How To Attach Pedals To Pedaltrain Pedalboards Without Sticky Velcro

I've always used sticky Industrial Strength Velcro to affix my pedals to my pedalboard. 

And it's always bugged me that I might be seriously depreciating the future value of my pedals with Velcro gummed to the bottom, covering serial numbers, country of manufacture and useful 'avoid exposing unit to excessive moisture'-type information.

Scouring the net for anything I could find on 'attaching pedals without Velcro' yielded one dude who used individual bicycle chain links, attaching one eyelet to the pedal baseplate and screwing the other eyelet down to the woodbase of the pedalboard.  An elegant solution by itself, and certainly rock-solid.

But I was looking for something a little more simple that would allow me to swap out pedals in a couple of minutes instead of a couple of hours.  Not to mention that the aforementioned method would be well nigh near impossible on the aluminum base of my Pedaltrain pedalboard.

Well, maybe not impossible.  But well beyond my limited metalwork machining skills.

But necessity, as the say, is the Mother of Invention. 

And since idle hands are also the devil's workshop, here's what I came up with, using plastic cable ties and Velcro One-Wrap -- Velcro straps of the non-adhesive variety.

I first wrapped two cable ties around the pedal, in this case a BB Preamp by Xotic, one before the footswitch and one in between the control knobs.  Doing this ensures that the cable ties will never slip out from the pedal.

I then got out the Velcro One-Wrap straps, cut them to an appropriate length, and simply threaded them through the cable ties at the back of the pedal. 

After deciding on where the pedal would be placed on the 'board, I wrapped the Velcro straps tightly around the appropriate aluminum strip.

The pedal mounted reasonably securely but with some side-to-side movement.  After torquing the cable ties a bit more with pliers and tightening the Velcro wrap further, I found the pedal was as solidly mounted as I needed it to be.   

I love it when a plan comes together! 

The last pic shows the final pedalboard assembly with both the BB Preamp and RC Booster given the same cable tie and Velcro wraparound treatment.

My Voodoolab RotoVibe, RMC wah and Boss volume pedal already have sticky Velcro I attached years ago to their baseplates so they are mounted to the Pedaltrain in the usual way. 

Go ahead and try this at home, folks!

And here's my earlier review of the Pedaltrain Jr. pedalboard.

Flash Review -- Pedaltrain Jr. Pedalboard

Went gear-shopping today and got my hands on a Pedaltrain pedalboard. My old canvas and cardboard Westfield pedal case is just plain worn out. The little zip tag snapped off a few months ago and I was almost breaking a nail everytime I packed my gear up.

I needed a 'board with enough real-estate to accomodate a couple of stompboxes, a wah pedal and a volume pedal and the Pedal Train Jr (PT-JR-SC) fit the bill nicely.

The Pedaltrain Jr. is also available with an ATA-approved aluminum flightcase. I went for the soft-shell variety -- it's a lot lighter and I figured I wanted to be able to feel my fingers when I arrive at a gig. The nylon shoulder-sling strap provided for the soft-case also features a solid, chunky, spring-loaded clasp.

The Pedaltrain comes with two rolls of velcro (one hook, one loop) of about a meter in length each. The 'board itself is very sturdy aluminum with industrial-welding at the joints and corners.

The sturdy construction is a nice reassurance since this thing is going to be on the floor and get kicked around -- most likely by the bassplayer, drummer, singer or a drunk audience member who insists on coming onstage to yell his request in your ear.

Pedaltrain leaves you to attach the velcro yourself. I opted for the full-velcro treatment.

Also supplied are a couple of screw-on metal brackets to attach a regulated power-supply such as the VoodooLab PedalPower to the underside of the pedalboard frame, saving you space on top for your pedals. A really nice touch.

Pedaltrain also provides a bunch of nylon cable-ties so that power or signal cables can be tied neatly together. This is good if you're bullet-proofing your 'board for that regional tour, but it would also make on the spot patch-cable swaps impossible. Remember 'ol Murphy?

I opted for Planet Waves 0.5 ft Classic patch-cables for this board. New pedalboard, new cables right?

My usual pedals for my weekly blues/rock gig are an RMC 3 Teese wah (the older one with the home-brewed milled aluminum housing), an early 80's Tubescreamer (when I need a hair more gain), an Xotic BB preamp (which is always on, with a slight bass boost), a VoodooLab MicroVibe (for a little Hendrix/Trower swirl), a Korg DT7 tuner (with Buzz Feiten tempered tuning setting) and a Boss FV50L volume pedal.

The volume pedal is the last in the chain, which allows me to tune silently as well as regulate my overall volume. I like to keep a little volume in reserve on the pedal for when the bassplayer and drummer ramp it up -- those guys have so much more dynamic range than us guitar players. I also use it as a manual noise-gate should things get out of hand.

And there we go.

I'm careful not to store the board vertically for at least a couple of days so that the adhesive on the velcro can set permanently on the aluminum frame. Storing it upright now will inevitably lead to a surprisingly sticky mess of adhesive, velcro, pedals and cables as it all peels off (been there, done that, unfortunately), so the 'board with pedals is sitting flat until I take it to my gig on Monday.

Rock and roll!

See The Pedaltrain Pedalboard Range Here

See More Xotic and VoodooLab Pedals Here