Don't Make A DIY Pedal Board Case

Why making your own case is a bad idea
Would you make your own case for your guitar?... Would you make your own case for your amp? Probably not and why not? Because they are expensive, easily damaged and they are valuable to you, that's why you invest in a case that will keep it in good condition. So why would you make a DIY pedal board case instead of investing in a quality soft case?
I have spent the time reading about various guitarists/bassist who are trying to or looking for advice on making their own DIY pedal board case. As you probably know, musical equipment is expensive and you don't want to repair it too often, this includes effects pedals, which on average range from $100 - $400 per pedal. If you have half a dozen pedals in your set up, that's worth a bit of money.
It amazes me that people spend hundreds of dollars buying effects pedals for their guitar/bass and then they do not want to buy a proper case that will protect it, instead they try to make their own DIY pedal board case for it and if this is not made correctly, it can end up damaging their pedals. If you just got a brand new Gibson you wouldn't try making a case for it would you?you would just invest in a case that would keep it in mint condition!
Alternative Cases
From what I have read, one of the main reasons musicians try to make their own DIY pedal board case is because its cheaper. However, if you take into consideration the price of buying all the materials and spending the time trying to make a DIY pedal board case, a quality soft case/gig bag would not be much more expensive and it would give far better protection and security for your pedals. Unlike a DIY pedal board case a soft case is much more durable, easy to transport around and you wont be worrying about fixing your case all the time, as it will probably break often
If you are still considering making a DIY pedal Board Case, I would suggest that you spend some time researching the internet for other options before you decide. Although you may have the ability to construct your own case from scratch, it will probably not be anywhere near as good as a case made by a professional company like Gater, Pedaltrain, Odyssey etc.

Using an Electric Guitar Effects Pedal to Make Practice Fun sa

Sometimes when learning the guitar, practicing gets a little boring. You sit down and feel like you are doing the same exercises over and over and playing the same songs. Worst off is that you feel you aren't getting any better. The problem is that the joy of playing the guitar isn't currently there. One of the best guitar practice aids is using an electric guitar effects pedal.a
Whether you play electric guitar or acoustic, assuming it has the electronics, effects pedals make practicing quite a bit more fun. The reason is because now you have new sounds that you can mix and match making everything you do sound completely different. I guarantee that once you start playing with effects you will spend hours having fun coming up with new sounds.
Effect pedals are sold and packaged in different ways.
Individual Pedals - Individual effects pedals can be purchased but normally it's just one sound although that sound is crisp and clear. You are going to find pedals that do things like chorus, echo, distortion, overdrive, and tons more sounds. If you start buying a fair amount of these, a guitar effects pedal board is a good investment as it keeps them all in line.
Build in effects on amplifiers - The mid range and high range amplifiers sometimes come with effects. They might even come with a pedal that can turn on and off the effect. This is good because when playing it's hard to flip a switch or knob in the back of the amp.
Guitar Multi Effects Pedals - For beginners this is the best option. You can be pedals with hundreds of effects that can give you a wide variety of sounds. Most of these are cheaper than $80 and quite a good investment to have that many different effects. You can program the pedal to have the same guitar sounds that you hear in songs making your playing seem to almost match what the song has. You can come up with your own sounds which helps build creativity.
While this might not be your normal practice aid like lessons, videos, or other material, it will keep you practicing a lot more because effects make the guitar much more interesting.

