building a pedal board.

[andydeedpoll]

hi! if you remember the thread i started about two weeks ago asking whether magnets would effect (haha) pedals, then this might interest you... this is what me and a friend came up with for my new pedal board, with some pictures to show all you lovely people

 

[travelin travis]

did you test the magnets? what's the v shaped board above the sheet metal?

 

[andydeedpoll]

and a few more.....

unfortunately, i only started taking photos on the day we built the lid so they're not very exciting. but you can see what we actually put together at least. the magnets are very strong - that morley wah pedal is difficult to move! i gigged with it tonight and everything seems fine. the magnets are industrial stregnth magnets used to pull beer cans and the like along conveyer belts. my friends dad donated the magnets, so the whole thing came to about £15 ($30?) in wood, and not much more. we had a lot of fun putting it together (just trying to convince his girlfriend to buy some bass pedals so we have an excuse to play with power tools again )

ta!

Andrew.

 

[andydeedpoll]

did you test the magnets? what's the little v above the sheet metal?

the little V is just before we took the protective plastic off - daves dad also cuts metal as part of his job - just gave him the measurements we wanted for stainless steel and came back the next day with it cut to the millimeter. we had some interesting experiments with the metal on top - we realised that we Didn't want to use a magnetic metal for the top, so that the force the magnets were putting out wasn't simply being ferried into the metal put on top of it, but was felt by the pedals. similar to how you can 'magically' pull a coin along a table by holding a magnet underneath it - if wood was magnetic, that wouldn't work we put a piece of magnetic metal (i forget which) underneath, so that we didn't get to a gig to find it stuck to the side of the van, or stuck to the floor if a venue had a metal floor, or anything

Andrew.

 

[travelin travis]

i was referring to the board that your rack unit is mounted to. looks cool man. how expensive are the magnets? i think you have a good product idea here. better run with it before someone else does.

 

[andydeedpoll]

i was referring to the board that your rack unit is mounted to. looks cool man. how expensive are the magnets? i think you have a good product idea here. better run with it before someone else does.

i'm not sure how much the magnets were - they were very generously donated. we used 3 rows of 8 - that's 24 magnets. i don't think they'd have to be quite as strong as the ones we used, but, like i said before, those pedals hadn't moved a centimeter from where they were when i put them on before the gig, and i'm looking at them now, and they're still sat exactly where i put them.

we were thinking about looking into patenting it, or some sort of copyright, or Something - we really like the idea.

ta!

Andrew.

 

[Track Rat]

Looks interesting but the magnets would worry me. Industrial stength magnets so close to low signal level circuitry sounds scary.

 

[travelin travis]

Looks interesting but the magnets would worry me. Industrial stength magnets so close to low signal level circuitry sounds scary.

kind of bugs me out too but i have no idea of what the effects of the magnetic fields will have on electronic components. for all we know (which is obviously nothing) the effects could be positive. like one of those copper bracelets.

 

[Middleman]

Over time, it could kill any inductors and mini transformers. If you notice your signal strength starting to fade, your on your way to destruction.

Industrial Velcro is your friend.

 

[Guitarer]

That's a smart idea with the magnet...I'd just stick to velcro personally, but it's deffinately a creative idea. I need to get to work on a pedal board soon...

 

[andydeedpoll]

Over time, it could kill any inductors and mini transformers. If you notice your signal strength starting to fade, your on your way to destruction.

Industrial Velcro is your friend.

thanks for the warning - i'm well aware i'm being a bit of a guinea pig here, but there's nothing on there that's irreplaceable, and i play enough (every day) to hopefully get enough early warning like you said. there were absolutely no obvious initial problems with it though.

ta!

Andrew.

 

[rayc]

Being an original ney sayer I now have to say well done. oks good, esp. the mount for the rack unit, though a little crowded. Is reaching over another pedal a prob?
I wouldn't know as I don't have enough pedals to warrant a board & I don't play live any more so the floor does it for me.
Pay heed to Middleman though - I don't want to be proven right but nor do I want you to kill off any good gear.

 

[andydeedpoll]

Being an original ney sayer I now have to say well done. oks good, esp. the mount for the rack unit, though a little crowded. Is reaching over another pedal a prob?
I wouldn't know as I don't have enough pedals to warrant a board & I don't play live any more so the floor does it for me.
Pay heed to Middleman though - I don't want to be proven right but nor do I want you to kill off any good gear.

i started playing live with slightly fewer pedals about 18 months ago - i've got used to doing a balancing act, and i've got long legs! haha. while you say "crowded", as long as i'm concentrating, having pedals so close together is actually a benefit when it comes to fast complex changes - a bit o' delay helps a lot too to keeping some intensity while i'm dancing around the pedals, haha.

thanks for the interest - if things start to go wrong, i promise i'll swallow my pride and tell you all! but if in 6 months everythings fine, you have to let me go "ha!" at you, too

cheers!

Andrew.

 

[rayc]

I'd be pleased & proud to be Ha'd if you've been successful!

 

[ggunn]

Over time, it could kill any inductors and mini transformers.

Have you got evidence for that? Sources? We had a lively discussion about this a week or two ago. I don't see how a steady state magnetic field can affect a signal or kill an inductor. I don't claim to know for sure, but if you can furnish some evidence or a plausible mechanism, I'd like to see it.

 

[ggunn]

the little V is just before we took the protective plastic off - daves dad also cuts metal as part of his job - just gave him the measurements we wanted for stainless steel and came back the next day with it cut to the millimeter.

Many/most formulations of stainless steel are non magnetic. It was a surprise to me when I found that out.

 

[andydeedpoll]

Many/most formulations of stainless steel are non magnetic. It was a surprise to me when I found that out.

haha, we had to do our homework for that. we didn't actually Want that piece of metal to be magnetic, otherwise it'd act as a "keeper", and use most of the magnets "magnetism" (i don't know what the real word is, if that isn't it) on the metal, and exert next to nothing on the actual pedals, so it'd be useless. i suppose a better way of saying it would be that we could have used pretty much anything that wasn't magnetic in place of that piece of metal, but the thinner and stronger the better, so we went for stainless steel, especially because we could so easily get it.

the underneath has a steel (magnetic) sheet - to make sure we didn't get the whole thing stuck to the floor of any vans, haha

i've seen absolutely no problems at All so far with this pedal board except for the fact it weighs about a ton i dare say i think it's a winner.

I'd be pleased & proud to be Ha'd if you've been successful!

ha! (i hope )

Andrew.

 

[Middleman]

Have you got evidence for that? Sources? We had a lively discussion about this a week or two ago. I don't see how a steady state magnetic field can affect a signal or kill an inductor. I don't claim to know for sure, but if you can furnish some evidence or a plausible mechanism, I'd like to see it.

Yes, doctor we have research accumulated over many years which is about to be published in the New York Journal of Electronics.

An inductor has magnetic material at its core, it thus will be affected by another magnetic field over time. To what extent could only be derived through potentially destroying one of my $100 pedals. Something I am more than willing to do to able to tell convince you I am right. Well, never mind, just try it on one of your pedals and tell me how it works out.

Do you feel lucky punk? Well do ya! (in my best Clint Eastwood voice)

OK enough sarcasm. The field strength would be a factor also the pedal shielding which is designed to eliminate such things but frankly, unless the company who potentially builds this would want to give me a guarantee in writing they would replace a damaged pedal, I would not buy it.