cut them to length and resolder them together??Typically,that’s where my board gets messy,with the extra DC power cables maybe being too long,and I end up with a lot of excess....
Sure, do it, I have a few tutorials on how to do that if you look through our catalogue and I have diagrams for all the different types of cables including current and voltage doublers.
Hi Rig Doctor Happy Memorial Day. My question is how do you take an ISP THETA PRO and 10 pedals and wire the THETA PRO to act as a pedal switcher as well as the direct box that it is made to be please thank you 🙏
I started with a Yamaha workstation then the GAS exploded in my brain causing me to grow my collection of synths, pedals and keyboards to a point where my cable situation has become a birds nest of cables. Every time I look at it I tell myself ‘I will get around to organising that’. Thanks for the tips.
I noticed that you are endorsing the PowerGrip Pedal fastener already, does that mean you changed from Dual Lock to PowerGrip? is Power Grip better than Dual Lock?
I preferred because it only requires one density in order to get the same fastening power as it would require for two different densities of 3M Dual Lock. Traditionally, I’d use SJ3550 mated to SJ3551. With Power Grip it’s stronger and you can mate it to itself. Makes it so I just stock one part number. Also the adhesive doesn’t leave residue.
We use the provided cables with the power supplies and shorten them to length. You don't need a "Mogami" or something like that for DC power, the properties of the cables and things like capacitance aren't a factor for the low current/voltage DC power.
Question: can the 24v cable that connects a power supply, say a Strymon Ojai, to the AC-DC transformer block, run parallel with the DC lines connecting the power supply to the pedals?
Great video and advice! In my case, I'm not in a position, right now, to solder patch cables and power cables to length. For the foreseeable future, I gotta use the stock cables that come with my MXR ISO Brick and flat Ernie Ball Ribbon patch cables. Any advice on how best i can handle my cable management? No footswitch, just one pedal after another.
Oof, ISO Brick cables. My advice would be to ditch them as soon as you're able. Voodoo Labs uses the same connectors so I'd recommend those. Their output splitters and current doublers are a godsend too. I run a board with 5 analog pedals, 5 digital pedals, 2 multieffects, a pair of dedicated amp and cab modelers and a parallel line mixer on an ISO Brick and an ISO Mini thanks to MXR and VL using the same connector.
If it’s just DC you will not have this problem, if it’s AC, then you could be getting into more issues regarding noise. If your board is picking up noise with just DC power next to the audio, then there’s something else wrong with the board that doesn’t have anything to do with the power.
Mcsteveberry - i’ve run countless tests on this as some verify they can hear this noise, but what I found is that they’re actually running audio cables near the transformer in their power supply and that’s what’s actually causing the noise, nothing to do with the DC cables.
Hello Doc! I just bought a Cioks DC7 and I find it a bit difficult to route dc cables especially on pedals that have the input and output on the top side (like the new boost mk2). Do you use risers or lifters in that case? I have a custom flat board and the dc cable of the dc7 is touching the surface of the board. Thank you 😊
You can 1) use straight connectors here, or 2) got past the pedal and loop them back around to the DC jack - this also give you more slack if you change pedals and the DC is in a different location.
@@VertexEffectsInc Thank you doc! i have sp500 everywhere (watched your soldering videos) so i am going to use your second method, in fact i have seen this method in several videos and photos (facebook) of yours!!! Thank you so much!!!!! Cheers!
Mason, did I hear you say in one of your videos on power supplies that digital boxes were more prone to noise? Is that true? And, do you recall which video that was in?
Only circumstantially - with some of the older linear power supplies you can have issues with any pedal being above the transformer, however I've noticed that digital pedals are more prone to oscillate with the magnetic leakage than some of the analog pedals. This is a generalization of course, but I would use switch mode only if at all possible so this is never a concern.
@@VertexEffectsInc Thanks for your quick reply, Mason. Can you tell me which video it was where you mentioned that? I'd like to go back and watch the whole thing again.
