Pedalboard Setup Ideas and Schematics: An Inspirational Roundup

Pedalboards are extremely unique. Like a single strand of DNA or a snowflake under a microscope, by some miracle of life no two pedalboards are the same. They're all personal. This series of posts highlights variety, style and creativity in the form of pedalboard setup and inspirational ideas. Where we can, we've identified the gear pictured and linked to it. Yet the heart of this post is not to push specific gear, but to inspire you and share loosely-defined structural ideas, based on the gear others have already curated.

Because, one day, you too might find a way to include two Line 6 DL4s, a Lego-encased stompbox or even just a fresh layer of wall-placed Velcro in your own pedalboard. If you want to setup of a scaled version of your own board, you can use our Pedalboard Planner app.

This fellow is running two pedalboards connected via an unidentified channel switcher near the top left corner of the board on the right side. The board itself seems to be made of a wooden panel.

The second pedalboard (sitting to the left), a Pedaltrain Classic Jr., is an interesting conglomerate of mostly boutique stompboxes.

Has anybody ever seen a Boss Tuner cut in half like that?

Apparently it's a real thing.

• Boss DD-7 Digital Delay
• Bogner Harlow Boost
• J Rockett Audio Designs BOING Tour Delay
• DigiTech DT Whammy
• Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
• Friedman BE-OD Overdrive
• Keeley KLOOP True Bypass Looper
• Ramble FX Marvel Drive
• Pedaltrain Classic Jr
• Harlow Boost
• JHS Red Remote?
• SoloDallas Schaffer Replica
• Boss TU-3s Chromatic Tuner

2: DIY Fixed Power Strip

This looks like a clean, thorough DIY pedalboard job, complete with a power strip fixed to the riser on the board's back panel.

While I'm not completely sure the board itself (looks like a semi-professional wood-working job) is a homemade outfit, the power strip is clearly an add-on, and super handy if you're dealing with multiple, individual power supplies or adapters.

• Black Power Strip
• Industrial Strength Velcro

3: Schmidt Array Custom board with recessed front

Schmidt Array's pedalboard concepts are truly fascinating.

My simpleton explanation of the photo:

The bottom layer is recessed and fitted for "control" pedals (by that I mean the pedals that you click a lot). In our above example, the Boss delay, patch system/pedal looper and expression pedals are all recessed into the front of the board where they are more prominent.

The top layer houses the additional pedals (mostly stompboxes in this case) and folds back revealing the utility area with a power supply and compressor.

When you drop the top section down, only the back part of the recessed area of the board is covered, leaving the "control" pedals exposed and easily accessible.

I love the concept, especially when it comes to space-saving for larger pedalboards.

If you check their site, you'll see they make a mess of different designs.

• Roland Expression Pedal
• Voodoo Lab Mondo Power Supply
• Boss DD-500 Digital Delay
• Boss CS-3 Compression/Sustainer

4: Re-purposed IKEA Gorm Shelf for DIY Pedalboard

The above contraption was hewn out of re-purposed planks from some IKEA Gorm shelving. Said shelving happens to make a pretty slick-looking pedalboard.

Who would have thought?

There are plenty of ways to make it work, though the three planks encased with a riser seem like a good template to follow.

I'm assuming the handles are an add-on.

• IKEA Gorm Shelving Unit (soft wood)
• IKEA Storage Page

5: Large Slanted Black and Red Board with Pedal Switcher

This is actually a Mooer pedalboard.

Not gonna lie:

The fact that Mooer even made pedalboards was news to me.

In spite of that (Mooer isn't the most reputable brand name), it's quite spacious, with holes drilled to help hide cabling.

They're using the large pedal switch (on the left side of the board - not sure what brand it is) to control everything on the back row, leaving the MXR Script phaser, the Xotic SP booster and Crybaby wah pedal up front for easy access.

I'm diggin' the red and black look as well.

