Home Forums Software and Equipment Pedal Board Comparison

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    • #21336
      Metal_James
      Participant

      Hi all, been a while.   I am comparing the new Voodoolab dingbat vs the Pedaltrain  pedalboards.  This will be my first pedal  board; right now everything is sitting on the floor.  Currently I’m running a tuner, Wah, Phaser, OD,  noise gate, and the large TC electronics delay pedal.  They all run into my Mesa Mark V 35.  I’m sure with GAS and room on the board I  will acquire more in the future.  At a glance for the money the VooDoo lab SEEMs like the  better deal (essentially the same size, with 4 more power outputs for $50 more,  plus already put together.)

      The Dingbat medium with Pedal power Mondo costs $379, the  board is 22” by 13.5” and the Mondo has 12 isolated output sections.  The Pedaltrain package I built would cost $332 (the price  includes the mounting brackets) ; its board is 24” x 12.5, and a pedal power 2  which has 8 output sections.  Does anyone have experience with either of these two pedal board options?

    • #21338
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      I dont have any experience with the gear but I was going to post separately that I’m going to attempt making my own pedal power. New SLA battery (made for uninterruptable power supply, 12V rated 8 amp hr), for $25, then add automotive inline fuse(s) for protection, 9v voltage regulators ($1 ea, LM7809), automotive wire, barrel connectors. Battery weighs 5 lbs. And $80 smart battery charger which is the main cost. I’m going to put all this inside the small cabinet of my old practice amp (slightly bigger than the size of 6.5″ speaker). Its not really a money saving thing, I simply want to diy it, tho also I shake my head at the price of the off the shelf gear. Also I didnt see the amp-hr rating of the Mondo or others. Whereas I can build mine to the amount of power I really want, even to add a second battery. I doubt those off the shelf units are 8 amp-Hr? I want to get my setup appropriate for “all day use” and I believe will use 2 * 0.8A + 0.2A on average (hard to gauge, maybe that’s maximum draw and in reality would be lower).

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #21341
      safetyblitz
      Participant

      I dont have any experience with the gear but I was going to post separately that I’m going to attempt making my own pedal power. New SLA battery (made for uninterruptable power supply, 12V rated 8 amp hr), for $25, then add automotive inline fuse(s) for protection, 9v voltage regulators ($1 ea, LM7809), automotive wire, barrel connectors.

      A main drawback of DIY, particularly if you plan to bring your DIY rig into venues, is you might be held personally liable if something goes wrong with your gear and causes fire/injury/etc. And if you’re a P.Eng., your liability might be even greater.

      • #21365
        superblonde
        Keymaster

        I agree with the electrical danger concern, for example I wont use Lithium batteries. Seen those videos of diy ecig’s that explode in people’s pockets? I won’t diy with those. It can be done but the individual batteries must be matched to each other and also a proper smart lithium charger used (not non-Q/A’ed ebay junk). Sealed lead acid batteries though are very safe with inline fuses (I’m planning on using 2A fuses on each main line) and those regulators have builtin current limiting/temperature shutoff. I wont put “unregulated” plugs on the power outlets, that simply doesnt make sense to me, why would I want the potential to burn something up? The next step up in term of amps for the battery would be a gel cel motorcycle battery, a little physically larger for the added power. Also, I want to add a USB outlet for charging simple USB devices like my mp3 player, there’s some neat and tiny automotive 12v-adapter-to-dual-usb charging adapters (like $12) that could be directly wired up to the battery (after the main fuse of course), and these also have tiny digital displays to display the 12v battery voltage.

        To me it’s worth buying an expensive “smart/multi-stage” charger ($80-$90) rather than a cheapie $20 trickle charger, since the battery will end up lasting longer and get a fuller charge each time.

        Originally I was thinking to use lantern batteries, a couple in parallel, remember those? They’re pretty rare to find these days. SLA batteries for UPS are more common and good physical size, and internals are built for recharging.

        I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
        And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #21352
      Guitarsmurf
      Participant
    • #21355
      MotleyCrue81
      Participant

      Wow haha.. $400 for the voodoo lab seems like a total rip.. let’s be honest.. it’s a piece of angled metal with holes in it and a power supply, and a backpack..

      With some plywood and paint and some screws and Velcro, you could make your own pedalboard the size you want and it would be pretty easy to build a flight case too if you wanted. Then just buy some power supply that’ll work nice. Don’t know how to justify the pedaltrain either, although they seem more fairly priced maybe. You could build a very similar thing out of wood and whatever like stated above for like $40.

      Bring hair metal back!

    • #21364
      Metal_James
      Participant

      Here is another one for $300.  https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DingBatM2Pl

      I get your point about the plywood, but make sure we’re comparing apples to apples; just the Pedal Power 2 alone is about $170; so assuming you planned on buying a quality power supply the board itself is only setting you back another $130 or so.

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