Footswitch surrounds/other cool stuff i could put on a pedalboard.

[TheGuitarist]

So basically I DIY a lot of things outside of pro audio.

I build my own guitars, i build my own pedals, going to build my own amps soon too, i'm just not confident to modify PCB based amps though, wayyy too much voltage and things that could destroy everything.

THE BACKSTORY

But just recently i have nearly "finalised" my pedal board for my live rig. So i was looking at it, getting frustrated when power connectors fell out, how, no matter how hard i try, they never quite sit properly, patch cables never bend in the right way, and then i noticed my trusty old multi fx pedal that the bassist in my band uses.

It was a bit of a eureka moment. It was sleek, contained, neat, and simple. So i got to thinking... well.. most of my pedals are basically just 3pdt's, a couple of pots, an LED, and the PCBs. The enclosure is just a nice fancy box.

So i started designing a box that could fit in my existing box. Unfortunately, i don't have a cad program, so i just have bmp's of roughly my design. But thats not that important. Input on the front, outputs on the back, and i'll probably use an IEC to get power as i have a 9/18v PSU but also one 12v adapter, so i guess an IEC would be the best way to do that, but maybe just a long cable out the back.

THE DESIGN



So it will be on a two lid system, with a tray, and then the lid.



This is roughly how the "face panel"  ;D Will be.


So basically, aside from having the normal basic footswitch. I think i'll probably use one of those punched letter label makers for the labels and leave it all just natural metal (aluminium or steel i guess). But if i can spruce it up with cool LED's  or anything else that anyone can suggest that would be awesome!

Anything thats a solid shape is a cutout, so for things like the wah and delay pedal have controls that can't just be cannibalized and put on a face plate

But even just jazzing up the switches would be awesome.

Maybe something like this?


So yeah, any suggestions on how i could make this look awesome that'd be great!

The Gear
535q CryBaby Wah
Korg Pitch Black Tuner
ISP Decimator gate
MXR 10 band EQ
TC Electronics Nova Delay
Tubescreamer clone with all the fun mods
Xotic EP Booster.

The EQ and Delay will be in the fx loop and possibly the gate as well, but as the nova delay isn't true bypass and actually sucks a bit of tone, thats what the switch is for.

Ideas So Far

As one of my pedals runs off 12v, i know there are red/green colour changing LED's that run off 12v that i could use for the channel switcher. So i'd probably use that and a couple of 100uf 25v lytic caps just to filter and make sure the LED isn't introducing noise into the pedal. That'd be quite easy to implement.
A green LED to indicate when reverb is on and off now that i have a power supply to run it off. Reverb always makes me think of green for some reason.

Blue LED's for on/off indication on pedals, this would differentiate between pedals and channels. Maybe a white one for the delay bypass switch?

 

[TheGuitarist]

noone even has any cool footswitch surround ideas?

 

[kepeb]

check out some of the pete cornish inspired ones on the web, thats very DIY.
although i find you get pretty locked in when you build boards like that, its good to be able to rearrange without too much hassle later.
otherwise i think you may have more interesting responses on some of the guitar orientated sites. they love it

 

[TheGuitarist]

I was thinking of possibly having a modular system, 500 series style but instead of card edges just like clip on molex's or something. That could work quite well.

Reason i asked here is because a lot of you may know about things like switch surrounds, or cool LED effects etc that the guys over at the guitar forums might not. Very tempted to make a simple LED vu meter as well just for kicks.

 

[mac]

be carefull of some of those fancy chaning multicolour led's use heaps more juice than simple little red ones. I just built a stereo DI (bo hansens) and experimented with different LEDs. using phantom power, the multicolours from jaycar wouldnt even light up!

A mate of mine just finished a similar box which is alluminium and perspex panels screwed together - internally lit with blue LED's.
Maybe have a separate "wall wart" just for the fancy LED's on your board - that way they are totally separate and if they fail during a gig it doesnt stuff up your pedals!


Mac

 

[kepeb]

i see so its more about exploring the fancy stuff possible

good plan,
i prefer seperate psus for the pedals too.

if you wanted to have your fancy LED's hooked to the stompswitches, you could retain the original light switching functionality too. with the use of 3pdt switches AND Fet (millennium) bypassing or similar on the extra switch pole. just be sure to keep the return/ground path for these separate of course.

a couple of nice ideas for guitar pedals i never tried are:

a single analogue switchable mod/vol pedal for use on many effects i.e. chorus, trem, vibrato parameters.
this is possible in many digital multi pedals but not before with separates. you could have the currently selected pedal/parameter highlighted with another LED and choose which pot to turn with a cycling selector footswitch and a single mod pedal.

or another good one would be to include some routing and mixing, i have seen one or two experiments with dip switches but it would be great to be able to swicheroo easier and do things like two summed chains with high/low filters on each respectively... al controlled via your feet. that would be either awesome cool or a bit like riverdance.

 

[TheGuitarist]

Any non electrical things that i could make this pedal look cool?

 

[kepeb]

etch the case?