So sorry. Just now saw this.
The toggle switch powers the tuner (and anything else I care to add) & turns on the retro, completely gratuitous jewel light.
It also powers two small LEDs, located behind the front facing custom placards. So that I have the option of illuminating them when I want to. I chose two Bible verses that mean quite a lot to me personally. I also had those same verses repeated facing upward on the deck, so that I see them every time I look down. They kinda keep my ego in check, after I look at all my whacky labels. LOL Most of the time, I just drop the pedalboard down and just use it without power. The CAT5 option allows me to connect using only one single cable to make my whole pedalboard live. The controller pedals have 9v batteries in them, but those are only powering the LEDs on those pedals. So one battery in each of the three SP1 pedals should last me about five years.
The footswitch at the very bottom right is a silent switching tuner mute, IF I am patched into the tuner. This cuts any signal going past that point for silent tuning, regardless of setup.
The tuner is sub-deck mounted, so all that shows through the hardwood board is the tuner screen. Helweg Custom Pedalboards does this as a custom feature. They just charge you for a TU-3 tuner, and then take the guts out of the pedal, and place them into their own custom iso box that can be affixed to the bottom of the deck. I patch into the tuner and back out through two 1/4" jack cups on the right side. I really like the AXE-FX II's tuner - very stable! I had added the TU-3 tuner more or less for future flexibility of the board, and just in case the AXE didn't tune 5 string bass, upright bass, or mandolin well. But it seems to do just fine. Also, the tuner is powered from the three-prong extension on the left side (away from signal path - although there is no signal path if I am not routed into the tuner -- no hum, no noise, even with single coils! Yay!). And I can add on later by just adding a pedal power, etc. But, haven't needed any powered pedals with the AXE-FX/MFC setup.
I do connect via the CAT5 cable. I merely don't have it plugged in for this pic.
4 pedals: 1 SP1 is always volume, and white, just in case of dark stage. The other three are all EP1 pedals, and I got them with the toe switch.
Thanks for the thumbs up. I spent quite a lot of time planning this board out. Michael Helweg at Helweg Custom Pedalboards was more than patient with me. We sourced a nice slab of quilted maple. And I had to give him all the route locations and dimensions by careful approximation. As they are all different locations, due to the arch positioning of the pedals, and the jacks being on the left side of each. So that was all done by eyeball, using the reverse side of Christmas wrapping paper that has the 1/2 inch grid imprinted on it, a ruler and a lot of patience. Thankfully the routes all came out just perfect. And the right angle plugs all worked perfectly the first time, with no rubbing. I was amazed.
I had it all enclosed in a custom ATA-4 road case by Jan-Al Cases in downtown Los Angeles. They're really great folks. They did it in blue non-scuffable rhino board, with burgundy crushed velvet inside. And the case has a telescoping luggage handle, and rubberized wheels. It's large with the four expression pedals, but I can manage it with one hand. I put my AXE-FX into a two rackspace Gator backpack with rails in it. So I wear the backpack, carry one guitar in one hand, and wheel the pedalboard with the other. I go direct with in-ears for most of my gigs. So my load-in/load-out is always only one trip unless I bring other instruments. Couldn't be simpler. Sounds great.
After years of narrowly avoiding a hernia with a ten space shock rack, at least one oversized 4x12, and a pedalboard nearly as big as my current one, this setup is ten times more versatile, and about ten times easier to manage. I used to make 6-8 trips to the car each gig. It sounded GREAT, but I was usually drenched in sweat before I even tuned up, and exhausted by the time I got home. Now I could get by with a sub-compact car if I hit the gym a little more often.
Since its in the hands of a number of users now ( mines on the way as well!) I'd thought it would be cool to ask users to post pictures of there new rigs featuring the MFC. AXEFX rack pictures are always welcome as well
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