• Dunlop 535Q Crybaby Wah Pedal
• Ibanez Tube Screamer
• Xotic SP Booster
• MXR Phase 90 (script version)
• Boss GE-7 Equalizer
• Unknown Pedal Looper

6: The Lego Pedal

This one caught my eye primarily because one of the pedals looks like it was made out of Legos. 

From what I can tell this is a Fuzz pedal, made by Tym Guitars (never heard of them), that someone built into a Lego enclosure.

It's intriguing, and something I would never find the time to do.

Notice, even the knobs are Legos.

If nothing else, it's creative.

• Tym Guitars Ram Head
• Boss Tremolo
• Boss Loop Station
• Strymon El Capistan
• Menatone Menawatt Overdrive Pedal
  

Image via Instagram user Guitar Kingdom

A well-organized board with a looper out front, which I assume controls the pedals that are in the back row and harder to get to.

Strymon, EHX, ZVEX and even an old Boss Dimension C all make an appearance.

That pedal to the right, I would assume, is some kind of expression, volume or wah.

A well-organized and pricey setup. Gotta love it.

• ZVex Super Hard On
• Strymon Timeline Delay
• Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb
• Boss Dimension C
• Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
• EHX Memory Man Delay
• EHX Pog Octave Generator

8: Dave Grohl's Pedalboard from 2000

Image via Instagram user Zedbones

These guys made a cool graphic of Dave Grohl's pedalboard from back in 2000.

From what I understand, it hasn't changed a great deal since.

The original graphic is from Guitar.com, and they've got a ton of other rigs to look through, some of which we'll highlight in future roundups. Grohl's board is effective, if not simple and straightforward. From what I can tell the A/B selector is the most expensive unit.

• Whirlwind A/B Selector
• MXR Phase 90
• Boss DM-2 Analog Delay
• Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner

9: Small with wah on the left

Anyone know what power supply that is? Looks like there's an owl or something on the front.

That graphic seems vaguely familiar but I wasn't able to ID it.

Otherwise, a couple Boss pedals, the Spark Mini Booster (love that thing) and a VOX wah on the left side of the board, all make an appearance. I've never seen a wah pedal positioned to the left of everything like that, but I'm sure there's a good reason.

Maybe this guitarist wahs with their left foot.

• Vox Wah
• DigiTech Bad Monkey Overdrive
• MXR Modified Overdrive
• Fulltone Octafuzz 
• Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
• TC Electronic HOF Mini Reverb
• TC Electronic Sub N' Up Octaver
• Boss DD-7 Digital Delay

10: Some assembly required

For some reason, pedalboard setup is often the most fun of the entire process. Unboxing and wiring everything in for the first time is just a thrill and a joy for most any guitarist, regardless of skill level.

In the above example, it looks like this guy ordered most everything at once.

Either that or he just kept the boxes nice and neat.

Two Strymon pedals, a Fuzz Face and the Mondo power brick from Voodoo Lab make the highlight real.

I'm diggin' the vintage hand-wired Tube Screamer as well.

• Voodoo Lab Mondo Power Supply
• Strymon Flint
• Strymon El Capistan Echo
• Fulltone DejaVibe Mini Rotary Speaker
• Ibanez Hand-Wired Tube Screamer
• Chase Bliss Spectre Audio Flanger
• ProCo Rat 2 Distortion
• Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer

11: DL4 Changing Colors

This guy painted his Line 6 DL4 delay modeler a dark black and replaced the knobs (or at least painted them red).

It's a bit hard to tell which pedalboard is being used here, though it looks like a Pedaltrain outfit with some risers and a power supply fixed underneath, per the power cable we see near the top left corner of the photo.

• Boss RC-1 Loop Station
• Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
• EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run
• Electro-Harmonix Nano Freeze
• TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb
• DigiTech Polara Lexicon Reverb

12: Possible Bass Pedalboard with Power Supply on the Bottom

Image via Instagram user Flexreaction

Greetings from France.

