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The Budget Pedalboard build! Huge tones with a minimal budget!
Introduction
Not everyone can afford a super high-end pedalboard! Most of us are either on a tight budget or don’t want to shell out a lot of money for small and local gigs. So I thought I would see what I could build on a budget! Look at all my gear and see what budget pedalboard build I could build. I am keen to see what sounds and tones I can get out of this board while keeping the price as low as possible. My goal isn’t to do it as cheaply as possible. I still want to have a good and usable board at the end of this.
What is going to make this different to a lot of other budget pedalboard builds you would have seen is that I am going to include a lot more in the build! The board itself, pedals, power, and the cables. I don’t like seeing people only price the pedals then spend more money on cables and power which they don’t tell you about. I will build the board, break the price down and it will cover everything I used to build the board.
The Goal
What is the goal? The goal is to create a pedalboard that is super affordable and could be considered “cheap”; however, I still want it to produce great sounds and be super useful! I want to build a board that is usable and could cover a good amount of sounds. I could easily just throw a load of cheap pedals on and call it a day; however, I want to be left with a pedalboard I would be happy (and comfortable) taking to a gig to do a covers show.
For the amp, I am going to be using my RD Custom Amp. I understand that this isn’t a cheap amp; however, it is the amp I would use if I was called up to do a last-minute gig. I have played through this amp loads, spent many hours playing this amp, so I know how it sounds! That is the main reason for picking it. I know the raw sound from this amp!
So below I will go through the gear that I have picked, explain why I have picked it. I will then go through the build process and sounds. Finally, I will talk about my thoughts on the board and what I thought of the build. How did it turn out!? Let us find out!
"Having that option to boost the mids makes it super versatile while playing with a band and being able to be heard!"
The Gear
So why don’t I go through all the gear that was involved in this budget pedalboard build? I won’t go over the cost of everything; I will be doing that in a separate section. However, I just want to talk about my choices and why I picked them for this build. I think there are a few choices that will surprise you.
Pedals
I have picked a few pedals that range in price but I know sound good! All of which I believe are great value. So let me go through them and talk about them a bit.
- Overdrive: Tone City Durple (Review Here)
- Distortion: Affordaboard 800 Drive (Review Here)
- Boost: Behringer EQ700 (Review Here)
- Modulation:TC Electronic Chorus (Review Here)
I have picked all of the above pedals because I know they sound good and they are all fantastic value and can be purchased in most guitar shops. You could even purchase them second-hand and get an even better price.
Why these pedals?
For my main overdrive sound, I have gone for the Tone City Durple. This is a great-sounding overdrive; however, the reason I have picked it is because of the tone and mid control on it. Having that option to boost the mids makes it super versatile while playing with a band and being able to be heard!
For my distortion, I have picked the Affordaboard 800 Drive. Aimed to deliver that classic Marshall sound. This is a killer distortion pedal that is insane value and even more fun to play! You can turn any amp into a Marshall monster for less than £100. Super value!
For boost, I have decided to use the Behringer EQ700 pedal. I picked this for two reasons! The main one is that it is so cheap! £20 in most places! The bigger reason is that being an EQ, not only can I use it as a boost but also as an EQ and sculpt my sound even further! Allowing for huge versatility in one pedal!
The final pedal is a bit of modulation! I have gone with the TC Electronic Chorus. I don’t think this is good as a cheap pedal; I think this is good as a pedal! An amazing circuit based on the Boss Dimension Chorus! So much fun and such an incredible sound! However, it is a little large! I will see how it goes.
Power Supply
For the power supply, I went with the low-price one that was of decent quality. This is where any pedalboard can fall over, and you can find yourself having big issues if you don’t get a good power supply. So, what did I go for?
- Power Supply: Rockboard ISO Power block V6
This is a power supply from a company I have not only heard about but have purchased various things from before. I will be honest, and I did want to get a Harley Benton power supply, but at the time I put the order in, most of them were sold out. This was the next best thing. So I will see how it does. It has five 500mA outputs that are all running at 9V. I will be doing a full review of the Rockboard ISO Power Block V6 soon.
Cables
Honestly, for ables I just used whatever I had lying around! I tried not to buy any cables. I had a few basic patch cables lying around, so I tried to use them. However, I did have to buy a pack of patch cables; this wasn’t too much money but did allow me to finish the build!
For power cables, I just used the ones that came with the power supply. There were plenty of them in the Rockboard power supply, so I just used them, and they were absolutely fine.
Pedalboard
This is the part of the build where you can shop around and find something that is good for you. There are hundreds of affordable and cheap pedalboards out there.
