Pedalboard with mini pedals

[scottcald]

Anyone built one?  Just looking to do it for fun, so don't want expensive pedals.  I've got a delay, chorus and looking at some other things.

I see a gazillion Tube Screamer clone mini pedals, but none for the SD-1.  Why no mini clones of that?  

Anyone know of one? 

Thanks.

[veatch]

Building a board now with a lot of minis, but there are a couple of full sizes as well. 

There are a lot of good minis out there right now. 

Veleton has been making boss clones in a mini format. I've seen (haven't tried) an OD-10 and DS-10 model, but not an SD-10 yet.

[veatch]

Just to add, I like the space savings, but frankly, I think the buttons are too close together with the minis...  probably just a mechanical memory thing.  Or I'm just a clumsy old fart.

[scottcald]

Thanks, I'd forgotten about Valeton.  I'll give them a look. 

[hamerhead]

10 hours ago, veatch said:

...I think the buttons are too close together with the minis...

This. It's a great idea, but in practice not so much. I tried it and ended up spacing them out so far that a regular pedal would have fit in the space. If you really want to do it, check out the Moooer pedals. The Hustle Drive is supposed to be an OCD clone, but it was a little raspier to my ear. They're pretty great for the money. These are on a Pedaltrain Nano board:

 

I had a local guy clone 2 OCDs, a Tone Press and an EP Booster and put them into a single enclosure:

I had him put the boost and the 'more hair' buttons closer together for easier solo stomping. The Tone Press is always on (no footswitch).  Saves a fair amount of space. Being hardwired together (no cables) is a plus. And not being labeled totally f***s with other people's heads.

 

He also did 2 delays/1 reverb in one box:

The

The buttons closest together are reverb and long delay, again for easier solo stomping.

[scottcald]

Yeah, not looking to jam a million things together, just a few basics in a small board.  Just really a fun project to see how it goes.   Something to get powered by a 1 spot, so maybe 4 or 5 things on it. 

[hamerhead]

You'll have fun with it. There's a lot of mini pedals to be had. It'll make you crazy sifting thru them all. Check out the Donner stuff, too.

Check out the Pedaltrain Volto for power. No cord or wallwart to worry about. Pretty slick and will last through a whole gig (4 hrs+).

[scottcald]

The Volto looks cool.  I think Mission Engineering has something like that too, and probably some others.  

I ended up getting a Tomsline Tube Pusher after looking at some demos of that and a few others.  Also picked up an SD-1 for the other all Boss board for another S&G project. 

[veatch]

Just finished the "Minnesota board"  

Ended up with minis on the bottom row, but did space them out, so there really isn't a space savings. 

[BadgerDave]

 

I put this one together with a JHS Prestige boost, Mooer chorus and delay and TC Electronics poly tuner in mini form.  The Fish Factory incorporates two drives in a single enclosure so it's arguably a mini as well.  Sounded great but I had to either use the side of my shoe or wear cowboy boots to hit the switches.

[geoff_hartwell]

Badger- why modulation after delay instead of vice versa?

[BadgerDave]

On 11/28/2022 at 3:28 AM, geoff_hartwell said:

Badger- why modulation after delay instead of vice versa?

I never used the chorus and delay simultaneously. The Fish Factory was dialed in to use the red side as a clean boost so I could hit it and the delay switches at the same time for solos.

[geoff_hartwell]

13 minutes ago, BadgerDave said:

I never used the chorus and delay simultaneously. The Fish Factory was dialed in to use the red side as a cleant boost so I could hit it and the delay switches at the same time for solos.

That makes a lot of sense! 

[scottcald]

Here's what I ended up with.  Haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but just get it put together. 

 

Found the Stax tuner on Amazon.  Has power built in.  Mooer chorus, Tomsline tube pusher, Azor distortion, and Tomsline MAB delay. 

[scottcald]

So I tried it out into a warm clean tone.  Everything worked out well.  It's all in front, so the delay mix has to stay down really low.  And the MAB delay actually boosts volume, so I just turned the mix down a little bit more and left it on all the time.  The Tube Pusher I have in boost mode, so it gives just a tiny bit of grit, or it stacks pretty decently into the Azor Distortion with everything set at noon.  So, it's 3 levels of grit, chorus and delay, with the tuner also providing power.   Not bad for under $200 including the Powertrain nano. 

[geoff_hartwell]

That’s awesome!

This may be crazy talk, but did you ever turn, or physically rotate two mini pedals side by side 90 degrees so you can hit both switches with one foot in a line in front of you?

