One of my projects this past week was to build a pedalboard to corral all of my various effects pedals. They've been sitting in a bag for years because wrangling them, with all the cables and the always-dead 9V batteries, was just too much work.

But if I could get them all arranged in a nice compact group with short cable and dedicated external power supplies, I might be tempted to use them once in a while.

My first idea was to take an old bamboo cutting board from the kitchen, add some feet and cut some holes in it to snake cords through. But, it was just a bit too small to hold all my junk. So, I had to get a bit more creative.

It took me four days, but I did manage to build one that would have worked, but was just simply terrible. It was all misshapen and obviously hacked-together, because I rushed and didn't plan or measure or cut or assemble carefully. It sucked. And because the design was so simple to begin with, I couldn't stand looking at such a fucked-up failure. I threw it away and started over.

After laying out all the pedals, in the right order, I figured out I needed two rows of at least 17 inches each. So, I planned on a 18" wide board. We have a bunch of leftover flooring planks in the attic - already finished on top, stiff as can be and very light. They're 'engineered' wood - 1/8" of the top layer on a stiff plywood base. The planks are 7" wide, and so are just big enough to accommodate the two big pedals in my collection.

First, a frame. This is made from pine 1x4s - just a couple of simple triangles joined by two straight boards. The hardest part of the whole thing was cutting the hypotenuses of those triangles - that took a backsaw and lots of patience. Then I trimmed the tips off the triangles. Sanded a bit and then stained with the only stain I had on hand : ebony. Rustic. Glued, then screwed it all together. Couple of light coats of polyurethane for added spiffyness.

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(The frame is actually upside down in that pic)

Then I glued and screwed the top planks onto the frame.

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The gap between the planks is there to run cords and cables underneath.

Needed to put the screws near the top of the plank on bottom level, because the screws I used are so long.

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The ebony stain worked out well enough with the color of the floor boards, I think. And the sexy black drywall screws really bring it all together, right? "Not completely hideous" is a win, in my book.

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Four runs of super-strength velcro across the top boards, and matching velcro on the bottom of each pedal.

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And there it is, with all the cables and power supply cords. I put some soft rubber pads on the bottom, to keep it from sliding around. I'm going to get some cable tie action underneath to tidy-up the power cords. And, I need to get a cable with right-angle connectors to handle that run from the chorus in the bottom-left up to the phaser top-right. The cord that's doing it now looks untidy.

Sure, it looks like it was made from scraps - which it was - but, it's completely functional!

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And it fits perfectly in the little nook where all my other rockstar crap lives.

All dressed up and nowhere to go.