- Pedalboard: Marcus Deluxe board
I wanted to shout out a company I have used for a while and that do incredible boards at a great price. Marcus Deluxe pedalboards are a great price, handmade in the UK, and are made from recycled wood. They offer a huge array of pedalboards in various shapes and sizes. So finding something you want and need is going to be super simple.
The Build & Sounds
Below is the full video going over the pedals, the build, and the sounds! Building this budget pedalboard build was super simple! You can put a board like this together in an hour or so! The power supply was super slim and light, so it fit under the board easily. Only needed a handful of cables, so cable management wasn’t that much of an issue. For the pedal order, I kept everything fairly simple. I would normally have my chorus before my gain, but for this board, I put it where most people would have it. Then, I ended the board with the EQ pedal so I can notch out some unwanted frequencies or do some cool effects.
In the video, you will hear a few demo songs, a build video, and then some sound samples! This will hopefully show you what sounds you can get out of a budget pedalboard build this small! It doesn’t take a lot of pedals to get a wide array of tones! Especially when used correctly! Let me know your thoughts in the comment sections! What do you think?
"I would have to make do with no delay, which, as someone who loves delay, would be a huge struggle."
The Budget Pedalboard Build Cost Breakdown
So, let’s go through the cost of the budget pedalboard build. I will break down the pedals, board, and power plus any cables or accessories that I used. Some of the products that I have used were either purchased a while ago or I have just been laying around, so pricing them could be a bit tricky, but I will do my best to come up with a price in some way, shape, or form.
- Durple: £45
- 800 Drive: £79
- 3rd Dimension: £26
- EQ700: £20
- Marcus Deluxe Pedalboard: £50
- Rockboard Power Supply: £77
- Patch Cables: £5
- Velcro: £10
- Total: £312
So, you can see that it isn’t a full “budget” pedalboard build; however, I knew it wouldn’t be as I wanted it to be useful and actually make sounds I would enjoy! Which, as you can tell from the video above, it does very well! It isn’t all perfect, mind; there are a few things I would change!
My Thoughts
Having that high-gain distortion pedal was really nice! It was so much fun to step on a pedal and get that high-gain sound! Normally, with a bigger pedalboard, I would stack overdrive pedals to get my high-gain sound! However, as I was trying to keep it on a budget and save space, I decided to go for a single pedal. I was able to combine this with my overdrive pedal and also the amp! I actually had a wide variety of gain sounds from just two overdrive pedals.
You may have noticed that I didn’t have a delay pedal on the board! I did miss a delay pedal; however, the reason for no delay pedal is that I couldn’t get the one I wanted in time. I was going to use the JSA Dual Atmos (Review Here). However, that isn’t really a cheap pedal and it is also fairly large, so it takes up a bit of room on the board. If I was going to use this board for an actual gig, then I would have to make do with no delay, which, as someone who loves delay, would be a huge struggle.
Usability and Practicality?
As far as practicality and usability, I think this budget pedalboard build is wonderful! I have always liked the Marcus Deluxe boards! They are sturdy and ridged! I would be comfortable using this board without a gig bag or case. For the odd gig every now and then, it would be fine just in the back of the car.
I guess I should round this article off with what I would change. What would I change about this build? Well, I would like a tuner! A small and compact tuner would be nice, but unfortunately, I didn’t have space or the budget to get one. I made do with a simple clip-on tuner with this rig.
Also, I think I would also swap out the chorus for a delay pedal of some kind of delay. Chorus is a fun effect, but I think it is an effect for a bigger board where you have more space for these “every so often” effects. Only having a small space on a small budget board like this for pedals, I feel a delay would have been more useful to this rig!
Conclusion
That was my budget pedalboard build! What do you all think? All the pedals are under £100, most of which are under £50, with a total spend of around £300. Do you think it was a good-sounding board and would you be happy to use it for gigs? Head over to my YouTube video and leave me a comment with your thoughts! Any pedals that you would have wanted to see on there? What pedals would you have put on instead?
I think the next board I will build will be a step up, with a slightly higher budget and some higher-end pedals. See what I can build and what sounds we can make then. I think that will be a fun video to put together and compare the two boards. Does spending more money get you better tones and a better board!
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Gigs & Guitars Affiliate Links:
- Affordaboard 800 Drive
- Tone City Durple (Andertons Affiliate)
- Tone City Durple (Thomann Affiliate)
- Behringer EQ700(Andertons Affiliate)
- Behringer EQ700 (Thomann Affiliate)
- TC Electronic 3rd Dimension (Andertons Affiliate)
- TC Electronic 3rd Dimension (Thomann Affiliate)
- Rockboard ISO Power Block V6 (Andertons Affiliate)
- Rockboard ISO Power Block V6 (Thomann Affiliate)
- Andertons Affiliate Link
- Thomann Affiliate Link
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