12" x 24" pedalboard ideas

gdgross

gdgross

Experienced
got my ax8 yesterday, yeah! Plan on making a new pedalboard with the ax8 and two exp pedals. My old pedalboard was an LF+JR+ with the same two exp pedals and it was great. I had it all screwed into a piece of plywood that *just* fit inside my rack.

Id like to do the same with the ax8, but as there are knobs and buttons and such that need protection during transport, I need to have a case for it, as there I'll no longer be a rack to slide it into.

I can fit the ax8 and both pedals on a 12x24" area, so the simplest solution is a piece of plywood from Home Depot, but I'd need a case to fit that in for transport.

Alternatively, I could purchase a separate 12x24 pedalboard, but I'm not really a fan of all these fancypants pedalboard options I see these days. (Or the prices!) I literally want a 12x24" piece of wood or metal that fits snugly into a case with, say, 3 or 4 inches or so of headroom. Then I can bolt use the bottom screw holes of the ax8 and exp pedals to hard mount it all and it'll be super solid.

I like the idea of the nyc pedalboard cases, in fact i used to use one before I went digital. I'd love to show up to a gig, pop the top off my pedalboard and just have everything bolted to the bottom and ready to go.

Any ideas? Why are you all doing?
 
I don't have an AX8 but I built a 12x24.5 board for it and an expression from a piece of 3/4" 25x12 plywood and bought a Mono M80 PB2 bag for it that fits great. My board has short (1/2") rubber feet on it and everything fits in the case nicely. Snug but not snug.

Considered the board only costs me $15 spending $150 on the bag was no biggie for me.
 
what exp pedal do you have? You should be able to fit 2 exp + ax on a board that size if the exp are the size of a mission engineering pedal and you would have pretty have to have all the pedal's touching each other
 
brokenvail said:
what exp pedal do you have? You should be able to fit 2 exp + ax on a board that size if the exp are the size of a mission engineering pedal and you would have pretty have to have all the pedal's touching each other
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One mission eng pedal and one Ernie ball JR...just barely fits inside of 24" :)
 
I needed a little room on the sides of my board for the handles (stainless steel cupboard handles) and I wanted a little breathing room between everything too. The right angle cables coming out of the ME expression pedal add a little room room.

A little space here and there adds up.
 
Matt_B_77 said:
I needed a little room on the sides of my board for the handles (stainless steel cupboard handles) and I wanted a little breathing room between everything too. The right angle cables coming out of the ME expression pedal add a little room room.

A little space here and there adds up.
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Yeah I've got those super flat pancake style right angle plugs coming out of the mission. All told, it just barely fits! I wonder if thr exp pedals might need booster seats though, as they're right next to the side of the ax8, which is just a bit taller at the top.
 
The handles I added make it real easy to remove the board from the bag (and off the floor) took away about 1.5 inches plus I allowed for some space (another 1.5"?) on their insides so I don't hit the MFC or exp pedal when I pick it up.

I should just post a pic because I'm proud of my little project :) Still need to cut the cables to the right length though.
 
My board, the MFC and SP-1 all weight about 18-19 lbs. Adding a road case would have doubled that to 40 lbs.
 
Sleestak said:
For 12x24, you might look for a used PedalTrain PT-2 with flight case.
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I looked at that too and felt it would end up making the back row of the MFC101 too tall (a little over 6") for my tastes. Don't know what the overall height would be with the AX8.
 
Matt_B_77 said:
I looked at that too and felt it would end up making the back row of the MFC101 too tall (a little over 6") for my tastes. Don't know what the overall height would be with the AX8.
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Yes, it might be too much pitch, depending on how high you like the back of the unit to be. I've seen a few users who flipped the PedalTrain boards upside down, but then you have the side rails imposing on the usable space. You could also buy that combo, sell the board, and build a flat board to go inside the case. The PT2 / PT3 hard case is 16x24 inches inside. Those things are pretty common, which is why I'd recommend looking around for one. Try your local CraigsList to avoid shipping, but also search on eBay for a deal.

I am building a smaller controller pedalboard for my AxeFX, and happen to have a PedalTrain PT-2 with flight case that was part of a previous tour setup. I put the board aside, built a 12x24 flat board to fit inside the case, and then mounted a LiquidFoot LF+JR+ and two EV-1 pedals on it. I have the MFC-101, and it's great. But I've also discovered, as I gotten more proficient at programming the AxeFX, that I don't need a big board any more. A smaller, lighter controller saves me weight and size (and therefore cartage cost) on tour.
 
I looked for PT-2 bags and finally gave up because they seemed really hard to find. The Mono bag may be expensive but it's built incredibly well. I figure if I'd be OK carrying a $2K guitar in one of the bags I'd have no issues with carrying a $650 pedal board.

That reminds me - I need to get around to buying a Mono electric guitar gig bag soon. ;)
 
This is probably a long shot, but does anyone have a hole/screw template or drawing for the six threaded holes on the bottom of the ax8?

I'd like to hard mount it from the bottom of the pedalboard, after removing the rubber feet. It feels a little heavy to rely on Velcro, plus I've always hard mounted the exp pedals in the past.
 
I think building your own is a great idea. No sense wasting money on fancypants, when there's Home Depot.

Unless of course you like something like a Nova 24 (Like I did).
 
gdgross said:
This is probably a long shot, but does anyone have a hole/screw template or drawing for the six threaded holes on the bottom of the ax8?

I'd like to hard mount it from the bottom of the pedalboard, after removing the rubber feet. It feels a little heavy to rely on Velcro, plus I've always hard mounted the exp pedals in the past.
Click to expand...

Do you have an AX8 already? If so, take the feet off, flip it over, grab a couple sheets of paper and tape then together length wise, lay it on the AX8, mark the holes......BOOM!!! Homemade template!
 
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