For example, your first two pedals rotated to the right 90 degrees so the two switches are on the left. First one closest to you, second one further away from you, in a “stack”- they’re still side by side and in sequence but instead on knobs up top and switches on the bottom, knobs are now on the Right, and switches are on the left but lined up in front of you. And the last two pedals (hypothetical, not these exact pedals) rotated left 90 degrees so the switches are on the right of that “stack”, and ultimately all 4 switches are facing each other?

Convenient and flexible 3-dimensional thinking, or destined for mistaken switching disasters? You be the Judge! 🤷‍♂️🤣

[scottcald]

41 minutes ago, geoff_hartwell said:

That’s awesome!

This may be crazy talk, but did you ever turn, or physically rotate two mini pedals side by side 90 degrees so you can hit both switches with one foot in a line in front of you?

For example, your first two pedals rotated to the right 90 degrees so the two switches are on the left. First one closest to you, second one further away from you, in a “stack”- they’re still side by side and in sequence but instead on knobs up top and switches on the bottom, knobs are now on the Right, and switches are on the left but lined up in front of you. And the last two pedals (hypothetical, not these exact pedals) rotated left 90 degrees so the switches are on the right of that “stack”, and ultimately all 4 switches are facing each other?

Convenient and flexible 3-dimensional thinking, or destined for mistaken switching disasters? You be the Judge! 🤷‍♂️🤣

I get where you're going with that, but my brain hates seeing pedals oriented sideways if that's not how they're designed.  Also, I get every pedal maker wants to stand out etc, but I wish there were simple standards among them as far as size, orientation and jack location.  Would make life so much easier for you know, the people who use them.  

[veatch]

Wouldn't really need to rotate the minis to be able to hit two at once. 

I hit two at once all the time on my main "gig board".  (non minis) I have the phaser and chorus next to each other for that as well a the clean boost and solo boost to go into solos.  Using minis would make this *much* easier. 

For whatever it's worth, I lay out the pedals first, then cut the cables after. Things are positioned *close* to signal chain, but that is not what determines what is where. 

[scottcald]

Here's some samples of the bare tone and with the effects (excuse some of the sloppiness).  The delay is very subtle, I don't like it too far forward:

 

[scottcald]

 

[santellavision]

My favorite Mini-pedals (on my small board) 

- Hotone Optical Tremolo (Cheap company, but sounds great)
- Donner Noise Killer (I've owned boutique stuff, this works as well or better)
- Wampler Tumnus - (Beat out a real Klon in a blind test)
- Korg Pitchblack Mini


 

 

 

 

[scottcald]

Nice!  I was just starting to look at some different tuner pedals.  How do you like the Korg?  I've had a TC polytune which works well, but looking for non Behringer options.  

[veatch]

The Tumnus is a great pedal. Mini or not. 

[stonge]

Had a jam the other night with the guys from the country band, and need to bang together a modest board for tele/DGT into a properly functioning 65 DRRI (mine is not quite right). Trying for single gig bag/small board due to space issues. First try was a holeyboard mini with a wampler dual fusion, wampler latitude standard (in case the DRRI trem was fucked like my amp), and a Lovepedal Twin 60 for some boost/more boost. Left the twin 60 pegged all night and used the dual fusion to toggle from slight grit to nuke. Tried making a board out of minis, but my clown shoes can't reliably toggle only one switch at a time lol. Latest try is a cheap Amazon ghostfire board with a tumnus deluxe, janglebox, 200 lbs of fuzz, and vertex steel string. Not totally sold on the tumnus since I don't need subtlety; might sub a wampler catapult for an orange sound. Decisions decisions lol

[soli'd]

I've been collecting pedals from Himmelstrutz Elektro Art (Sweden) for years; they're all in regular 125B boxes which are relatively small, though not considered "mini-sized".

I'm about to wire them all up onto one small 14" square board.  The builder, Joakim Hedeby, is an interesting dude who has always designed his circuits from scratch, among the FETTO line alone there are variations of variations on the same thing but they all serve their assigned purposes equally well, it's all really good.  After buying and selling them for years, the ones I kept cover the following roles- Fitzo+: light overdrive, FETTO: 70s plexi-in-a-box, Mr. NutCRACKer: comp/EQ/boost, GRAMPS+: Fuzz/distortion, GEKKO: tape-flavored echo/boost.  The latest I received from Joakim is the craziest thing yet- It's an 8-watt complete solid-state amp with a full preamp, FX loop, and power section that puts out 8W into an 8-ohm load.  All in a 125B sized box, literally just hook up a speaker cab, and it sounds and responds very much like a low-wattage tube amp.  So this board of mini pedals actually houses the amp as well.  I'll wire it all in series, except the GEKKO will go in the loop of the Himmelstrutz 8.