Guitar Effects Pedals Essentials

If you're a beginning guitar player are you happy with your guitar and amp set up? Are you trying to imitate the sound of your favorite guitarist but having problems recreating that sound. It's because most professional guitarists don't just use a guitar and amp, there are few like Angus Young of AC/DC who plug directly into the amp with no extra effects, but that's a rarity. Most guitarists use a combination of at least three effects to get their sound, distortion, delay, and chorus. You can use multi effects pedals to get your sound or you can use dedicated guitar effects pedals. Let's take a look at what they do and why you should have them in your guitar effects pedal board.
Distortion
Distortion is the most popular effect added to an electric guitar, it's "the" sound people think about when they think of electric guitar. Different styles will call for different types and different levels of this effect. If you're playing metal you want a heavy "crunchy" sound, if you're playing blues or "guitar rock" you might want a warmer sound. Even country players use distortion, they'll add just a little bit to their clean guitar sound, not enough to be really evident as distortion, but just enough to give their sound some bite, so that it cuts through. The Boss distortion pedal, the DS-1 is probably one of the most used of all times. Kurt Cobain used it in his stage rig (although he'd switched to a DS-2 by '94), and someone as diverse as Joe Satriani has also used the DS-1 pedal.
Delay
Delay is another basic guitar effect, it's related to reverb. Think of delay as the sound of the room your in. If you're in a big room it sounds boomy, if you're in a small room it sounds brighter and more distinct. The sound of a room is related to the sounds reflected off the walls. In any size room you'll hear the original and then the sound that is reflected off the walls. That delayed sound is what lets your ears know how big the room is. Reverb is similar, it's just that the sounds bounced off the walls aren't as distinct. Most guitarists use delay pedals set to a short delay time, (slapback delay). It sort of sounds like being in a concrete stairwell, a good example is a country "chicken picken" sound. Other guitarist use delay times so long that their are distinct echos, The Edge in the band U2 being a good example. What delay does is make you perceive the sound as being "thicker" almost like there were two guitars playing. Some pedals can create a delay and reverb sound.
Chorus
The third bread and butter guitar effects pedal you should have is a chorus. What a chorus does is split your sound and slightly delay one one of the signals. Imagine two people were playing guitar together. They can never play perfectly together, one will always start a split second late or early. That's what a chorus does. You're probably thinking what's the difference between that and a delay? Well, if you set your delay times small enough you will hear a chorus type sound. A chorus will also detune one of the signals by a minuscule amount increasing the effect of their being two guitarists playing. The perceived effect is a thicker guitar sound. Both delay and chorus can be used with a clean sound or a distorted sound.
So, those three guitar pedals are the bedrock of an electric guitar sound, you can find at least one of them in most guitarists pedal board. It's hard to say what is the best guitar effects pedal, it really comes down to a personal preference. There are some effects used by famous guitarists, other people buy that pedal to copy that sound. After awhile that sound kind of becomes the "standard", that makes it popular, but what's the best guitar effects pedal is up to you.

A Beginner's Guide to Setting Up Guitar Effects Pedals

Electric guitar players are increasingly making use of pedals to expand and alter their sound.
There are lots of different options on the market, such as signal conditioners which offer effects such as a wah wah, distortion and compression.
Alternatively, guitarists may wish to play with modulation and time-based effects, such as a chorus sound, pitch shifter, phaser and delay, or possibly ambient processors.
However, it is important to make sure that guitar effects pedals are correctly set up in order to get the full range of benefits. Technically, there is no right or wrong way to devise a pedal board, as it depends on the sound that the musician is trying to achieve.
But the order in which effects pedals are placed must be carefully considered. For example, putting a reverb pedal after a distortion unit can make a very pleasant effect, but setting it up the other way round may not be quite so attractive.
Indeed, distorting a large reverbed sound can end up sounding rather nasty.
So guitarists need to bear issues such as this is mind when connecting their effects pedals. Some orderings will give nice sounds and others will not. This means that musicians, particularly those who enjoy experimenting with guitar effects and making the most of unusual noises, could benefit from trying out lots of different variations.
The most common set-up is putting a signal conditioner first, then modulation and time-based effects, followed by ambient processers. So a guitarist who wants an extensive pedal board could confidently use an order such as Preamp - Compressor - Distortion - Wah-wah - Chorus/Flange - Delay - EQ - Noise Gate - Volume Pedal - Digital Reverb. However, it is worth noting that some pedals are a bit more flexible in terms of where they can be placed, such as EQ.
Guitarists may be wondering how they can use their pedals in conjunction with their guitar amplifier, particularly if it has a footswitch that contains its own effects. Some amps allow players to quickly flick between a clean channel and an overdrive channel, with effects such as chorus thrown into the mix. So incorporating a distortion pedal into the set-up could allow musicians to achieve a grittier and dirtier tone beyond what the amp is already offering. Alternatively, an EQ pedal such as a Boss GE-7 could also give their sound an extra push.
It is important to try your effects pedal rig with your amplifier on different settings in order to see what can be achieved.
Players can plug their pedals into the effects loop of their guitar amp, which will typically place effects in between the pre amp, which produces the device's tone, and the power amp, which creates the volume.
However, which set-up to go for is again a matter of personal taste and what kind of sound the guitarist is trying to achieve. Using the effects loop adds effects to an already distorted sound, while going into the front of an amp will mean that it is the effects that will be distorted.
Guitarists have a number of options for powering their effects pedals, such as an external supply or a battery. But those with extensive set-ups could benefit from investing in a powered pedal board such as a Behringer PM600. With one of these, electric guitar players can power lots of different pedals at once.