Years ago I had a pedalboard that was bought as a unit (I’m not going to give the name because I don’t want suing!) – it was a great design, but absolute rubbish in quality!  The best thing about it was that there was a row of sockets at the top of the board to allow effects loop, amp send and guitar input all to be connected with ease!

This handy little item is my attempt at getting the same functionality on the SLP.

1.Decide how many connections you want.

2.Buy the bits and pieces (Maplin sell some great “Hobby box” units to use – this one has a powder coating.)

3.Mark out the box for drilling – remember to leave enough space INSIDE the box for the jack sockets (I only just left enough!!)

4.Measure the diameter of the jack socket to drill the right sized holes.  These sockets are 8mm, so I’ll need a 9mm drill for the holes.

5.I fixed my box in a vice to hold it steady whilst drilling.  I used a thin twist drill to drill pilot holes through the box.

6.Pilot holes done, drill out the correct sized holes.  Remember to file off any sharp edges!

7.Check that the jacks fit.

8.Start wiring the jacks together – I used some plastic coated wire I had around – red for the tip, blue for the sleeve connectors.  I used about 3” of wire for each connector.  REMEMBER to let your soldering iron warm up enough first.  ALWAYS tin (coat) the ends of the wires and the connector surfaces.

9.Having joined all the jack sockets together  I elected to twist the wires – it just keeps things neater in the box. REMEMBER to clip the excess wire protruding through the jack connectors – we don’t want any shorting out of the signal!

10.Build up the box….

11.Label the box up how you want, I used a hobby engraving tool –

12.Test the connections – I used a Behringer cable tester.  As the box I have is metal the sleeve connectors actually all connect to each other through the box, but it works fine!

13.Job done.  Now get it on your pedalboard and connect away!

Tags: pedal board, pedals, Performance