Also, what are your thoughts on the Palmer Universal pedalboard Power Supply (PWT12MK2) ?? I can't tell if it's switched or not, and nothing in their lit or site indicates this. But I'm guessing, based on the high currents provided, it's probably switched?
Actually the yarn ball issue can prove very problematic when you have a powered TRS instrument cable for your guitar with active electronics, if the powered section of instrument cable is looped at least once (to form an antenna) and merely draped over nonpowered instrument cable you can induce hum/RF into the non-powered cables. Had this issue with my Variax power supply, one day had some nasty num and after switching around many cables, pedals, and power cords I narrowed it down to my XPS power supply for my Variax or its instrument cable - it was just because I was storing that cable looped up on my pedal board, even after I plugged into my guitar there was always 1 small loop just chilling on my pedals. Avoid that and you're problem-free lol
Haven’t looked too hard yet, but still having trouble finding a DC power cable that will go from the one 1 Spot to my boss chorus CE-2. I remember having trouble even finding a wall wart one. So, still gotta plug my boss chorus, straight into the wall.
Yeah, turns out my one spot did too. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just using the extra power port on my BOSS TU-2 to power the chorus. But I’ve switched things around now, and just clicked the one stop switch to 12 V for the chorus. Thanks man! 🤘🏻🔥🎸🇺🇸
Hi! Are alumium pedalboards shielding the cables - if I'm mounting the signalcables on the upside and the powercables on the downside on the Pedaltrain?
Most people ship their rigs, that's standard, you can also watch our video on the "Cost To Build A Pedalboard" we list rig builders all over the country that offer these services, some in IL like Best Tronics.
HEY DOCTOR How many pedals do you feel you can use daisy chained ie :A one spot daisy chain. I have used 6 this way in a bar with neon , single coils , without issue what's the cutoff ? thanx PS Fender Twin clean if that is the difference.
dude dont mix analog with digital or digital with digital, only use the amount of mA given on the power added up to all your pedals and use isolated power
I would say 2-3 is normal, but I use an isolated supply so the other effects don't share the same power . I would consider getting something isolated from Truetone if you're having an issue with noise. Sometimes you can get away with more than 2-3 but generally they have to all be analog, low current, and not have any clocking in them or digital circuits.
I have over 40+ pedals...I love them all and hate them all because they always sound awesome until I put them together!😂 ...I think I'll sell half and get a 2 Rock amp 😂
20 tie down mounts for $15 plus shipping at the rig dr? I went with the same mount but got 100 with ties included for $10 and free shipping from Amazon.
The presumption you're making is that any zip tie and tie down mount is the same. There is different test strengths for the the zip ties, typically 4" aren't much over 10 lbs, maybe 20, but the ones on Amazon aren't the same standard as the ones you'd get from Hellermann-Tyton that are marine-grade. Same with the tie down mounts, also marine-grade. The versions we spec are specifically because we've tried them all and these are the ones that last, that won't lift off with humidity or liquid being spilled on them. I can't provide free shipping...sorry, not enough margin in these to do this and we're not Amazon. If you want the same stuff we use, you can buy it on our site - if you want the Amazon stuff, it's cheaper, but not the same quality. There's no regulation on the Amazon stuff and most of it wont' be use in the same conditions as a pedalboard so to many consumers the quality difference would go unnoticed and they can't tell that the 3M adhesive is not really from 3M, just stamped as such in the factory it's made in overseas.
@@VertexEffectsInc Fair enough, but I just want some thingies to tie up my cables, I'm certain I don't need marine grade and test strengths aren't important to me. And if anything gets so moist that the adhesive fails that's my canary in the coal mine. I appreciate the reply.
@@thomaskendrick6766 the point of having it on the site is if people want what we use, they can get it. We've vetted the right stuff, if that makes sense, great, if not - Uncle Jeff will gladly accept your zip tie money over at Amazon.
Um, isn't this the same dude from the sweetwater pedalboard mistakes video, that was telling you to run your patch and power cables at right angles from each other??
