Do it yourself patch panel for Axe-Fx

bammbamm

Experienced
Hi there,

I am thinking of getting a patch panel for my Axe-Fx XL. I could order them custom but it's pretty expensive. So I thought, maybe I could make them on my own and probably would be a good learning experience as well.

Do you guys have any tips on where to get excellent parts, panels, cables, connectors, etc. and what brands you recommend?

Thanks!
 
DIY will not actually save you much in this case.

Redco Custom Panel Designer | Redco Audio

Very customizable, good rep on gear slutz, I've got a loaded one headed my way any day now for far less than a few others quoted me.

+1 on Redco

I bought all my parts there to make my own.
Exept for the 7 pin Midi....I kept f'ing that up because the wire is so small, so I had Hans from Vafam make me one.
 
honestly I would say your better off just trying to find a used Vafam panel. I picked mine for around $75 on this forum. I cant see it being much less than that if at all. Just my opinion. At least you know the build quality will be great and you save the hassle of having to do it yourself.
 
I made my own 12 port patch panel for my Axe FX rig:

Axe_FXII_6u_Rack_1978_700_zps2b17b02b.jpg


It was a fiddly job (I'm not the greatest nor most confident wielder of a soldering iron), and the cost of the parts soon added up. The ethernet and usb pass-throughs were blinkin' expensive here, for example. In parallel, I had Vafam do a similar panel for my analogue rig, which ended up only marginally more expensive and certainly better constructed than mine!

My advice: if you're good at soldering, or just want to have a project for the sake of it, go for it. If not, buy from Vafam. YMMV, etc, etc
 
It might not be a big money-saver, but there IS some money to be saved and honestly, the satisfaction I got from making my own patch panel was pretty fulfilling.

Soldering is a very handy skill to have (and it's cheap to practice). Plus, if, for some weird reason I needed to quickly reconfigure a panel it only takes me a few minutes.

Many of my friends who've seen my patch panel (and most of them are still using traditional amp->rack-> cab F/X setups) have had me make panels for them as well, made a fair chunk that way.

I'm in NO way dismissing the quality and customer support of Redco and Vafam, they're great folks and I've done a lot of business with them, but sometimes it's fun to do something on your own just because you CAN.

Investing in a quality soldering station (about $100 gets you a GREAT Hakko unit from Amazon), makes all the difference in the world.
 
It is very easy to make your own if your use pass through connectors. Redco has pass through XLR, 1/4th, USB, ethernet/ethercon etc

Don't have to solder anything, and really just need a screwdriver to put each of the D-style jacks into the panel.

Its also nice and modular so if you were to say need another set of outputs, you could swap out something else maybe you don't use like a midi jack.
 
Dude...I've got a crap load of XLR and Ethercon jacks. They're used, but they are pulls from church so they aren't beat to crap. I'd be happy to get you some cheap. It's all neutrik stuff. Shoot me a PM and lemme know what you need and we can discuss. It's all sitting in my shop getting dusty. I think I even have some bulk xlr left too.
 
I used vented rack panels, about $6 each, instead of prepunched panels. I just cut out the holes for the pass through connects using a Dremel. Took about 30 seconds as the vented panel is mostly empty space to start with.

I like the look of a clean front so the only connector I put up there was an ethercon jack for my MFC. I like this on the front as I often disconnect it when updating FW, and its also in front of me on stage.

Rear connectors are all pass through, no solder needed. I also hooked up 2 Powercon True1 output connectors, coming from the outputs of my Furman, for powering my monitors. Don't really need Powercon, but it cost the same as edison style connectors so why not.....
 
Vafam made both of my rack panels. I happen to have pretty decent soldering skills and a general bias toward DIY. However, when I started to add up the cost of just the parts to make the panels I needed, there wasn't much financial advantage in doing them myself. I was looking at purchasing between one and four units of the various connectors I needed, and just a few feet of each type of cable, so there was no quantity discount for any of those items. The actual difference in total price between buying the parts, and buying a finished panel was around $40, and I knew it would take me at least one afternoon to do all the mounting, soldering, and testing.

Dealing with Vafam is really great. They're fantastic, responsive, and delivered my finished panels in less time that it would have taken me to get the raw parts from various suppliers.
 
Remember too that just because some people have 12+ jacks on their panel that not everyone needs 12 jacks on their panel.

I think plenty of users just use 1 pair of stereo outs, plug into the front input jack, and maybe use a USB and Ethernet/con jack. If you don't use midi clock, skip it. Do you use AES or SPDIF ? Skip it (USB works great). Do you run an FX loop ? No ? Don't bother with extra inputs, front panel does fine. Each connector is money, and a connector you never plug into is money wasted.

Buy what YOU need, not what other people you've seen might have. I have a second stereo output pair, and 2 Powercon outs so I can run/power 2 powered monitors, in addition to have a stereo FOH output. Works fantastic for me, but saving the cost of 2 TS jack and 2 Powercon's frees up some cash.
 
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