Judging by the EHX Bassballs and Boss octave pedals this one is probably a bass player's pedalboard.

It's a nicely done board either way with the Mondo power supply fixed to the bottom.

• Fulltone Catalyst Overdrive
• ZVEX Wooly Mammoth (different painting)
• MXR Flanger
• Boss OC-2 Octave Pedal
• Electro-Harmonix EHX Bassballs 
• Voodoo Lab Mondo Power Supply

13: Simple but Effective

Image via Instagram user Simon Smith

A simple eight-part setup with a tuner, distortion, EQ, modulation and some vintage delay to finish things up.

• Boss DM-2w Delay
• MXR Phase 90
• Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet Overdrive
• Jekyll & Hyde Overdrive
• Boss GE-7 EQ
• TC Electronic Polytune Noir 2

14: Simple but Effective 2.0

Image via Instagram user Jack Fossett

Plenty of solid boutique companies represented here.

Once again we have a small board with less than 10 boxes getting it done.

• Vick Audio Hypocenter Delay
• Ibanez TS808
• Keeley C2 Compressor
• Keeley Dark Side Workstation
• McCaffrey Audio Reactor Boost
• Keeley Monterey Fuzz Drive
• Snark Tuner

15: Road Worn

Image via Instagram user Barduks

We've got some pretty cool old series pedals here.

One (maybe two) from Boss, Akai and another from DOD - the Supra distortion.

The board itself looks to be homemade.

• Akai Intelliphase
• Boss Pitch Shifter/Delay
• Boss (DD-2 or 3?) Digital Delay
• DOD Supra Distortion
• Joyo Ultimate Drive

16: Double Voodoo Lab

Image via Instagram user Travis Maxey

A fairly large, high-priced board with two Voodoo Lab power supplies, which are both mounted under what looks to be a Pedaltrain Terra 42 (one of their largest boards).

• Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
• Ernie Ball VP Jr. Volume Pedal
• EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run Delay & Reverb Pedal
• Walrus Audio Iron Horse Distortion
• Amp Tweaker Swirl Pool Synchronized Analog Tremolo/Vibrato
• Electro-Harmonix POG2 Polyphonic Octave Generator
• Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 

17: Stacked

This one is a versatile and sharp-looking board with the DigiTech Whammy, Line 6 M5 stompbox modeler (tons of different effects in this unit) and a Boss Drive Zone distortion anchoring the fold.

That PedalBot device out front is a series of programmable loops and MIDI controls (probably handling most of the M5 functionality).

The AMT thing, white pedal and little purple box are a bit of a mystery.

• DigiTech Whammy
• Boss Drive Zone
• TC Electronic Flashback Delay
• Ibanez Tube Screamer
• Line 6 M5 Stombox Modeler
• EHX Holy Grail Reverb

18: Sharp Lookin' but BYOC

Not hooked up yet, but a nicely-arranged and colorful assortment of pedals, nonetheless.

The DigiTech Whammy shows up again, along with a massive yellow power supply made by a company that I've never seen before.

We also have two MXR carbon copy delays.

• MXR Carbon Copy Delay
• Ibanez TS9DX Tube Screamer
• DigiTech Whammy Pedal
• EHX Electric Mistress Flanger/Filter Matrix
• Jam Pedals Red Muck Zintage Fuzz
• Egosonoro Zero Noise Power Supply
• Jim Dunlop Univibe

19: Mesa and Gretsch Along for the Ride

There's no doubt that the Gretsch guitar and Mesa Dual Rectifier amp head make this pedalboard even more eye catching.

The board itself is fitted efficiently with a Strymon Big Sky, Boss DD-20, a looping system and a slew of other stompboxes.

The volume pedal off to the right looks like the Ernie Ball variety.

Here's everything else that we can identify.