Great info as always. My big & obvious message to anyone building their 1st rig = make sure, are all pedals, cables & connections Work-Perfectly, before committing to Dual-lock and cable management or permanent tie-down. I learned this - the hard way.
I watched the whole video, but maybe I missed it...can someone please clarify what "THIS SECRET" was? I mean, the one that other "PRO RIG BUILDERS DON'T WANT US TO KNOW"? Surely it wasn't merely blue painter's tape, right?
As a guitar tech, I've found that staggering the top row of pedals compared to the bottom row helps insure the artist is less likely to hit a switch on a bottom pedal when hitting the switch on a pedal on the top row. This isn't always possible to do with some pedals and pedal board dimensions, but it's a good rule to start with when building a new board.
My favorite thing is building my board, plugging in and everything works perfectly, taking my board to jam and 2 or 3 pedals make noise or have a bunch of tone suck. FML
Great vid man! You should make a "review your pedalboard" series. I would love to see some tricks and tips on the pedalboards of viewers as myself. Something like once a month or so would be a nice change :D
I used 3m dual lock to cover the top of my PT Classic Pro and actually attached my cable tie down mounts to small squares of dual lock essentially creating a sandwich so that my cable management mounts are modular. I’m constantly changing my board around and found this to be a time saver if your support line changes due to different sized pedals. Always good advice here, thank you for the tips.
You know wut... I wish Morningstar would come out with a 10 loop version of the ML5 that could rearrange the order of loops. That would make doing something like this more practical/permanent. 5 loops just isn’t enough and all the other pedal switchers are way too bulky
@@VertexEffectsInc that very light bulb has been flickering for a while now. only problem is I can't change the order still unless I put a order switcher between both ML5's. I have faith in the pedal gods that Morningstar or another awesome brand will make it happen. The ML10
My suggestion would be to purchase velcro cable ties, snip off the end with the hole that wraps around the cable, and run them through the cable tie mounts. Leave enough length to provide a lot of contact area for the velcro, how much depends on how many cables are in the run. This is the method I use on boards that will see constant modification.
The main issue I’m having regarding arranging my pedals is keeping them in order according to how they will function best and having specific pedals on the front row that want to keep accessible while keeping my “always on” pedals on the back row where they’re out of the way; unfortunately this seems to make for crazy cable routing. I’m trying to grasp using junction box interfaces which is new to me. Thanks for your videos. I’m hoping this makes finding solutions to these issues more understandable for me.
This is why I use either a multifx or modeling SW like TH-U. No time, no mess and infinitely customizable in an instant. Have fun playing with your cables, I'm getting back to playing guitar 🎸 😂
Ok apart from being amazingly beautifull and somone could even say inspiring to have a nit pedalboard to play with, I would say that for up to 8-9 pedals troubleshooting would not get easier if I had locked all the cables in place . It might be easier to identify the problem but to unmake everything and recconect it as dumd as it may sound it would be easier to just take off a cable (power or jack) and just put another without having to worry where does it tie down what was the path of the previous cable and do I have to unscrew or pop off something just to put it back in place etc. So in conclusion for smaller boards if you just know where your patches and power cables connect to its the same if not easier to troubleshoot and replace them. (talking about a live situation mostly where you need to be quick) Consider leaving them as "free" as possible (try to maybe tidy up a bit and make sure they re not in range of random hits/spilling drinks and accidents).
Little Velcro strips, at least in the assembly stage, can be useful when bundling the cables, and predicting how the cables will look. Great tutorial, nonetheless. Also, not related to the topic, and updates on the Boost? The reason I ask is because Xotic came out with their volume pedals, and possibly other companies have released volume pedals recently.
Awesome- I'm starting a flat board build soon and these are just the kinds of tips I need! I'm likely gonna have to jury-rig one or more risers for the second row of my board, and have power supplies & some audio routing underneath. We've seen examples of that in your builds, but I'm wondering if you'll do (or have done!) a dedicated video on that?
