Just finished my MFC pedalboard!

Sixstring said:
That had to have been a BPITA, just out of curiosity what other type of wire did you try?
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I started with regular ol' TRS cables, but that was just too wide to get 2 cables through at the right length since I couldn't stuff the "extra" length back into the tubing. So, I then tried a much thinner set of TRS cables, but again, too big. Finally, I remembered I had a long piece of 8 strand (separately shielded, solid core) leftover from a previous project (Xbox 360 Arcade Stick). The solid core turned out to be great for soldering in the tight space because I could make a little hook with it and loop it through the soldering tab. I must've taken that entire tubing assembly apart 6 or 7 times throughout this process because it's horribly cumbersome... You can't just pull the end of the wire due to the sharp edges of the copper, you have to work the wire through each section independently. The original TRS cables look like a dog got ahold of them from all the snags on the copper joints.

To make matters worse, the right-angle jacks on the MFC, while perfectly measured for assembly, were not measured thinking, "How am I gonna actually plug these in?". After I got it all together I thought, "Crap. How can I plug these in with velcro on the bottom of the MFC?!" so what I ended up doing is spinning the tubing so the jacks are pointed up and out, holding the MFC upside-down, plugging it in and spinning the whole thing over to kind of "land" on the actual pedalboard.
 
that's pretty fantastic.. steampunk is always cool (can also be overdone at times, IMO). what would look good is if u could get ahold of joe bonnamasa sig. crybaby enclosures. the colors would go great with the tubing.
 
Vildhjarta13 said:
that's pretty fantastic.. steampunk is always cool (can also be overdone at times, IMO). what would look good is if u could get ahold of joe bonnamasa sig. crybaby enclosures. the colors would go great with the tubing.
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I tried to get Mission Engineering to do a couple custom colors for me, but they said they only do those for limited runs for outlets, etc... Brushed aluminum was the best color choice and I already had the black one. I wanted a worn copper like the Jerry Cantrell wah. Also, I wanted to put a voltmeter in line and re-label it with "Pressure" so that when I worked the wah pedal the needle would move, but Fractal said that was a bad idea unless I used a pedal with 2 outputs, one for the effect and one for the gauge. I'm working on a little arduino unit that would interpret the pass-through midi signal to vary voltage to a meter for the same effect. I'm not sure how I'm going to route that yet.
 
Sidivan said:
I tried to get Mission Engineering to do a couple custom colors for me, but they said they only do those for limited runs for outlets, etc... Brushed aluminum was the best color choice and I already had the black one. I wanted a worn copper like the Jerry Cantrell wah. Also, I wanted to put a voltmeter in line and re-label it with "Pressure" so that when I worked the wah pedal the needle would move, but Fractal said that was a bad idea unless I used a pedal with 2 outputs, one for the effect and one for the gauge. I'm working on a little arduino unit that would interpret the pass-through midi signal to vary voltage to a meter for the same effect. I'm not sure how I'm going to route that yet.
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Awesome job! Really inventive, looks great!


Sent from my iPhone
 
HwyStar said:
Where does the water come out of! That is the cleanest board on the forum! Great, I mean fabulous workmanship! What kind of fittings did you use below the board to secure the tubing?
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The pipes/water are to keep it cool, as the Axe-FX is hot!
 
Wow, this was from two years ago! This board has over 100 gigs on it now and there's been some modifications.

At first I had everything attached with Godlyke Griptape aka super crazy Velcro. The problem was I had to pop off the MFC once and couldn't get the Velcro to lock again! The MFC would bang around causing all kinds of wiring issues in the pipes. I re-soldered things several times, which is a MASSIVE pain in the ass in the pipes.

So now that's screwed into the base. The only problem I have had since was in that process, I apparently broke a solder point on the cables on the inside of the pipes and haven't fixed it yet. I just disabled the volume pedal on the axe fx because I never used it anyway.

The kicktags two piece design simply didn't hold up to the way I stomp on things. Apparently, I drag my foot too much across the switch. They broke in like, 10 shows, but I still used them after that because I didn't have anything else. Gigwrx did a custom set for me and they are outstanding. They are holding up to all the abuse, barely move on the board, and look great even after 60+ shows!
 
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That's the first copper conduit I've ever seen in a footswitch.

If your pedals ever shit the bed, you're in good hands!
 
Sidivan said:
Wow, this was from two years ago! This board has over 100 gigs on it now and there's been some modifications.

At first I had everything attached with Godlyke Griptape aka super crazy Velcro. The problem was I had to pop off the MFC once and couldn't get the Velcro to lock again! The MFC would bang around causing all kinds of wiring issues in the pipes. I re-soldered things several times, which is a MASSIVE pain in the ass in the pipes.

So now that's screwed into the base. The only problem I have had since was in that process, I apparently broke a solder point on the cables on the inside of the pipes and haven't fixed it yet. I just disabled the volume pedal on the axe fx because I never used it anyway.

The kicktags two piece design simply didn't hold up to the way I stomp on things. Apparently, I drag my foot too much across the switch. They broke in like, 10 shows, but I still used them after that because I didn't have anything else. Gigwrx did a custom set for me and they are outstanding. They are holding up to all the abuse, barely move on the board, and look great even after 60+ shows!
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Glad to hear the labels are holding up! That set is still one of my favorites, really a creative board you put together.


Sent from my iPhone
 
Looks like a few joints aren't soldered(might get some leaks):D other than that its freakin cool:encouragement:
 
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