• Strymon Big Sky Reverb
• Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
• EHX Pitch Fork
• BBE Stomp Sonic Maximizer
• Fulltone OCD Overdrive
• Ernie Ball Volume Pedal

20: Dueling Line 6 DL4s

This is the pedalboard used by Leeland guitarist Casey Moore, featuring TWO Line 6 DL4 delay modelers (I've always thought those things needed more preset options) and a Pedaltrain board with the power supply fixed underneath.

The three pedals in the top right hand corner are a mystery to me.

• Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
• EHX Pog 2 Octave Generator
• EHX Cathedral Stereo Reverb
• TC Electronic PolyTune
• Keeley Compressor

21: A Bit Messy

This is another small Pedaltrain board with a worn and somewhat haphazard-looking arrangement of stompboxes.

It's not complex, but sometimes the smaller, grittier boards are just more interesting.

I've always liked the road-worn look.

• Way Huge Aqua Puss Analog Delay
• MXR Dyna Comp Compressor
• Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive
• Boss Chromatic Tuner TU-3
• Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus

22: Peter Koppes' (The Church) Pedalboard

Peter Koppes rolls with a lot of gear, though the hefty dimensions of his Behringer FCB1010 MIDI controller make it seem bigger than it is. Take that out and the entire operation nearly gets cut in half.

His rig is comprised mostly of Boss pedals with a Sans Amp bass driver and EHX reverb to compliment.

Note in the first picture you can see the rack units, being controlled by the FCB1010, off to the right of all Koppes' pedals.

• Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
• Behringer FCB1010 MIDI controller
• EHX Cathedral Stereo Reverb
• EHX Stereo Pulsar Tremolo
• Boss CS-3 Compression/Sustainer
• Boss RT-20 Rotary Ensemble
• Ibanez TS9 Tubescreamer
• Boss TR-2 Tremolo
• Boss BF-3 Flanger
• Boss DM-2 Analog Delay
• Whirlwind A/B Selector Switch
• Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
• Tech 21 Sans Amp Bass Driver DI
• Dunlop Crybaby Wah Pedal

23: Basically Perfect

You can tell when someone has spent a lot of time organizing and planning their pedalboard.

In this case everything seems to fit with a nice, clean right angle, despite a wide range of pedal sizes. Notice they've also pinned each cable neatly to the board for an even cleaner look.

The pedal looper in front provides access to second and third row stompboxes, which I would assume include the two large Strymon pedals.

A Mondo power supply and Ernie Ball volume round things out.

• Ernie Ball Volume Pedal
• OCD Fulltone Overdrive
• EHX Pitch Fork
• Strymon Big Sky Reverb
• Strymon Timeline Delay
• Pigtronix SPL Infinity Looper
• Empress Effects Analog Compressor
• Voodoo Lab Mondo Power Supply

24: Just Enough Room

I've always thought the simpler pedalboards were more interesting.

This one looks like the small Pedaltrain board (the Nano or Nano+) with fresh Velcro and a couple pedals I don't recognize.

• TC Electronic PolyTune
• Strymon Flint Tremolo
• Retro-Sonic Analog Delay

25: Great Photography

Sometimes great photography can make a pedalboard seem really appealing.

I think that's the case here, plus it's just well put together.

You can see they've taken time to get the cables and wiring well-organized. Again, a power supply is fixed to the bottom of the board. It also looks like they're using that DigiTech Hardwire pedal for a send/return loop of some kind.

• Fulltone Cylde Deluxe
• MXR EVH Signature Phase 90
• Fulltone OCD Overdrive
• Ibanez TS808 Overdrive
• DigiTech DL-8 Hardwire Delay/Looper
  

Recognize something? Want to submit a board?

If you have a photo of your pedalboard you'd like to submit for the next roundup, feel free to email it to us and we'll take a look.

Also, for those of you who might recognize some of the gear that we didn't (and therefore omitted from the list) let us know via the comments section below. If you've got an ID on something we've highlighted, we'll edit the post and include its listing.

Other comments, thoughts and opinions are always welcome.