A dedicated video on adding a tier to a pedalboard? Check out Rhett Shull's rig build or what we did for Anthony Best or even Erick Walls...we added a tiered second row to a flat board.
Those were pretty small 1.25” mounts. 😝 I like to roll those zip ties so that the sharp edge is facing down against the board-once they are cut. But looks good. I much rather use a Pedaltrain type of board, where all the cabling and powers adapters are underneath! 🤘🏻😝🎸🇺🇸
Damn you, Mason. I just re-wired my board last weekend and this would have been helpful THEN, NOT YESTERDAY! That said, mine looks really neat and tidy anyway, and maybe just shy of the professionalism here.
As always uncle mason awesome 😎 video I’ve learned a lot about pedalboard solder cables and more thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and your time 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿💯
Mason, Good Day! How do you prioritize your pedal locations on the pedal board? Is it signal path or geography on the board? IOWs- if fit was an issue, would you put a pedal farther out of the signal path (& use a longer cable to reach it) to fit on the board? OR set up the board in signal path order and deal with the fit problems?
Two things: 1. buy cheap zip-ties (expensive ones are no better) 2. always make sure everything is working before you tie it down If you're not always changing things on your pedalboard, having all the wiring secured will prevent you from having to troubleshoot anything because it's much less likely to fail. I mean how is putting your pedal curcuit boards in a metal box fastened with screws meant to make trouble shooting easier - it's not. It's meant to protect it so it doesn't need troubleshoooting.
I was always on the same side you're on. It really is a preventative thing. Less likely to get stuff hooked onto lets say, a flight case lock as you move stuff which makes damage to be far less likely. When you gotta move stuff around alot, then chances are, stuff is getting a little beat up anyway.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I have a question about troubleshooting a rig. When I use a certain bass and run through my 19 pedal-board with 2 buffers and every pedal bypassed, I sometimes clip my amp pre. But when I plug straight into the amp with the same bass it never clips. The bass is passive, the buffers are TC Elec. Bonafide. Could the buffers be beefing my signal too much? The pickups are quite hot as is.
Aaron, it might be something else on the rig doing this. Have you tried, Bass - TC - Amp and seeing if you take them off the board to test if the buffer is doing this. A buffer is always unity gain by definition.
Haha. I would never think on my own to use nearly that many tie down mounts, but it does look nice. I hope you left some for the rest of us, though ;-).
Great vid, Mason. In other builds you've spoken about not running power and audio side by side, rather crossing as infrequently as possible at right angles. Have I misinterpreted or do you not feel this is that significant anymore? Thx!
Man I'd love to have such a clean pedal board, but I'm always messing around with the pedal order and moving them from fx loop to front of amp. My pedal board i's a mess but it's fluid
Thank you for the vid!!! It looked to me that when you routed the dc back to the supply from the farthest pedal, you zip tied it the entire way. So what do you do when you route for the next pedal and add another cable to the run? Do you clip the zips from the second pedal and then add then rezip the back to the supply? My biggest issue has been keeping things organized as I add pedals to a run.
You'd clip the zip tie where you were adding a cable, but in the video I didn't apply zip ties until a cable was added into the loom or row of cable leads. So tie down mounts go down first, then bring the cables as you got and zip tie them as you go, adding each additional cable to the wire loom.
Mason, finally got all my parts and supplies to build my Temple Audio Duo 24 board. I appreciate all the past help and suggestions, from solder to cables. My next question is: do you have a preference on whether to run your patch cables under or on top of the board? (My power supply will be mounted underneath and the power cables will run underneath as well). Thanks again.
Nice tutorial Mason. One question, do you ever have signal issues running the audio cables next to or on top of the DC cables? I’ve read and been told in the past not to run signal wires parallel and next to power line. Essentially make a separate run and to only cross perpendicularly.
As stated in the video, if it's DC it doesn't matter. If it's AC then you'll have an issue. People that are saying that either don't understand or mean AC lines, not DC.
